For humans, change, such as a new route to school or a different salad dressing, can be both frustrating and inconvenient. The Bernards Township School District and Ridge High School website has recently undergone such a change to the surprise and chagrin of students and staff.
The new Ridge High School website replaced the previous homepage with a sleeker and sharper design. The change in website layout was spurred by a change in webpage provider, SharpSchool, in order to replace the outdated previous homepage.
The previous website, described by Bhavik Shah ’17, was “in terms of functionality…perfectly fine and …easy to navigate. In terms of design, it wasn’t too visually appealing.”
The new homepage, complete with shots of Ridge High School’s Performing Arts Center and the cerulean sky above, is an extension of the main webpage for the Bernards Board of Education (BOE). Navigating from the Bernards BOE website, one can reach Ridge High School’s page by clicking the link to the “Schools” page and then proceeding to the circle with the embedded link for Ridge High School. Any links for the previous website will only redirect to a blank “Page not Found,” though.
Much of the new webpage retains the same characteristics of the older webpage, with the same headers and usable pages. Off-site pages such as OnCourse, Moodle, and the newer Home Access Center have not changed along with the webpage.
While all these changes are certainly interesting, how does this change affect students and accessibility? With the websites integrated as a part of the new technological classroom, a shift from the norm can make students frustrated and uncomfortable.
Victoria Muttin ’16, counters this point by saying, “As long as you know how to find things and get the hang of it, it’s not as bad.” The learning curve for students these days who are bombarded with technology should make the transition to a new website relatively easy. The website is designed to help students, not hurt or hinder students.
The new layout in website may be another step to push Ridge High School towards a new technological classroom. Inevitably, the population of Ridge High will adjust and the website will slowly integrate into our lives again, simply becoming the new norm. After all, the website is just another change – and what are humans if not creatures of change?