You can use a glossary for your class directory. Instruct the students to create a glossary entry for themselves. There are several things you can do to make this exercise easier for the students:
First, create a web page that the students can use as a template with placeholders for the information you want them to include. Also, on this page, state the limitations for how personal the information will be.
Tell the students if this glossary will be global or visible only to the class. They should know if you intend to reveal their information to all of the other people who use your site.
Consider leaving the Edit always function set to Yes. If a student wants to update his/her entry, or has second thoughts about some information he/she has included, the student should be able to easily edit the entry.
If you ask students to include a picture in their glossary entry, give them directions for uploading and including pictures on a page. Although including a picture...