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Ask HN: I want my pupils (~12yo) to create their own website. Suggestions?

3 points by fdeage 6y ago

Former back-end Web developer here. Since last September I am a full-time maths teacher in France, with ~100 pupils (11-13 yo). I told them one day that I had done webdev before, and since then several kids asked me for some advice to create their own website. Of course I encouraged them, since I thought it would be great for them to share content outside of the GAFA bubble, and own their medium. However I never created a full course. But now that the whole country is under lockdown, I have some time to properly help them. I'd love to see them create their own website from scratch: no WordPress, no Wix, just <div>s and <span>s and a few CSS rules... I don't really know what to choose though. I want to: - (ideally) have the same provider for domain names and hosting, - get the kids to update their website themselves (otherwise I'll be flooded with requests every hour :) ), and - be able to manage a lot of domain names for cheap (except the registration itself). I will probably have 10-20 kids interested. Do you have any suggestions for domain registrar, hoster, and an easy way to upload their work? (git, FTP...) Thanks!

elamje 6y ago
Easy. https://repl.it https://repl.it was made for exactly your purpose, and even allows multiplayer editing like a google sheet. It’s free, it’s hosted for free, and you don’t even need a domain, unless you are unhappy with the random generated one you get on the site:)
- fdeage 6y ago
  Thank you! I had heard of it but never really checked... You're right, it's gonna be very useful until they want their own domain name :)
  - elamje 6y ago
    Btw you can do custom domains easily! You just have to buy the domain through some other company like namecheap or google domains
detaro 6y ago
It might be worth talking to the folks at https://reclaimhosting.com/ https://reclaimhosting.com/ or https://neocities.org/ https://neocities.org/ (they might do a package deal for a bunch of student sites if the free thing with a subdomain isn't enough. But as much as I always advocate for having your own domain, for young students getting started a subdomain is probably fine)
- fdeage 6y ago
  You're right, very interesting :) thanks!
ISNIT 6y ago
They could make JoeDocs sites (joedocs.com) and have them either publicly editable or only viewable. They feel like GoogleDocs to edit, but have video chat, public visibility, custom domain names, etc. Disclaimer, I am on the founding team of JoeDocs.
- fdeage 6y ago
  Thank you for the reference. However I want them to learn bare HTML/CSS first, does joedocs allow to create a website from scratch?