Google Sites: Student digitial portfolios a place to create Positive Digital Footprints.
Community Review for Google Sites
My Take
Pro:
-Total creative control of site
-Ability to create and post site templates to allow for easy duplication of digital portfolios
-Sharing ability
-Page level permissions to secure site information
-Integration with Google Drive and many 3rd party apps
-Allows html and widgets to meet the needs multiple levels of technology comfort levels
-Collaboration is easy, multiple people can edit and manage site
-Blogging feature allows students to blog and to rss feed from the blog
-Easy insert of other web pages into site to create the one stop for all students
Cons:
-Not as easy as a drop and drag widget based webpage building app.
-Takes sometime to transfer site when using Google Apps for Education
-More Apps sometimes donʻt work
-Take a class period or two to get high school students comfortable with the media and the tolls available
-Can not customize layouts
-Can be overwhelming to students who are not tech developer savy
Wanted Improvements:
-Allow for better integration with social media
-Easier access to graphic widgets and audio widgets
-Improve the page level permissions so that you donʻt have to click one at a time to enable current users.
How I Use It
We use Google Sites at our school for student Digital Portfolios, Teacher internal sites, event sites, and our High school site.
Students use Google sites to complete homework, projects, and to practice digital citizenship principles they learn at school.