| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | |
|
Education
On March 11, Gar-Field Senior High School in Woodbridge was an overnight hit on the Web.
"One night we're nothing and the next night we're on a [national] pick of the week list," said Richard Leung, 17, one of the creators of Gar-Field's "Digital Indian" site. Yahoo!, a national directory that defines what's new and hip on the Internet, lauded Gar-Field's coverage of school life as well as its useful financial aid and scholarship information. "What else is there to say except: Cool!" Yahoo!'s reviewer wrote.
At all educational levels and ages, young people around the region are making the Internet an extension of their school buildings, with all-night libraries, bulletin boards and schoolyards for socializing after homework is done.
Bill Willis, the faculty adviser to the Gar-Field Web masters, said he wasn't looking for national recognition when he bought a book about Web page design in January.
He was thinking about the printed school fliers, announcements and circulars that too often are lost before parents can read them.
"Our primary focus is to get parents more informed so that they can get more involved," Willis said. "Parents want to know what's going on here, including the bell schedule, exam schedule and what activities they can be a part of."
The Gar-Field site has school news, sports scores, alumni e-mail addresses and a message board for students.
Almost all the area's public school districts have sites featuring information about schools, personnel and programs, including the District, Charles and Montgomery counties in Maryland, and Fairfax and Prince William counties in Virginia.
But to understand what's really happening, click away from the administration and into individual school pages, such as the one for Montgomery Blair High School, which boasts a "virtual" picture gallery of the school that visitors can "walk through."
In the District, Banneker Senior High School has an unofficial site created by a Howard University student assistant, and Barnard Elementary School has a home at Watoto World, a "Web site for children, parents and educators of African descent" on the Afrocentric MelaNet commercial service.
Private schools are well represented, too. Gonzaga College High School in the District, for instance, offers links to student and alumni home pages, staff e-mail addresses, a countdown to the first day of school and the SAT question of the day.
Higher education sites, including George Mason University and the University of the District of Columbia, draw some of the heaviest traffic. Howard University offers access to its library catalog, summer school schedule, a photo gallery with images of Howard's 1900 football team and special projects such as the results of a Million Man March survey.
The University of Maryland's "inforM" is an electronic clearinghouse for College Park campus life, with academic program guides, calendars and a student center where teenagers and college students can meet on-line.
Other education sites:
Barnard Elementary School
Charles County Public Schools
District of Columbia School System
Fairfax County Public Schools
Montgomery County Public Schools
Prince William County Public Schools
Back to the top
Sports
On a lark one day late last year, District resident Jason Southern decided to search the Web for his favorite ice hockey team. But all he discovered about the Washington Capitals were a few lackluster sites with stale statistics.
So the 24-year-old, who has postponed his studies at Georgetown University to start a computer consulting company, decided to teach himself HTML, the programming language used to create Web sites. Within a few months, "The Eagle's Nest—The Unofficial Washington Capitals Home Page" was on-line.
Like many self-designed local sites, it started out crudely, with barely a screen's worth of material. By last month, though, Southern's home page had splashy graphics, scrolling messages and an end-of-the-season injury list as well as pictures and video clips of a Capitals playoff game. During the team's season, fans could connect to hockey chat rooms and an Internet hockey pool.
"It was real bare bones to begin with," said Southern, who spends an hour a day working on the site. "Now people tell me it's the best site about the Caps out there."
For devoted fans of sports teams, the Web is a convenient way to get everything from box scores, minutes after the final whistle blows, to action photos of favorite players. Every local professional team has its own official home page—along with more than a few unofficial ones. Among the area's best official pages are those maintained by the Washington Bullets and the Baltimore Orioles. On the crisply designed Bullets site, users can get video clips of Rasheed Wallace dunking, end-of-the-year statistics and connections to other National Basketball Association teams.
The Orioles official page, launched in April but still in development, is one of the trendiest. Fans can use an audio player to listen to live radio broadcasts of games while simultaneously chatting with other fans and watching an electronic scoreboard. By clicking on twirling baseballs, visitors can move between pages or play an interactive game called Cyberskipper, in which they predict each player's performance during that day's game.
"It's sort of like the virtual ballpark. You're sitting in the bleachers and talking to the fan next to you," said Spiro Alafassos, the team's events director. He said the site has been getting 3,000 to 5,000 visitors a day.
The Washington Redskins, the D.C. United soccer team and the Prince William Cannons minor league baseball team also have sites, as do the athletic departments of the area's large colleges, including Georgetown, George Washington, the Naval Academy and the universities of Maryland and Virginia.
Other sports sites:
DC United Supporters Page
George Washington University Athletics
Georgetown University's Athletics Web Page
Naval Academy Intercollegiate Athletics
University of Virginia Athletics
University of Maryland Terrapins
Recreation
When it comes to recreation, Washington's weekend warriors can find the Web a good place to meet like-minded enthusiasts and plan outings, whether it's roller-skating or locating the best (or worst) pinball machines.
One place to start is the Washington D.C. Fun and Recreation Page, which links to information on more than a dozen different pastimes, from biking and hiking to in-line skating and windsurfing. There are even links that differentiate between sea kayaking and river kayaking.
Mike Matson, an Army lieutenant colonel from Upper Marlboro, said he put the page together because, as a career military officer who moves a lot, he knows the frustrations of trying to link up with people of common interests.
"It can take many months and a lot of wrong turns to find the best groups and best areas for various outdoor activities," he explained in an e-mail message. "The Web makes it simple. People with common interests can rapidly find each other, share information and get the most out of life."
The Washington D.C. Swing Dance Server lists clubs and organizations serving folks interested in the lindy hop, jitterbug, West Coast swing, Carolina shag, hustle or D.C. hand dancing. Users can find out about coming events and lessons or download music and video clips to help them practice keeping off their partner's toes.
A site maintained by the nonprofit Washington Area Rollerskaters lists popular places to skate, along with participant comments on the venues. Some of the directions are a bit vague: The listing for Seneca Park says only that the park is "off Clopper Road in Gaithersburg about 1 mile north of the MVA."
More explicit directions were provided on the site of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. But from the look of some of the recommended bike routes, riders will have to read and ride at the same time. The directions for a 50-mile ride around the Gettysburg Battlefield and surrounding Pennsylvania farmland listed 67 road changes or turns, including six in the last mile.
The FSPA Maryland Pinball Listing site gives local arcades and bars where pinball machines are located and rates their condition based on player comments. The site is maintained by the Free State Pinball Association, which runs leagues in College Park, Northern Virginia and north Baltimore. The World Cup Soccer game was "good but left flip weak, goalie busted," the page reported recently.
Speaking of goalies, the Potomac (Md.) Thunder, a team for players younger than 12 affiliated with the Potomac Soccer Association, is looking for an experienced one. At least that is what a flashing message said on the team's home page one day in May as it put out the call for new players.
Anyone preparing an outing to the National Zoo might want to first stop by its Web site, which provides maps and updates on new exhibits. One link leads to an electronic version of the Great Ape House, featuring photos and stories of such hairy denizens as Augustus, or "Gus, the gorilla leader," and Haloko, "the kindly 'Auntie.'‚" Visitors can even try their hand at learning the symbolic language that is being mastered by the zoo's orangutans.
Other recreation sites:
Potomac Soccer Association
Washington Area Rollerskaters
Staff writer Dan Beyers contributed to this report
Return to the first part or go on to the third part of the Washington Web Guide.