Hi Christie,
I agree that using google sites can be productive in a classroom setting. The past few years I created a google site as a class website for my students. I included different pages for the students to access. I think having student have their own site to use a reading portfolio is a great idea. I do agree with you about the format or google sites. It can be somewhat confusing to use and isn't as user-friendly. I switch to using a yola site (www.yola.com) this year and have found it much easier to use. I have taught some of my students how to create their own websites using yola. It's easy for them to understand and navigate.

Wiki spaces is a great tool to use as an online learning community. A wiki is a tool used to collaborate with others to form a product. Wikis can be used to collaborate on projects, facilitate a course or other ideas. A pro of using a wiki was that it promotes instant collaboration and shows what time and by whom the wiki was last edited. A con of using a wiki can be if it is public and there are multiple users with access. Users can change content that someone else already edited. It can be counter-productive if each group member isn't given a specific task to work on.

One thing that I learned about when reading the references was about community evolution. For many adult learners, collaboration doesn't come naturally. Learners will need guidance and modeling when it comes to participating in an online learning community.