Use these project ideas to guide students in creating multimedia websites in celebration of Black History Month in February and beyond
Each February, the United States and Canada celebrate Black History Month by honoring the figures, events, inventions, and achievements of Black folks in North America and abroad. Yet Black history is American history (and world history!) — every month should be an opportunity to explore and commemorate how Black narratives shape our society, our culture, our politics, and ourselves.
Complex topics can be more powerfully explored with multifaceted tools. This Black History Month and beyond, we encourage you and your students to use Wix Education’s multimedia platform to tell rich stories, dive deeper into the complexities within Black History and current society, and celebrate the abundance of contributions across technology, science, politics, social justice and civil rights, the arts, music, fashion, and more in America and abroad.
The project possibilities are endless, and these ideas are just a start! Here are six project ideas to celebrate Black History and Black Futures with website-based projects with Wix Education:
Create a profile site for an influential figure
Celebrate Black music and art with a multimedia website
Design a virtual field trip to a historic site
Create a resource site for social justice and civil rights
Make a timeline website to chronicle significant events in Black History
Create a resource site to amplify Black voices
1. Create a profile site for an influential figure
This website uses the "Overlapping Layout" template in Wix Education
Perhaps the most classic way to celebrate Black History Month is to profile an influential figure in Black History, and we love how creative students get with profile websites! How might you go beyond the traditional figures in Black History and encourage your students to seek out different voices and stories? Could students create profile websites from their chosen person’s point of view? We recommend checking out the Portfolio Templates or semi-made templates from Wix Education as a starting point.
2. Celebrate Black music and art with a multimedia website
This website uses the "Social Impact Project" template in Wix Education
One of the most significant ways websites can elevate student projects is through the use of multimedia tools. In Lesson 10 of the Web Creation Course, students explore how their websites are not posters — they are powerful tools for expression. With tools like video and audio players, photo galleries, moving backgrounds, interactive slideshows, video masks, and animated vector art, students can bring Black music and art to life with the web.
3. Design a virtual field trip to a historic site
This website was made with the "Interactive Infographic" activity from the Web Development course
We often say that websites are like houses (see Lesson 05: Website Structure & Navigation from the Web Creation Course). They can be as simple as a one bedroom studio, or as intricate as a sprawling estate. With all of the affordances of multiple pages, hyperlinks, animations, anchors, and sections, websites are an amazing medium to create a virtual tour. Students can take their site visitors back in time (or take a virtual trip to a current place) to homes, museums, venues, spaces, cities, and sites. We encourage you and your students to be imaginative with their creations — how can the experience of viewing a website mimic the real thing?
4. Create a resource website for social justice and civil rights
From the Civil Rights Movement to today’s Black Lives Matter Movement, Black History Month is an opportunity to explore historic and ongoing civil rights and social justice revolutions. This resource activity can also be a catalyst to engage in important (and often challenging) conversations with students to better understand the complex fabric of Black history past and present. Not sure where to start? Learning for Justice has great resources for learning more about racial justice and reflecting on human rights.
5. Make a timeline website to chronicle significant events in Black History
With a timeline-focused website, students might create a long-scrolling homepage with the title of each event, then connect those events to inner pages within the website to elaborate more. Or perhaps students can use thumbnail images that reveal more details when moused over. The hover effect in the Interactive Infographic activity from the Web Development course is also a great option for timelines!
6. Create a website to amplify Black voices
Retrospect Studios, whose website was created with Wix, aims to amplify Black joy and change the way brands communicate with their consumers.
February is simply a launching pad — every month is an opportunity to celebrate and amplify Black culture and Black voices. How might your students highlight local Black-owned businesses in their communities, draw attention to current movements or conversations, or showcase the creations of Black folks across the globe? What websites can you find as inspiration to fuel ideas? For example, the Wix site Retrospect Studios (highlighted above) showcases their work as a "Black-owned, experimental studio focused on building products & experiences that are radical, culturally nuanced and accessible".