Making Your School Website Interactive

The web, by nature, is interactive. The reader controls the published information by what he or she clicks. However, the World Wide Web has also become a facility for collecting information from the reader and encouraging a sense of community among web customers. This section will discuss features that you can add to your website that will make it more interactive, more useful to you and your institution, and more fun for your customers.

Forms for collecting information

You probably thought that you needed sophisticated database software and customized CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts to collect information from your readers via web forms. Until recently that was true. Today, however, there are a number of services that enable you to create web forms through which readers of your page can submit information to you.

FreeForm (http://www.note.com/success/public/freeform/) is one such service. You describe, through a form, what you want your form to include, and their software produces your HTML code. You copy and paste the code into your own web page. When your web page is installed on a standard web server, input that your readers provide through the form will be sent to the e-mail address of your choice.

Here are the steps for setting up a form on your website using FreeForm:

1.	Complete the form on the FreeForm website. Through this form you will describe exactly what you want your form to ask and how people will submit their answers. The table below describes the questions that the form asks and the answers that I gave in setting up a test form. You can see the form that these answers generated on page
	The Web Form's Prompts What I Entered Your name and e-mail address David Warlick david@landmark-project.com The e-mail address that should receive the submitted information if it is different from yours david@landmark-project.com The text you would like to appear in the "Subject" line of each email that you receive Second Grade Survey The URL of the page that will hold your form or your current URL if you're not sure yet http://www.landmark-project.com The intended audience of your form: general, kids, or adults Kids
2.	After you have completed the form, you click the Submit button which is labeled, Generate My Form. After a moment a new page appears that includes the HTML code for your form. You can copy the form code from the web page and paste it into you web editing program (FrontPage, HomePage, AOL Press).  Your editor should be in HTML mode.
3.	Use the forms features of your editor to add questions to your survey using any form element that you want to use. Warning: Be careful that all added form tags a inserted between the beginning and ending <form> tags.

On the next page is a reference guide of FORM tags. This will help you understand how the tags work so that you can customize your own web forms.

Tag	Common Attributes
FORM The FORM tag defines the entire form. It describes where the entered content will be sent when the SUBMIT button is pressed. It also defines how the information will be structured.
	ACTION describes where the entered content will be sent (usually a URL) METHOD describes how the entered content should be formatted (either GET or POST)
	Example: <FORM METH0D="get" ACTION="http://sample.com/bin/process.cgi"> </FORM> The FORM tag must recede all form element tags and an ending FORM tag should occur after the form elements.
INPUT The <INPUT> tag displays devices that the reader of a web page can use to submit information.
	NAME is the label for a specific input element. When information is entered into a textbox or other element, it is the name that identifies the information to the server. VALUE is the content that will be passed on to the server if no content is entered, or if that particular radio button or checkbox is selected. SIZE defines the width of TEXT type inputs. MAXLENGTH defines the maximum number of characters that can be entered. TYPE describes the kind of input device to be displayed. Types include: TEXT (a standard, one line text box), HIDDEN (no input device at all. The information in the VALUE attribute is automatically delivered), RADIO (displays a radio button. If it is clicked on, then the information in the VALUE attribute is delivered), CHECKBOX (displays a check box. If it is check true, then the information in the value attribute is delivered), RESET (displays a reset button which sets all of the input fields to their default), SUBMIT (displays a submit button that sends to its destination, all of the information that has been entered into the form) Example: <INPUT TYPE=text VALUE="yes" NAME="answer"> From this tag, a textbox will be displayed with the word "yes" automatically appearing in the box (the user can replace "yes" with another answer). When the submit button is clicked, the information is sent to its destination.
TEXTAREA The TEXTAREA tag displays a larger text box within which several lines of text can be entered.
	NAME is the label for a specific input element. When information is entered into a textbox or other element, it is the name that identifies the information to the server. ROWS defines the number of rows in height for the scrolling text box. COLS defines the number of columns or characters in width for the scrolling text box. WRAP indicates whether the text entered into the box will word wrap. PHYSICAL or VIRTUAL indicates that it will wrap. OFF indicates that it will not wrap.
	Example: <TEXTAREA COLS=30 ROWS=3 NAME="x"> </TEXTAREA> Note:Text that is entered into the HTML file between the beginning and ending TEXTAREA tags will appear in the multi-line text box.
SELECT & OPTION The SELECT tags define dropdown and scrolling menus. One OPTION tag is necessary for each option in the menu.
	NAME is the label for a specific input element. When information is entered into a textbox or other element, it is the name that identifies the information to the server. VALUE is the content that will be passed on to the server. In the SELECT/OPTION form element, the VALUE is included in the OPTION tags, so that when and option is selected that value will be carried to the server. SIZE helps indicate how the menu will appear. If the size is one (1), then the code will produce a drop down menu. If the size equals the number of items or options, then a menu window will be produced. If the size is more than 1 but less than the number of options, then a scrolling menu window will be displayed. MULTIPLE If the word MULTIPLE is included in the SELECT tag, then users will be able to select multiple options.
	Example: <SELECT NAME="choice" SIZE=3> <OPTION VALUE=A>Dog <OPTION VALUE=B>Cat <OPTION VALUE=C>Hamster <OPTION VALUE=D>Lizzard </SELECTED>

Here are a few ideas for using input forms on your school or school district website

• Survey parents and community members about their opinions on specific issues being considered by the Board of Education or the planning team for a school.
• As mentioned above, create a form that requests input on the quality of the website.
• Publish a list of resources that the schools and individual teachers need (paper, computers, props, building materials, etc.) and include a form where the community can volunteer materials or suggest where or how they might be acquired.
• Hold an online auction to raise money. Take digital pictures of items donated by the community, and include a form where people can post their bids.
• High schools can establish an alumni registration form.
• Individual classrooms can use forms to conduct public opinion surveys for social studies classes, collect meteorological observations for science, or to solicit creative writings for language arts.

Free Web Form Services on the Internet