Free Website Creation Tools and Websites:
Weebly is a very intuitive website maker. Customizing the look, feel, and components of your Weebly website is easily done through a drag and drop editor. All of the pages on your site are automatically indexed for ease of visitor navigation. Users report that Weebly responds quickly to emails from users.
Example FISD Teacher website made with Weebly
Another Example FISD Teacher website made with Weebly
Example of a website made with Weebly.com (this website is a recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Wix is a free Flash website maker. Very fun and easy to use but only works on computers with Flash so it won’t work on most handheld devices. Advertising free. Has the ability to produce a fantastic website. The only really difficult thing to do is hyperlinks in Wix. You can only have one hyperlink easily in each block of text. You need to create a new block of text to do another.
Example FISD Teacher website made with Wix.com
Example of a website made with Wix.com (this website is a recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Yola (formerly Synthasite) is advertising free (unless you want advertising) and remains free regardless of how much content you add to it. This is a good thing if you plan to post a lot of audio or video content as some website builders and hosts begin to charge once you reach certain volume content. Yola provides good tutorials and forums for first time users. It's quite simple to use.
Example of a website made with Yola.com (this website is a recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Webs (formerly Free Webs) has all of the characteristics that you would expect to find in a free website platform. Websites built using Webs can include videos, calendars, polls, and a wide variety of third party widgets. Webs offers a wide variety templates and layouts to select from. You can also upload your own HTML into Webs or design your site from Dreamweaver and upload it. However, there is quite a bit of advertising on your Webs.com site. Also, it doesn't accept copy/pasted text.
Example FISD Teacher website made with Webs.com
Example of a website made with Webs.com (this website is a partial recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Web Node is a simple way to build a website. The easy to use, drag and drop, interface makes it easy to change the look and feel of your website. Two reasons Web Node is a good tool for students to use to present and share their work with a wider audience: first, Web Node does not put any advertising on your website, and, second, the user interface is intuitive enough for most students to use on their own. One really annoying thing about Web Node is that if you are copying/pasting text into the site, it's hard to change the text size and color after it's pasted in.
Example of a website made with WebNode.com (this website is a recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Google Sites can integrate with your Google account. You can also establish your Google Site as a collaborative work space. The option to set up your Google Site as a collaborative effort is nice if you teach as part of team and want all members to be able to update the site as needed.
Example FISD Teacher website made with Google Sites
(some of this was borrowed from FreeTech4Teachers, a fantastic blog and resource)
Example FISD Teacher website made with Weebly
Another Example FISD Teacher website made with Weebly
Example of a website made with Weebly.com (this website is a recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Wix is a free Flash website maker. Very fun and easy to use but only works on computers with Flash so it won’t work on most handheld devices. Advertising free. Has the ability to produce a fantastic website. The only really difficult thing to do is hyperlinks in Wix. You can only have one hyperlink easily in each block of text. You need to create a new block of text to do another.
Example FISD Teacher website made with Wix.com
Example of a website made with Wix.com (this website is a recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Yola (formerly Synthasite) is advertising free (unless you want advertising) and remains free regardless of how much content you add to it. This is a good thing if you plan to post a lot of audio or video content as some website builders and hosts begin to charge once you reach certain volume content. Yola provides good tutorials and forums for first time users. It's quite simple to use.
Example of a website made with Yola.com (this website is a recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Webs (formerly Free Webs) has all of the characteristics that you would expect to find in a free website platform. Websites built using Webs can include videos, calendars, polls, and a wide variety of third party widgets. Webs offers a wide variety templates and layouts to select from. You can also upload your own HTML into Webs or design your site from Dreamweaver and upload it. However, there is quite a bit of advertising on your Webs.com site. Also, it doesn't accept copy/pasted text.
Example FISD Teacher website made with Webs.com
Example of a website made with Webs.com (this website is a partial recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Web Node is a simple way to build a website. The easy to use, drag and drop, interface makes it easy to change the look and feel of your website. Two reasons Web Node is a good tool for students to use to present and share their work with a wider audience: first, Web Node does not put any advertising on your website, and, second, the user interface is intuitive enough for most students to use on their own. One really annoying thing about Web Node is that if you are copying/pasting text into the site, it's hard to change the text size and color after it's pasted in.
Example of a website made with WebNode.com (this website is a recreation of the Rocking the Web wiki)
Google Sites can integrate with your Google account. You can also establish your Google Site as a collaborative work space. The option to set up your Google Site as a collaborative effort is nice if you teach as part of team and want all members to be able to update the site as needed.
Example FISD Teacher website made with Google Sites
(some of this was borrowed from FreeTech4Teachers, a fantastic blog and resource)
