The decision has been made! I am building my website/blog with Google sites.  The decision to use a Google site was made primarily because my colleague with whom I will be collaborating extensively uses this platform and so it made sense to me to use the same one. Google sites are not entirely foreign land to me. I set up and used a Google site for a previous course but its purpose was limited to being a parking space for my assignments. I in no way collaborated or shared the site with anyone other than my instructor. The design considerations were of the most basic nature: colour(s), font and ease of access to assignments submitted pretty much sum it up .

Embarking on my “Future Vision Project” with Google sites is a whole different and exciting story. This is going to be a website that will serve many purposes and what follows is a bit of a brainstorm I did in class today with my inquiry group.

How can I use my classroom/website to enhance learning, sharing, collaborating?

• Google site will be my platform – highly collaborative and most students in my school already use Google docs which is so awesome for collaboration
• facilitates communication between the students and teacher (need to incorporate a blog widget)
• transparency of what is going on in the class (parents, colleagues, admin can check in any time they like)
• students can share their work with others in the class, the school, the world (authentic audience/authentic feedback)
• students can have their own blog/website that will be linked to class site (will serve as their digital portfolio)
• need to consider who has access to site, privacy issues, who can comment, edit etc.
• a list of resources has no life, people talking about a resource gives it a life
• OER = Open Educational Resources

Status update as of 8:18pm on Monday, July 15, 2013…the site has been created but am still trying to figure out the layout. I know how to add the blog feature, add posts etc. but still not sure how to get that blog scrolling on the home page of the website. Don’t really love the background I have chosen and feel like I only have five choices for the font. I’m feeling kind of restricted with this platform when I compare it with what I have seen on Weebly. There is no sense of defeat however! I am looking at tutorials and by doing I am learning. And frankly, this is what it is all about!