Using Google Sites/Google Docs to organize I-search research portfolios

Check out the class google site I created and read more about my project in my folder.

I am on the last academic unit of the school year with my students, “I-search,” which inspired my last technology project.  My Cooperating teacher said her dream would be to move the paper-based “I-search” (students research a topic of their choosing) to wikispaces when she implements it next time, and I decided to imagine this movement to Google Sites/Google Docs. 

I created a Google Site with research resources, timeline of homework assignments, a tab for students to upload their Google Doc Portfolio link.  In this student tab, I also included a model example of a portfolio, in terms of how I want students to organize its contents.  In terms of permissions for editing pages, I gave my roommate, Janani Sridharan, permission to edit only the Student Links Google page, and only viewing permissions for the other pages as a test (which worked).  Then, I created a google group and gave this group the same sets of permissions as Janani.  I made a fake gmail account (using my friend's name Vanessa Lai).  "Vanessa" asked to join the google group, and after I used my own email address to grant her request, she was also able to edit just the "Student Links Google" page.  Through trial and error, I realized that students could join a class google group, much like our tech one, and varying access could be granted based on the group's permissions, as opposed to individualizing each student.  

My intention was to see if the front-load of setting this site up would be worth it for the affordances of a paper-less transaction between myself and students.  For the most part, I think that it is worth it because the teacher and the student could have simultaneous access to the portfolio at any point.  The teacher can monitor the work on an ongoing basis to see if students are being accountable for each journal and draft (as they are due).  Last but not least, peers can easily share portfolios with each other for feedback, and future students could easily reference to this work.  

My only concern is that it's hard to imagine what this implementation would look like with over a hundred students, as opposed to the few imaginary students on this site.