Why choose Build Your Own Website™?

Mission

You're a teacher. You have your work cut out for you. The last thing you need is another “new technology” that promises to make life easier when in fact it just adds new layers of complexity. At WGTE, we've worked with teachers since the days when educational technology meant black and white TV and filmstrips. We've learned that if a technology is going to be useful, it should sit in the background, work intuitively and reliably and create new opportunities for you and your students.

Build Your Own Website does just that. It's been designed and refined by your peers to take the mystery out of using the web as a teaching tool. If you can point, click and imagine, then you have all the skills you need to build a web site that extends your classroom into the home and the community. And if you have BYOW, then you have the only tool you need to make it happen.

Experience

There are other “build your own” services out there. You might have tried some of them. What makes BYOW different? It was designed by teachers, and teachers have been refining it for more than 5 years.

As you are about to learn, BYOW is different - and better - because of the combined experience of your colleagues and the talented software and educational designers at WGTE. Take it for a spin. You'll appreciate the difference.

Advanced Services

In 1999, we gathered a room full of your peers and asked, “What do you need to make the web a personal teaching tool?” They answered:

• “I could really use a web site but if it means learning more software, forget it!”
• “I need to work on my own schedule, and not have to wait for someone to help me.”
• “Things happen quickly in my classroom. Updating my web page should be fast and easy.”
• “I want to be able to do this from home, when I have the time to think about it.”

We built the original version of BYOW around those suggestions, and many more. In the years since, we have invited teachers to polish the best features and add new ones. The result has been a series of enhancements like the Web Porter and WebQuest Center - tools that would cost a lot extra if you could find them anyplace else!