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Interactive website full of artistic games for elem. students

This website is used for the instruction and education of art, including but not limited to great artists, different types of art. This webpage includes ratings for all their games based off difficulty (1.2. or 3 stars) This rating system is especially helpful when instructing students on what games they should play and which ones will be too hard. Grade levels include 2-6th. Content: The content of this page ranked average as I could not find some pretty important things. I couldn't determine the base content of the site, since they are all games, to gauge this, you would most likely have to play the majority of the games. The topic of Art is universal through all applications. I couldn't find date revised or who the admin was, but the sponsoring by Tate was received loud and clear. I felt like this webpage could be very helpful in one specific topic, or very distracting depending on the age group that this webpage was introduced to- I concluded that it would more benefit grades 2-5. There was no biased that I could detect, since the art games were of a wide variety. Design: Overall, good design of this webpage, but a little overwhelming if you didn't know where to start. The homepage is formatted nicely, but there is gratuitous amount of color and things to click on. I could not find a working link to contact the admin, or off-site links. ~A.Rodriquez

Whitney Reese Reviewed: 2/4/12 Overview: The purpose of this site is to help children learn different math skills through games and word problems. The intended audience is school age children from grades 2nd through 5th.  The available resources include several games or "challenges". Each challenge has informational hints and fun facts to go along with it to help the user figure out the problem. I think this site has good resources for helping children learn a wide variety of math concepts. However it doesn't seem as kid friendly as other sites and may be hard for kids to understand how to navigate the site.  Content: This site has several useful tabs for navigation. The website has clear and credible authors and the information seems fairly up to date.  The challenges and games make learning math fun for children and demonstrate how math is used in everyday life and why these skills are important. It even includes a tab that changes the content of the site from English to Spanish.  Design: The design of this website makes it fairly easy for kids to navigate. They may get confused at first because the intention of the site is to keep you on a certain challenge until you have figured out the answer and chosen a new challenge. However, once the kids are able to understand how to navigate this site it should be no problem for them. There is a lot of text on this site that may seem boring for some kids. The graphics are fun and colorful. This website is clear and organized fairly well.

This site is intended to help families outside of school enjoy math by solving everyday problems, but may also be used at school. The material is at a middle school grade level. There are multiple challenge problems and for each problem the website gives hints, complete solutions, additional related problems etc. This website was developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. So there is a lot of valuable information. I like how the challenge problems are unique and different than your everyday practice problems. Although, there was one major problem with the site. It was very confusing and hard to navigate through. There was not a clear indication on the home page of what the purpose of the website was and how to find the information. There were silly animations that had nothing to do with the math and distracted the eye. The set up was not appealing or well organized. Once I figured out how the website was set up I enjoyed the content, but they should have instructions or a table of contents on the home page. I would definitely like to use this website in my classroom and even with my family once I have older kids, but I would hope the authors improve the navigation system for future newcomers

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.

Paige Hanewald 10/21/13 Overall: The purpose of this site is to expand the vocabulary for all ages between middle school students and adults. This site contains not only an accurate dictionary, but competitive and interactive assessments of vocabulary knowledge, specific vocabulary lists, and interesting blogs that pertain to the use of strange words, their origins, and other relating topics. Overall, I think this site could potentially be useful to anyone who wants to expand their vocabulary knowledge, especially students. Content: The content has several organized features that offer what I had mentioned before: dictionary definitions, vocabulary lists and blogs that are updated frequently, and "quizzes". The website adapts the words according to your increasing level of vocabulary proficiency so you are always challenged. Contributors of the blogs are employees of Thinkmap, the sponsor of the website, and usually include a short biography expressing their qualifications to the site. Design: The design of the website makes it easy to navigate. There are tabs for every feature, including contact information. The links to other pages are helpful and engaging and have no issues.

Posted by Craig Shepherd on 9/16/09 Overview: Wikipedia is an open-authoring encyclopedia. The purpose of the website is to provide information about any topic to the general public. Content is generated and reviewed for accuracy by the public. Although public documents can include inaccurate information--particularly on hot topics, much of the content is stable. Links to other pages generally function properly, and content is easy to understand. Content: Although maligned by many individuals as a site that promotes inaccurate information, Wikipedia has much educational merit. However, based on the Wiki style of web design, anyone can make changes to articles and can do so anonymously. This means the learned as well as the ignorant have equal access to contribute. Although references at the end of articles may support the credibility of a work, they do not guarantee it and require additional time to peruse. Because authors can post anonymously, it is difficult to tell whether the article is accurate, timely, relevant, authoritative, and so forth. Yet, recent news events highlight the work of this organization to increase credibility of their content. Additionally, one of the purposes of a wiki is to foster collaboration and group authorship. Although individual contributors may not be listed, inaccurate information can be quickly corrected--though it takes some understanding of wiki syntax which may be difficult for beginners to learn. Despite potential inaccuracies, Wikipedia is a good place to begin your research if you realize that contents may contain biases, inaccuracies, and unsupported claims. Design: The site is well designed. A common look and feel permeate web pages, ads and other distractions are not posted, graphics and other visual elements often highlight important points, and links to related articles are prevalent. Several languages are also supported. Modification and revision dates are clearly displayed and the wiki allows you to

Trevor Lenell The first website I am going to evaluate is Wikipedia.org. The educational site that we have been told to never use for a paper because it is editable by anyone. The intended audience for Wikipedia is someone who just wants a quick overview of the subject they are looking for. It does not cover in-depth content or have large amounts of research in the articles. Everything is available on Wikipedia. All you have to do is search anything in google and Wikipedia article will almost always be in the top three links to show up. The design of Wikipedia is actually fairly good. It loads quickly there's a table of contents for each page and it is easy to find the information you are looking for. The content of Wikipedia is where things get a little shaky when it comes to looking for quality information. Since anyone can edit any page aside from a few that have been locked the information of Wikipedia is not necessarily the best way to find information. We do not know who has edited the site or what their credentials are and we have no way of knowing whether it is a great set of information or a joke put on by someone with an internet connection. There is however a bright side. At the bottom of each Wikipedia article there is the references. These are a great tool to find what was used and what is available to use outside of Wikipedia with the same information. These references are a great way to find academic information from good quality sites and can be used when searching through Wikipedia to find actual research. The design of Wikipedia is pretty good. It works equally well on my internet explorer, Firefox, and google chrome. It loads easily, is easy to navigate, and easy to read. Each graphic and audio file on the site serves a purpose to support the material being read. Overall Wikipedia is a great site to navigate and its shortcomings stem from it being able to be edited by anyone. The next website I will evaluate is NationalGeographic.com. An ed

The purpose of the wiley.com website is to have an interactive educational use about the cell structure of different types of cells. The audience for this site should be older students in science programs, high school age or older. Content The cell structure and being able to compare structures of different types of cells are very important to education of science students. I thought that this site had very good interaction as well as very intelligent and useful information for students. The site would be good to use with students who have a basic knowledge of the cell structures and are looking to enhance their knowledge and review it as well. This would be a good resource in a classroom setting with lots of applications possible from it. Design The design of this website was very easy to use. It had very clear instructions as well as easy to find help sites if you got stuck. The design of this site was helpful to being able to learn about all of the cell structures.

Taylor Pilch 09/09/2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide teachers with a lot of resources for kindergarten-aged children. There are a lot of activities with different subjects, and each activity is a link that takes you to a different website. There are a lot of available resources just because there are so many links. My overall impression of this website was that it was pretty cool, but a found a couple links that were too old or would not work, so it might not be reliable. Content: In evaluating the content, the strengths of this website are that it is easy to determine what this site is about and who provided the information. The information quality was good; it was easy to understand and it seems to be accurate. However, I did not find a sponsor for this website and the last revision was in December of 2009. As for further information, it provided links to other educational websites. Design: This website was not very attractive (it had no use of multimedia on the home page) but it was very easy to navigate. It was very clear what was offered in the site and it seemed to work the same with internet explorer as well as firefox. I would definitely visit this site for resources and information, but some of the material is outdated and I did find a couple links that did not work. As for further information, links to other useful websites were provided.

Ryan Magrum Sept 15th, 2011 Overview: This site is a tour through the exhibits of a natural history museum. The purpose is to experience the museum without actually going there in person. There are many menu options on the home page for kids and for educational purposes. I like this site personally because for students it's like a field trip without ever having to leave the class room (computer room). The site seems fairly main-stream and appropriate for all ages. Content: This is the basic museum home page on the internet. The site has all the information for the museum (contact info, research and curation, business…). There are many links to other similar sites as well as games for kids and to resources for teachers and to merchandising. There are many pictures to lure the user into the site. In terms of the galleries page, The site is a basic tour with captions for each of the interactive picture of real things in the museum that explain what you are seeing in the picture - what a tour guide will tell you. The pictures are mostly for highlights of the museum geared to getting you to visit in person. There is a plethora of information within that is very easy for students and the public to learn from. Design: The site is easy to navigate. All the pictures and colors make the user feel welcome. At first, getting into the specifics of the site and finding what exactly you are looking for is a little difficult but the ease of navigation allows the user to orient their self in the contents after a little exploring. There is a search box so the user can search the site for specifics contributing even more to the ease of navigation. All the advertisements in the site are relevant to education and/or the museum and appropriate for kids.

Overview: This website is targeted for students and is proken up into categorys these category's are ages 4-11, 11-16, and 16+. This website offers educational tools for subjects such as: geography, literature, science, math, music, numeracy etc. Content: Since I am focusing on math once you click the math tab a list of activity comes up (depending on which grade level you chose) under some of the activities there are sections where parents or teachers can have lesson plans, worksheets in order to help your student or child. Design: The design is fairly easy, if you were going to allow your students to use it in class you might need a fast tutorial so they are comfortable but all in all it is very easy. The site uses fun and bright colors so its appealing to students. Each activity has a description so once the student has read through each description they can decide what activity is most appealing to them.

Overview This site has a variety of different content that is geared toward elementary students. Overall the site is rather complete offering different options for students with a pleasing variety of games. It has different links for teachers to follow that allow them to choose games for students and monitor how they do. It has a variety of games and lets you pick first by subject and then by grade level. There are suggestion boxes that all people to post suggestions for games, which is something unique that I have seen to this site. I think that is a good site to use in the classroom and a wonderful tool to enhance children's learning. Content The content of this site is fantastic. They have wonderful games that are simple to use and a joy to play. The games are age appropriate and on a variety of subjects. The content is organized well and it is easy to find what one is looking for. There are suggestions for how to incorporate this into the classroom even mention smart boards and various other technology. Design The design of this page is childish with bright primary colors and fun cartoon characters. An added touch is the titles and headlines look like someone wrote them instead of just typing. It is a site that is very enjoyable as well as simple and has a nice look as well as in interesting.

Content The content in this article is very useful, and would be meant for someone with background knowledge in Bighorn National Forest; Wyoming; Livestock Grazing and Vegetation Management EIS. This site is more complex than the others, but if you have the knowledge to understand, it is a very helpful site. This site is from the Federal Register of Environmental Documents, so it is not updated regularly since it is a one time written article. The sources for the site are very easily found at the top of the page, and would make citing the source very easy. Design The design of this page is very simple. The page is very easily navigated, and the links on the left hand side of the site are helpful. The page is in good working condition, and has no problems. The only issue with the site is that it is all writing, with no breaks or graphics to add to the sites content. Attribution The sources are located at the beginning of the article. They are very easily found, and the site would be easily cited if needed.

Content This site is very informational, and helpful when searching for information on the cattle disease Brucellosis. The authors of this site are easily found, and show that these are credible authors. The information reaches its attended audience well, and the site has very reliable information. The site seems up to date, and has all the needed elements to get a brief overview of the disease. The content of the site is free of bias. Design The design of this site is more plain, but still has everything needed to make a nice internet source. The site has many hyperlinks to other diseases which makes it helpful to find lots of information in one place. All links are working properly, and add to the content of the site. This site is well worth visiting if you are interested in cattle diseases such as brucellosis. Attribution The site has its multiple authors listed at the bottom, and also contains a Privacy Policy link. This site has many different places the information was obtained from, and it sites all of those sources at the bottom.