March 4, 2008

Hi all,

I am pleased to announce that OSLIS 2.0 will debut this Saturday, March 8^th.  This should allow you a bit of time to browse the new site if possible this weekend before your students begin using it next Monday. 

1-The current web address of http://oslis.org will provide you with some basic tips to begin your new experience and direct you to the correct web address for your specific age groups. (Please read these!)

2-To improve the experience for users, we now have four website addresses.  They are elementary, secondary, elementary educator and secondary educator.  This is very similar to the current OSLIS structure, but now will not be accessed via a drop down menu, instead you’ll use a web address.

3-We are working hard to alleviate as many issues as possible with the new release but you may need to be patient with us as we bring on so many users with such diverse technologies using the site.  We’ve tried to test on various computers, monitors, web browsers, etc. but are sure that we are likely to run into some minor issues.  If you have a choice of browsers, we have found that Firefox is the browser of choice.

4- As statedin the directions on the site Saturday, if you run into problems, do not email me directly.  Please use the FEEDBACK link at the top right of the screen of the page where you are experiencing the issue.

5-The site will continue to improve some of its additional Web 2.0 capabilities in the next few months.  There are SO many things we can now do with this new content management system.  They are not all in place yet.

6- I am desperately trying to carve out some time to complete some basic tutorials to help you maneuver the new site.  Those will also continue to improve as I have more time to develop them.

7- The OSLIS team is working on new bookmarks and posters which should be available by the end of this school year.

Enjoy!  Wish us luck!