Basics

Teachers

Posting important information for classes, club, or other organizations.

Creating online file cabinets of handouts and resources.

Embedding Google Calendars.

Sharing videos, images, slides, and other multimedia educational resources.

Curating and sharing resources among departments and teams.

Students

Creating digital portfolios to showcase work and achievements.

Presenting research findings on a particular subject or topic (individual or collaborative).

Use sites as a wiki and collaborating with the whole class on one site.

Creating for a relevant audience by sharing websites and writing beyond classroom walls.

Standards Connections

Encouraging Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking.

Improving Digital Literacy Skills.

Teaching Digital Citizenship.

Teaching Acceptable Use, Copyright and Plagiarism.

Integrating Multimedia Presentation Tools.

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Help/Tutorials/Examples

Google Sites Cheat Sheet

Google Sites Help Center Google Training Lessons for Using Sites

Example of Classic vs. New Sites - Their former "classic" site shows briefly before redirecting to the new site.

Student Portfolio - must be w/in district to view)

SMUSD Ed Tech Help - must be w/in district to view

SMUSD Ed Tech Help Site


Preparing and Creating

  1. Preparation - purpose, audience, plan & curate
  2. Create new site (sites.google.com "New Sites")
  3. Title, Logo, and Header
    • Theme
    • Upload image to header
      • adjustment for text readability
  4. Text box
  5. Images
    • Snap to grid
    • Select multiple and see auto layout
  6. Embed URL
  7. Upload
  8. Add from Google Drive
  9. Layouts
  10. Button
  11. Divider
  12. Embed YouTube/Calendar/Map
  13. Drag and drop from desktop
  14. Copy and paste from another page/website
  15. Add page
    • Duplicate
    • Sub page
    • Reorder or nest (manually create sub page)
    • Hide pages
  16. Top or side navigation (hover near top left for settings gear)
  17. Preview
  18. Publish
Google Sites - Getting Ready

Accessibility

Why?

"In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities. The law (29 U.S.C. § 794 (d)) applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508, agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to access available to others. The United States Access Board discusses the Section 508 law and its responsibility for developing accessibility standards for EIT to incorporate into regulations that govern Federal procurement practices "


access key

"Does This Include Me?" Yep.

"Settlements Reached in Seven States, One Territory to Ensure Website Accessibility for People with Disabilities" - US Dept of Education Office of Civil Rights - June 29, 2016

“As schools, school districts, states, and territories turn to the internet as a way to provide relevant and up-to-date information to their audiences in a cost-effective manner, they must make sure they are not inadvertently excluding people with disabilities from their online programs, services, and activities,”

"OCR investigations found that on all 11 websites important images were missing text descriptions, called “alt tags,” that describe the images to blind and low-vision users who use special software. Common problems affecting many of the websites included:

  • Some important content of the website could only be accessed by people who can use a computer mouse, which meant that content was not available to those who are blind, many who have low-vision, and those with disabilities affecting fine motor control;
  • Parts of the website used color combinations that made text difficult or impossible for people with low vision to see; and
  • Videos were not accurately captioned, so they were inaccessible to people who are deaf."

Resources