Kid Created Sites

[AntiThesis]

As part of my development goals this year I need to get kids at least started on creating and working with websites.

 

Nothing too fancy but since the oldest kid I teach is 13 I need to try find some tool that's nice and simple. We've got Frontpage *shudder* and Publisher *shudderer* so I can use those in a pinch but surely there's some tool out there for kids?

[FN-GM]

Serif web plus is nice easy software to use. Might be worth a look

[RabbieBurns]

notepad++

 

and some w3schools .html tutorials

 

and theyll be web wizards in no time.

[apoth0r]

I started a web club with Year 6's in my old primary school. I just used notepad and some good tutorials for starting a basic webpage.

Nothing like being thrown in the deep end to get them thinking and involved in the work.

 

Teach concepts not applications!

[rh91uk]

It all depends what you want to do really. If you want to teach them HTML then I, like others, would reccomend using a program such as Notepad2 or Notepad++, or if you want them to do a combination, maybe use Dreamweaver (remember it cost's!), Frontpage (now expression studio if I recall?) or Kompozer.

 

We have Frontpage and Kompozer here and it works really well.

 

Rich

[AntiThesis]

Might be an idea yeah. Perhaps I'll just grab the brightest kids and get them going so they can help the others.

 

Problem is, ICT has been pretty much null until this year. When they get to Grade 7 (13) they kinda know how to click so I was hoping for a very easy interface to ease them in for the next year or so.

 

I'll get the whole thing turned around eventually (I want websites by Grade 3! ) but for now it'll be the clever kids

[GrumbleDook]

It also depends on whether you are teaching website design or html coding. There is a difference. website design could also include CMS like Joomla, or maybe specific uses of sites such as WordPress ... coding can look at html, dhtml, css, php ...

 

Or a bit of everything.

[CyberNerd]

another +1 for compozer

 

KompoZer - Easy web authoring

 

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.

 

KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

 

alternately, we use drupaled for students to upload their own content in a social networking / eportfolio kind of way. Also see Home - mahara.org and Elgg.org

[apoth0r]

Well if it's a primary school attempt then i'd definately start out with the basics of HTML. A bit of searching and theres plenty of tutorials you can use designed for the teaching of HTML with children.

It's about getting the first bits in and then just letting them play with the tags to make things look different. It's great when you start seeing their personalities through their work, I wish I had more time when I taught, really was good fun and very very rewarding as they continually built on their experiences and even did a bit of troubleshooting for one another!

[pnlrogue1]

We have Frontpage and Kompozer here and it works really well.

 

Kompzer (a fixed version of NVu [pronounced N-View] unless I'm mistaken) is pretty good if you want free WYSIWYG. Dreamweaver is great but complex (especially for low ages). Frontpage is good for getting used to web as it's very Office-y

 

Wouldn't recommend Serif as it does things in a very bizarre way but it does create great-looking pages

[mossj]

i'd recommend notepad + w3schools, once they know the basics you can move on and the bright kids will disect the code dreamweaver/frontpage/webplus creates and dim ones will still be designing sites..

[pnlrogue1]

i'd recommend notepad + w3schools, once they know the basics you can move on and the bright kids will disect the code dreamweaver/frontpage/webplus creates and dim ones will still be designing sites..

 

See that's the way I used to believe in teaching it, then I became a teacher and now wonder if the other way around is better? Learn how to create the sites, then look at what you've created and learn to understand it

[jann]

I've done some work with local primary schools and based it on the MediaWiki software. Its clearly not html, but it does get over the concept of formating, layout and tags in a manner that the pupils understand.

 

I found with a small amount of customisation you can create content rich websites in a short amount of time.

 

It really depends what you want to achieve, a small basic Hello World type webpage, or an actual website with content that can be built upon.