For a long time one of the biggest complaints that I have had about Google Sites is the lack of styling options. Today, Google announced the creation of a public template gallery. These templates can be used for adding style and visual appeal to your Google Sites website. The gallery of templates is open to anyone who wants to use Google Sites. And anyone who has a public Google Sites website can contribute to the gallery of templates. One of the templates featured on the Google Sites homepage is a “classroom” template.

To learn more about Google Sites, watch the video below.

Applications for Education
If you already have students using Google Docs, they’re already part of the way to creating their own Google Sites websites. Students can use their websites to create a digital portfolio of the content they’ve created. In my ideal world, students could start their sites in elementary school or middle school and continuously add content to them all the way through high school graduation.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
6 Ways for Students To Publish Their Writing Online
8 Ways to Build Websites (Not Blogs) for Free
Posterous – A Simple Way for Students to Blog