Google Sites was selected as the platform for these AI instructional materials for several reasons: 

• My staff and district utilize Google Education as our LMS, so I knew that navigating this site and its tools would be familiar for staff. I think this familiarity could support ease of use and navigation. 

• Google Sites are well-suited for scalability. Since this course makes use of smaller modules, some that are still in development, it is easy to add content over time. 

• Google Sites is free and a beginning good choice for instructional technology designers because it doesn't involve using code or more complex features to build the site. 

• This platform makes it even easier to embed other Google features and tools, such as Google Slides, Google Forms, Google Docs, and YouTube content. 

• The platform is approved for staff use,  and can not only be accessed but simply shared, edited, and collaborated on. 

• Google Sites can be customized in several ways with colors, font types, and themes. I do wish it had even more customization options. 

• Google Slides were utilized in this portfolio and in the instructional materials. Google Slides were chosen because they support a wide variety of multimedia types, and while the templates are not as exciting, it can be more efficient to select and apply simple templates to build slideshows from. 

• Google Slides saves versions of your slides as your work, and you can go back to previous versions. This meant that I could undo and revisit an earlier version of my slideshow if I didn't to make a change. My staff are also used to creating and using Google Slides in their classrooms so it made sense to utilize them for their learning. 

• I also worked on this project at several different sites, including several schools, my home, and on the go. I liked that Google Slides enable you to work offline and can be shared quicky between my own Google accounts, and also with staff. 

• Google Jamboard is a digital whiteboard that most staff have incorporated into their classrooms over the past few years. It represents an intuitive way to share ideas and reflect with notes, images, and drawings. Jamboard is also free and included with our staff Google Education accounts. 

• This made more sense than asking staff to complete a reflection on a digital whiteboard site that was either entirely new or had a paid version (e.g. FigJam or Miro) 

• Google Forms provided a quick and clear way for staff to give me feedback. This is another Google Education tool that staff have experience filling out following a professional development session or training. I knew it was important to keep each Google Form short so that completing it would not feel like one more thing for staff to do. 

• The AI modules were made with presentation mode in Canva. There are so many engaging visual and text elements you can include with this technology tool and I knew I wanted to create content with this tool for staff. 

• Canva is appropriate for sharing educational content in a way that is clear, colorful, and consistent. This is important for accessibility of learners but also since a visually appealing online experience can be motivating for learners.  I wanted staff to connect with the media and information in my modules. 

• It also has a wide variety of graphics and photographs which were fast to search, edit, and resize. 

• It takes a considerable time to find a decent creative commons image. With Canva I could focus more on the content of the module and less on searching for images. With the educator account you can access an extensive library of images, graphics, and video.

• I like the variety of types of formats that you can download and export in Canva and how rapid I can generate a public view link to share with my staff. 

• Canva integrates well with tools like Google Drive, which made it easy to upload additional content to the presentations. Opting to use Canva as a tech tool in this website was as much about engaging my staff as it was about making my workflow more efficient. 

• You can make so many things in Canva! I included Canva in my portfolio and instructional materials because I am creating lots of different items with this platform recently. To demonstrate this, I also included a whiteboard in Canva that I made comparing different AI tools. This is intended to help educate staff about these newly approved AI tools in our district. 

• My portfolio and accompanying instructional materials made use of different types of short video content. 

• Sometimes it involved using animations to draw interest to the head of a web page. 

• Other times I found a GIF was most effective in providing a visual to explain an idea or concept. I created my own GIFs in Canva and tried to make ones that were engaging and clear without being distracting. 

• Shorter YouTube videos were utilized to demonstrate how to use the features of different AI platforms. 

• I also added video to my Canva slides in one of the modules to create more of an instructor-learner online experience. 

• Videos of myself, recorded on an iPad, and uploaded from my Google Drive, were added to make each learner feel welcome when making use of the instructional materials. 

• Dividers and spacers helped my content to be organized, with clearly separated headings and content sections. 

• I think either Google Sites needs to expand the types of dividers and spaces available or I need to learn more about how to resize, recolor, and rearrange these tools to create different effects.

•  The only divider color was gray, which could be difficult to see. At the same time, a simple gray dividing line can be better than overly decorative lines like the examples above. 

• I inserted a Table of Contents to many of the website pages to make it clear and quick to navigate to different parts of a page. 

• The aim would be that users would spend less time scrolling and have an organized view of the contents of a page before exploring the information. 

• This feature was incredibly fast, as it made a table of contents from my larger, bolded headings, instead of heaving to type out and create a list myself at the top of the page.