PCF started to teach our “Website Creation” class to Emlen Elementary students. About 14 students are part of the “Computer Club” After School Program. The website creation program is expected to last at least 6 weeks.

The classes are made possible in part by our StartupPHL grant and PCF is fortunate to be supported by Emlen’s computer teacher Ms. Vera Hromadka. PCF’s Director Deruiter has run a Philadelphia Web business, MostlyWeb, Inc., since 1996 and is excited to teach this class and share his passion for publishing and technology.

In order to prepare for the course, PCF created a new (separate) hosting account and configured a multisite instance of WordPress. The server is set up to allow students to manually upload files and (eventually) create their own personal WordPress websites. In the event of firewall restrictions, we also created Linux and Mac web servers that can run on the school’s internal network (only).

Before students build their own WordPress website, they will learn the basics:

  • How the Internet works (origin, servers, networking, IP numbers, DNS, ISPs, dialup, routers, packets)
  • Servers & Protocols (http, https, ftp)
  • Creating and saving a text file (file extensions, naming conventions, case sensitivity, mapping)
  • Connecting to the PCF server (in Pittsburg) using FTP & HTTPS
  • Uploading files and viewing them in a browser
  • Directories/folders (and how this correlates to URLs)
  • HTML coding (tags, live preview, copying to local file)
  • Creating HTML page, uploading, viewing
  • HTML coding (links, embedding image)
  • Graphics (downloading files, cropping, sizing, resolution)
  • Internet safety (rules and guidelines for their wordpress sites, personal information, copyright issues)
  • Creating a WordPress site (theme, plugins, adding form)
  • Adding graphics (photo album, featured images, background image)
  • Q&A (editing websites, freeform)

After our second class, PCF is extremely encouraged. These students are fast learners and are grasping the basics. We are confident that they will all be able to produce their own website to show off to their parents and peers soon!