According to Wikipedia, Google Sites is a structured wiki and Web page-creation tool offered by Google. The declared goal of Google Sites is for anyone to be able to create simple web sites that support collaboration between different editors. In this article, teachers will learn the basics of Google Sites and its importance to education.
Blended learning has now become a norm for educational industry, the outbreak of coronavirus may have helped this trend and it may stay for a long time. Educational sector across the globe will have no option than to adapt.
Google Sites for Education
Google sites has a lots of features that makes it a very good tool for educational purposes. The newly released version of Googles Sites is a tempting one. Schools seeking to build a platform for teachers to share ideas and recourses can adopt this wonderful tool from Google. As usual, the tool is free to use. Its user interface is also wonderful.
With Google sites, teacher can share their class note, video and audio lessons. School management can also use it to track teachers activities with their students. Parents can also be given opportunity to see what goes on between their children and teachers.
Integrating Google Classroom with Google Sites
Google Classroom is a digital classroom that mimic the traditional classroom. It also gives teachers ability to share teaching resources as well as gives out assignment to learners.
Google Classroom can be integrated with Google Sites. While Google Classroom will be used to organise teaching resources by a teachers. Google Sites will be used to showcase different Googles Classrooms and other elements from different teachers. This way, the school will have complete system for their academic needs.
Advantages
- It is free
- It is fast and easy to edit
- No programming or database skill needed
- It is ideal for newbie
- It does not require software installation
- You can control access and permission
Disadvantages
- It has limited functionality
- Not good for business website
- The Apps is limited to Google Apps only
- The URL must start with site…
Here are what educators are asking:
A Google Site is a great way to showcase the work you have done as a professional educator. Whether you’re preparing to change positions or want to share your resources all in one place a Google Site provides a simple and free way to package it all.
Teachers use Google Sites to share your students’ work with the school community, create a portal for your class, and create and curate online resources. Try it by following this link.
Google Sites is not a learning management system. Students and parents can interact with a Site by visiting, reading it, and downloading the files. On the other hand, Google Classroom is a learning management system. It has all the features of sites plus assignment and attendance features. I say that Classroom is for the students, while Sites is for the students, teacher, and parents.
Google site is free. It is very easy to use and has a simple and student friendly interface. Anyone above 13 can join in and add content to it ( provided you give them access )
Anyone in the world may view this site (make it public) If you choose this option, you make the site “public” and, as it states, anyone in the world will be able to view your site without the need to sign-in or create a Google account to view the site.
This is done by typing www.sites.google.com then follow on screen instruction with clean user experience. You can as well watch the below video to get started.
Learn From YouTube
If you wish to study the basics of this Google Sites using YouTube, below video clip will put you through.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a simple drag-and-drop web design tool for developing class websites, student project sites, or encouraging students to show their knowledge, Google Sites is the tool.
Its capability to integrates other Google products like Classroom, Drive etc makes the tool stands out.