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Geopackrat Reborn

Posted on October 3, 2010 By Tom No Comments on Geopackrat Reborn
EdTech, Geocaching and Maps, Internet

This is another in the ongoing series of Google experiments I’ve been doing over the past several weeks…

If I were starting out on this RandomConnections venture now instead of several years ago, I might be doing things very differently. Given the number of resources available on Google, I’m not sure I would have bothered with a separate hosting service. So, I decided to give the idea a test.

For several years I’ve been keeping the website www.GeoPackrat.com.  I had set this up as convenient web address to give to teachers for my handouts on Google Earth.  I just had the URL through GoDaddy.com, and had it redirect to some web space on one of my district servers.  It came time to update the site, and I thought it might also be a good time to move the content off of our school servers and onto something a little less tied to my place of employment.

I started by getting a GMail account in the GeoPackrat name.  This gave me access to all of the rest of Google’s services, including Google Docs and Google Sites.  I then went into Google Sites and set up the basic pages I would need.  I picked a template I liked and modified the banner graphic to match what I needed.  The end result looked like this:

Geopackrat.png by RndConnections on Aviary

I also decided to try some of the other features on the site.  For my list of resources I created a Google Spreadsheet and embedded it into the site.  That way I could update, organize, and alphabetize my list without having to edit the site itself (not that it’s hard to do.)  I created a file cabinet page, one of the standard features of Google Sites, to hold all of the Google Earth files I had created. Instead of linking to MS-Word or PDF documents for my handouts, I linked directly to documents stored on Google Docs.  Everything’s contained in a nice little package.

I like the overall look and feel of the site much better than my old website, and I think it’s easier to use.  Editing is super simple, and doesn’t require an HTML editor or FTP access to my server.  All I need is a browser to maintain my site.  I’m sure there are some components that just won’t work, but if I ever have to design another simple site for someone, I think this is the way I’d go.

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