I intentionally waited for two weeks in order to publish this post because I wanted to have more information about the software we were learning about and the project we would be using it for.
The software to which I am referring is Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer 2007. Sharepoint is a user-friendly and accessible program for designing web sites (you don't have to be able to code in HTML to use it!) . As we were still dealing with the Web and the Internet when using this program, we continued to discuss terms and tools that we can use online. We put specific emphasis on the importance and valure of the network server and learned how we could use it to publish our sites.
We are specifically using Microsoft Sharepoint Designer in class in order to create electronic portfolios: an electronic portfolio is essentially an interactive resumé that contains anything and everything that pertains to your profession that potential employers may want to see (in my case, school administrators). The electronic portfolio really will be a great way to keep record of all that I have accomplished and used for personal enrichment as a preservice teacher--the format is also simple for anyone to navigate. In my future classroom, I could also use Sharepoint to create a webpage for my class and post homework schedules, research links, class calendars, and worksheets for kids who were absent that day. I could use a web site to not only communicate with my students, but also to put out information for other teachers to use and respond to via email. Sharepoint is also an excellent way for a school to maintain a web site, albeit a very basic one.
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I would have to disagree with how you categorize SharePoint. While SharePoint does include a WYSIWYG web editor, its purpose is data collaboration across a network; therefore, what you're describing is the purpose of FrontPage (and SharePoint is not necessarily made to replace FrontPage). With the advent of Office 2007 (and Office Live), Microsoft's focus in the internet branch shifted from dedicated content development to network collaboration. That is the main reason why they left the "web design" business and introduced SharePoint. The secondary reason is that they knew that Adobe had a corner on the market with Dreamweaver, and they didn't want to spend money to keep up with them.
ReplyDeleteOverall, SharePoint is less than adequate as a web designer and should not be exclusively used to make anything other than one-page webs--and don't even think about trying to make your page look pretty; SharePoint can't really handle aesthetics.
So, in summation, use SharePoint in a business setting, and look elsewhere for personal web design.