Web Development starts here! - 8 tutorials for Elementary and High schools students

Lego robots, Scratch, Microsoft Kodu – all these tools help kids to take their first steps in software development. Now we can add Microsoft Azure to the list and it’s available to all kids for free. Using Azure your children can create web sites quickly and share their web sites with friends, teachers and anyone with access to the Internet.

If your child is in Elementary school – they can create a web site based on existing templates and without any coding. Later you can extend the web site adding new functionality and grow your coding experience.  If your child is in High school – they can create more complex solutions using JavaScript, HTML and other web technologies. 

With this series of tutorials you will learn how to create your first web site with your children or just pass along the tutorials to them and see what they create

Before starting, I want to point your attention to two things:

#1 You will need a DreamSpark account. To create your account you must prove you are a student. The easiest way to provide proof of your student status is to send an electronic copy of a report card from school (you can just take a picture of it with your phone) and follow the “How do I get my free DreamSpark account” instructions to start the verification process. Because reviewing a picture of a report card is a manual process, it can take up to 7 days to be verified, so you will want to get that sorted out before you sit down to code.

#2 Why not create a video or a short post about your first experience in Azure, share your work and I will publish the best stories in my next posts. It’s always great to share what you learn with others so they can learn with you!

In this post I will share eight tutorials which you can use for kids who visit Elementary as well as High schools.

Tutorial #1.  How to create your free student DreamSpark Azure account

Tutorial #2.  How to publish your first site using BlogEngine.NET

Tutorial #3.  How to configure the site and add some components from Web

Tutorial #4.  How to publish new pages and posts

Tutorial #5.  How to back up your data

Tutorial #6.  Other templates and next steps

Tutorial #7. Creating a WordPress website with Azure

Tutorial #8. How to make updates to a WordPress site