Google Sites = Online Portfolio
The newest idea I have my class playing with is digital portfolios. I'm thinking that using the portfolio as a way for students to showcase their learning will help them take more ownership of their learning (and I'm sure there is research or there proving this, so if you have it, feel free to link it in true comments). After all, many kids crave attention and what better way to get attention then to say “Hey, come check out what I've done!”.
Let us not forget the skills students will acquire from the process of personalizing this site. Right now, they are building a portfolio so show their academic successes, but tomorrow they might build their own personal site from the ground up for other reasons: sports, hobbies, family.
Google Sites: The Good
As an adopter of Google Apps for Education (GAFE), what better platform for a portfolio is there than Google Sites? So, yes, that is what I've used. Why? Here are a few reasons:
- I was able to set up a template portfolio and then share it out to students through the Sheets add-on called Sitemaestro.
- I could be the owner of all the sites, which ultimately gives me control of a student site…just in case.
- The ability to control who else has access to view the sites.
- The ability for students to keep their site simple or become advanced users and take their site to a new level.
- Easy integration of Google Drive, which eases the task of adding artifacts as evidence of learning.
Google Sites: The Bad
The minds at Google headquarters have done an amazing job of constantly improving GAFE and making it incredibly user friendly and a breeze to work with. Unfortunately, as they continually improve everything else, they seem to forget to do the same with sites. This product just isn't as intuitive as it should be.
Two crucial tools, ‘Add Page’ and ‘Edit Page’ are right there in front of the user, but maybe I want a new page to be a drop down on another page's tab. Do I go to ‘Edit Site’, Edit Site Layout, Page Settings, or manage site? Perhaps I just have a mental block when it comes to this, but I tend to need to cycle through them all in random order till I find the correct option.
I will say that I overhear students reminding each other of where to go for options just like the one I mentioned, so don't let this lack of intuitiveness deter you from using sites. Truth be told,I just might not be smarter than a 4th grader.
