New Google Sites!

Periodically, Google does updates to its most popular apps.  This has recently happened to Google Sites.  If you have tried Google Sites in the past and found it to be a little clunky, you need to look at it again!

Google Sites is easier to use than ever, though it is not quite as feature rich as the "classic" version, I see more updates coming to add back these features and more!

Google Sites is a free website creation app, built right into your Google Apps for Education (GAFE) tool set, as well as for those who have an individual Google account.





It is easy to build a website from scratch, using Google Sites.  You can add pages to the home page, edit any page add items (links, folders, documents, files, images, etc.) to any part of the webpage.  Adjust themes, colors, fonts, check readability of your color and font choices, to create a professional looking readable website.  The website is responsive, and the preview mode will allow you to check what the users will see on computers, tablets and smartphones.  Google provides you with access to many commercial usage approved images for enhancing your pages, and linking anything that is part of some other Google app is one click away.  Google Sites uses WYSIWYG to make things real simple on the site construction.

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Compare/Contrast, Reflection, Digital Storytelling, Creating, Collaborating

Bloom's Level: 3-6  (Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating)

-ePortfolio
-Creativity
-Innovation
-Infographics
-Collaboration
-Digital repository
-Project Based Learning
-Resource gathering and storing

Use Google Sites to create free easy website to house your information.

You can use Google Sites to create a website, ePortfolio, digital storybook, infographics or use as a digital repository to store content of any kind: text, spreadsheets, drawings, presentation, image, web links, audio files and videos.

Google Sites is a free website creation app, built right into your Google Apps For Education (GAFE) tool set, with a short learning curve. 




Quickly build, edit and publish a website that can be shared with who every you want to get access to.  Easy to build, templates available, be creative or use a nice starting point to launch your website.

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Compare/Contrast, Reflection, Digital Storytelling, Creating

Bloom's Level 3-6  (Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating)

-ePortfolio
-Creativity
-Innovation
-Infographics
-Digital storytelling
-Resource gathering
-Project Based Learning
-Digital repository

Creating a website with Weebly

Using easy website creation tools to create an ePortfolio.

Weebly is a free website creation app with a short learner curve.  There are add-ons available for purchases as well, but the basic app is more than capable of delivering the goods!




Weebly is a free website builder used by over 25 million people!

Here is a example site built with Weebly, for use as an ePortfolio idea.

Sample (click to view)

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Compare/Contrast, Reflection, Digital Storytelling, Creating

Bloom's Lever 3-6  (Apply, Analysis, Evaluate, Create)

-ePortfolio
-Creativity
-Innovation
-Digital storytelling
-Resource gathering
-Project Based Learning

Microsoft Office Mix - PowerPoint add-in Part IV (inserting a video and live web site)

Microsoft Office Mix
This is an add-in to PowerPoint 2013 for Windows PCs (currently no release for Mac).

This tutorial is Part IV (please watch at least Part I which is an Office Mix overview, if you haven't done so), which shows how to use an app to load a video or website into the slide, and allow them both to be live when playing back the presentation.

Other tutorials will be part of the Office Mix lesson, so if you are looking for ways to use other tools, please review those.





You are probably very comfortable using PowerPoint as an instructor, so this add-in tool increases functionality of what you do with publisher created presentations or ones you create yourself.

-Great for flipped classroom activities
-Create dynamic multimedia presentations
-Build interactive lessons and learning experiences
-Can help facilitate blended learning courses

Microsoft Office Mix - help guide

Examples of ePortfolios

Creating a website for sharing your work and communicating information is quite easy to do with the right tool!

We created ePortfolios using Google Sites, Weebly, and Pathbrite to see how each one worked. The list below is in alphabetical order and gives a link to the official help page and my example sites so you can see what an end product might look like. Let us know if you'd like us to check out another ePortfolio building tool.

You may wish to use a website to create an ePortfolio!  These sites allow you to do this with relative ease.

Value of an ePortfolio (check this out!)

Google Sites

Free. Now that Baker College is a Google Apps For Education institution, using Google Sites for ePortfolios will be an efficient choice for many students.  One of the templates built into Google Sites is specifically for e-Portfolios!

• Get started with Google Sites
• My example Google Sites site

Pathbrite

Individuals can get a free account. They have paid accounts for institutions. It's simple to use and good if many of your projects are web-based. Since it's so simple to use, it's less flexible.

• Getting started with Pathbrite
• My example Pathbrite site

Weebly

A basic site is free. Templates are available to help you get started or you can build from scratch. Weebly gives you opportunities to purchase various add-ons from domain names to images, if that is a desire, but not necessary.

• Beginner's Guide to Weebly
• My example Weebly site

Wix

A basic site is free.  Templates are available to help you get started or you can build from scratch. Wix gives you opportunities to upgrade your site, but it is not necessary.

• Beginner's Guide to Wix