Here are two excellent questions – one from an MAET Alumna and the other from a current MAET code warrior:
Ms. C’s Question –
Quick Weebly question – I am wondering how I can create a link to a page that is currently a word document. I want to put the link to the course syllabus and other things at the bottom of my page without having to put that title in the main menu.
Answer:
Weebly has gone through some UX (user experience) changes recently and I had to look it up myself! Before googling, I checked the Weebly help. It’s really well done and love the organization! Here’s the answer to your question
2.12. How To Upload Files – http://support.weebly.com/support/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=35
Several days ago, Mr. H asked:
Right now I’m looking for a content management system (CMS) to migrate our website to so it would be easier to edit the content by more people other than the web master (me). Maybe you have a good one that you know of.
My response:
Great question – as a former web master I know what a challenge this can be! I finally had time to post this question to Twitter today and the multi-talented Ben Rimes (@techsavvyed) and I tweeted back and forth discussing the issue:
@gravesle – WordPress, Googlesites, or Wikispaces work well for multiple authors. I’ve heard Joomla is nice, but you have to be techie for it
I know that Mr. H is a code-warrior so I tweeted back:
@techsavvyed I’ll pass on the suggestions-he is techy-so joomla may work well – it’s for a school site, something “robust” is preferred thx!
Ben responded:
@gravesle Yeah, then Joomla or even Drupal might work
If it were me, I would probably go with WordPress – just because it’s in my comfort zone and the open-source community around the tool is so strong. I did some googling and found this really nice report comparing Joomla, Drupal and WordPress:
http://www.newlocalmedia.com/downloads/file/9-cmsfeaturecomparison
Though it is (admittedly) outdated (all of the softwares have updates, check the author footnote for updates) the document gives you great ideas for what to look for in each of the content management systems and what to consider when choosing what works best for you.
When students are choosing their CMS for the MAET CEP 820 Teaching K12 Students Online course, we have them look at the following sites as they are making their decisions:
http://www.cmsmatrix.org
http://www.edutools.info/feature_list.jsp?pj=4
http://php.opensourcecms.com/
The great thing about these three tools is that they give you an idea of the infinite number of choices you have (CMS Matrix), the ability to choose features that are important to you to consider your options (edutools), then the ability to try them out from an admin and user perspective (opensourcecms) without having to install!
Hope this helps in your search – keep us updated on what you decide to use!!