Web 2.0 edu

Over the course of the year, I have worked with several groups of students who have built websites as a part of a class assignment or project. The two platforms that used the most are Lifeyo and Weebly. Both work well, but depending on the purpose, one may work better than the other. Here’s the breakdown:

Cost

Both are free up to a certain amount of storage, however, this is not really a concern for most student projects as a student will most likely never max out the storage capabilities of either app.

Ease of use

Both apps are pretty easy to use. With very little basic instruction (5 min.), students can be building a website. Both are click and drag applications with big control buttons. The function menus are simple making both applications low on the confusion scale.

Functional design

Personally, this is where Lifeyo trumps Weebly. Lifeyo pages are blank slates. Users can place text, pictures and video wherever they want which allows for creative webpages.

Weebly, on the other hand, makes it a bit harder to be creative. When placing objects on a page, users are limited by columns. This is not always a problem. At times it can be useful, especially for those that like some borders to guide their work.

Browsers

Lifeyo seems to work much better in Firefox and Chrome. This causes some problems at my school for students since they are limited to Internet Explorer (IE). Still, often times the site will work, so for certain projects the students just work with it because they like the freedom in designing the page.

Weebly seems to work fine in IE as well as Firefox and Chrome.

Conclusion

With Lifyo and Weebly, I am not sure that one is better than the other. Both provide a good platform for student built websites. Play with each of them before giving them to students as an option. Make sure they work with your school computer system, and if they both work, let the students decide which one they want to use. Either are going to produce impressive student projects.