ICT ONLINE PLATFORMS IN CREATING WEB CONTENT

A website or web site is a set of related resources from the web. These resources were considered as web pages
and multimedia (e.g.: videos, music, images).
There are websites that offers you more than just reading articles or listening to your music, these
are what we call online platform-enabled website.
A platform-enabled website or online platform gives a feature on which allows to manipulate the content
of the website. Most of the online platforms requires you to register in order to publish, manipulate, organize, or
even delete a certain web content. As a Senior High School student, you are expected to know the different
online platform as this would help you in different task like connect people, stream your daily activity, shop
online, or even creating a website of your own.
Here are the three types of online platforms:
1. Social Media Platforms
This platform allows you to create your personal account or profile. After you register on this website, it will
allow you to create pages or even groups where you can share content and ideas. Social Media platforms enables
you to connect yourself to other users and get updates on their news feed. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
are examples of Social Media platforms.
2. Blogging Platforms
A platform on where a writer or even a group of writers can share views on an individual subject. It is
comparable to a newsletter where you can add menus, designs or even multimedia of a subject. Blogger is an
example of blogging site. If you love to write or you want to share ideas online, blogging platforms is the perfect
tool you can use.

3. Content Management System or CMS

One of the features of this platform is that you can publish your own website and manage its content through
intranet or in a single computer. This is a software where you can easily create, update, organize, and publish the
content of your website. A popular example of CMS is WordPress.
Below are the seven possible ELEMENTS of a modern web design:
1. Text - this is a mandatory element of a web page. However, visitors got distracted about the font family
of the text on website. So while you are designing your website, make sure that to choose well the font family
and type that you need to use on your design and make the text is clear and in readable size
2. Graphics/ Illustrations - make sure your images or illustrations are not pixelated or must be on good
quality. There are times that text give description to an image, so you make that these two elements are well
arranged.
3. White space - having a crowded website, it is very hard to direct the attention of your visitor’s eye. These
white space gives your website a room to breathe.

4. Links - links or hyperlinks allows user to jump to another site or page that is related of to
your site.
5. Color - the colors you use in your design is a very important aspect. There are times that colors become
visually distracting to your viewers. As some web designers do, they use the company logo of their client as their
color reference on their website.
6. Video/Audio - there are sites use audio/video to help their visitors to better understand what they are
selling or teaching. These elements of web designing really helps your visitors especially those websites that
offers tutorial of certain subject.
7. Background - texture or background gives a more appealing sight to your website. This will provide your
website a feeling of a surface underneath.
With the use of elements of web design will make your website more appealing to your users but you need to
make sure that your website is functional, responsive and useful. To create a usable and effective website, follow
the basic principles of an effective web design.
Principles of Effective Web Design
A. Portable Design - website design must be portable and accessible. Your need to must compatible with
other operating system and web browsers. You should also design your website on which it can be access to
a different computer platforms or devices especially for those visitors who uses mobile device to access a
website.
B. Design for Low Bandwidth - not all user who are online are connected to a high-speed internet
connection. In designing a website, you need to avoid large graphics or animations as the users may leave the
site if downloading is slow.
C. Direction - identify the order of importance of the various elements and place them in a sequence
where the eye moves and perceives the things it sees. There should be consistent layout and structure.
D. Simplicity - the more option you place in your site, the more difficult it is for a visitor to make a
decision and more time is required to browse through them. as what they usually say "simplicity is beauty".
E. Regular Testing - every device or project needs maintenance, same as your website. Website should be
regularly upgraded, updated and tested so that problems will be quickly resolved. Visitors who have
encounter any errors like problems in loading or viewing in your website will not hold on.
Web Page Design Using Templates and Online WYSIWYG.
WYSIWYG is an acronym for "what you see is what you get". There many tools on creating or designing
a website. However, there are tools offers WYSIWYG process. These are tools on which the content (text and
graphics) can be edited in a form closely resembling its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished
product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.
1. Wix -. Its interface is one of the most intuitive, slick, and powerful in the ever- growing group of website-
building servicesWix offers standout features, such as online storage for your site assets, cool video backgrounds,
animations for titles, and mobile. (Retrieved from https://sea.pcmag.com/wix/8396/wix)
2. Weebly - This free website builder allows you to build beautiful websites in a very short period of time –
even if you do not have any programming background. (Retrieved from
https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/website-builders/weebly/free
-website-builder-for-all/)
3. WordPress - is the world’s most popular tool for creating websites. WordPress is capable of creating any
style of website, from a simple blog to a full-featured business website. You can even use WordPress to create an
online store. (Retrieved from https://wpapprentice.com/blog/what-is-wordpress/)
4. Drupal - It is a well-known content management system intended to help advanced designers create a
powerful website capable of handling large volumes of visitors and hundreds of pages of content. (Retrieved
from https://www.business.com/reviews/drupal/)

COLLABORATIVE ICT DEVELOPMENT

Web Page is a document written in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) that can be made accessible
through the use of internet or using an Internet browser. A web page is accessed through the use of a URL
(Uniform Resource Locator) address and may contain text, graphics, and hyperlinks to other web pages and files.

A web page contain can be in a form of an online publication, online newsletter (such as advertisements
or write ups) containing news of interest chiefly to a specific group. A web page is the primary source for
information dissemination in the web community. Through it, different platforms made to make users and
viewers share information and build collaboration-connection to one another.
So far, we have learned how to create blogs and website that we can categorize as personal.
But like many websites and blogs you visit every day, you see that some of them are produced by multiple
people. Facebook would not be that interesting if it were not for all your friends. In fact, the more friends
you have, the more content you get. This also rings true for other websites and blogs. It is now time for us
to create a collaborative ICT content.

WEB PORTALS
 A web portal is a website that contains information from different sources and places them
in one location in a uniform way. An example of a web portal is Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com). Yahoo.com
offers a web portal where news, email, weather, etc. are found in one page. The information found in the
image came from different websites/sources.

ONLINE COLLABORATIVE TOOLS

Online collaborative tools come in different kinds of platforms use for ICT development.
These platforms enable users and admins promote interpersonal communication, enhances interactivity,
establish a common goal that will result to greater outcome of ICT readiness on an individual or group.
Since working together does not necessarily mean you have to be physically together. These tools can help
your group “go the distance” and work as if you already have your own office. Hence below are some of the
most common samples for platforms in collaborative ICT development.

1. You can use Facebook groups to create a group page that will allow people in your group to
communicate your ideas.
2. WordPress also allows you to multiple contributors for a single blog.
3. Google Drive and Microsoft Office Online allow multiple people to work on different office files and
even have their own group’s cloud storage.
4. Microsoft’s Yammer offers companies to have their own social network that allows sharing and
managing content.
Sites like Trello offer an online to-do checklist for your entire team.

Example
s of different
platforms in ICT
Development

Platforms that may be currently used to host newsletters and similar ICT content related information which
include but are not limited to are as follows for

a) Presentation and visualization platforms such as Prezi, Zoho, Slideshare and Mindmeister
b) Cloud computing, e.g. Google Apps
c) Social Media venues include Facebook Pages, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest
d) Development of web page in which Wix, Weebly and Google Sites and lastly
e) Blog or Publisher sites such as Blogger, Wordpress, Livejournal, Issuu and Google Sites.

These several choices of platforms contribute to accessing and working collaboration through peers with the
use of ICT.
 Collaborative Development of ICT Content
A. Team Structure and Dynamics for ICT
Content

A Group involves people who work independently

to achieve its goal, while a Team works
interdependently where each member has a specific role
or function. Thus, the team interacts dynamically and
adoptively to reach its common goal.

When creating interesting ICT content to be published, it is not enough to have

the skills and knowledge about it, for it would be difficult to maintain and monitor it alone.
It is also not enough that your group works independently because it might lead to
inefficiency due to miscommunication. What you need is to create a “Team Structure.”

Team Structure

Team Structure refers to the creation of an individual team or the creation of

a multi-system. It is an essential component of the teamwork process.

A well-structured team is an enabler for and the result of effective

communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and support.

An effective team structure works collaboratively. It is the key to the success

of the ICT project. Collaboration means individuals work together to produce/
create a well-defined content to achieve a common business purpose.

In creating ICT content, most teams work collaboratively online. Online

collaboration is a work process where people are interacting in real-time over the
internet. It provides a smooth process in the development of ICT content even
without working together physically.

A team must consider these Four (4) Parts of Collaboration in a Flow Process
while interacting with team members:

• Sharing: documenting explicit knowledge

• Understanding: adopting the process knowledge

• Reflection: analyzing or interpreting shared information

• Expression: the process of making known ones thought or feelings

 Team Members

An effective team structure is composed of efficient team members who have

specific roles and responsibilities. These team members include:

Project Manager: An individual who has general accountability for the successful
initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling, and closure of a
project.

Data Analyst: Someone who gathers, processes, and performs statistical

analyses of Data. A person who is accountable in collecting the data for ICT
content.

Content Writer and Editor: A person responsible for reviewing the data and
finalizes a complete of information.

The Web Designer – A person responsible for creating the appearance, layout,
and elements of a website. The job involves understanding both graphic design and
computer programming.

The Web Developer – The person technically develops the overall functionalities of a web
page.

Facebook page has similar team members except for web designers and web developers
because Facebook already provides it. Instead, the FB page includes other roles like
Moderator, Advertiser, and Jobs Manager. To know more about FB Page Role, visit
https://web.facebook.com/help/289207354498410?_rdc=1&_rdr.

B. Online Collaborative Tools and Processes

There are plenty of tools and platforms that are available online, making online
collaboration possible and convenient.

Online Collaborative Tools for Creation and Co-creation of ICT Contents

Online collaborative tools for ICT content development that may be used currently
include the following:

• Facebook Groups • Microsoft's Yammer

• G Suite • MS Office 365

• Google Chat/ Hangouts • Prezi

• Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides • Trello

• Google Drive • Zoom

• Microsoft Teams • Skype/ Viber/ Kakao Talk/

WeChat/ Line

Characteristics of Good Collaborative Tools and Platforms

Always remember that there are no superior tools. The productivity of a tool is
dependent on the intended purpose of the team. Hence, in choosing an appropriate tool,
the team must consider the following:
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 • The tool must be user friendly.

• The tool has elements that are appropriate for the team's goal.

• The tool prioritizes security and privacy.

C. Project Management for ICT Content

The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities is

called Project Management. It is needed to achieve project requirements, usually to time
and budget.

It includes overseeing projects for software development, hardware installations,

network upgrades, cloud computing and virtualization rollouts, business analytics, and
data management projects and implementing IT services.

Project Management is done by applying and integrating project management processes

which are organized in five distinct phases:

Five Phases of Project Management

(Adapted from the ICT Project Management by Institutional and Sector

Modernization Facility)

• Initiating - An overview of the objectives of the project, needs, and the

problem is identified. It is where you create the project charter with the Project
Manager assigned to the project.

• Planning - This is where a successful project conclusion is worked out by the project
manager and the project team. The team brainstorms the ICT theme to be
published, together with the collaborative tools and online platforms to be used.

• Executing - This is where the project team goes about executing the project plan
once the project plan has been constructed. The curation of ICT content may occur
in this phase for quality assurance. Content writers and editors are essential in this
phase. After all the preparation has been done, publishing the ICT content online
may now take place.

• Monitoring and Controlling - This is where the project manager monitors and
controls the work for a time, cost, scope, quality, risk, and other factors while the
project is being executed. It is also an ongoing process that ensures that the project
meets its focus for each project objective. Other members, primarily the web
developer, may work in this phase collaboratively with the project manager.

• Closing- This happens when each phase is ended and when each entire project
is concluded. It happens to ensure that all the work has been finished, completed,
and approved.

D. Curating Existing Content for Use on the Web

Content curation is the process of publicly gathering, organizing,

adding value, and openly sharing digital information artifacts on a
specific topic or area of audience interest.

It intends to add your personal touch, as the creator, to a

handpicked collection of content. They are gathered from a

variety of sources, in a specific topic, that you publish and share with
your audience wherever they may be.

Creating and Choosing Valuable ICT Content

The success of an online portal, page, or website is dependent upon its content. The
content must be exciting and worthy of the time of the specific audience. Thus, in
developing ICT content, the team must consider the following steps in creating and
choosing valuable ICT content.
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1. Define your objectives: specify the main goal that needs to be promoted in your
content.

2. Research and analyze: extract information from different resources regarding the
topic you want to write.

3. Organize the structure of your article: give an overview of your topic to help readers
understand what your topic is.

4. Summarize and proofread: create a summary of the information you have gathered
and analyzed to make sure your article is free of graphical errors.

Three (3) Rules in Creating Quality Content

• Informative – it should provide valuable and useful information to the reader.

• Interesting - it should catch the readers' attention from the title to the last part of
your content.

• Relevant – it should reflect how much you know the subject of your

content enough and who it is being written to make it relevant to both