Want a Class Website? Try Google Sites.

          Last semester, I learned to use Dream Weaver in one of Dr. Yuen’s classes (IT 755: Web Instruction). During the class, I learned a lot about web design. Unfortunately, the majority of my learning came from my mistakes. I was frequently frustrated and angry when my class website didn’t come out right. However, even though I experienced many challenges when learning to create my class website, I am now proud of my accomplishment. From my errors and failed experiments, I am convinced that planning is the most vital part of the entire web design process (of course, Dr. Yuen told us that on the very first day of class, but I forgot until much much later). 

          This semester, in IT 648 (Telecommunication in Education), one of our tasks has been to use Google Sites to create an educational webpage. I chose to create a website for my Apparel Product Development (FM 437) class. I spent some time learning about Google Sites by reading, watching YouTube videos, and exploring other people’s Google Sites. However, I still made mistakes when I first created my website using Google Sites. Just as with Dream Weaver, I became frustrated and angry. However, I think it is part of learning process. 

           Basically, although Google Sites is much easier to use and has smaller learning curve than Dream Weaver, it’s not as flexible. Using Google Sites, I felt that my creativity is limited (I can’t believe I am creative). I couldn’t apply my own wall paper to the site, and the themes offered by Google Sites are limited. I know that I could adopt templates from other websites; however, I personally would rather create my own from scratch. 

          On the other hand, Google Sites has many positives aspects. First, Google Sites offers templates that users can adopt and edit. Second, the storage space Google offers is quite large. Free users get 100 Mb, while education institutions receive 10 Gb per domain. Thirdly, users can integrate Google apps and a variety of additional external features such as gadgets into their Google Sites. Users can also embed Google Documents, Google Spreadsheets, Google Presentations, and Google Forms into their sites. Fourth, just as with wikis, Google Sites allows users to designate owners and collaborators who can edit pages in their sites. Additionally, users are not required to know HTML or any other specialized language to create their webpage. Last but not least, users can make their sites available either to selected people or groups, or to everyone. 

          In conclusion, Google Sites offers useful tools to create and customize webpage. There are some limitations for using Google Sites; however, for many, the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. Therefore, for educators, Google Sites is a good tool to use to create educational webpages.