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Jamie Henry 19 May 2011 Overview: Biology Lessons is a website designed to give biology teachers a source for lesson plans and worksheets for students. The audience is very clearly teachers, as it offers only resources that teachers would want or need. My impression was that it was an organized site that would be helpful for teachers to build lesson plan ideas off of. Content: The Content Evaluation for Biology Lessons showed that this was not a strong website, or one that should be used at all. Almost every link from the homepage was broken or would lead to nothing. Because of this, the site fails to serve any purpose and so the value declines immensely. This site has good intentions, but with so many broken links, it cannot be used to its potential. Design: The design of this website was also fairly bad. It really did not draw any eyes, as it is just a gray screen with green writing on it. It was very organized, but the information was not available because of broken links. There are no graphic or audio links, nor are there any links to other sites that may be helpful for either teachers or students. This is definitely not a website any educator should try to use in their classroom.

Nicole Sutton 9/5/11 Overview: The Mathematics Lessons that are fun website is a simple website that provides math lessons and activities. The age range the website is extremely unclear. The website is only for math and no other subject and I find the home page rather confusing. The author of the website is very clear however the website looks very jumbled and not professional. The website is unclear in many areas. Content: The Mathematics Lessons that are fun website contains a jumbled set of boxes that are links to games and lessons for math. The quality of the website is not very helpful. I find it hard to find the information reliable because there is an author but no title or reason she is an expert. There is not a list of people involved and there is no clear purpose of the website given. There does not seem to be a sponsor nor any way to contact the owner of the website. There are no other resources given on the website. My overall impression with the content of the site was that is it very poor and unreliable. Design: The Mathematics Lessons that are fun website has an attractive but simple lay out, however is over powered by the confusion of the confusing links. You are not sure where to go upon the arrival of the home page. The copy write is given at the bottom of the page however it is not current which gives the impression that the site has not been edited in a long time. The use of multimedia is confusing there are random graphics and almost annoying colors everywhere. The information including grade level is not clear and the website does not contain easy to navigate links. The website is not a very reliable one and not one I would use for my classroom.

Nicole Sutton 9/5/11 Overview: The e learning for kids website is a nonprofit foundation that provides free and fun learning activities on the Internet. The website is for ages 5-12 but can also be used by people in the education department, parents who want to connect and learn what their kids are learning, as well as game developers who want to contribute. e-learning for kid's hopes to be a better source for children 's learning through being available through the Internet so it can be accessed from anywhere. It's free and offers course content in math, science reading and keyboarding. The website helps children master these important basics so they can be successful in their future lives. e-learning has many partners and supporters; there are also helpful resources such as a media link that connects you to new, case studies and other important information. Content: The e learning for kids website is very easy to navigate, and is very high quality. There is a very nicely laid out home page where you can click on the grade level you need. Below the grade level there is a list of subjects you can choose from. There is also a choice of languages to choose from at the very top of the page. Once you click on a grade or subject it gives you a list of fun and helpful activities as well as what grade it would be best for. The content of the site is very helpful and well laid out. The website seems reliable as well because it gives you a list of board members, executive team and advisory board so you know exactly who is involved in the website and what they do for the site. Overall I got a very good impression from the content of this well laid out website. Design: The e-learning website is very easy to navigate and very pleasing to the eye. It is colorful and lays out all the links that you need on the home page. There is a clear area to contact the creators of the site and sponsors or partners were very easy to determine. The copy writes date is clear and the

Overview: Knight Cite is a bibliography maker. You just plug in the information into the specified box and it creates a proper citation in MLA, APA or Chicago style for you. This site is intended for those needing guidance on how to cite their sources for any research project that requires one of the provided formats. I have been using this website since 5th grade and it has always been useful and correct. The sponsor updates the page on a regular basis, when the new handbooks come out. A very useful site for those needing help with their bibliography or teachers trying to instruct their classes on how to properly cite sources. Content: Overall Knight Cite is pretty skin and bones. It does not have many fancy features, but it serves its purpose well. The page is clear and easy to navigate. It allows you to cite practically any reference you can think of in the three major writing styles. Since the sponsor is a University, it is assumed that they are qualified to provide this information. The intended purpose for this cite is clear upon opening the page. They have links where you can contact the authors, and the information aligns with other bibliography websites. Design: Knight cite downloads nicely and is designed for streamline efficiency. Although there is no "welcome page" it is immediately obvious what the intended purpose of the site is. When you open it, it immediately gives you the blanks to fill out to create your bibliography. There are instructions incase you are still unsure how to use it, but it is not difficult. To move between styles, it is as easy as clicking a tab at the top of the page. Same for changing the type of resource you are using. The site is extremely helpful if you have many citations as it will save them as you go and then when you are don you merely have to copy and paste your completed bibliography.  

Posted by Tanisha Daugaard on September 21, 2009 This site is designed for aiding student and basically anyone with learning the English language. It includes grammar games, practice exams, and other useful rules on English. Content: The organizational level of this site isn't as high as others that I've seen, but it is still easy to navigate. It has numerous links that are organized by subject areas. The purpose of this site is easy to determine and it can be used for many age levels. The sponsor of the site is easy to determine and a website is given for them. As for the designer of the site, I was unable to determine who it was. I was able to find a couple spelling and grammar errors, but other than that it seemed rather creditable. Overall, the links work and bring the user to other educational and important sites. This site can be a great resource for getting help with English, grammar, and writing. Design: I think the design of the site could be improved. There are numerous ads that don't relate to the subject area at all. There are more ads than actual information on most of the site. The links given are useful, so I was able to look past the ads. I found it easy to navigate and the links useful. There is a substantial amount of information given and I found it to be worth going to the site. It has different sections for parents, teachers, and students. I was not able to find any information regarding how often it is updated or modified. Overall, it was easy to navigate and had good information, but there are a few improvements that can be made. Attribution: As far as using and quoting information, the site doesn't include authors for each link. It doesn't have a lot of information that would be quoted; the main use is to look skills up and practice English online. It doesn't have anything about the site creators or who to contact if questions come up.

Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: CliffNotes is a site that provides free summary-type information and helpful tips for just about anything education related. Content: CliffNotes is a site sponsored by Wiley Publishing that covers just about everything that is involved with education. This site provides free information for subjects such as literature, writing, foreign language, math, science, college, test prepping, and more. The articles found under these subjects are easy to cite but may not provide an author. One of the things that set this site apart from similar sites is that it provides information on topics such as getting into college, avoiding scholarship scams, AP test, college entrance exams and grad school entrance exams. Also this site is updated on a regular basis making the information up to date, but as mentioned before there may not be a credible author. This site also offers full length practice test for the SAT, AP Biology, AP English, and AP Chemistry, but these resources are not free. As far as organization goes this site is decent, it is easy to navigate the main subjects such as literature or foreign language but there is so much advertising that it can be both confusing and distracting when reading down the page. Design: Apart from the advertising this site is well designed and easy to navigate. There is a search bar at the top right of the window as well as multiple tabs that link to various subjects of education. The home page is bombarded with ads, but they are mainly advertisements for student travel programs, back to school supplies or the Army ROTC program. The sponsor of the site is clearly stated at the bottom of the page and there is a link to their contact information. This site uses very little graphics aside from their advertising, but the page is still visually attractive due to the well known black and yellow color scheme. Attributes: This site comes from a credible source for review or study purposes. The infor

The purpose of this link/resource is to inform teachers (specifically) of things that they can do in order to become more appealing to those who are hiring in the education field. The piece first looks at how teachers should dress. They highlight how teachers should dress as if they plan on getting a lot done that day, or to dress for the occasion. The piece goes on to discuss how attitude and body language impact how others view our professionalism. Finally, the article talks about how we, as teachers, need to constantly be thinking on ways to improve our teaching, learning from other teachers and testing out strategies. At first glance, I think that the page is a little too cluttered with extra links and ads. The article contained minimal graphics, just a small picture next to the title. This was beneficial because there are very few images that would actually serve to enhance this specific page. The page does provide links to other pages on the site, but it may have been better if the links were at the bottom of the page, as opposed to the sides, as they were distracting while reading. Overall, the page was reasonably easy to navigate and effectively read. The author was obviously well-read and presented ideas that are not too cliché, allowing almost any reader to take something away from the content and use it as a tool for learning. There were no spelling or grammar errors in the article, demonstrating a professional approach. This was especially beneficial since the author, Emma McDonald, was speaking about professionalism herself. She aligned what she was writing about with how she wrote about the subject.

Purpose of this site is to provide in-depth topic overviews of world history broken down by subject. It is directed towards the general public with different articles fit for different ages. The range and depth of the articles are wide. Almost any social studies topic you could ask for is presented, and in a fully explained manor. Over all, this site is a wonderful history resources that I could see being used in the class room or for research. At first look the website is clearly identified as a learning resource. Its search bar and featured links are all related to its topic. The information provided is backed up by a marvelous list of credentials and works cited. It appears to be quite verifiable. An entire page is given about the author's academic knowledge. The information currency is fairly relevant, being a history site, it is less of a crime to leave older information up. That being said, if you are trying to write a groundbreaking thesis, this is probably not the place to go. The quality of information provided is top notch. Every page I looked at checked out based on my prior knowledge. It is well organized and easy to follow. The information is fairly comprehensive. New topics are being added though. For further information an email address and names are provided. Although the home page downloads quickly, it lacks attractiveness. There are Facebook style ads on the sides of the screen that make the page look a bit homemade. Even so, the information that the site provides is easy to navigate and find. Links to related pages pop up quickly and are relevant. Pictures for each article demonstrate concepts tied to the page and help the reader gain interest. Besides this the presentation is consistent, giving every page the same basic layout, and there is a large amount of information that makes this site worthwhile.

Jaymie Sheehan ITEC 2360-04 9/2/2010 OVERVIEW For my this review I visited Vocabulary Games, http://www.vocabulary.co.il . The site's intended audience is students from Kindergarten to 12th grade who want to improve their vocabulary. The intended purpose of the site is to provide these students with a fun and exciting way to improve vocabulary. The site has various resources depending on grade level. High school students can practice SAT words while Kindergarten kids can begin to understand reading and phonics. I felt that this site is valuable to students, teachers and parents. Often the hardest part of getting a child to be proficient in reading and writing is generating interest and this site does just that! The simple layout makes navigation quick and easy. This is a site I would use in the classroom and at home with children of all levels.

Rebekah Asay January 23, 2011 Overview: This website offers a lot of free information on English vocabulary. There are games for each age level, vocabulary reading resources, and links to vocabulary around the world. Content: There is a lot of information on vocabulary, analogies, compound words, parts of speech, spelling, contractions, foreign languages, synonyms, and prefixes to name a few. There are a lot of additional resources for viewers who want to expand their search. Design: The design is a little weak. It is hard to navigate the website and it a little disorganized. There are a lot of adds surrounding the content that distract the eye.

Overview: This site can be used by junior high and high school English students to help understand many texts that they will be required to read at some point in their academic career. It contains many games for various novels; the games are appropriate for older students, which is hard to come by. The appearance of the site is a little confusing because it appears to be geared for younger students but the content is that of older students. The games are helpful and applicable to class. Content: This website is mostly useful for junior high and early high school students. It offers interactive help for texts that are commonly read at those ages. Each book that is represented on the site has several games the user can try relating to different topics, such as vocabulary, content, and setting. The website also has information that is beneficial for upper high school students. It offers a variety of different interactive games to help with studying vocabulary for the SAT, or any other standardized test they will need to take. The information on the site is accurate and helpful for the audience. Design: The design of this website does not match well with its' intended audience. The content of this website is for junior high and high school students, but the design seems oriented for a much younger audience. The graphics are not beneficial to the site and may make the site lose some users because they think it is too young for them. However, the site is very easy to maneuver. Each different topic has a headline with a brief description of what the user can expect if they choose that link.

An online text book for teachers

Posted by Kirsten McAlexander on 9/20/2009 Enchanted learning provides a variety of material for teachers of all different grades. It provides printables and information in an easy to understand way. Especially useful for k-6th grades, but has content for every grade. Content: Although this website must be paid for, you can still get many things free. It is very cheap to join only $20.00 a month and well worth it. This site provides information on a variety of languages from everything from English to Dutch. It has every subject matter as well science, math, history, and writing. It has printables, lesson plans, places for students to look things up, activities, and books to print. This website is very helpful for teachers because it has such a wide variety of things. Design: This website is very easy to navigate. The only problem I have run into is on occasion it will not accept the login. The website is very colorful and attracts the attention of young minds easily. It is full of pictures to aid learning. Attribution: Since you must pay for this website, or even the pages you can get without paying for them, you can use everything on this site without citations. A student can get on and take information without plagiarizing. Teachers can print everything on the site. The point of the site is to have information and printables that are easily accessible by teachers and easily usable by teachers.

Amanda Lemaster January 24, 2011 overview: The purpose of this website is to provide materials and ideas for elementary age children. It is intended for teachers or children to use. The resources in the website are almost endless, there are activity worksheets, coloring pages, and craft ideas. I feel that this website could be very useful for a teacher, or even a parent. The content is semi-educational, so I be careful with how I use it. content: There is a lot of content in this website. Almost all the resources that can be used are print-out activities. There are coloring pages, maps, diagrams and basic information about specific subjects. The subjects range from animals, to music to geography. There might almost be too much to this website, just be prepared to weed through a lot of information about the subject used. design: The design of this website is not exactly what most people would call up to date. When a person looks at this website they may think that this is an unreliable source. Just because of the poor quality of how it looks. There is lots of white space and many bold colors that stand out. The layout is very simple. The website is useful but could have a little better layout.

The purpose of this website is to provide information on various topics. LearningEnchanted.com provides information including sciences, literature, arts and crafts, history, and many content areas. The information provided seems to be directed towards an older audience whose life entails interaction with young children. However, it is very possible that grade school children would be able to access the website themselves. There is an "early reader's" section where children can access short chapter books or short stories. My overall impression of this website was fair. It met many of the credentials provided on the criteria sheets for content and design. However, it lacked visual appeal but excelled at providing applicable information for me as a future educator. Content: At first look, this website clearly identified its purpose and content. The founders of this website, Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector, were clearly credited. Information on both is provided. The authors were both very well qualified to present this information and held degrees in various fields. Contact information was available. This website is updated quite frequently. Last update was on August 25, 2011. I did not find any links to outside websites. They were all connected within the EnchantedLearning site. The purpose was clear. There was commercial use because you can subscribe to the website to get more access. Also, there was basic access to many web pages that made it informational as well. The content does present the information in an effective manner but the site lacks the use of interactive opportunities. Based on my knowledge, all the information provided appeared to be accurate, consistent, and in good grammar. Although a huge fault of this website was the lack of exterior links, the content of this website are very helpful for future educators and parents. Design: The homepage of this website downloaded without any problems in two different browsers. There was no real eye appe

The site is intended to give students an example of the APA format, which is given clearly and effectively. The students will be of the 9th or higher grade level and should be able to follow the instructions and rules set by the site. The site itself also allows students to look into other writing style for future assignments when similar or different styles are required. The site has some visual appeal, an amount set enough to where a student would be able to more likely remember the website when the need for APA style rules are needed. Overall the site is simple enough for the basics allowing students to still try to remain original in their texts without just copying and relying on the site. The general setup of the site is enough to keep interest without interfering with the information it provides.

Charlene Asay: 1/23/2010 Overview: Kids Video maker is a site where students can learn how to make their own video. This site takes them step by step on how to write their own script, how to make their video, how to edit it, and how to show your video on the web or put it on a CD rom. This site is can be used for a teaching tool. This could be a easy way to get your students interesting in creating something of their own. Content: This site does have just a few different links and advertisements for booking trips, and different film schools to look at. This site looks like a great educational tool for students. A teacher could use this site to easily teach their students how to create their own video and post it wherever they would like to. They could share their work with the world. Design: The site is well designed. There are a few different advertisements that could be clicked on, but this site doesn't over whelm a person with so many advertisements they ant focus on the purpose of the site. This site does have a copyright date and who published this site, so this is a pretty creditable site it you ask me.

Keenan Zimmerman 2/1/2011 Review of: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/ Overview: Busyteachercafe is a site designed to help K-6 teachers come up with ideas. There are printables, strategies, themes, email sections and a store where I'm not sure what exactly you can buy. Most of the sections have useful ideas a teacher can use. The website is very colorful and looks like it is geared more toward 1-3 graders rather than on up to 4th 5th and 6th grade. It is not a very good website both in content and design. It has potential but at the moment it is not a very good site. Content: The content of the website seems very useful but it is very limited. There are few actual lessons or printables in each section. If the website is brand new than in a couple months I might say the website is very good content wise but at the moment the content is rather poor, another strike because we have no idea how old the site or information within the site are. The author of the material is nowhere to be found and even the e-mail section gives no clues as to who you are writing to. Design: The design is the worst part of the website. Although it has easy directions and it is rather easy to find what you are looking for, the site is littered with adds which are annoying and the search option is horrible finding almost nothing on the site when I used it. The search in the store section doesn't seem to come up with anything and because everything on the site is free I'm not sure why a store even exists.

Posted by Kirsten McAlexander on 9/20/2009 abcteach provides a variety of printable materials for teachers from grade k-8th. The website provides activities and games that you can print for a variety of subjects. Content: This website is an excellent website for teachers because it allows you to print a variety of material. The website has everything from baseball bar graphs to sound flash cards. The website has many different topics including sports, seasons, art, writing, phonics and so on. It includes several different printable pages for every topic. Design: This website is very easy to navigate. It labels all subjects very clearly and does not take much time at all to find exactly what you are looking for. Attribution: This website does have a membership fee, but allows you to print many things for free. It does not ask for a sign in to print, or to navigate away from the homepage. The links work well and are very quick.

This website is designed for teacher at any grade level. The site provides links to games, apps, videos, etc. that would be beneficial for teachers to include in lessons for their students. These links are provided for a wide array of categories including but not limited to writing tools, presentation tools, quiz and poll tools, and organizing tools. I would recommend using the tools this website provides, they would be an excellent addition to a lesson plan. It is clear from just a quick glance at the site what its purpose is. The author of the site is clearly stated on the sites homepage, and other contributions that were made to the site are licensed through a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Non-Commercial 3.0 License. All the information on the site is up to date, and of excellent quality. The design is effective at leading users through the site quickly and easily. They had pictures that allowed you to see what link you were clicking to as well as a small summary of the site, in a well-organized table for each section. The site is current and set up in an effective manner.

Tonya Searles The purpose of citationmachine.net is to aid anybody who is writing a referenced work to properly cite the material they are using. The website is dedicated to preventing plagiarism. The intended audience is high schools, universities, teachers and independent researchers. The website provides easy to see choices for referencing in the major formats used in writing such as APA, MLA, and Chicago. The user would select the format choice they wish to use and fill in the boxes with the appropriate information, and the machine generates a complete reference in the proper format. The site appears easy to use and read. For a student (or author of a paper) who wishes to cite their material this website is definitely relevant, accurate, and purposeful. However, although I can clearly see the website has been updated since my last visit there is no indication of its currency. The citations generated are in line with current standards when putting in an APA reference. There is also a link to an older version of the site which also indicates currency, albeit without a date. The creator of the website is David Warlick, and while there was little information about him on the site, a google search revealed him to be an author and educator, indicating he may be an authority in referencing materials. Strengths of the website include clear step by step instructions on how to use the citation machine. There are also links that will take you to places to evaluate the originality of an essay to further avoid plagiarism. A weakness of the website is the amount of ads on the site, but it is free, and a network, so ads are expected. The design of the website is not overly ostentatious. There are simply colored blocks with text to click on, and the orange and reds are not overly bright and distracting. I prefer websites that do not have a lot going on, and that have only links that serve a related purpose. With the exception of the unavoidable ads, this website fits th

Overview: GOOD originated as a magazine company and with advances in internet, GOOD has designed one of the most unique interfaces to gain information, current issues, and learn more about community ideas. Concept: The concept of GOOD is that of news organizations, but in a sense that breeds community. Some ideas shared can seem a little more one sided than others, but it brings good ideas, people, and news to the front page. This positive interface brings education aspects to social constructs and the newest in each subject. I especially like the Challenges they give the readers each month for August "The effects of going Vegan" or for September "Send someone a Post Card." We value getting mail, but never seem to be able to write to our dearest friends. I love the facts that back up this simple good idea to become more outgoing. This can be a resource for teachers to challenge students. Seek through news and actually find "good" stories to share to the class. The content in comprehendible and an awesome resource to get students away from main-stream media to understand community polls on political standings or engaged in dive into design, food, or education. Design: GOOD is a website that values its high design, easy access, and reader friendly qualities. I am also thoroughly impressed with Good's Infograph posted to tell stories of simple if "If Facebook users are more Trusting?" The design is so user friendly you can quickly glance over headlines while browsing each most viewed story. Students of post-primary education can access with without being drowned in adds or bias news articles.