The Internet Presentations of Basic Schools as a Possible Indicator of their Internal Social Environment

Research studies on Internet presenta-tions have been carried out since the 1990s as multi-disciplinary projects of various dif-ferent types: experimental, qualitative and extensive quantitative. This is a relatively new theme in Czech literature, however, where the existing studies tend to be focused on the exploiting of information technologies in teaching.
In the limited space offered by their In-ternet presentations, schools formulate what it is that they consider basic to their activi-ties and can also provide a space for their users to express their opinions. The better thought out, more detailed, more consist-ently updated the presentation, the more it offers testimony to the culture and climate of the school concerned. We can therefore regard these presentations as one indicator of the climate of a given school, which then needs to be triangulated using other data obtained by different methods.
Our research has shown that the usual Internet presentation of a school contains only part of the necessary data. Almost half the schools in out sample had no Internet presentation. Another 10-25 % of the school presentations had serious inadequacies in both form and content. This means that only around 25-40 % of schools remain for solid analysis.
The study made on the basis of the analysis of 104 Internet presentations of Czech basic (elementary) schools tested a set of 20 criteria of form and content for the assessment of the quality of the presen-tations. Although the proposed method of analysis has certain pitfalls in the form of the quantity of work concerned and subjec-tive assessment, it provides a solid basis for further use. There are two ways in which the study‘s findings could be practically exploited: (a) as a support for schools in the creation of Internet presentations and (b) as an additional method of investigating the climate of the school.
It is clear that currently Internet presen-tation of schools is not in the forefront of the interests of school managements. We believe, however, that an Internet presenta-tion, considered as a „virtual display case“ and product of the school‘s culture, will very quickly acquire more importance both for school managements (for example as a chance to reflect on the actual form of the school and formulate a vision), and for the lay public (more easily accessible informa-tion, for example in choosing a school).