"That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way." - Doris Lessing, British author.

Doris Lessing couldn't have summarized my website building experience better.

When we were asked to hand-code our website for my Online Journalism class, I was first surprised that we were actually going back to the basics of website creation.

At a young age, I learned that doing a website with notepad is not a simple task. I built my first website when I was 11 years old. My aunt, who was already building and maintaining a website herself, taught me some basic codes. Armed with a small notebook with all my notes on website creation, I created then a rather playful website with even my favorite TV show's theme song for background. It was an arduous task for an eleven year old, sitting in front of a Windows95 computer encoding for four to five hours straight. And none of my peers then have attempted to put up a site of their own.

Two years after, I made the Barroquillians Class Website - the first website that I've uploaded online. This time, I have used Macromedia Dreamweaver, a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) website generating program. It was a far smoother and relatively easier process. No more typing and predicting the outcome of your website, you just have to click, point and draw.

And now in my Online Journalism class, I reverted back to doing hand-code. But instead of being frustrated and bored, doing a website from notepad was refreshing. I couldn't agree more with what our professor, Prof. Danilo Arao said, hand-coding a website is relieving.

The whole experience was a worthwhile activity. It was a learning experience. When our professor taught us the codes, I was actually feeling the same thing as what my classmates were feeling, clueless. It seemed that I already forgot the codes. And when I was building my website, I was tempted to use Dreamweaver again, but I did not use it so as to play the same field with my classmates. Again, with a handy copy of BareBones Guide to HTML, I started to build up my website project.

Hand-coding a website, as many of you might argue, is not an ancient task. It's still appropriate on these WYSIWYG times. It's really better to start with a firm knowledge base. It's like going up a ladder and going back down to check if you won't slip.

There are only a few hand-coded websites around with the advent of WYSIWYG programs as well as Javascripts and Flash, but learning it is not waste of time. Learning the codes allows you to get a better grasp of website design and how things are working. It enables you to know what codes to tweak and what code caused a problem.

And for beginners on online journalism, coding a website is a good venue to start. It allows you to learn the basics and work your way to improving it. And by the time you decide to use WYSIWYG programs, you'll be able to understand the inner tweaks.

And for young and new journalists like I am, the Internet is always a good venue for practicing your writing skills and eventually publishing your work online. The presence of many restrictions in doing print made the Internet a great tool for letting your voices heard. At the same time, the Internet has no censorship laws thus being a good venue for alternative journalism.

And with its ability to provide multimedia access, the internet allows you to be interactive. You can include audio clips and video streams in this newmedium. Like the emergence of PodCasts and Videostreaming websites like Youtube, you can also provide audio and visual support and at the same time allowing your website to become more interactive.

But I don't discourage you to use WYSIWYG programs. But wouldn't it be better to use it with you having knowledge of the website codes? Knowing the codes and using the programs is a good combination in making an effective and descent website.

There's nothing bad about going back to basics. Try it, you'll realize what you had missed out.