1. Eric Bothur, Midlands Technical College Kristi Bothur, Richland School District Two

2. What is Weebly? Not this:

3. What is Weebly? weebly.com Drag and drop website builder WYSIWYG One of Time Magazine’s top fifty websites of 2007 Two levels of websites – free and pro

4. How a website can enhance your teaching Provide information about your courses, tools for students www.esolwithmrsb.weebly.com www.drbothur.weebly.com

5. How a website can enhance your teaching Provide information about your courses, tools for students Professional website for yourself and your career www.kbothur.weebly.com

6. How a website can enhance your teaching Provide information about your courses, tools for students Professional website for yourself and your career Assign student projects to enhance their learning and interest Teach website design without needing expertise in HTML code Use websites as a mode for nontraditional projects Research assignments: http://esolwithmrsb.weebly.com/student- research-websites.htmlhttp://esolwithmrsb.weebly.com/student- research-websites.html Photography/writing portfolios: http://esolwithmrsb.weebly.com/poetry-project.html http://esolwithmrsb.weebly.com/poetry-project.html Professional website/resume

7. Why Weebly? One repository for information Information available before and after semester Easy to adjust Quick to make changes No need to transfer information from semester to semester Alternative during platform downtime Engages students in a new and different way Allows many forms of media and interaction

8. Weebly free features 10 websites per account 100+ themes to choose from Traffic stats Free domain hosting No forced advertising Social icons element Add other site “editors” as needed Built-in drag and drop features: Blogging Photo galleries, slideshows Forms Surveys Unlimited pages Unlimited storage (max 10 MB per file) Unlimited bandwidth Embedded documents

9. Weebly Pro features ($4-8 per month per site) HD video player Audio player More detailed traffic stats Password- protected pages Site search Add editors for specific pages Replace Weebly footer message with your own, including a menu 100 MB file uploads File upload field Slideshow banner as header

10. Special features Educational sites Designer Platform Ability to password-protect student files, allowing a teacher to control student accounts Get 40 student accounts (for five-page websites); bundles of 10 available for purchase Have students upload assignments Build websites for clients Built-in theme editor Weebly charges you according to the number of pages in a site, but only after it is published; you then charge your clients and make money that way.

11. Steps to creating a Weebly website Go to the Weebly support center to find step-by-step directions Determine the purpose of your site – personal, professional, course-based, marketing, etc. Choose a theme – consider the look you want, horizontal vs. vertical menus. Plan your site and name your pages. Indent pages to create subpages. Use the drag and drop editor to fill your pages with content Link information on your pages to other online sites, to documents in your site, or to other pages on your site. Create a site map Consider “hiding” some pages from your menu and linking to them in other ways to declutter the appearance.

12. Some tips Don’t get your domain name through Weebly – too expensive; GoDaddy is much better (a Weebly domain is free). Websites created through Weebly cannot be moved to another host. If you move hosts, you have to start all over. Educational website is best for K-12 educators, with protected student sites, etc. However, the features on these sites are beneficial because you do not have to pay for Pro service to get them (e.g. uploading files). Plan your site (pages, subpages) in advance. When linking to other online sites, choose “open a new window” to prevent your reader from navigating away from your site.

13. Try it for yourself! It’s great to hear about tools and resources, but in order to really learn something we need practice. weebly.com

14. Contact us in the future We would enjoy hearing your Weebly success stories, so please go to the website and share them with us. Eric Bothur bothure@midlandstech.edu (803) 790-7586 Kristi Bothur kbothur@att.net