Enter the May 2017 Global Virtual Classroom Mini Web Design Contest for K-12 Classes using Google sites.- it's worth it

Do you like participating in global projects with your class, with schools in other countries?  Then the Global Virtual Classroom web design contest will really appeal to you. The organisers put you in teams of three schools, each one from a different continent and your learners design a project based on a world problem, together and contruct a website about it using Google sites. The teachers are the guides on the side, It is a wonderful experience for a class.

I have participated, with a class, in the full 12 month Global Virtual Classroom web design contest in the past http://www.virtualclassroom.org/contest.html and it was a really great collaborative experience using Google Sites. (Our team was the global winner in 2015!) The good news is that they have introduced a much shorter 10 week option, known as the Global Virtual Classroom Mini, that takes place during the year. The following information about this is taken from the Global Virtual Conference wiki http://minigvc.wikispaces.com/ There may still be time to enter.

Registration for the May contest is about to close
Applications for the May Contest are still open…if you hurry! The registration form is available at https://goo.gl/EIE17e

What is the MINI GVC?
MINI GVC is the outcome of some serious thinking regarding preparedness in the context of Collaboration, Commitment, Contribution and Copyright while participating in GVC contests. After functioning as a Teacher-coordinator for GVC Contest from 2009-16 one of the participants noticed that quite often teams do not shine in collaboration which is primarily the aim and purpose of GVC - to share and care. It could be due to various valid reasons but yet we would like not to compromise on the quality and productivity of our websites.

When does the MINI GVC Contest take place?
MINI GVC is a prelude to GVC Contest in which students from various countries supervised by their Teacher Facilitators would represent their schools to create a website on a pre-decided age appropriate theme. The Mini contest is open for approximately 10 weeks during September-November, February-April and June-August. The contest is open for students from K-12 schools around the world to create a collaborative website on a topic of world interest. Groups are assigned by GVC, and may consist of anywhere from 2-4 schools.

Contributions
Contributions can be text, illustrations, multimedia, recorded/textual discussions, interviews, etc all original created by the participants themselves.Copyright rules have to be strictly followed while utilizing content (text /illustrations/photos/videos etc) from another website. Attributions and Citations are a must for every post in the website.

Results
Results shall be announced after every trimester and winners will be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze Star Certificates. Assessment will be based on Creativity/Originality, Social Responsibility, Team Spirit, Technical Skill and Copyright.

Features of MINI-GVC
Perfect for schools with time constraints. One can choose a convenient trimester.
Acquire new technical skills and improve existing talents.
Improve and acquire collaborative communication skills.
Understand and appreciate cultural differences.
One school can participate in one or more trimesters.
One school can register more than one group in a trimester.

Have Questions?
Contact:
Project Manager - lakshmi.srinivas@gsbi.org
Program Manager - jbarnstable@gsbi.org

This program is a project of Give Something Back International Foundation. www.gsbi.org

Why not join the Mini Web Contest for K-12 Classes...

I have participated in the full 6 month Global Virtual Classroom project in the past. The good news is that they are introducing a much shorter 10 week option. The following information about this is taken from the Global Virtual Conference wiki http://minigvc.wikispaces.com/ 


What is the MINI GVC?
MINI GVC is the outcome of some serious thinking regarding preparedness in the context of Collaboration, Commitment, Contribution and Copyright while participating in GVC contests. After functioning as a Teacher-coordinator for GVC Contest from 2009-16 one of the participants noticed that quite often teams do not shine in collaboration which is primarily the aim and purpose of GVC - to share and care. It could be due to various valid reasons but yet we would like not to compromise on the quality and productivity of our websites.

What is the GVC Contest?
MINI GVC is a prelude to GVC Contest in which students from various countries supervised by their Teacher Facilitators would represent their schools to create a website on a pre-decided age appropriate theme. The Mini contest is open for approximately 10 weeks during September-November, February-April and June-August. The contest is open for students from K-12 schools around the world to create a collaborative website on a topic of world interest. Groups are assigned by GVC, and may consist of anywhere from 2-4 schools.

Contributions
Contributions can be text, illustrations, multimedia, recorded/textual discussions, interviews, etc all original created by the participants themselves.Copyright rules have to be strictly followed while utilizing content (text /illustrations/photos/videos etc) from another website. Attributions and Citations are a must for every post in the website.

Results
Results shall be announced after every trimester and winners will be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze Star Certificates. Assessment will be based on Creativity/Originality, Social Responsibility, Team Spirit, Technical Skill and Copyright.

Features of MINI-GVC

• Perfect for schools with time constraints. One can choose a convenient trimester.
• Acquire new technical skills and improve existing talents.
• Improve and acquire collaborative communication skills.
• Understand and appreciate cultural differences.
• One school can participate in one or more trimesters.
• One school can register more than one group in a trimester.

Want more? Move on to the GVC six month contest.

Have Questions?
Contact:
Project Manager - lakshmi.srinivas@gsbi.org
Program Manager - jbarnstable@gsbi.org

This program is a project of Give Something Back International Foundation. www.gsbi.org

GVC#19: We receive our certificates and our plaque as part of the winning team of three schools in the Global Virtual Classroom Web Design Contest

Well, the contest has now come to an end. It was an amazing experience, especially collaborating with the two excellent schools from Taiwan and the USA, and we were thrilled by the final Google site that our classes produced. This can be seen at:
https://sites.google.com/a/gsbi.org/gvc1402/ We have received our certificates and awards via the post and also via email. I was thrilled to have a website badge to put on this blog:



We are very proud of this final GOLD award:


The class loved getting their certificates. The school received a lovely plaque to display and we received a small monetary award which will go into purchasing a roaming data projector.

Thank you to the Global Virtual Classroom Contest. Our biggest thanks go to the rest of our incredible team - from Taiwan and the USA.

We are considering getting involved in the contest again this year.

GVC #18: An email from Give Back International to Team GVC4201 - winners of the Primary School division of the Global Virtual Classroom Contest

The Global Virtual Classroom Contest is sponsored by an organisation called Give Back International so I was thrilled to thrilled to receive an email and a PDF letter from Andrew Ezzel of Give Back International congratulating us on our win. The link to the PDF letter can be found here.

He said, “I want to congratulate you and your students for your outstanding and award winning work in the Global Virtual Classroom Website Design Contest! Attached is a letter from me recognizing your achievement. In the next few days, I will be mailing you a package which will include the award plaque. I want to thank you for your leadership and participation in the GVC program. We believe this is an important program to give students an opportunity to learn from other students from different cultures. We hope you continue to participate in future GVC programs”.

He also mentioned that part of our award is a sponsorship of a student that they will be sponsoring, in our name, through our GSBI Foundation. They are now speaking with a Girls High School in Harat, Afghanistan to sponsor some poor students to attend that school.

GVC#17: Our team of three global schools are the Grand Prize Winners in the 2014-2015 Global Virtual project website design competition!

We have just heard that our team has won the Global Virtual Classroom website design competition!!  

What competition , you say? Well, my Grade 5 ICT class and I entered the six-month Global Virtual Classroom International website design competition, primary school division,  in September last year, where entrants were partnered with two other schools in other countries. (We started when the students were still in Grade 4) The newly-created three-school team had to collaborate on a project of their own choosing and upload their findings to a Google site. We were placed with a great team – a Grade 6 class from a primary school in Illinois, USA and two Grade 5 classes from a primary school in Taiwan.

There was much excitement yesterday when the winners were announced and we heard that we had won the primary school category. So exciting! Our winning site - Recycling to Live Green. Here is the competition coordinator's message to tell us of our win.

“Congratulations! After the final round of judging, your website has been selected as the Grand Prize Winner in the primary school category! Each school will be mailed a plaque. By email you will also receive a copy of this Award that can be printed for students.  Also by email you will receive a printable PDF of the Sponsorship/ Scholarship made in your name to continue the education of  a needy student.

This team’s collaboration is an example of how the program should be run.  The energy of the team was apparent.  It was a pleasure to work with all of you and your students are privileged to have you as teachers.  The example and the experience you have provided with them is truly a life lesson.    
Once again, thank you for your desire to immerse your students in a collaborative environment. Your students, schools and communities have all benefitted.

I have included at the end of the message,  comments from the judges so you and your students have the benefit of their feedback.”

Judges comments:

GVC1402-Recycling to Live Green
https://sites.google.com/a/gsbi.org/gvc1402/
USA – South Africa - Taiwan

“Fantastic web design! Pages have lots of content and great images, but are easy to read and enjoyable to explore. Great use of colors reflects theme and feels natural.”

“Great videos. There was consistent citation throughout the site. Lots of good tips in “My Eco Diary”. I had never thought of recycling in terms of saving space, such as the tips for plastic bags, plastic bottles and cartons.”

“Great site with useful information.  The helping focus is directly connected to the topic. Navigation is logical.”

“This was a very thought provoking and informative website.  I loved the opening video – very impactful! Impossible – Possible!!! The videos were great.  I appreciated your wonderful helping focus projects.  Great work!”

“Impressive content, nice use of research to support web content, excellent works cited, nice collaborative efforts.”

“Well organized and documented, with excellent credits. Loved the trashion fashion show!”

What was the competition about?

The GVC Contest, a multi-national team website design contest,  provides an opportunity for primary and secondary school students from different countries to work and learn from students in other countries, as they collaboratively design a website on a topic of their choosing. Plaques and cash awards are presented to the schools of the winning teams and each student receives a certificate of participation. The competition has been running since 2005. Previous winning sites can be see at this link: http://www.virtualclassroom.org/win13.html

As mentioned, we entered and were placed in a group of three schools. What a fantastic team we had – a school in Taiwan, a school in Illinois, USA and ourselves. We learned so much from our partner schools. 

What did we learn in this competition?
1. We saw the value of global collaboration – that the world is indeed a global village and that real world learning that takes place with others in different parts of the world is engaging and fun.

2. We saw that Google Sites is a great project platform - easy to use but very effective as a website. We used many other Google tools in this project – Google Docs, Google Slides, Gmail, Google Forms, YouTube, etc.

3. We learned the value of working with group roles. The students had to do the creation of and uploading to the Google site, and specific students in each of the three countries were tasked with this.

4. We learned about copyright and plagiarism and citing our work and the work of others online.

5. We used Skype for team communication and Edmodo to keep in touch with the project happenings.

6. As a result of this competition we are in touch with an amazing global community of teachers on Skype called HLWSkypers (Hello Little World Skypers) co-ordinated by Janet Barnstable from the UK who is also the GVC project competition co-ordinator.  

Thank you, GVC, for this opportunity!

Why don't YOU think about entering in September this year?

The next round of the competition will start in September 2015. Keep watching the Global Virtual Classroom website for details http://virtualclassroom.org/. The learning benefits will be enormous for both you and your class.

GVC#16 Our team has been selected as semi-finalists in the Global Virtual Classroom Contest! How exciting!

We received an email today from the project co-ordinator:

Dear GVC Semi-Finalists, 

Your GVC Team has been selected as one of the top six finalist in your division of which three teams will be judged as GVC award winners. 

The Judging process is still on-going and will be completed by the end of April. ….Good luck to all!
At this stage all our websites are not yet open to the public.

This is SO exciting!

GVC #15: Our holiday break is on its way

We have been having our exams, school concert and soon our long holiday break will happen. The other two teams don’t have any of this so for the next while we will not be participating as such. We did have a Skype chat with the others before breaking up for the term.  See https://goo.gl/GsCrbx. The awkward part about Skype is the time differences. For the American School it was 8am. For our school it was 3pm. For the Taiwan classes it was 10pm at night! I applaud their dedication.
We are planning another one in April 2015:

GVC #14 Working away on our recycling project

We are starting to collaborate with the other teams in our global project on Recycling now. We have been studying recycling and brainstorming the topic with our students.  We have decided on the headings for our Google site.  The students are learning so many things: We are also hoping to have a Skype session before the holidays.  These are the things we have been looking at:

• How to cite information
• Copyright issues
• All about recycling
• Recycling games
• Sites for finding free images
• How to work in a team
• How to divide up the work in a project
• How to collaborate and communicate

This project has really opened our eyes to the value of International communication and collaboration.

Our school has a long six week holiday now while the other schools in Taiwan and the USA,  don't, so I guess when we get back we'll see quite an advancement on our Google site.

GVC#13: Meet our team in the Global Virtual Classroom Contest

We have added our photos to the 'Meet our team' page on our 'Recycling to Live Green' Google site:

GVC# 12: Preparing the class to do a collaborative recycling project using Google Sites

Now it is time to seriously learn about Google Sites in class as we will soon be brainstorming with the rest of the team on content for our chosen topic of recycling.  So in the next few lessons we will be finding out about Google sites and also creating a Google site for our class just to get to know the application. Here is how we approached it:

1. First we brainstormed the topic of Recycling and came up with a number of headings. The students then researched the word recycling on Google and added to the headings.
2. We selected what we thought was important and shared them among the class.
3. We reviewed the issue of copyright for words – the students were encouraged to read a paragraph and then write it in one’s own words. 
4. Once we had done our research we were ready to learn about Google Sites and how to upload our information to Google Sites. This is the presentation I used.
5. We also learned a way of citing images and citing resources on our site.

How to create a Google Site from Fiona Beal

6. Here is is our internal class Google Site after we uploaded all our information.


https://sites.google.com/a/therockacademy.co.za/grade5project/

I think we are ready to contribute to the global project. Now that we have learned something about recycling ourselves it will be easier to collaborate.

GVC #11: Resources shared on the Global Virtual Classroom Teacher’s Lounge

I love the thought of exploring all these resources. These are displayed on a page of the Global Virtual Classroom Teacher’s Lounge wiki.  I am copying them here to have a quick, available copy at hand.

Where to Find...

• Edmodo - help, webinars, blog
  
• Copyright Friendly Clip Art, Photos, Music, and Loops
  
• A Web Design Rubric (GVC Contest guide)
  
• Free Open Source downloadable programs
  
• TeachersFirst - free site with many resources, policies, methods for Tech Integration.
  
• Creative Commons comes to YouTube
  
• Times in different parts of the world.
  
• File conversion - Online free file conversion of most types of document, image, music, and video formats so they can be shared by all partners.
  
• Tools Recommended by our Participants

Web 2.0 / 21st Century Fluency

Cools Tools - GVC Blog of Web 2.0 tools. This site is continually updated with new tools free, or free to education. A few will be featured below.
Literacy is not enough
LNE_perspective.pdf

• Details
• Download
• 9 MB

21st century fluency project. The fluencies needed by today's learners.

Collaboration Tools

• Visual Organizer - Collaborative
• Stixy to share files, pictures, due dates.
• Padlet a bit of a cross between a bulletin board and a guest book.
• iEtherPad - real time collaborative word processing

Photo Slide Shows

• Find your creative self!
  Slide show made into a movie with Animotio.
  Even better, teachers get Animoto for Education!
  
• Kizoa - upload pictures to create, can burn DVD of slideshow or post.
• Smilebox - upload pictures to create.

Art Tools

• Create banners.
• Add effects to photos with PhotoFunia!
• Photo Flexer - simple photo editing.
  PicMonkey Online photo editing. No login required.
• Pencil - traditional 2-D animation
• Sketch faces from multiple 'pieces'
• Picture Resizer Upload - resize / crop / rotate - as desired. Choose quality and download.

Video Uploads

• Teacher Tube - first to specify it was specifically for schools.
• School Tube - a place for teachers and student to share video.
• Vimeo - open to everyone; some serious independent film work; HD video.

GVC #10: Important sites to note for the Global Virtual Classroom Contest

I want to just keep a record of the various sites in the Global Virtual Classroom project:

• Post telling us about the competition: http://gvcnews.blogspot.com/2014/08/connect-collaborate-through-global.html 
• Global Virtual Classroom blog: http://gvcnews.blogspot.com/ 
• Global Virtual Classroom website: http://www.virtualclassroom.org/ 
• Global Virtual Classroom Contest: http://www.virtualclassroom.org/contest.html
• Global Virtual Classroom Teachers’ Lounge wiki: http://gvcteachers-lounge.wikispaces.com/Timeline

In addition I have also been joined to the Hello Little World Skypers https://sites.google.com/site/skypershello/ where teachers from all over connect on Skype chat all day every day! I am starting to feel connected to teachers around the world!

GVC #9 We make avatars using Bitstrips.com

Today we started making avatars for our Global Virtual Classroom Contest Project. These are to use in Edmodo for when the classes write to one another. The class loved this lesson. We made full length avatars as well as the face-only ones we’ll use in Edmodo

Make avatars using the site www.bitstrips.com

1. Go to http://bitstrips.com/create/avatar/

2. From this point on you work through all the options trying to get a replica of yourself.   

3. When you get to the point where  your face is complete it’s time to do a snip with the snipping tool.

4. Continue in Bitstrips to get the full length avatar.

  

5. Use the snipping tool again to get a the full length avatar

Here are some of the class’s avatars that we have used for Edmodo.

Aaron	Adam
Ashleigh	Ben
Tamyka	Hannah
Nathan	Rachel

GVC #8: We have been getting to know Edmodo

So now we are getting into our project with the our two partner schools in the Global Virtual Classroom Contest. We’re getting to know each other via Edmodo. What fun! The students love writing to each other. I constantly try and teach them about writing full sentences and checking spelling etc.  This is going to be a great way to communicate with our team-mates from overseas.

Some of the great things about Edmodo:

GVC #7: Find out about Edmodo

It's time for me to get to know Edmodo ppproperly since we are using it for collaboration in the Global Virtual Classroom Contest. Edmodo has become the Learning Management System (LMS) of choice for many teachers around the world. Edmodo is one of those Learning Management Systems that every teacher can successfully use in their classroom whether they have PCs, a BYOD classroom, an iPad/tablet classroom or just one computer/tablet in the classroom. It works across the board. Best is, that if a teacher so desires, he/she can even invite the parents to join  the class Edmodo group as well. All Edmodo needs, really, is an enthusiastic teacher that has access to a laptop.

What is Edmodo
Edmodo is a free web-based platform that teachers can use to manage their class, share content, access homework and other school items. It is also a safe social networking place for the students in the class to connect and collaborate with one another.  What the students like about Edmodo is it’s Facebook-like appearance. Students don’t need email addresses – they sign in via an access code.

Edmodo’s features

• Edmodo has a collaboration feature where the teacher and students can add comments and share files such as PowerPoints, Word documents, videos etc can be shared.
• Edmodo has a ‘folders’ feature which enables one to organize documents in a folder and share that folder with a class.
• Edmodo has an assignment feature which allows one to post an assignment with a due date and a task sheet, see who submitted it and when, mark it using a PDF annotation tool, grade/assess it and give feedback all in one neat place.
• Edmodo has a quiz feature which enables on to create really quick and simple quizzes to use in class.
• Edmodo has a poll feature which allows on to create quick survey polls in class.
• Edmodo has a note feature where, for example, the students can write a reflection.
• Edmodo has a members feature which enables on to manage one’s students in each class or group.
• Edmodo has a small groups feature which is great for managing group work.
• Edmodo has a discussion feature which enables an online discussion to take place

I'm sure there are more features that I haven't yet got to know.

Using Edmodo in the classroom

Here is a Slideshare entitled ‘20 ways to use Edmodo’

20 Ways to Use Edmodo from seyfert6

A cheat sheet that summarises Edmodo
This useful cheat sheet summarises Edmodo. Click on the image to be taken to the enlarged image

A full introduction to Edmodo provided by Russel Stannard.
Here is is an excellent video tutorial created by Russel Stannard in which he walks teacher through a step by step guide on how teachers can get started using Edmodo together with all of its features such as creating a group or class for  students, uploading files, adding comments...and many more.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZHB6FfRjnQ&feature=youtu.be
.
Edmodo Help Centre
Edmodo has a great Help Centre that has screencasts and tutorials to help you with any problem. See https://support.edmodo.com/home#entries/22460840-quick-guides-to-edmodo

Wonderful blog posts on using Edmodo
1) Using Edmodo in the ipad classroom
2) 10 reasons I love using Edmodo in my iPad classroom…3) A great Edmodo cheat sheet 
4) A handy guide to everything a teacher needs to know about Edmodo
5) Russel Stannards two training vidoes on Edmodo
a) http://teachertrainingvideos.com/edmodo1/index.html
b) http://teachertrainingvideos.com/edmodo2/index.html

Conclusion
I must start using Edmodo as soon as possible? The next step is to teach it to the Grade 4 class. 

GVC #6: Our teams have been assigned!

We had an email today from the project co-ordinator, Janet Barnstable.

“Dear GVC Contest participants,

This is the moment you and your students have been waiting for: the team announcement!  If you are supporting more than one team, you will receive separate emails for each team.  I will send the announcement to both your personal and school emails if you have provided two. Please let your partners know WHICH email you would prefer they use.
Your team will have it's own separate Edmodo group.  Once you have signed in and joined the new group, I will make you a co-teacher.  ONLY teachers are allowed to send messages to individuals.  Students messages go to the entire group, with one exception.  They can send a personal message to a teacher.

Directions for adding students can be found at: https://support.edmodo.com/home#student


You will also see here the URL for your Team Google Site.  An email will be coming in the next few days from GVC14@gsbi.org (that’s me, and that email is ONLY used to generate the sites.  Do not reply to it.)

Here are the schools with whom you will be working over the next six months:

GVC1402
https://sites.google.com/a/gsbi.org/gvc1402/

Theresa Allen
Cathedral of St. Raymond School
Joliet, Illinois  USA

Fiona Beal
The Rock Academy
Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Joyce Guo
Monica Hsei
Tainan Municipal Haidong Elementary School
Tainan City, Taiwan (R.O.C.)”

This is SO exciting. I am with a primary school in Taiwan and a primary school in the USA. I will also be getting to know how to collaborate on Edmodo and our Google site has been allocated. My students are super-excited as well!

GVC #5: Tutorials on Google Sites

Google Sites is a free and easy way to create and share webpages without any knowledge of HTML? . Basically, you would follow this sequence:

Log into your Google account and go to http://sites.google.com

1. Click the Create button
2. Choose the Blank Template
3. Name your site. You'll notice it creates the URL based on the name but you can change that if you wish. The name you choose must be unique in your domain.
4. Select the Themes section, and choose a theme (i.e. iceberg)
5. Choose the More Options section, and write a short description of your Site.
6. Type the captcha code (if you get one)
7. Click the Create button at the top of the pageIt is as simple as that!

I came across some great tutorials on creating a Google site by Mike Raveneck and thought I would note them here.

1. Creating a Google Site - Sites Tutorial 1 of 5



In the first tutorial of this 5 part series, Mike shows how to create a Google Site.

• He shows how to log in to Google, then to Google sites and choose ‘Çreate sites’.
• You can choose a template which can be changed later. You could end up with a site that looks like this one:

2. Basic Editing Features of Google Sites - Sites Tutorial 2 of 5



This tutorial reviews some of the basic editing features of Google Sites, including inserting and formatting options. To get to your newly created site, log in to Google and type in Google sites and navigate to the site you have created. 

• Mike shows the essential editing features which are common to most word processing documents.
• He explains Insert, Format, Table and Layout
• He shows how to insert a YouTube video
• He demonstrates inserting a Google document. This will be a live document that incorporates any changes made in the document in Google Drive.
• He demonstrates uploading an image and inserting a Google map
• He demonstrates inserting a horizontal line, Google +

3. Page and Site Settings of Google Sites - Sites Tutorial 3 of 5



This tutorial illustrates a number of the page and site settings for modifying pages within a Google Site. This is the third tutorial in a five part series on using Google Sites.

• Click on More in the right hand corner.
• Mike looks at page settings and demonstrates the various options of website, file cabinet, list or announcement.
• He discusses page templates and site actions
• He talks about changing the navigation bar to a horizontal navigation bar; and aslo about managing the site.
• Mike discusses the Google Help section also available under the More button.

4. Adding a New Page to Your Google Site - Sites Tutorial 4 of 5

This tutorial reviews some how to add new pages and subpages within a Google Site.

• Click on the new page button on the top right.
• Create your pages first. Afterwards add them to your navigation bar.
• Mike also discusses how you go  about nesting pages under the horizontal navigation bar.  Once can change to a sidebar if required,

5. 'Managing' Your Google Site - Sites Tutorial 5 of 5



This tutorial reviews how to manage a Google Site using the features within the 'Manage Site' area of the Site. It is the final video in a five part tutorial series on using Google Sites.

• There is only 100MB of storage available in a Google site
• Under the Manage sites hyperlink under ‘More’ you can create a copy of the site.
• You can change the theme of your site under manage site – change theme.
• Further problems can be ironed out by looking through the Site Help section under More.

GVC#4: Make a Google site in six steps - it really is as easy as that!

Since we will be creating a Google site in the Global Virtual Classroom, it's time for me to get to know Google Sites for myself. Recently I saw a Google+ post from Google for Education that said ‘Make a Google site in minutes’. This immediately caught my attention as I imagined it would take a much longer time than that.  The post in question said that all one needs to do is follow the six steps listed below. I tried it and, quite honestly, it IS as simple as that!

What is a Google site?
A Google site can be seen as an interactive website that is quick and easy to create without any knowledge of HTML. It is a quick way   to make information accessible to others.  A group can work together on a Site to add file attachments, information from other Google applications (like Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube and Picasa), and new free-form content.

Why use a Google site?
Sites are great for class websites, student eportfolios, private discussion boards with parents, group projects, research projects and more. 

Video tutorial on creating a Google site
At our first Google Summit in South Africa we were privileged to have Chris Betcher from Australia presenting. He is well-versed on creating Google sites and here is his video tutorial ‘Íntroduction to Google sites’.

                                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nilei4D-Ay4&feature=youtu.be

Text-based tutorials on creating a Google site
The following two really superb tutorials can be found on Chris Betcher’s own Google site called ‘Summit stuff’ http://goo.gl/Y2Nrel.

• Designing Google Sites: Part 1
• Designing Google Sites: Part 2

Google Sites Examples
Click on the following image to be taken to a page of Google Sites examples to copy

GVC#3: The timeline for the Global Virtual Classroom Contest 2014/2015

This information comes from the wiki http://gvcteachers-lounge.wikispaces.com/Timeline

“No one alone can create what we accomplish together!”

1. Registration and Wiki
Registration opens in July. When you register you will receive an invitation to join this Wiki. {If you participated last year, you are already a Wiki member.} Use the time to get acquainted with other teachers. September 15-30 you can choose ONE partner (the other will be assigned.)

2) Teams Announced & Edmodo rooms assigned
Teachers will already have joined our Edmodo Teacher's lounge. Notify jbarnstable@gsbi.org when registered so she can put you into the right team room. Registration and Wiki Registration opens in July. When you register you will receive an invitation to join this Wiki. {If you participated last year, you are already a Wiki member.} Use the time to get acquainted with other teachers. September 15-30 you can choose ONE partner (the other will be assigned.) Teams Announced & Edmodo rooms assigned. Teachers will already have joined our Edmodo Teacher's lounge. Notify jbarnstable@gsbi.org when registered so she can put you into the right team room, October 1-2.

Introduction period October 1-31.
Use this time to get acquainted with your partners. Share photos, hobbies, likes, dislikes, family, whatever with help you to know a little more about those you will work with during this time. Also start discussing topics for your collaboration.

Official Beginning of the Contest Work Period November 1.
Gather ideas, discuss within your own school and share with partner schools. Agree on a topic and begin work! Your team will be assigned a GVC Google Sites space. All schools will have access, but only those with gmail accounts (or Google for Education accounts) will be assigned 'owner rights'.

Mid Contest December 15.
Take a look at ideas and work done to date. Research should be finished or nearly finished. If you have not yet started the creative aspects of work, it's time to begin. If you break for holidays, be sure your partners know!

Web Site Design January 15.
If not yet started with web site design, begin!

Check, Fix, Publicize (Between March 15 and March 31.
Good idea to strive to finish within 2 weeks of contest close. That gives you time to check work, make sure all the links work, and invite others to view, comment, suggest things that need doing... Every year there are some who ignore this suggestion, with the result that last minute uploads have mistakes or missing files.
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Contest Ends April 1-30.
Sites are Judged by our panel of judges.

Winners Announced May 1-4.