Title: Sharing Resources with your School Community and Beyond
Author: Vivian Hernandez
Location: Edutopia
Relevance of source: Benefit #3 of Google Sites – Sharing resources with school community
Summary of resource: Besides just being a benefit to students, Google sites can be a great way to reach others who are involved more indirectly in your class. Many times, I find that parents have no idea what their high school students are learning in school. If they email me asking about a grade or assignment, I usually find that their child told them nothing about how the class is run. It can be tough for parents of high school students to know what their child’s day is like. In elementary school, students typically have one teacher who is in fairly routine contact with them. But in high school, each student could have like 6 teachers and each teacher could have like 120+ students. At a certain point, the lines of communication between teachers and parents seem to break down. A Google Site would be a great way to break down that barrier. In my school district, we utilize Schoology. I know that parents can request access to teachers’ pages, but it is not just directly available to them; parents need a separate login. A nice thing about Google Sites is that teachers can just make their page public and parents can easily see exactly what is going on in class. Parents can actually become more actively involved again with their child’s education.
Other than parents, Google sites is a helpful online platform for other educators to reference. In my professional practice, it could be a great way for educators to work together. “Your resources do not need to be perfect to build connections with others or to be seen as valuable. The real value comes from your genuine care for your community and your willingness to help others” (Hernandez, 2021). If other teachers create their own Google sites, we can all rely on one another for ideas and inspiration. We might find lesson ideas from someone else, or just adopt organizational ideas for how to set up our own online website. A Google site is just a great way to extend learning and growth beyond our 4 classroom walls.
Citation:
Hernandez, V. (2021, June 4). Sharing resources with your school community and beyond. Edutopia. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/sharing-resources-your-school-community-and-beyond
Kristy,
I have used Google Sites a few times in my social studies classroom over the last few years. I discovered this application during the pandemic and realized it was a great way to get students to collaborate with each other. During the pandemic I had students in class and at home at the same time, so I would often try to figure out ways to have them collaborate with each other. One of the most successful ways that I did this was with Google Sites. Students were able to share the site with each other, complete research, and create a product on Google Sites that could be shared with other students and even into the community. I have had students create a museum website about the Homefront during World War Two and I have had students create a website to describe the history of Imperialism in a country and its effects. These projects really encouraged students to collaborate, express their creativity, and display their learning by creating a functioning website. My overall opinion of Google Sites is that it is a user friendly application that increases the collaboration of students in the classroom. It is also an application that allows students to design their own website and express their creativity and learning in a medium that is not usually used.
After reviewing your sources, I discovered that Google Sites could be used beyond just an application for students to create a product. The fact that teachers used Google Sites as a way to create a real website to communicate during the pandemic is a major benefit of this tool. This would really be important for teachers who work in districts who do not have a learning management system. Google Sites does not have all of the capabilities of a learning management system, but could definitely be used as a communication tool as well as a source for classroom content and information. Another major benefit of Google Sites in my opinion is that it increases engagement for parents and students if used properly. I believe that if teachers create teacher websites using Google Sites and share them with parents, then parents would be more aware of what is going on in their child’s classroom. This would allow parents to be more involved in their students’ learning. Secondly, from my experience students are more engaged when assignments are assigned on Google Sites. It is a different way for students to present their learning rather than a traditional poster, Canva, or writing an essay. This allows students to be creative by designing their own product and working on digital citizenship skills at the same time.
The major disadvantage of Google Sites is that its not overlay customizable. I know students who have tried to start their own side businesses and Google Sites just do not have the capability to support something like this. The application does not have the customization and limited capabilities of other website builders. In addition, the applications that you can use within Google Sites are only other Google Suite applications. It is nearly impossible to incorporate other applications. These drawbacks do not really limit using Google Sites in the classroom as mentioned above and shouldn’t discourage anyone from utilizing Google Sites in their classrooms. The perceived benefits of Google Sites in my professional practice are increased classroom engagement, parent engagement, and the ability to share the created product with a larger audience. Google Sites could also be used by teachers to create a larger teaching community and another way for teachers to share ideas with one another. Google Sites is a great application when used properly can boost collaboration among students and lead to various benefits within the classroom.
Eric
Kristy,
I have used Google Sites to create portfolios for various professional projects for myself before, but I’ve never used it as a tool for students. Your research reveals the abundant ways that Google Sites can be used to increase organization, student engagement, open the door to virtual binders and digital organization, and improve the quality and frequency of communication between students and with families!
In my own experience, I have found that Google Sites is incredibly user-friendly. It is so easy to choose various templates, delete blocks, add items, and rearrange items. I especially appreciate how easy it is to link files from Google Drive. I helped someone create a portfolio for their science fair project and we could easily link the document with their research paper, the Google Sheets spreadsheet with their original data, the Google Slides presentation, a YouTube video with their video presentation, and Google Photos with pictures of their research along the way.
I can imagine students using Google Sites for individual projects or to build large, evolving class portfolios with work samples, notes, pictures, videos, and more with great success.
Additionally, I agree with you that parents are often out of touch with what their students are doing in the classroom. At the middle school level, I absolutely see this. Many parents express a desire to be more in tune with class assignments and expectations and Google sites is an easy way to make this possible. Assignment deadlines could be shared with a Google Calendar housed on the site, and student work samples, assignment descriptions, notes, enrichment materials, and helpful resources could all be housed here.
Thanks for your research. I look forward to learning more about Google Sites with you as our projects progress!
Elizabeth