Google Sites 

What is Google Sites?

Google Sites is a great way to share information and collaborate with peers! It is a web-based tool that you can use to create a home page as well as gather, organize, and present knowledge. It can be easily updated and modified by one person or an entire group.  Google sites are easy to create, especially for ASU students. Simply log in to your "My ASU" account and click on “My Sites” on the left hand side of your page. Google sites can also be accessed and created at google.com. Google sites are completely free!

 Features

• Allows users to create and customize spreadsheets, calendars, announcements and insert forms, attachments, images, hyperlinks, and add Google Applications to fit all of your website needs.
• Offers a variety of pre-made templates for your convenience. Take a peek at a few on this site.
  
• Includes the ability to customize your Site with themes, colors, fonts and sidebar
• Create your own website without the traditional fuss of dealing with tedious coding!
• Parents and other students can comment (if the option is selected by the teacher), which serves as a peer-reviewing tool and a great way to safely connect with one another for school work. 

How is Google Sites Used in Education?

Google sites are also an easy way to incorporate technology into the classroom.

• Can serve as a great communication link to parents directly from the teacher.
• Great way for students to keep track of their classroom activities, assignments, and different tasks that need to be performed.
• Teachers can post homework assignments, study guides, helpful links, videos, and slide shows for students to engage in at home on their own time. 
  
• Allows teachers to add lesson plans, timelines, and other important information that students can access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; this is particularly helpful for students who are absent!
• Teachers can connect their gradebooks to Google Sites so parents and students can keep an up to date account of their progress. Because you can allow only certain people to view your site, security remains intact for both teacher and parent comfort.
• Teachers can create a Google Site for the class in which students can contribute, giving the students real world knowledge and ownership over their work. Teachers can provide proper oversight to keep the students safe and within academic guidelines.
•  Great way for students to collaborate on Google Sites with other students and the teacher through Global Conversation. 
  
• For more ideas and to see how other teachers are using Google Site, click here.
• Google sites are also great for extra-curricular school activities (clubs, sports teams)
• Coaches can organize everything from rosters to consent forms for participants and partents. 

Let's Try It!

Google Sites is free and easy to use.  It's simple to get started, especially if you have an ASU email account. 

To start a Google Site just log into your ASU email and click "Sites" from the top menu. Or, you may create a Google Site using a new account with any e-mail address (even a non-Google e-mail account) by clicking on "Sign up for a new Google Account" in the top right corner of the login page.

If you need to refresher or extra help just refer to this video. 

Check out our google site!

Basic Steps for Creating Your Google Site:

     First, you should create each individual webpage that you want your website to contain

• Choose the "Create Page" option from the Google Sites title bar
• Name your page and choose option for "Put Page Under Home" - it is much easier for organizational purposes if all of your webpages are created at the same hierarchy level
•  Choose a pre-made template offered by Google Sites or make one that best represents the type of web page you want to create
  
• Repeat this process to create each of your individual pages

     Next, if you desire, you can begin grouping and arranging your webpages into categories

• Choose the "Edit Sidebar" option
• You might want to delete the first Navigation item that shows up on your sidebar, as this item will default to listing every webpage that you have created for your website 
• Click on "Add a Sidebar Item" and choose "Navigation" as the type
• Choose  the "Edit" option for that Navigation item
• Click "Add Page," and then change the subheading to a category name
• Expand the list of pages under "Home" by clicking on the + sign, and choose the page you want to add under that subheading
• Repeat the last two steps until all pages are listed under their proper subheading
• You can reorder pages by selecting their titles and using the arrows in the "Edit" navigation option

     Tips and Tricks for Building Your Google Site:

• Add additional pages and categories to personalize your page
• Add an "About Me" sidebar item (choose "Text" as the type) to include some biographical text and a photo
• While editing your home page, choose the "More Actions" option and "Page Settings" from the Google Sites title bar to disallow comments and remove links to subpages
• Click "Save" often!!! 

Sharing Your Google Site

      If you would like to share your Google Site with parents or colleagues, just refer to this short video here.

      If you would like to view the instructions on how to create your own Google Site for the TIPP, click here.

References

Google Sites: Simple secure group websites(May 16, 2008). Thursday April 1, 2010, from  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD-4FRTzxkI

Google Sites #2 How to Edit and Add Media to your Google Site (April 3, 2009). April 1, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW3OElLssgE

Bringing it all together (February 28, 2008). The Official Google Blog. October 13, 2009, from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/bringing-it-all-together.html

Google Sites (2009). Wikipedia. October 13, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JotSpot

Welcome to Google Sites. Google Sites. October 13, 2009, from http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html

Example Google Site for class of 2011, http://sites.google.com/site/tommycannonasu/

Example Google Site for class of 2011 for TIPP http://sites.google.com/site/tommycannonstippprojectsite/

Example Google Site for class of 2012, https://sites.google.com/a/asu.edu/american-history-11th-grade/

Template Tips. Google Sites. September 25, 2011, from http://sites.google.com/site/sitetemplateinfo/home.

Friend Connect. Google (2009). September 25, 2011, from http://www.google.com/friendconnect/discuss/help?hl=en.

Contributors: Whitney Hodgeson, Julie Davis, Rebecca Mellon, Anthony Espinoza, Alyson Regua, Cynthia Porter, Laurinda Crutchfield, Allison Wedsworth, Mellissa Terrell, Jessica Gustafson, Andrew Woolridge, Carolyn Reardon, Katie Benjamin, Tommy Cannon, David Michael Bennett, Steven Arenas, Julissa Guevare, Cody Clark, Patricia Rosander, Brooke Stewart, Jenny Van Leer.