Task 2: 

Review a digital online tool, including considerations for security, privacy and learning in a digital age

2.1

Review of Google Sites as a platform Class portal

------------------------------------------------------------

2.1 Purpose: the intended purpose for Google Sites (which is a Software as a Service platform from Google Inc) is to host the class portal.

2.2 Example: Here is one of the class portal that I hosted on google sites in 2010:

             https://sites.google.com/site/cseduos/

2.4 [Disclaimer: I do not have any association with Google LLC. I am just reviewing Google sites as I have used it extensively in my teaching since 2008. ]

2.5

Google sites (https://sites.google.com/) is a software as a service provided by Google LLC (organized under the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, and operating under the laws of the USA) for hosting and managing web portals. It is free for use for up to 100 MB storage of contents (Google, 2021). It can be used as a class portal for distributing lecture slides, reading materials, sharing links for audio-video content, assignments and practical lab worksheet distribution. Google sites has the option to control who can access the site and monitor access patterns through linking the site through google analytics.

The reason to use google sites for class portal instead of the institutional web hosting portals is that it allows the site owners to be in charge of their contents so that they continue to own it and keep the materials even after the semester have ended. The owner can easily copy the site to another google site page for the next run of the same course very easily and it allows them to modify and improve the contents gradually. Moreover, they could seamlessly share the contents with their learners to access from anywhere and anytime.

The default Terms of service for google is applied for google site as well. These terms of service reflects the way google’s business works. Google earns vast majority of its earning through advertising on sites and apps that partner with them to share some of the revenue through serving advertising related to the content they host. According to the latest data released by Google, 81% of its revenue comes from advertising (Reuters, 2021).Google does make it clear that they do not sell any personal information to third party unless the owner of the site/apps willingly wants to share. Google uses the personal information just to improve their services like personalized search or maps results. Google also declares its strong privacy settings built into its products so that users can take control of their data privacy. It also provides settings to control which adds will be displayed on the sites/apps through a feature found under “why this add”.

Google Terms of Service also specifies what customers can expect from them, what google expects from customers, what intellectual property rights apply to customers contents and the process for resolving disagreement when terms of service has been violated.

Google sites is easy to ease, secure, customizable and scalable. It is a great solution for many institutions who do not have the resources for hosting their own class portals. In many cases, the availability of the institutional sites becomes an issue due to security and other logistic issues (e.g. power, poor Internet connectivity). Google sites does not have this problem. The security is really well monitored by google. For example, if someone uses google sites for security course where many links to offensive hacking tools with tutorials for teaching and learning purposes are hosted on google sites, google will discover the malicious nature of the tools and will block it unless the site is made private for designated learners in the class. So, by changing the site access from public to private mode will ensure legitimate use of the tools for learning purposes. This is indeed a great example where google sites helps to be a good citizen.

It is also quite straightforward to link google sites with other google tools like google class room (which has capabilities like Moodle where students can submit their assignments, get their grades back etc), google docs for collaborative work. In fact, David Denton (Denton, 2012) has argued about the benefit of such cloud based Software as a Service platforms for enhancing instructions. In another research Nevin ( 2009),  illustrated how google apps significantly improved the way students and teachers work at Adam Scott College and Vocational Institute, Peterborough, Canada.

Although google sites can be used as a fairly easy and user friendly class portal, the 100MB limit for file storage can be inadequate. Also, there is no customer support available. The advertisements that google posts on the class portal can be distracting and unprofessional.

 

2.3

References 

Denton, D. W. (2012). Enhancing instruction through constructivism, cooperative learning, and cloud computing. TechTrends, 56(4), 34–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-012-0585-1

Google. (2021). Classic sites storage limits - google workspace admin help. Https://Support.google.com. https://support.google.com/a/answer/90917?hl=en

Nevin, R. (2009). Supporting 21st century learning through google apps. Teacher               

            Librarian,  37(2), 35–38.https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ869558 

Reuters. (2021, February). Alphabet reports record revenue for Q4 2020 as Google Cloud 

            sales soar. VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/2021/02/02/alphabet-reports-record-revenue-for-q4-2020-as-google-cloud-sales-soar/

 

 

 

        

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  Task 4 Assess your learning as a reflective digital online learner I have been using the Internet on regular basis since 1995 and throughout this long time I have witnessed the transformation of the Internet from a computer network for sharing information to one of the biggest business and collaboration platforms. However, I have never been exposed to a formal approach to learn about the different skill sets for digital literacy. Evaluation: Good: Although I was familiar with most of topics like, digital citizenship, online identity and societal issues on the internet, I have been able to enhance my understanding at a deeper level through watching some of the excellent videos and reference papers. For example, the video titled “ Rethinking Learning: the 21 st century Learner ” provides important insights about the gamers and their preference to get measured while they are learning, was eye opening to me. I have a different perspective about why some of my learners are quite ...
Read more
Image
 The Joy of Teaching  The joy of watching a struggling learner becoming  a confident, self-motivated and technically skilled individual is absolutely rewarding to me. That is indeed the ultimate goal of my teaching activities. I want to make sure that the learners feel a personal connection with the subject area, continue their learning journey even when the course finishes, and afterwards apply the skills to solve problems in different domain and inspire other learners to this subject. Certainly, the use of digital tools and content in my teaching play an important role in making my academic vision into action. Before getting the students on board for a life long learning journey with me, I want to make sure that the learners do realize that a deep sense of care is rooted in my teaching. I want to see each learner experience a change within their cognitive selves after taking my course. One of the instruments that I have found very effecting in bringing this change, is t...
Read more