Once you are a part of a google site or you have created one you can begin building a website, a blog, or a whole host of different things that you might want to use a web page for. The awesome thing about google sites is that it gels and works so easily with everything google. So you can easily embed a video from youtube, a google doc, presentation, spreadsheet, drawing, form and everything else google with just a click of a button. Google Sites also has a lot of gadgets that you can add to your site that can engage your students or allow them to have a little fun.
Google sites is very easy to edit and will allow you to create a very nice looking and professional site that you can use for multiple things. There are many tutorials on how to use and edit google sites as well as how to use it in education. Like all things google it is easy to share and collaborate with other users. Like a wiki you can invite students to edit content on a page or between co workers you could work to create a grade level page and so on and so on. The collaboration part of google sites is what makes this pretty different from a lot of other sites, it is easy to share and to collaborate on a web page using google sites.
Great explanation, Scot. It has been a couple of years since I had looked at Google Sites and it definitely sounds like it had matured. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw your screenshot of the website.
ReplyDeleteGoogle (in my opinion) will be the catalyst for digital literacy. They keep creating (or acquiring) technologies that they turn around and not only support, but also give away for FREE. By allowing risk-free opportunities to create a web presence, Google sites (and Blogger) will continue to grow and offer simple ways for anyone to "be online".