Google Sites

The creation of a portfolio

Screenshot of this portfolio's homepage

How & why the artifact was created

This website is created to showcase educational technology experiences utilized or created for this course. The Google Sites application was chosen for its integration with other professional sites developed at www.mrkteaches.com. By doing so I am able to maintain domain integrity and professionalism through the use of a sub-domain. Also, because much of the work that is highlighted on this site is housed in a Google Drive account, using Sites allows for a seamless sharing experience. This is my first attempt at using the new Google Sites platform, which required a little more attention at the onset, but has proven to be an excellent, if not still somewhat limited, tool for web development. Other tools such as Wix or Weebly are far more robust with greater flexibility, but for what was needed for this task, Sites proved to be very capable.

How Google Sites is used

Several years ago I developed the professional moniker "mrkteaches" as way of separating my personal online accounts from my professional accounts. Additionally, I did not wish to use my school credentials for most purposes in the event I changed school systems in the future. What started as a simple email address developed into my own domain name, website, and professional online persona. The domain was registered through a free program with Google, which automatically defaulted to using Google Sites as the primary web development application. I have used Sites for a professional contact page, and in the development of county-based hybrid-style CPD courses as we did not have a full Learning Management System at the time. These Sites in particular are used just as Moodle, Blackboard, and Canvas can be used, albeit with certain limitations. Those limitations were often mitigated through the use of other apps in the Google Suite. Sites can also be used for student website development. When teaching news reporting, students create various works throughout the unit and conclude by building a "news website" using Sites. Using the old Google Sites application was bulky and didn't integrate well, but students were still able to efficiently develop their pages. I am excited to see how this project turns out when students use the New Google Sites application next Spring.

How Google Sites enhances learning

Any website by its nature is a communication tool. It allows anyone to express ideas, share projects, and make connections with the public. Google Sites can be utilized by school staff to share information with students and parents and to add a layer of transparency to the classroom and extra-curricular organizations. Students can use Sites (ideally within a school system domain) to share projects, create portfolios, or to build authentic websites for a project, group, or cause. The recent redesign and deployment of the New Google Sites builds on a strong integration with Google Drive and other Google Suite services. In addition, Google recently updated the "Sharing" capabilities in Sites which now allows for real-time multi-user collaboration in Sites development, matching those of other Google Drive Apps. This alignment of sharing properties with their other services allows for complete collaboration capabilities within and outside of a domain, opening up learning to new opportunities beyond a single classroom. The New Google Sites comes with a fresh look and more stylistic approach, adding sectional design (like most other modern web development environments ), and more flexibility over content placement. With that also comes some new limitations in font control, outlines, and all but eliminates table design. However, the new layout freedom and ability to seamlessly integrate maps, calendars, videos, slide shows, forms, and more are a welcome upgrade enhancing the creativity and innovation opportunities in the classroom and beyond.

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