Google Sites is one of the newer features to be added to the Google Apps tool set. The Sites feature allows users to either view or create different pages and organize pages. It can operate much like a wiki with the ability to link pages to words, though it won’t automatically create a page if you create a link. As it is integrated with the apps feature, it is quite different than Google Pages .

The site provides templates for pages and one can add Google content like maps, calendars, blogs, and images. Documents can be shared and it auto versions, which really helps in group writing activities. Finally, it is pretty easy (there are some goofy permissions issues) to add Google Docs, so students can easily do more complex collaborative writing.

One powerful feature of Google Sites is that as part of Google Apps, students can create accounts with their university email and users can set their site to invite other members from just that community. You can also add other Google account holders to view/collaborate in your site.

We currently use it for project management with our off campus faculty, though there is no reason Google Sites couldn’t maintain an entire learning module. Plus, it is a tool that once used for the learning environment,  it can be used by students for other purposes or to maintain collaboration after the course has ended.

The last thing I can add is that one can comment on almost anything in Google Sites which moves it beyond some other tools that don’t allow such on the spot collaboration.

http://www.google.com/a

Google Sites - Marilyn Radu

Google Sites is a great site for messaging and collaboration. Go and visit this site for more information on how to use and apply it.

Here is the correct URL:

http://sloan-c.pbwiki.com/Google+Sites