Personally, I have a paid and registered copy of Freeway Pro for my use. I'm looking to install something for student use in my lab (6th-8th grade). The lab has eMacs running 10.3.9. Free or very cheap. Went from HomePage to GoLive under OS9 back in the day. It's been a few years since I had the free period to teach simple web design.

Looked at Netscape composer module....not real user friendly.

Ideas?

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“Live your life, love your life, don’t regret…live, learn and move forward positively.” – CR Johnson
Loving life in Lake Tahoe, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2007 07:44PM by Markintosh.

Nvu

No brainer. iWeb. iLife 06 is $59 thru edu store...it'll probably be even more cheaply available in the next few months when iLife 07 hits.

Another alternative is sandvox. It's $49 single user or $24/copy seat license. I don't like it as much as iWeb though.

Does the school have any recently purchased macs? They might have copies of iLife 06 (which includes iWeb) just languishing.

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2007 08:05PM by davester.

Another vote for Nvu, free and still usable as far as learning HTML code.

[www.nvu.com]

iWeb is great for a "just get it done" type site, but teaches you nothing about HTML code or what happens behind the scenes IF THAT is the purpose of the students Web page.

You may also want to download a copy of Text Wrangler by BBedit and let them code by hand for a real learning experience/extra credit:

[www.barebones.com]

Text wrangler for 10.3.9 requires version 2.1.3 on this download page:

[www.barebones.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2007 08:31PM by ArtP.

Quote
davester
No brainer. iWeb. iLife 06 is $59 thru edu store...it'll probably be even more cheaply available in the next few months when iLife 07 hits.

iLife is only $39 through the EDU Apple Store, if you are an 'Authorized Purchaser' for your school (which Markintosh easily could be...just has to apply). Volume licensing creeps the price down to $35...$30...$25...etc.

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ArtP
Another vote for Nvu, free and still usable as far as learning HTML code.
l

True, but from his post he's trying to teach web design, not html coding (yuck!). IMHO, all that coding just gets in the way of designing a website, and by the time his 6th graders graduate from high school, html will probably be an anachronism (like Fortran IV is for me), That's why I suggest iWeb if it is at all economically possible.

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2007 08:41PM by davester.

Does iWeb run on 10.3.9?

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“Live your life, love your life, don’t regret…live, learn and move forward positively.” – CR Johnson
Loving life in Lake Tahoe, CA

Quote
davester

Quote
ArtP
Another vote for Nvu, free and still usable as far as learning HTML code.
l

True, but from his post he's trying to teach web design, not html coding (yuck!). IMHO, all that coding just gets in the way of designing a website, and by the time his 6th graders graduate from high school, html will probably be an anachronism (like Fortran IV is for me), That's why I suggest iWeb if it is at all economically possible.

Yep, I understand that fully, and agree who knows what the future will bring.

But not to get too far off the subject...

I learned the little webdesign that I know on Pagemill, then went with every version of GoLive to present. In the "real world" everyone uses Dreamweaver (like Windows) even though GoLive IMHO (like the Mac) is a lot easier and more intuitive.

Sure iWeb will get it done, but it overlooks much the basics of web design. iWeb is more magic than "real world" practice. I was VERY limited the first time I used iWeb, I wanted to do certain stuff and couldn't break or crack the code to be able to do it. It is GREAT for 90% of the population but if he is TEACHING web design, iWeb won't cut it. It's like teaching digital photography using iPhoto, you need to teach more than the "built in" Magic, (like the Magic Enhance Tool and Quick fix).

A better example would be teaching Math with calculators from the beginning. Sure you need or can use calculators for Algebra, Geometry, and Trig, it is a BIG time saver, but kids need to learn the fundamentals of math (addition, subtraction, multiply, divide) first. They need a basic understanding of some of the HTML.

I skipped all the dull boring HTML stuff and just used GoLive's layout grid to get things done, not caring about what was happening behind the scenes. I was okay until I found out about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and how I could set up a site and make a change and everything would change! It was Wonderful! Now I am learning about that more and looking at the code more, wishing I had learned some of the basics way back when.

Even learning things like the simple [ b] [ /b] tags for this forum are just simple HTML. Just teach the REAL basic HTML stuff as a lesson or two.

At Macworld I attended a seminar that mentioned what Youth of today want to learn with computers. One of the big things is MySpace. You can't EASILY Mod/Hack your MySpace page with iWeb.

In fact if Markintosh wants to make that class go over REAL BIG, make that one of the lessons. "How to Hack/Edit/Mod your MySpace page". He will have them beating down the door to attend that class.

EDIT: See If I had learned HTML from the start I would NOT have made a mistake like this:

You can't EASILY/ Mod/Hack your MySpace page with iWeb.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2007 09:38PM by ArtP.

Quote
Markintosh
Does iWeb run on 10.3.9?

iLife '06 System Requirements

Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G4, G5 or Intel Core Duo processor; 733MHZ or faster required for iDVD
256MB of RAM; 512MB recommended
Mac OS X v10.3.9 or Mac OS X v10.4.3 or later; Mac OS X v10.4.4 recommended
iTunes 6.0.2 and QuickTime 7.0.4 (included)
DVD drive for installation
10GB of disk space to install iLife ’06 applications

I think I did get it to install via Target Disk mode on a 500mhz G3 iBook once (installed from a G4 with a DVD Drive). It ran slow but it worked.

from his post he's trying to teach web design, not html coding (yuck!). IMHO, all that coding just gets in the way of designing a website

I have no patience with that attitude (in an area of the arts). If you want to make websites, you need to know how to design AND to code. Would you tell someone interested in photography that learning how to use a camera and process images just gets the way of making pictures?

How about RapidWeaver? It's affordable and lets you do more than just click and drag if you want to. There is no good reason that these kids shouldn't learn something beyond how to slap together a canned site in iWeb.

[www.realmacsoftware.com]

You can get TextWrangler for free, for any of your students who really get into coding.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2007 10:06PM by ka jowct.

NVu is the way to go, free and full-featured.
CyberDuck to learn FTP, free and does the job.

I can't see them learning anything from iWeb that would benefit them in any other app down the road.

What karsen said. I also use Taco HTML Edit (free) to look at actual HTML code, 'cause it sorts the various classes of objects out in color and does auto indenting. I use Transmit for FTP, but it's not free.

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What it is, man, a low-down and funky feelin'

Looks like Nvu is gonna be the winner here. The price is right...looks like a good balnce that will result in transferable skills and knowledge.

Thanks.

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“Live your life, love your life, don’t regret…live, learn and move forward positively.” – CR Johnson
Loving life in Lake Tahoe, CA

Be sure to find the on-line manuals and tutorials for NVU-really helped me a lot.

I had problems with Nvu. I would have to quit the program to open another page to edit. After asking this same question to the MR Forum, I settled on the editing module that comes with Mozilla.

Does all I need to do.

JPK

%> emacs
%> sftp

Quote
JPK
I had problems with Nvu. I would have to quit the program to open another page to edit.

I have the same problem. Must be a Mac-only bug, because I don't have the same problem with Nvu for Windows.