moonfruit

MoonFruit

[][] - Moonfruit tutorial

Moonfruit is a free website building site

Strengths 1. Free Trial and can continue for free (most basic format) 2. Helpful for classroom use, students can have sites as well as teachers 3. Can add pictures, videos, and text 4. Easy to use, drag and drop options 5. Access to third party widgets 6. Lots of templates to choose from makes it easy to get started 7. Has a nicer "look" than most wiki designs.

Weaknesses 1. Subscription for more complex uses 2. A lot of the features are only available with subscription (but not all) 3. Can be slow when editing the site 4. If you do not update for a 6 month period they remove the site (which means that websites from prior classes you wanted to keep would need to be maintained regularly)

Opportunities 1. Student use and teacher use 2. Way to communicate with parents 3. Can document projects from past years as well as current years.

Threats 1. Would have to be monitored and students can learn to make websites and possibly use it irresponsibly 2. I don't see a feature for password protection to get to the website, which is always a nice option to have if posting information/photos of the students.

Ideas for the Classroom 1. This would be an extremely useful resource for communicating with parents with a classroom website. You could list homework activities, spelling words, vocabulary words, and contact information for free (or for a small subscription fee). You could also post permission slips, class schedules, calendars, and other general information. 2. This would be a good opportunity for students to collect information and share it, such as a book report, or information on a character or idea. 3. Photos from class projects and field trips can be uploaded easily for documentation.