No, no, no this is not the review you’re looking for. That is coming soon. This is just a resource I’ve thrown together for a Google Site workshop I have coming up. I thought I’d give you guys a sneak peek. It’s nothing flashy, but it will get you started with creating your first Google Site. I won’t get into the good/bad conversation but I will give you two great features that make Google Site worth while for schools who use Google Apps for Education.
So without much more fan fare, check out the guide below. If you want a PDF copy of the guide click HERE!
Google Sites – Getting started
What is Google Sites?
Google Sites is a service freely offered by Google that allows anyone to easily create and share a website. It has many features such as:
- Adding images
- Adding video
- Powerful customization tools
- Google Drive integration
- Collaborative features
- Easy to use tools
Step 1 – Creating your site
To get started make sure you are using and logged into Chrome.
Then go to http://sites.google.com
From here click the Create button.
A new window will appear. From here you can do many things:
- Select a template – You can chose from Google’s own or others people have submitted.
- Name your site – This will also affect the URL or web address of the site
- Select a theme – What you want your stie to look like
The good news here is that all of these choices can be changed later on, so feel free to experiment and play around with whatever you want.
Step 2 – Let’s edit
Once that is all done, it will take you to your site. It will look pretty bare but that’s OK.
To start editing click on the Pencil icon in the top right hand corner of your browser.
When you do, the editor will load which is just a toolbar full of formatting options.
Most of these options are pretty straightforward such as font size, color, justification, etc.
So go nuts here and add all the content you want.
Step 3 – Inserting media
Click on Insert in the top menu will give you a large amount of options. Here you can insert Images, Links to other websites, YouTube videos and more.
Your choices are broken into three categories. Common and Google are pretty straight forward. Gadgets on the other hand give you lots of interesting features such as games, RSS feeds and more
There are well over a hundred gadgets to chose from. They are
When you add a gadget this is how it will look while you are editing the page.
When you are done editing or want to see what you’ve done click on the Save button in the top right hand corner of your browser.
Here is what it looks like on the website
*NOTE: DUE TO THE EVER CHANGING NATURE OF THE INTERNET SOME GADGETS MAY NOT WORK WITH NEWER BROWSERS*
Step 4 – Layout
By default your page has one giant column but you can change that here.
Step 5 – Add a new page
Chances are you will need to add more than one page.
To do this make sure you are not editing any pages.
Then click on the New Page icon in the top right hand corner of your web browser.
A new window will appear that will allow you to name your page.
Leave everything else alone and click Create.
Don’t worry about adding it to the navigation bar, this will happen automatically.
Step 6 – Sharing your site
Again, make sure you are not editing any pages.
Click on the Share button in the top right hand corner of the screen.
Sharing and Permissions – blah blah
A familiar window will appear.
Type the person’s Google Apps for Education email address in this box and click Send.
*NOTE: ONLY ONE PERSON CAN EDIT A PAGE AT A TIME*
Step 7 – Make it public
By default, your website will be private which means only you (or anyone you’ve shared it with) can view it.
To change this come back to the Share page and click on Change…
Sharing and Permissions – blah blah
CONGRATULATIONS!
Technology in the Classroom 