What would you like to see in the new version of Weebly for Education?
My name is Dan Veltri and I am a co-founder of Weebly.com. I recognize that as a commercial company we have to be careful posting here, but we're really looking for help in understanding what educators' needs are. We know a lot of educators use our product -- for those who do, can you help us to figure out what you need specifically as educators?
For those who don’t know about Weebly, we make it easy to create a website/blog, e-portfolio, or WebQuest online. Here is a quick demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
Below are some of the features we’re planning to include in the special version of Weebly for Education. Please help us to understand if these features will be useful for you and let us know what other features you’d like to see included.
- When a teacher signs up for an account, he/she will have access to the same website creation tools available on Weebly.com to optionally build a classroom website. To see an example teacher website built with Weebly, check out http://ripplingpond.weebly.com.
- The teacher account will be an administrator account able to create sub-accounts for his/her students. Students can then login to their accounts using the username and password provided to them by the teacher to build an e-portfolio, website for a class project, blog, etc. The student will NOT be required to provide an email address.
- All websites, or pages of websites, will have the option to be password protected.
- The student websites can optionally be listed in a private or public class directory which can be browsed by the students to view and comment on other students’ work.
- They’ll be an “assignment dropbox” element for teacher websites to accept documents or assignment uploads from students.
- We’ll have an integrated video feature for teachers or students to upload their own videos for playback on the website, bypassing YouTube or similar sites which may be blocked.
Like Weebly.com, we will provide the educational version of Weebly for free with additional “premium” features available for a reasonable fee. What exactly differentiates the free version from the premium version is not yet decided, but the free version will be fully functional and feature packed.
We’re in the planning states and really would love to hear your ideas and criticisms. Do you think this would a useful tool in your curriculum? What additional features would you find useful for your classroom and student websites?
For those who don’t know about Weebly, we make it easy to create a website/blog, e-portfolio, or WebQuest online. Here is a quick demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
Below are some of the features we’re planning to include in the special version of Weebly for Education. Please help us to understand if these features will be useful for you and let us know what other features you’d like to see included.
- When a teacher signs up for an account, he/she will have access to the same website creation tools available on Weebly.com to optionally build a classroom website. To see an example teacher website built with Weebly, check out http://ripplingpond.weebly.com.
- The teacher account will be an administrator account able to create sub-accounts for his/her students. Students can then login to their accounts using the username and password provided to them by the teacher to build an e-portfolio, website for a class project, blog, etc. The student will NOT be required to provide an email address.
- All websites, or pages of websites, will have the option to be password protected.
- The student websites can optionally be listed in a private or public class directory which can be browsed by the students to view and comment on other students’ work.
- They’ll be an “assignment dropbox” element for teacher websites to accept documents or assignment uploads from students.
- We’ll have an integrated video feature for teachers or students to upload their own videos for playback on the website, bypassing YouTube or similar sites which may be blocked.
Like Weebly.com, we will provide the educational version of Weebly for free with additional “premium” features available for a reasonable fee. What exactly differentiates the free version from the premium version is not yet decided, but the free version will be fully functional and feature packed.
We’re in the planning states and really would love to hear your ideas and criticisms. Do you think this would a useful tool in your curriculum? What additional features would you find useful for your classroom and student websites?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on
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I think have subaccounts for students, without email, is critical and I like having a video component within the system.
Kevin
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Permalink Reply by Mark Slusher on
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Will this begin to be a course management system like Moodle? There seems to be a blur among wiki/blog/web site/course managment in the education arena. Mark
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Permalink Reply by Ramon Eixarch on
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For science/math teachers having a formula editor is a must.
Our company, we are also commercial, offers one with great success in Moodle communities and other VLE.
www.wiris.com/demo-php/pluginwiris/tiny_mce_wiris/
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Permalink Reply by Joel Garcia on
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Hello Dan,
I currently have a Weebly Pro account with you. http://hawaiianfifthgrade.weebly.com/index.html I have a few questions and suggestions.
1. Is it possible to add the teacher account features such as sub accounts and assignment dropbox?
2. Can I just build these features into my account?
3. Can you incorporate a video feature that does not use Adobe Flash? My district blocks all flash content.
4. I currently use DVD Slideshow and dir2slideshow to create picture slide shows for my site.
5. While we are brainstorming, what about having an option for students to create documents and presentations online using Open Office or another tool?
6. Is it possible to integrate Open Office tools for student use and provide a feature for them to save on their computer?
7. A structured email account for student teacher communication might also be one way to accomplish creating documents online.
These are thoughts that come to mind at this point. I really like your features and will continue to use them in my fifth grade classroom.
Joel
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Permalink Reply by David Bain on
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Dan,
I teach at a Vermont high school and I have a Pro account. I use Weebly for my graduate classes.
We're going to pilot e-portfolios using Weebly with a small group of students, most likely with NHS students this fall. What are the chances of having the ability or a tool that creates user logs and creates reports that shows individual student usage? The report generated or tool would report when a student logs-in to Weebly and how much time they spent on task, etc. As a teacher that would be very useful.
David Bain
Peoples Academy
Morrisville, VT 05661
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Permalink Reply by Dan Veltri on
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Hi Everyone. Glad to hear your feedback on Weebly! Since launching Weebly for Education last September we've seen it adopted by thousands and thousands of teachers & students, so thank you!
@ Joel. I see that you have a Weebly Pro account that you signed up for through Weebly.com. All you need to do to get the special features for teachers (namely, the ability to manage student accounts & accept assignments online) is log in to Weebly through http://education.weebly.com. We plan to offer a non-flash version of our video player in a future release. Your other feature suggestions are great and we're going to continue improving Weebly to meet your needs.
@ David. This type of tool would definitely be useful - thanks for the suggestion. This year we're offering what we're calling the Weebly for Education Campus Edition. This allows an administrator to centrally manage all Weebly teacher & student accounts from within a single, unified interface. We have a number of schools on board which are using this edition to manage e-portfolio accounts for the entire student base. Our Campus Edition pricing is further discounted from the already discounted educational pricing. Check it out at http://campusedition.weebly.com.
Let me know if I can help to answer any more questions.
Best regards,
Dan
Dan Veltri
Co-Founder, Weebly
http://education.weebly.com
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