I've started playing with Google Sites as a class learning environment. You can find the site here. It's pretty powerful, really, though they still have some kinks to work out. I've been a fan of pbwiki for a long time, but there are some solid reasons for making the switch.
Obviously, all the Google apps work reasonably seamlessly with each other. I created a home page with my welcoming message, my calendar for assignments, and a small gadget of the larger announcements page. Since this is for my Film Studies class next semester, I added a fun "movie quote of the day" gadget.
Another full page for announcements, and a page for uploading handouts, which can be sorted into folders. I'll add more as I think of it.
So, how easily did it all fit together?
Well, there's a definite learning curve. It's not quite as intuitive as pbwiki,(for example, it took me a while to figure out how to see my list of pages so I could delete them), and when I was trying to look at the list of "insert" items on my main page, it kept choosing random items, inserting them, then closing. Grrrr...
Nevertheless, I managed to put together the 4 pages with only one false start and only have to read the help links once or twice (when all else fails....) And I do LOVE how it all works together.
The students will be doing some photography projects, and I think I'll include a running slide show of their images with Picasa.
Now I just need to think of ways to use this in the library--aside from just pathfinders
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