I am not singing the praises of Google sites right now. It’s been a long and frustrating afternoon and evening. I have gone down two different Google site paths in the attempt to create a website that is supposed to enhance the participants’ learning and connectivity. Well, the “creator” can’t even seem to create, therefore the participants are going to have a bit of a tricky time doing that learning, collaborating, connecting thing. To top off my rather technologically challenging day, I decided to turn to this Teacher’s Guide to Google Sites for assistance. This particular line stung just a tiny bit, “A site can be created for a class within a couple of minutes using templates for different pages and without the need for advanced technology knowledge.” Really? A couple of minutes?
Needless to say, I’m not feeling terribly inspired at this very moment. I truly believed I was going to take massive strides today in getting the website to a place where all I had left to do was fine tune a few things and then move on to looking at all the wonderful ways I can use this platform to augment the learning experience of those connected to the site (mine included).
I suppose I could end things on a brighter note and remember what stage I’m at here. I need to consider these aspects:
Why will students and/or parents be visiting the class website? There are obvious reasons such as accessing information on homework, assignments, and being able to download handouts. We will also be creating a community where we can share what happens in the class with each other, the school community and parents/family. Again, my main goal for creating this website/blog is to have access to information and to connect the participants to the classroom community.
I actually learned a bit more than I am giving myself credit for today. I figured out how to edit the header and move pages around. And I uncovered a gazillion different fonts whereas yesterday I had come to the conclusion that I only had access to five fonts. Progress, but oh so slow. No two minute learning curve here!
As I write this, I do realize that I am in the throes of experiencing what many a colleague experiences. And I am sure that our students go through similar hair-yanking moments when trying to master a new online resource. I get it. But sometimes it’s best to leave things be until tomorrow and I know that that is what I must do now for no more progress is about to be made tonight.
A tired and frustrated AM who is moving on to other homework now.
I think this is part of the problem of promoting digital technologies as ‘progress’ and ‘easy to use’. When I think about the real ways that digital technologies amplify our human capabilities to communicate, it is a wonder that I also expect these highly sophisticated technological systems, used by billions of people worldwide, to somehow be easy to use. When teachers are told they will be able to program a website complete with graphic elements, editable features, linked pages, etc. without having to undertake some form of learning curve, it sets them up for frustration and possible rejection of the technology. How long did it take us to learn to read and write? To compute mathematics? To undertake science inquiry? When we use digital technologies we have a learning curve that attends the purposes we hope to apply the technology to. It just goes with the territory. You have done admirably to take a break and not give up.