My Learning Hub Con't: ED7720 / Week / Post 2

I’ve spent the past week stressing about how and where to create my learning hub. I decided to start small and created communities for two of my classes on Google+. The kids couldn’t log in; it was unavailable on our wireless network. I contacted our central office tech person, and was told that Google+ was off limits; try Google Classroom. I set up several sites there. They work. Kids are registered and have actually submitted a few responses to a post. While Google Classroom has some cool features, it doesn’t have everything I want. Although it seems limited, it is a start.

I also spent time researching Google Sites and Wix. Several students in last year’s IT&DML program strongly recommended Wix. I reached out through Google groups and got some great advice. Tim Flanagan sent a link to his website on Google Sites and I really like it. I would like my site to have similar features. However, I was still considering creating my site on Wix since it is supposed to be easy to navigate and has lots of professional looking templates.

My decision was simplified for me today. I was working on common assessments at the Board of Ed and ran into the “tech” guy. I was told that I was only allowed to use approved sites if students and/or the school was involved. That left “Final Site” which according to the “tech guy” is extremely awkward and definitely not user friendly, or Google Sites. He said that I should be able to use Google Sites, but I have not yet tried it with students. My plan is to put my content (blog, tutorials, philosophy, lesson plans, etc.) on Google Sites and maybe link it to Google Classroom where I would post homework and kids could hand in assignments. How successful my plan is remains to be seen. My district is very big on filters, so I may have to get extra special permission, but we’ll see.