Good Morning!
Just in case you need something to do over break… :)
I’d love to introduce you to the NEW Google Sites!!
Sites is a great place for students to create a portfolio, display research from a project, or many other uses. You can use sites to create lessons for students or use it as a class website (although our new district site is a great place for that!)
Google sites is brand new and as with everything in Google, will be improved with time. There may be some features that you don’t like or wish were available, but you’ll have to admit the new Google Sites is MUCH easier than the old sites. The sites may not be as fancy as Wix at this time, but is very functional for teachers and students. If you have things you’d like to see on the new Google Sites, there is a button for feedback – and Google listens to our feedback!
Accessing the sites is easy. There are few different ways.
1. Click on the 9 tile grid and choose SITES OR
2. Go to sites.google.com and you will be taken to the old sites. Here you can access your old sites, but also create a new site by clicking CREATE and choosing In New Sites. You can create an old site, but know these will be disappearing in years to come, OR
3. Go to sites.google.com/new and you will be taken directly to the new sites.
Don’t forget, you can add a bookmark to your bookmark bar to access sites even quicker! J Video on getting to the NEW SITES!
Once you have gotten to sites, to create a new site, just click on the big + sign on the bottom right (or again, if you are on the old sites, click CREATE and choose In New Sites.)
Now you have your homepage and just click to name your page! To title the site, on the top left, you’ll see Untitled Site. Click on that and name your site! No need to save or publish. Just click off of anything and everything is automatically saved! There are some options for banners, colors, etc. so please check out the videos on each topic!
THEMES –Access from the right menu, 3rd tab. There are only a limited amount of themes at this time. There are 6 themes and each has 5 different color choices, and each have 3 different fonts. At first this seems limiting, but you’ll notice that your site will definitely be cleaner and more focused than if you have a lot of different things going on at the same time.
Video on CREATING SITES, BANNERS, and THEMES.
To add content or pictures, there is a menu bar on the right of your page. Click on text box, images, embed URL (for a hyperlink), or upload. Again, there are some options for each of these so check out the video! Everything in your drive is available to put on your site. Also, if you’d like to have only certain people see certain things on your website, you can easily do this by sharing options on the items you embed in your site. For example, if you only want your students to see a particular Google Doc you’ve created, set the sharing permissions on your Google Doc to include only your students. Then, even if the site is public, no one except your students will be able to access this doc.
We’ll talk about sharing in more detail in another Tech Tuesday tip!
Back to editing. As far as text and images, there are some limits. Please see the video on these topics specifically! VIDEO ON CREATING CONTENT AND ADDING ITEMS TO YOUR PAGES.
Adding pages is easy! On the menu bar on the right, you’ll see 3 tabs, INSERT (this is where you’ll insert items you’d like on your page), PAGES (this is where you’ll add and/or delete pages and create the navigation for your site), and THEMES (choose a theme, colors, fonts). So to add a page, click on pages and click the little doc with the + sign.
VIDEO ON ADDING AND ORGANIZING PAGES
To Publish, just click PUBLISH. You have choices on who you’d like to see your published site. Students and teachers have different choices here. You don’t need to publish until you’re ready. Just wait until you’re done, then PUBLISH. While you’re working, your site is still being saved.
To see a preview of what your site looks like, just click the ‘eye’ on the top right toolbar and you can see your preview. You also have choices on seeing your site as a mobile phone, tablet view or computer view.
VIDEO on PREVIEWING AND PUBLISHING
Try some of these new features and we’ll come back to Google Sites for more next week!
I am in the process of upgrading my current site – http://bit.ly/GunnisonGAFE to a new Google site platform. It is a work in progress, but should be ready soon! Here is the link for the new site if you’d like to see what the new sites look like – http://bit.ly/GunnisonGSuite. I needed to change the URL, but if you have the old site bookmarked, I’ll continue to update both!