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Morgan Kuchta September 1, 2010 Sparknotes.com Overview This site is a great resource for students who struggle with reading in school. The website provides book and chapter summaries and plot overviews along with character analysis for all main characters in each book reviewed. The books that Spark Notes provides information on are those that have deep and complex plot lines and character development that are often found in classrooms of all grade levels. Perhaps one of the most useful tools on this website is called "No Fear Shakespeare", which translates the old English of Shakespeare into modern English so that students might have an easier time remembering information and comprehending it. Although the site organization is poor and it throws too much information onto one page, I believe this website could be an extremely valuable resource to teachers who assign reading to their classes. Content At first look it is easy to tell where you are and what is provided, in general, on the site. The audience is pretty clearly defined as students but it is difficult to tell exactly who will benefit most from this sitel There were no listed authors for the site although there were authors listed for each of the book summaries done on each separate page with an email address attached. The revision dates are included on every book review and the links to related sites are all functioning. The information quality was incredible. Although it was not well organized, it is by far the most comprehensive literacy site that I have used in the last few years. The other links posted were pretty good, although most of them were just for the interest of the users rather than usefulness for help with English homework. Design The homepage download was no problem, while it was attractive to the eye, it was a little information heavy and a it was kind of hard to tell exactly where I needed to navigate. There were a LOT of advertisements in the margins and even in other areas of th

Randi McInerney September 15, 2011 Overview: The website "Sparknotes" is an educational and entertainment website with various study resources available. The information is most relevant to high school aged students, but late middle school and college students, as well as teachers, could also benefit from this site. College video tours, book summaries, analysis, and quizzes, and ACT/SAT/AP/GRE test preparation material, and news articles are also available. The content and design are effective and organized, but the advertisements can be distracting and seem overwhelming. This site can be abused by students wishing to plagiarize or to avoid reading a book, but has so many great things to offer if it is used appropriately. Content: There is a lot of educational material available on this site. Video clips, interactive tours, blogs, cartoons, and more can all be found on this site. There are various links in order to contact them, but no direct contact information like an address is provided. Besides educational material, there is lifestyle, entertainment, and dating information. I think that this may be distracting from the educational aspects of the site, but it makes sense because of the audience the website is intended for. Design: The site downloads efficiently and is visually interesting, especially for the intended audience of young adults. The site is easy to navigate, especially if you know what you are looking for from the start. In this case, the search bar will help you easily locate what you are looking for if it is indeed on the site.

Sparknotes is a resource aimed at high school and college students. It offers summaries of literary works as well as test prep. The main purpose of the site is to simplify in-depth texts down to a modern English level. Unfortunately, these summaries are not all that is available. The site largely consist of entertainment news. This aspect dominates the site, making it hard to find the reviews and study resources. Because of this my overall impression is that the site includes a good about of information for those looking for it, but is also a place where one can very easily get side tracked, rendering its information useless. It is worth a bookmark, but is not the most useful thing. The content of this site is very diverse. As for the literary summaries, there are over 100 on some of the best known works in many different subject areas. The site is up to date and loads easily. Most of the summaries are based off of the most recent publications of texts. The site is confused about its purpose. The summaries and text prep sections are hard to find while entertainment news is profusely advertised and easy to find. The educational sections are labeled in small black index style links, while the entertainment section has large magazine like spreads. Although the site has relevant information that is consistent and helpful, it is congested with much needless gossip that has potential for abuse. The websites speed is quite good. It loads very fast comparatively. The homepage is attractive, but is attractive for the wrong reasons. It is hard to find relevant information on the site (although there is a lot of it). This makes navigation of the site difficult and can easily suck the user into a "twilight zone." The site is strong on most platforms, even having apps available. Content presentation is mores streamlined on the app, but is congested on a web version. An administrator is available to answer any questions and provide further information.

This website is a good overview of Alexander The Great (King Alexander III of Macedonia.) It includes everything from his early life, to him claiming the throne, his conquests all the way up to his death. This is a great website because Alexander the Great is one of the most important figures in history and essentially merged Western and Eastern civilization. The website is very well organized and all information is under a specific heading. The vocabulary on this website isn't overly advanced so I believe anyone from middle school and up would gain information from this site. There are a lot of useful images, which really add to the website. Although the website is fairly plain, it's main purpose it to pass along information, and this website does just that.

This website is a great FREE resource for teachers, administrators, parents and students looking for ways to incorporate technology into their classrooms. The site not only provides lesson plans for teachers but ways to help students succeed and excel for administrators and parents as well as homework help, step by step math help and games for students! There are a lot of outside links to sites that are all easy to access and navigate which is great! The content of the site is great and has been very well organized. Discovery Education does offer upgrades to gain more access to resources, but the free resources available are enough to last any educator for weeks! All of the lessons are organized by grade and then content area as well which makes it really easy to find exactly what you are looking for. There are also tabs for contact information, privacy details and terms and use which are great resources for teachers to familiarize themselves with. I think older students, probably middle school aged or older could utilize this website a lot easier than younger students because of navigation design, but the site is still great for students. The step-by-step math helper is an awesome tool for students that are having difficulty with math homework and so is the homework helper because it allows students to meet virtually and help each other with their homework with the help of educators and tutors. The design of the site is geared more towards teachers or educators, but it is still highly interactive and is easy to navigate. There are a lot of links to outside sources and they are all current and easy to operate. It is also easy to read and understand all of the lesson plans presented as well as understand the overall goals of the Discovery Communications company. The entire purpose of the site is to acheive excellence in learning and that is obvious by the design of the site. I wouldn't let students just get on the site and try to find their own way aro

Overview: This is an AWESOME resource for middle school teachers! There are many already created lesson plans that you can tweak to the desires of your own classroom. There are also many activites that are on this website that are different from the usual worksheets. Context: This is right on. I clicked on the links to see how valid they were and the information was very accruate. From what i have looked up this was created by History teachers. This is also an ".org" website which also makes it more trusting. Design: The information is very orgainized and easy to filter through. It is displayed so you can find it on what your lesson plan is.

Elizabeth Schnell Overveiw: This website is an interavtive website that allows students to learn and get a deeper understanding of the Boston Massacre. It is fun for the student because they aren't stuck reading a website and lots of articles. This also disproves some of the information that is misleading. I think the design is very user friendly to my students. It is not complicated to navigate around. I really like this website and i would not be afraid to use it in a classroom setting it is very informational. Context: My students will get an in depth learning about the Boston Massacre without even having much background knowledge. It would be helpful to have a brief knowledge about the revolution before completing this assinment because it disproves some of the rumors that you hear about it. I find it to be very accruate information. Design: This website is very simple to navigste around. It is set up like a secret misson that the students have to complete. It is very user friendly and interesting. It is geared for a middle school student but they also have a teacher resource page to help guide the students.

Kevin McDougall 9/30/2012 Overview: The purpose of this website is to offer students an interactive and informative method of learning about Unites States Civics. The audience of this website is students enrolled in middle/high school civics courses in the United States. The resources of the site include links to multiple topics covering US civics (e.g. Separation of Powers, Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, etc…) and links to media and influence on civics as well. I was very impressed by this website. Within those topics mentioned above, there are links to games and Web Quests that students can use to enhance their learning. Also, the site is very easy to maneuver and its design is eye-catching. Content: The content of this website is informative and of high quality. All of the topics that are presented are listed right on the home page and links to other topics are clearly listed under the "About" tab. The quality of information was high. Within those topics, the Web Quests and games are effective in engaging student learning because they are interactive and appealing. Design: The design of this website was great. The graphics, font, and illustrations are effective in welcoming visitors to the website. The layout is well done; the main tabs are listed at the top of the page and the topics are easily found on the home page.

This website is essentially an overview of the important events of the Trojan War. The website is clear and organized in chronological order. If you simply read the page top to bottom you get a clear and basic overview of the most important events of the Trojan War. This was written for basically anyone who wants to learn about the basics of the Trojan War. I read through and I feel that it could be useful for anyone in middle school or older due to the level of vocabulary. I feel that all the necessary content is there, however the design could use some work. Pertaining to content, this website is great. Everything someone would want to learn about the basics of the war is there. This website also brings a unique perspective about the war because of the link "The Women". It's not very often (especially in Greek or Macedonian) society that women's opinions or chronicles were valued at all, let alone saved like these were. Information on this site is very easy to find because the links and headings are clear, making it easy to find what you are looking for. The author's and bibliography section are done well, a background of the authors is present, and all websites are presented in order and correctly formatted. The pages about the important women may be the best of all. They included the original Latin text, and an English translation. They also include descriptions of how that particular woman impacted the war or society. Pertaining to the design, this website could use some design help. While it's nice and simple, there aren't many colors, for instance every page has black font with a white background. The images are useful and pertain to the website, but there aren't many of them on the main pages. The sidebar looks very nice, the top bar does as well, if this theme would have been utilized more throughout the whole website it would certainly add to the attention grabbing aspect of the website.

Cassie Nelson February 3, 2012 Overview The purpose of this site is to help Agriculture Educators teach in their classroom. The intended audience is Ag teachers. This website has lesson plans to help Ag teacher in the classroom. Overall, I like this website and will use it for my classroom. Not only does it have secondary lesson plans but plans for adults and middle school as well. Content At first glance you can determine the content and audience. The material is clearly identified. There is information about the author and contact information. There is not revision date provided but the content seems to be updated frequently. The content appears to be complete, organized, and meets the needs of sufficient information. Design The homepage loads efficiently. The home page is attractive and you can tell where you are within the site. The site is easy to navigate. The information in the site is worth visiting. A downfall to the site is there is no date of last revision. There is also no copyright date or date the site was established.

Samantha Snethen- Feb. 5, 2012 Overview: This particular site offers lessons for elementary school students on geography and geology. The site offers no links to other related websites and overall had a poor general design and layout. The lessons were very short and did not differentiate the material for different grade levels. The site seems like a good idea but does not offer enough for users. Content: The site did not list any authors or sponsors or any contact information for users to ask questions. The site also did not give a last revision date so it is impossible to tell how up-to-date all the information is. The information was organized into chapters on the different subjects of geography or geology; these chapters were easy to navigate but contained very little information in each. The site is also missing links to related websites. Design: The site lacks appeal visually and all of the graphics provided for each chapter do not make any significant contribution. It also does not provide directions for navigating or using the site. However, the information was organized and is easy to navigate. The worst part of the design are the large, distracting advertisements for other websites that are placed inconveniently in the middle of the page for each section of each chapter.

2-5-12 Overview This website is an interactive learning website for everyone. The goal was to make learning fun as well as memorable and to provide an opportunity to learn and improve for everyone. This website has sections designed by subject as well as age. There are sections for preschool/kindergarten, elementary, middle/ high school, college, test prep and adults. There is something for everyone in this site with varied levels of difficulty. The site provides games, interactive reading pages, facts, quizzes and brain teasers. Overall I feel that this site is wonderful and I would use it in my classroom and suggest it to others. Content There is an unbelievable amount of information on this website. It is mainly based for elementary and is separated into subjects; USA, world, vocabulary, health, science, math, history and animals. The site also can be organized by age level. This makes it easy to find an activity based on interest. There really is something for everyone, from preschool games to chemistry quizzes to games for adults. There are also facts of the day in each subject. The hidden animals is great for learning about adaptations and the way animals camouflage themselves and survive in a fun, interactive way. The site can be considered a business since you can purchase software and materials from an online store. However, mostly it is a free interactive website that provides something for everyone. Design I am slightly disappointed in the design of the website. It does not give a revision date even though the information all seems accurate. I am also disappointed in the links. If you open the site from Diigo, the links to pages other than Hidden Animal Games do not work. However, if you open a web browser and put in Sheppard Software, the whole site works perfectly. Even though I am disappointed in these flaws, I really like the way the site is organized. It is colorful and appealing but more importantly it is extre

Dillon Karajanis 10/22/13 The Great Body Shop Review Overview: As soon as I accessed this site I knew what it was for. The purpose of this website is to provide teachers with certain materials, advice and other resources to improve or assist with educational instruction. The audiences intended for this website are Pre-K through middle school teachers and there are multiple resources that are included in the site; such as lesson plan ideas, trainings and tools or materials for multiple grade levels. Over all I thought this website to be the most beneficial to me as a teacher because I can use it to assist me in my teachings and refer to it for help or additional ideas. Content: At first look I am quickly able to determine the basic content of the site and its intended audience. I was able find the author of the site quickly as well and there is contact information provided easily as well. Even though the latest revision date wasn't clearly provided, I thought this site to be very useful information based on my needs and purposes. The site was accurate, the punctuation was correct and in general even though some basic information was unclear this is the most useful website I evaluated. Design: As far as speed goes, I was able to access the home page quickly and easily. The design of the home page is attractive and has the entire site's content listed on the side making it easy to navigate as well. The copyright information is easily spotted at the bottom the page as well. The site has useful links about them and who they are associated with making them appear as a credible source. The site format is consistent and easy to follow and the content involved makes the site worthwhile to visit. The website's overall impact had a positive effect on me and I thought it was well designed and an awesome educational resource.

Jessica Lee 10/21/2013 Overview: The purpose of this site is to address some common core standards for mathematics in a different, fun way with the use of animations and online games. This website is intended for middle school aged students. There are not any external links for additional resources included. I am very impressed with this website due to its overall design and organization as well as the content-rich materials that they promote. It also provides a learner guide for the teacher to use in the classroom which makes it very convenient. Content: The content of this website is very easy to read and understand for the intended audience. It not only provides fun activities for the kids to enjoy, but also an explanation for each one for what it addresses. It presents math concepts in a new way that will attract "math-haters." Design: The design of this website is aesthetically appealing and easy to navigate. Everything runs smoothly and quickly and all of the internal links work well. The pictures representing the animations and games are significant and attention-grabbing. The only negative thing about this website is the lack of a revision date; therefore, there is no way to know, immediately, that it has been kept up-to-date.

Overview Garbology is an interactive online game that is designed for educators to use with their kids to learn about waste. I think this game would be best used with kids that are in upper elementary or middle school but you could expand that age range. It is intended to increase awareness of garbage, recycling, composting, and nature conservancy. This website is well designed and easy to operate. It is clear that they have a lot of resources put into this site.

Overview Code Academy is a website that is used to promote the proper teaching of different computer languages to people of all ages. It is mostly aimed at people who are in computer science classes from middle school through college. The site has a number of corporate sponsors as well as many 'teachers' that donate their time to creating lesson plans for this site. They really advocate the teaching and learning of these computer languages. For being programmers, the site is actually fairly simple and had some glitches on my computer. I will attribute that as much to the computer as much as their programming.

Free elementary, middle and high school teacher resources, including puzzlemaker, student games and activities and lesson plans.

The purpose of this website is to inform the reader about how the human eye works.  The intended audience of this website is probably middle school students and up.  It is more for the general public than for scientists.  It provides information on the different parts of the eye and what they do.  It also discusses some of the problems that can occur in the eye.  The information presented in the website seems good, but there are some ads that can be distracting. The user is able to quickly determine the basic content and intended audience of the site.  The author's name is provided, but it does not give the reader any way to contact them or any of their credentials.  The sponsors of the site are clearly identified, as well.  The site was published on 2/10/10, which is appropriate to the topic because the human eye has not changed much since then.  The site is not frequently updated, but there are several links to other resources that work properly.  Comments are open on this site, and they provide other resources, as well as extra information and opinions about the topic.  The site is well organized and easy to understand.  There is not any bias on the site, and it provides most of the information necessary.  It is not at all interactive.  The information seems to be accurate, based on my previous knowledge, as well as other resources on the topic.  Its grammar and spelling are correct.

Overview: The website PrimaryGames.com is an all purpose website for elementary and middle school aged children. The purpose of this website is to help children understand math, science, social studies, and language arts in a fun way. The website offers many different types of games and puzzles, along with games to further the education of elementary and middle school aged children. Content: The content of the website PrimaryGames.com is very clear. This website is fully completed and is used effectively with a well organized home screen that is easy to understand and helps the child or the teacher find different types of games or subject areas without any problems. The website FunBrain.com would be a great tool for teachers or parents to use in the classroom or in the home setting. The website PrimaryGames.com can further the math, science, social studies, and language arts skills of the grades K-8 and the children can have a great time in using this website as well. Design: The website PrimaryGames.com is a well designed website with many different colors that grab your attention. This website also has a tool that can be used to find the desired subject areas that the teacher or parent can use with their children. The website does have a few ads that can distract the eye to look at the ads instead of looking at what the website has to offer and at times can be a little too busy for children and they might get distracted. This website also offers a teachers section that offers many different tools like print zone of different activities and worksheets. Overall this website can be a great tool to use in the future.

Overview This is another good site to send home with parents. It is simplistic and easy to use without too many hassles. It also has many games that children can enjoy playing. It is appropriate for many grade levels so it will transfer well to different classrooms and students. The variety of games give students many options. Content The content is nicely organized and easy to see as well as to decide what to do. The content is appropriate for all most elementary student and have a way to review. There is a variety of different games for students to play that use math in different creative ways. Design The design of this site is wonderful. They use colors to highlight sections and show different ideas. All of the colors are bright and stand out very nicely. The site is well organized offering many different categories for games. The games are not sorted by grade level of idea but they are easy to find because there isn't tons of games to sort through. The level of the games vary and most seem appropriate for students to play. The bright colors continue throughout the site.

-Overview: This website is very visually appealing and child friendly. There are lots of colors and graphics on the homepage and lots of different things that children would be excited to click on and see. The website is mainly made for children to play educational computer games and learn new things. It is centered on primary grade levels and their educational experiences. There are different resources for children to learn new things and the backgrounds are based on the seasons and holidays. -Content: On this website there is a ton of different games under each subcategory and has various types of games under each subject. They are all tailored to primary level children and are easy for them to play and learn. There are things for the students to print out and various puzzles and other games that the students can access on this website. I am not sure of the content of all the games if they are all educational, but just having the matching and certain aspects of not academic games is still important for a child's development. -Design: This website has a lot of colors, large print, and pictures. It is tailored for young children so they are able to navigate the page on their own and can learn to recognize the colors and words. The website divides the games up by subject and then lists them after you click on the subject which is good so that parents and teachers can help the students focus on things that they need to work on even if it is through a game like this. It also makes it easy for teachers and parents to see the different things that are offered to the child to play and it is good for the child to learn to recognize and read these words. They all have pictures or clip art with them so that even if the child cannot read the word they can tell what it is by looking at the pictures.

Overview: The website MathisFun.com is a math website for elementary and middle school aged children. The purpose of this website is to help children understand math in a fun way. In this website there are many different fun learning tools to help the students understand geometry, algebra numbers and measurement better. This website gives links to other helpful websites that have games using base ten blocks adding and subtracting games, and much, much more. Content: The content of the website MathisFun.com is very clear and organized in a very interesting way. This website is fully completed and is used effectively with a well organized and interesting home screen that is easy to understand and helps the child or the teacher find different types math subject areas without any problems. There are other games that have been listed for the higher grades such as 5th grade to help challenge the students in a fun way. The website offers many different types of games and puzzles, along with games to further the education of elementary and middle school aged children. Weather the teacher had the games pulled up on the smart board and then the students could interact with other students and work as a class to figure out the answers. This is a great interactive website for students and for the teachers. Design: The website MathisFun.com is a well designed website that looks like a road with many math stops. This website is full of different colors that grab your attention. The website does not have any ads which is a good thing so the children can focus on just the math subject areas. This website also offers worksheets and a dictionary that the teachers section that offers many different tools like print zone of different activities and work explains different math terms.

Whitney Mills; Website Reviewed: January 24th 2010 Overview: Mathisfun.com immediately draws a person's eye in with a fun, exciting homepage. Anyone can see clearly that the purpose of this website is to help teachers teach their students math. Content: This website has a clear and definite purpose, and that is to help teach children math in a fun and exciting way. The site is very well organized and very well made. I feel like there was much work put into making this site effective for children. The author is very clearly identified, and the links to other websites do work effectively. This website also covers many different areas of math such as; algebra, geometry, data, etc. It is stated on the actual website that the content is updated frequently, which is a huge plus for using this site in a classroom. A person can also check out all the different additions added to the website which could be helpful. Design: The website is very well designed. It is exciting to a child's eye. He/she would be more than happy to learn math using this website. For adults/teachers the website is very organized and clear throughout the entire page. The design is the same throughout the whole site and it seems like a very fun and exciting site to use anytime, anywhere!!

Colter Huhn 1-25-10 The purpose of this site is to watch informational videos and read articles on science programs from PBS. The intended audience is all ages that can understand the material which looks to be about middle school age up. The site has many different science based categories with videos and interactive articles. Overall the content is very useful for exploring science television programming further with articles and online video on certain science based programming. The design is very professional and well layed out. The content is very good on this site, with a few minor flaws. Upon first look its fairly easy to tell the content for the site and from it know who the audience is. The information providers seem clear with the sponsor (PBS) being clearly identified and the makers of all videos. The currency seems very good with new material being added constantly and all links working properly. The quality of information is great with a clear educational purpose which is well executed. Every archived program is well organized into categories with easily understandable links and information. Many programs can be watched online with teacher links making the content very interactive. All information seems relevant and correct. The only flaws I found were no direct authors were shown or their contact information, but you can contact PBS. Also, I couldn't seem to find a date of revision, but all program dates are shown. The website design itself is also very professional. The speed is great and the site is compatible with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. The homepage is very attractive, clear, organized and all sponsor and copyright information is easily found. The navigation is simple with good organization of programs into categories and links. All videos are fantastic and relevant and the pictures represent these. The content is perfect for getting involved in science topics through documentaries and videos. There are plenty of links from eac

A great site for Science videos and documentaries. Includes links for teachers to utilize these as well.

Olivia Mabie -January 24, 2010 Content: This website contains lots of information for teachers and future teachers. The website has links at the top of the page that will help with putting together lesson plans, finding out what is current, etc. The classroom link at the top has other links attached inside that will help with putting together lesson plans in certain subjects and it also has a link for the different age groups, elementary, middle, and high school. Other teachers have put this together for other teachers to use; it is a great website with information that is very useful for future teachers and current teachers. Design: This site is not hard to find the things a teacher would be looking for on this website. It is very easy to navigate and find interesting things that could be used in a classroom. The website does not have a lot of distractions on it and there is information any teacher would want to know. Once the links were clicked on there were certain ones that had graphics but not all of them. Not having graphics on each page was good because it does not draw away from the content of the website. Overview: The purpose of this website is to make it easier for teachers to find lesson plans, units, and web resources in a fast and easy way with no ads or pop-ups. Teachers, parents, and even students can use this website to find information they need using the subject/grade level search, keyword search, or the extensive menus the site offers. This is an excellent site for any teachers and future teachers. The website has a ton of good information that will help any teacher out if he/she is stuck on finding something to do in the classroom.