Quick overview: Wix allows your students to easily create simple websites without any previous knowledge of web design or complicated HTML programming skills. Students can create websites from scratch or modify a template. Free.
What does Wix do? Wix (www.wix.com) allows you to build a website without needing to know the nitty gritty details of web design. You simply drag and drop text, images, and other elements to create a Wix website that anyone can visit. The Wix site is free to use with a standard account.
What’s the catch? Unlike “traditional” websites, you can’t really tinker with the code of a Wix website to tweak and customize things to your liking. Furthermore, the technology behind Wix websites is Adobe Flash. Adobe Flash is installed on most PC and Mac computers but can be troublesome on some mobile devices and smart phones. More specifically, accessing a Wix site on one of these mobile devices may be very slow or not work at all. Before you shrug that off, you’d be surprised how many of your students are now using mobile devices to access the web!
What’s the final word: I think Wix sites are absolutely great for teachers and students wanting to get their feet wet with web design. It’s both easy to use and free. However, if your students are looking to take their web design skills to the next level, then they may want to look into more traditional HTML based solutions. (Source: Robert More, Riverside, ACCESS)
