Google Sites as a Pedagogical Tool

During my first placement teaching the Chemistry strand of Grade 9 Academic Science, I created for my students a Google site where I posted daily updates about class activities, homework, and other things they might find useful. A link to the site can be found here. Although there are other sites such as Wikispaces that can perform some of the same functions, I found Google sites to be preferable because of its ease of creating and updating a site, the ability to quickly upload files, and the fact that it's all done through one's Google/Gmail account so it can be integrated with a teacher's Google Docs and other Google resources.

One nice thing about Google sites is that you can create a site even if you don't have a Gmail account by clicking here; however, I'd recommended that you get a Gmail account anyway, since it's a great e-mail service. Once you've registered, you can click on "Sites", then choose from a variety of ready-made templates to make your site look professional with only a couple of clicks. You can then begin entering the text you want your students to read. In less than a few minutes, you can have your own nice-looking website that's ready to host useful content for your students.

With my Google site, I only scratched the surface of the potential this resource has for enhancing learning in the classroom. Some of the ways I used the resource include:

• Updating the website daily, informing the students of what was covered in class in case they were absent, and listing the day's homework in case they didn't write it down
• Posting/embedding YouTube videos which further elaborated or reviewed material that was covered in class
• Hosting lecture notes and lab handouts directly on Google's servers and allowing students to have them for review
• Embedding a Google Calendar created specifically for this course so students can quickly see the dates of upcoming tests, assignment due dates and other events
• Linking to a Class Forum that students could use to discuss course content with each other or ask me questions
• Providing useful links to other websites, including homework help sites, laboratory and chemical safety information, and the Ontario Curriculum document for the course

There are many other useful Google Tools I didn't have a chance to make use of, but may in the future, such as Picasa photo slideshows, integrated spreadsheets, and uploading class notes using Livescribe, which allows students to click certain parts of the notes and hear an audio recording explaining the note. I also ran it as a traditional website which is created and edited solely by the teacher for the benefit of the students; Google sites also give the option of allowing the students to update the site for the benefit of their classmates as well upload files such as assignments rather than handing them in physically.

For me, one of the major drawbacks of the tool is that it allows for only limited use of HTML editing and no use of external stylesheets, which can be frustrating for teachers with some web design experience. For example, there is no way of using HTML to edit the Navigation pane of the sidebar; I wanted to edit the link to the Class Forum so it would open in a new window, or better yet in the frame on the right-hand side of the site, but there was no way of doing this and students are therefore forced to leave the Google site if they want to visit the forum. I also couldn't find a way to center or change the font colour of the titles on individual pages; if it is possible, they make it very difficult to do so. Also, it was annoying that Google doesn't allow you to change the template for your site once you've chosen one. Overall, however, the benefits greatly outweigh the drawbacks, as it is very easy to embed video from YouTube, upload and link to documents and pictures, and create an aesthetically pleasing website using the templates.