A Great Update to Google Sites - Review Changes Before Publishing

Earlier this week I wrote about how I'm having my students use Google Sites as digital portfolios. Right after that I published that post Google announced a few helpful updates to Google Sites. Then yesterday there was another update announced. The latest update might be the best one yet for those who use Google Sites in a collaborative environment.

Google Sites users will soon have the option to review all changes to a site before the changes are published. You'll be able to review the original view of the site and the updated view of the site side-by-side and then choose whether or not to publish the updated view. You'll be able to see who updated the site, what's been added or deleted, what's been moved, and any layout changes before publishing the new look of your site.

This new Google Sites feature is available now to some users and will be widely available in January. Learn more about how to use the Google Sites review feature in this help article.

Applications for Education
The option to review changes before publishing a new version of a Google Site could be a fantastic option to use when students are collaborating on the creation of a website. This could give you and or your students to review changes to make sure that nothing incorrect or inappropriate is published on a classroom website.

Another use of the review changes option in Google Sites could be to apply it to an editing protocol in which a few students will have to review and approve changes before publishing an update to collaboratively managed website.

Firefox Accessibility Options

After yesterday's post about tools for improving the accessibility of websites, slides, and videos I got some feedback from readers who noted that I didn't mention anything about Firefox. That wasn't intentional, it was a complete oversight on my part because I personally don't use Firefox that often and none of my students do either. To remedy that, here's a short run-down of accessibility options that are available in Firefox.

The Firefox users can customize default font sizes, spacing, and colors. These options are available by opening the options menu listed under the “Tools” drop-down menu in Firefox. Alternatively, the options menu can be accessed by typing “about:preferences” (without quotation marks) into the address bar in Firefox.

Other accessibility options for Firefox include using a keyboard to navigate webpages, zooming to enlarge pages, and installing screen reader add-ons. You can enable keyboard navigation from the options menu under general settings. To zoom in to enlarge pages simply hold down the ctrl key then press the “+” key. To reverse that process hold ctrl and press the “-” key. A couple of screen reader add-ons for Firefox can be found at http://bit.ly/accsettings and complete list of Firefox accessibility settings is available at https://mzl.la/2DSxHhy