Google Sites began as a way to create a small, simple Web site. It doesn't offer many options for customizing the look and feel of a site or adding functionality like a contact form, but it's good if all you need to do is publish information. As Google Sites has matured, it has developed many wiki-like functions that can make it useful as a small-scale note-keeping application. The keystone of this functionality is the ability to give other people viewing or editing privileges on your site. You can also mark a site private so that only people you allow in may see it. Every page you create on Google Sites has a revision history similar to the one in Google Docs, so you can go back to look at an older version of your notes. You can also attach files to your site that are versioned as well. Pages can be put into a simple hierarchy to keep similar topics organized together. Finally, there's a stream of comments attached to every page that's separate from its content. These features can make a Google Site a useful tool for facilitating collaboration among a small group of people, as a site can be updated independently and commented on by each team member. The file versioning functionality also makes it easy to store documents centrally -- instead of having to rename a file every time you want to hold onto a new version, you can let Google Sites take care of it for you. To learn more about Google Sites, take a look at their online overview. If you're shopping around for a free wiki, you might also want to take a look at pbWiki.

Labels: faculty, students