Leer esta página en español.

• Cookies, .js (javascript) and hidden files.
  
  We do not have any use for most of these. We do not like cookies, so we do not use them. We only use a few javascript lines to show the address of the webmaster without making it too easy a target for spammers, and to close pop-up windows with pages that require a high-definition screen, or to redirect links from some pages which were part of the old site structure to their new addresses. We do not use any hidden files (except an invisible image for text-alignment purposes). The HotPotatoes exercises use javascript, but they are harmless and the full source code can be easily accessed.
  
  When circumstances permit we intend to set up a Moodle environment for our students, which we are already using for teachers. We have also set up a Joomla environment for our school's main site, but it is completely independent from this site except for the fact that it is hosted under the same domain name and there are two links from and to it. Our experience with Joomla has been rather disappointing, thanks to our educational authorities, who have twice deleted completely and without warning our whole Jooomla site. Both Joomla and Moodle use lots of scripts, but that is completely out of my depth, so I cannot make any guarantees in that respect.
  
  
• Screen resolution
  
  This page is optimised for a 1280 x 800 (laptop) screen, and designed for practical use with a lower resolution screen such as that of a projector in the classroom:
  • On a 800 x 600 screen you will have to slide the bottom bar until you can see the main information area with the full top menu.
  • On a 1024 x 768 screen you will be able to view the left shortcuts column and the main information area.
  
  
• Website structure
  
  You may find the structure of this page a bit odd. The main reason is that it is the result of fusing together the materials made since 2005 or so in our school's English department page with those of the younger European Section, which grew very quickly especially during the period from 2008 to 2012, the first four years of our bilingual programme. The reasons why we decided to merge these two sites are explained in the cover page.
  
  
• Use of frames
  
  The main page used to be divided into three frames for the left shortcuts menu, the main central area, and the icons on the right. The reason was that some pages had been written especially for use in a low-resolution screen such as the one we use in the classroom, while others had been designed for use online with high-resolution screens, and they did not always show properly in a reduced area. The page was designed to allow the user to adjust screen resolution, although it did not work flawlessly.
  
  The new Internet specifications no longer allow us to use traditional frames which could adjust automatically to different screen resolutions by specifying a percentage rather than a fixed value for their size, which is the reason we have had to redesign the whole page. The new iframes work in a different way, and it has taken me a long time to work out how to use them in the best way I can. Whole sections of this website will probably never be redesigned due to lack of time, but for the moment they seem to work all right.
  
  Even now I am still experimenting, so that some links will open in the central area while others will open in a new tab, while I work out which is the best solution for each individual page. The final result will probably be a bit chaotic, but that is how the education system works in Spain, so I hope nobody will find it too upsetting.
  
  
• Language
  
  This website is intended for our English students, so many materials are in English. Those designed specifically for our European Section students are all in English. Some have been translated into Spanish in other sections of the website so that they can also be used by students who can't understand written English that well. Other things are written in Spanish so that our students' families can access information relevant to them.
  
  
• Copyright
  
  As far as possible, we have designed our own materials. Lack of time and resources has sometimes forced us to adapt material from other websites. In exchange for the efforts of all those kind people who publish things on the Internet for everyone to use for free, we have done the same thing here, and we claim no copyright to most of the materials here. Feel free to copy, modify and publish online your adapted teaching materials. However, it would be nice if you acknowledged the source where you found it (when possible, we have done this, but again lack of time has sometimes prevented us from accurately documenting our sources).
  
  If you are going to make a profit out of our materials, it would be nice of you to share your profits with the people who need it most, so maybe you can find an NGO which you like and make a donation.
  
  
• Hand-written code
  
  The code in most of these pages was hand-written to make them as light as possible, and thus faster to load so that they do not behave too badly in slow connections such as the one we have in our school, or when we surf the site from a USB pendrive where we have no Internet connection or it is too slow. It also makes it easy to download whole sections from our site onto a USB memory stick to use offline, which you are welcome to do too if you find anything useful. Some exceptions to this rule, such as the HotPotatoes exercises, allow us to make more varied activities.
  
  Most links are local, so that if you use one of those programs that can download a whole site including subfolders, you can copy the whole site onto a USB memory stick to be able to access all the materials if your Internet connection is not working in your classroom. The minimum folder depth you will need to set for that is 9, I think, as in www.ies-modesto-navarro.es\european_section\2_activities\exercises\art1\art_elements\galeria\animacion\pre\.
  
  

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This page was first written in 2015; it was last edited in April 2018.