We’ve talked before about kids learning to build their own Web sites and now, I’m bringing you a Web site that puts that knowledge to a good application of the skill. Here at Wiggle Bits, you and your kids can learn to build a school Web site. This site also takes you through the basics again, just in case you forgot or don’t want to reference other pages as you progress.
There are two ways to navigate this site. You can click the pink arrow at the top or bottom of the page. The one at the bottom is an arrow and the word Next. Or, you can browse section by section via the category table of contents in the middle of the page.
Getting Started – This is the introduction to building a Web site. It gives you an idea of what you’re getting yourself in to.
Communication – This explains the Internet and how it communicates.
Publishing Power and Responsibility – It used to take a lot of work to get Web sites published, but now you can author your own page with the click of a button. That means you have to be responsible for the content you put on your site, because anyone can view the information while they are surfing the Web.
Five Easy Pieces – This section breaks down into six different pieces. The introduction to HTML and the other five sections of: Files, Words, Pictures, Colors and Links. You’ll learn HTML related to these topics. Now, as a personal Web designer, let me tell you these are basically the building blocks of the foundation of Web page building. It is important to be familiar with these before you begin to use a Web editor.
Using a Web Editor – I love how the author relates this to math. The HTML you learned being the arithmetic and the Web editor being a calculator. Here you will learn how the five easy pieces work in a Web editor.
Getting Found – So, your page is made, but how will anyone find it? Here you will learn about where you can host your site, as well as, how to get traffic to it via search engines and tags.
Squeezing It Through the Wire – Here you will learn how bandwidth works. This section will also teach you how to design your site intelligently so that you are getting the most out of the bandwidth you have.
Standards – Here you will learn about Internet standards. And by that, I mean communication that is agreed upon by both the sender and the receiver. You’ll find some great examples of it here.
Animation – Here you will learn all about animating images and how and why you save them as .GIFs.
Epilogue – This section sums it all up for you and serves as the conclusion of the guide.
You may be wondering why you would even want to build a school Web site. Well, I like the idea of having a school Web site for publishing things like the school calendar, newsletter, events and such to a broader range of parents and students. It also gives you a chance to have different sections of the site for different classes/grades, where you could highlight a class project or check what the homework list is for the day and so on. Check it out!
~ Amanda