Using Weebly

     As the course as gone on, I have began to explore a variety of tools and tried to use some of these tools  every now and then in my classes. One tool that I have become acquainted with is the website making tool Weebly. When I first became interested in having my students build websites, I tried to use Google Sites in order to accomplish this. However, I soon found out that the school that I'm working at blocks Google access for my students. This made it nearly impossible for my students to create websites on Google unless they did it all at home - and this created other issues of whether the students had internet access or not.
     I then browsed through the Weebly site to figure out if it was something my students would be able to use. After several hours on the site, I found that it is a very useful tool for students and myself. I like Weebly because it is tremendously easy for the students to use. They can easily add descriptions, headings, and pictures to there sites. It also has tools that allow students to embed YouTube videos as well as Google maps and a variety of other multimedia resources. Students can also easily change the format of their sites as well as add a variety of pages in different formats.
     The one major issue that I have run into while using Weebly is one that is common among "free" services. I have found that Weebly limits the number of pages that a student may create and publish. Now there are obviously ways that students and myself can get around this dilemma, however, it makes it more difficult and inconvenient when working on some projects. I have yet to find another site to replace Weebly for free website hosting. It will have to do for now...