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Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: HippoCampus is an interactive homework site that provides homework help in math, science, psychology, history and religion. Content: HippoCampus is a simple but very effective homework help site sponsored by the Monterey Institute of Technology and Education. This site uses a combination of resources to help students understand the basics of nearly any level of math, science, psychology, history or religion class that they might encounter during high school or college. The lessons on this site use images, audio and user interaction to help with the comprehension of the material at hand. In addition to this there are also Spanish options for subjects such as calculus and algebra. There are also links to actual text books, but they are deceiving. It turns out that instead of being able to view the text, the user is presented with a video interview of the textbook's author about a certain subject. This can display a certain bias if the interview is conducted poorly. Another potential problem with this site is that it was last updated in 2007. Now for some subjects such as math or language arts this is irrelevant but for subjects such as science and psychology this could result in the absence of new and important information. Aside from the "textbook" links, this site is so well organized that the user can easily find the exact chapter or concept that they wish to review with just a few clicks of the mouse. Design: This site is well designed and very easy to navigate. There are four advertisements but they are organized neatly on the right side of the screen and are nothing more than links to scholarship information and additional resource sites. The sponsor of the site is clearly stated at the bottom of the page and there is a link to their contact information. The site is mainly composed of two sections, the first being a list of general subjects that the user might be interested in, i.e. math and the second section is where

Allyson Boyer Review date 2/2/12 This website is intended for mostly teachers, but parents could also benefit from this site. It is designed for teachers and parents to find fun arts and craft ideas, as well as educational worksheets. The purpose of this site is for teachers to find free, and fun activates for their students to enjoy. There are plenty of subject areas for educators to explore and find ideas to use in their classrooms. I enjoyed this website because it reminded me of when I was in elementary school and teachers would have fun worksheets for different holidays. We still were learning, but it made more interesting having a light hearted worksheet. There is no specific author for this site, there is a section where people can write reviews and all of them were positive, so it seems to be a good resource for educators and parents. When I was looking over the content of this website I found that most of my evaluations were positive. I did find however, that I did not like the fact that there was no information about the author. I would have liked to be able to read a bit about the author and their views or opinions on the information that they had provided. I also found that there was not a lot of interactivity to increase the value of this website. It would have been nice to be able to experiment a little with the worksheets and pictures, instead of just printing them out. Overall, the rest of the site looked sophisticated and contained good information. The links all worked, the grammar and spelling seemed to be correct, and there was a link to contact the provider of the website. I enjoyed the variety of the worksheets for different subject areas and feel that will be very helpful in the future for my career. When I first navigated to this site I found that it was not very eye catching. I looked over it carefully to realize that the information would be useful. As I browsed through the website I found that there were not many graphics through

Hannah Clucas. October 10, 2012. Overview: This website is a website that has educational powerpoints for teachers to use. It also has links to free templates, clip art, tutorials, and videos. The site is highly useful for teachers who are teaching grade levels from kindergarten to eighth grade. Some of the links, however, are useful for highschool grade levels. I found the site helpful but overwhelming. Content: There is an exhaustive list of powerpoints for all sort of content areas for grades k-8. There are also free templates and clipart for teachers to use. The external links are useful for teachers, parents, and students. There are links to educational gaming sites and to educational video cites as well. There are also links to sites that talk about topics and authors, such as F. Scott Figzgerald, which are for grade levels of ninth and higher. All of the content is useful and relevant. The only problem that could come up is that there is so much to choose from that it may take a lot of time to find what you want. Design: The design is colorful but very simple. It is well organized but it can sometimes take more than three clicks to get to what you are looking for. The powerpoints are very simple and not that aesthetically appealing. All of the links are in areas that are apparent but do not break up the logical flow of the website. Unfortunately there is no search bar and it can take quite a few clicks to find the information you are looking for.

Posted by Tanisha Daugaard on September 21, 2009 This site is mainly intended for middle school teachers, but it can also be used as a resource for students. It focuses on English, writing, and reading. It is a great site to find lesson plans, electronic books and manuscripts, and other useful information for the classroom. Content: This site is very well organized. It is divided into three sections: English, reading, and writing. It has numerous links to other sites dealing with each subject area. It appears to be updated frequently and the website developers also take input on what other sites would be good to add. I feel the content achieves the purpose quite effectively. Everything just flows together. It is easy to understand, and each link has a description of what can be found on the site. The authors appear to be qualified in middle school education. In general, the links work properly and route the users to other useful, creditable sites. Individual contributors are not listed, but an email for the designers is provided. This site also clearly labels the new links that have been posted. Design: The site is designed very well. It is clear of ads and other pictures that are not related to the subject. This site is easy to navigate. Each site that is linked falls under one of three categories. Each graphic serves a purpose and the site doesn't include anything that distracts the users. There is enough information provided that makes the site usable for teachers and students. It covers many areas under English, reading, and writing. The site is modified and the updates are clearly marked. Everything is well organized and easy for anyone of any age to use. Attribution: Using and quoting information from this site can be tricky. Some links clearly state who the authors are, but others don't at all. Overall, I think this site is used more for getting ideas than actually quoting someone. The information provided is very useful, but one has to be careful

Katherine Kerpchar ITEC2360 I found this website to be incredibly helpful, but very cluttered and hard to navigate. The information I found was very helpful and recently updated, and the links to other sites worked properly. The content was not very organized and was not very easy to understand. And the external links had very little to do with the content of the actual webpage. It was hard to navigate between the different links, and there are little to no instructions on how to go from link to link. The content was hard to find and the good information was overshadowed by the poor layout of the site. 

Michelle Hill February 24, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this website is to serve as a resource for instruction for teachers. Therefore, the intended audience is teachers of elementary aged students. Avaliable on this website are kindergarten through 1st grade lesson plans involving all subjects, such as math, science, language arts, and more. Also included on this website are lesson plan fillers, integrated projects, graphic organizers, and classroom management tools. My overall impression of the website was that the content was very useful and the site itself was well organized. Content: The content of the website was rated as very useful for my information needs based on the fact that the total number of "yes" answers outnumbered the "no" answers. The first look at the website was good; I was able to determine the intended audience as well as the basic content on the site right away. The strengths of the website include the information providers, information quality, and further resources. Everything in these sections were included and to my belief of great quality. However, the weaknesses of this website were that the latest revision date was not provided and that the latest revision date is appropriate to the material. Another weakness was that the site did not probice interactivity that would increase its value. Overall, the content was good. Design: The design of the website was rated as very well designed and easy to use based on the fact that the total number of "yes" answers outnumbered the "no" answers. First, the homepage of the website downloaded in a speedy manner and efficiently. Strengths of the home page included the clearness of the page, the contents in the site, and more. However a weakness was that the site did not have a very strong eye appeal. The navigation was also a strength of the website, it was easy and clear as to how to move around the site and directions were not needed. Other strengths of the design were

Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: Internet 4 Classrooms is a website with many components. The purpose of this website is to help teachers use the Internet effectively. On the "Home" menu the user can choose to visit any of the seven links posted. Those include: Grade Level Help, Links for K-12, Technology Tutorials, Assessment Assistance, Daily Dose of the Web, On-Site Training, or About Us. This is a free website that is designed to help teachers find free Internet Sources to use in the classroom setting. Content: This site is full of information and consists of many separate components. This site is mainly visited by teachers who are hoping to find a way to integrate the Internet into their classrooms. From the site the user can choose a specific grade level and subject. Once the user has selected a grade level and subject a list of sites that can be used for classroom instruction appear on the screen. For example, if the user chose Language Arts for Elementary Students, sites such as "American Literary Classics" or "Brain Food" would appear and the user would then choose one of those links to instruct their students. These links can take you to anything from a list of good books to read in the classroom, word puzzles to challenge your students, or anything else related to Language Arts for Elementary students. Design: The website is somewhat organized, however, it can be a little confusing to navigate since there are so many separate links on the Home page. There are also several ads which can become distracting. Overall this site provides good information for teacher and students about using the internet as a learning tool.

Trevor Santy Sept 14 2011 Overview: This site is mostly a teaching resource with activities for grades from preschool to 12th grade. With many different activities ranging through different class levels. The activities also cover a large variety of topics from science to math to English making it a good learning tool as well as a good place to practice the skills associated with that subject. It even says the grade level the activity was meant for making it a must have for a teacher's resources. Content: This site contains different activities for different subject matters such as history, math, science, and a few others. It also has a games tab that contains learning activities for all ages ranging from the easy to some that are very challenging. Also the activities make great lessons for aspiring teachers and the site has help sections in case you get lost or don't know what grade to do an activity for. Design: This websites design is extremely simple and straightforward. With tabs to take you to individual class levels and activities. On top of that it has a handy on site teacher training for using the activities that is pretty easily designed using a mix of videos and text.

Randi McInerney September 15, 2011 Overview: Internet4Classrooms is an educational website primarily for teacher usage, but could be used by students. There is a good amount of information available on a variety of topics, but the site is not as organized or appealing as it could be. Helpful links, educational games for k-12, assistance and information for teachers, technology tutorials, and SAT/ ACT prep are available. Content: There is a lot of information available, but the SAT/ACT prep is only accessible if you become a member. Interactive games, tutorials, and information are available. The content could be easier to find and access. There is email information to contact the website developers. Design: The site does download, but is not that visually appealing or organized. The site provides tabs to find information, but then will just list a large amount of information that you are expected to look through in order to find what you need.

Overview: TeacherVision is a website that allows you to pick themes and units that you would like to teach to a class and offers printable's such as games and other activities easy accessed to give to the student's. It also provides links to lesson plans related to social studies and language arts. This website is for links related to the Olympics, which includes history and ideas to provide for students. The overall design is a bit lacking, but it is easily navigated and offers references and slideshows to help understand the Olympics. Definitely something that would be useful when looking for activities and ideas on a unit concerning the Olympics. Content: You are easily able to determine what is on this website due to its easy navigations and layup where everything is labeled and links are provided for each label. The audience is intended for teacher's who are needing ideas, lesson plans, quizzes, and activities when it comes to a unit; in this case the Olympics. The authors for the links are located once you click on the link, and most are teachers or other educators who have used these ideas in their own classrooms. The copyright is located at the bottom of the page which is an accumulation of all links located in the site from 2000-2011. All links currently work and provide a good source of ideas and interactivity that a teacher may use in their classroom. It is very easy to understand, and if Olympics are not a topic that is needed, then there are themes provided for other units if there is something else needed. I would use this site if I was doing a unit on the Olympics. Design: The homepage is easily downloadable, but does not have a strong eye appeal. It is a site for teacher's use only, not one that I going to interest student's. The site is easily navigated with descriptive links for activities and lesson plans needed for an Olympics unit. Everything is details within the links, and there are resources available for extra information and

Overview: The purpose of this site is to serve as a professional development aid for teachers as well as a classroom tool. It covers all grade levels and all subjects which makes it useful for the whole school or a whole school district. Design: The design is kind of all over the place. There doesn't seem to be any unifying theme or color scheme. The home page is boring to look at and has too much coming at the viewer all at once. It was also difficult to figure out what the primary purpose of the site was. Content: The content is actually pretty good but the site is really more of an educational catalog rather than a free aid for individual teachers. This site then only becomes truly useful if a school pays for it. The "interactive" history section was dreadfully disappointing as there was nothing interactive about it. Overall I would not use this site in the future but it still has uses for some school systems.

Overview: This site is mainly for teachers to help improve their skills and knowledge and by providing information that is useful for them to view for free or purchase. Although this site can be helpful, I think it needs some additional work. It provides videos and workshops for teachers which can be beneficial. Content: The content is clear and easy to navigate although I had a little trouble finding the lessons for students or teachers. One problem I noticed was I couldn't find other links to web sites. The authors weren't clearly identified and there was no information on them. This site is also for others to use. There are lessons that students can learn from on their own at home. It covers Arts, Foreign Language, Literature and Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and History. Teachers and students of all ages can find lessons or material to learn from. Design: The design of the web site is good. The homepage is organized. Other than the homepage, I didn't notice many graphics; however, there are videos of workshops that teachers can view from their own home. The other pages could use more interesting graphics and this site needs to provide other links to other sites.

Courtney Lovell February 2, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide free lesson plans to teacher in elementary education. It covers subjects such as art, reading, writing, spelling, P.E., math, and health. This is a good tool to use when needing lesson plans for those areas. It is something I am fond of and will use in the future. Content: This site is lacking information on the author and revision dates, but other than those two qualities everything else looked really good. At the first glimpse I could easily determine the basic content and the intended audience. The information quality is great. The site is well organized and the purpose is clear. This site provides sufficient information for me because I will be an elementary educator in the future. Design: The design of this site is very eye appealing. There is a table of contents directly on the homepage which organizes the site efficiently. This site is easy to get around and the speed is adequate. This site is lacking directions for those that may need them. Over all the information given in this site will be very helpful to every elementary educator needing ideas on lesson plans.

Mandi Pollard 09-05-2011 http://www.arteducators.org/news-news OVERVIEW: It is clear that this website is available to provide information for teachers who are looking for it. It appears that this website is complete and is not under any construction whatsoever. All of this site's content is well organized and it is easy to navigate your way around this site. This website also provides many useful articles and ideas that can be very beneficial for teachers as well as individuals aspiring to become teachers. I cannot find any bias in this website just like I cannot find any grammatical or spelling errors. Finally, the links available on this website take me to other sites that are beneficial and additional sources of information on the topics available on this site. Overall I feel that this site is worth bookmarking and coming back to for information as it is needed. CONTENT: This website has many articles available to the teacher viewing the site, all containing information about the authors. This site also very clearly shows the authors of the site, as well as the sponsors. This site also clearly shows an address and phone number that can be taken advantage of to reach the authors of the site as well as people who could help with any questions the viewer may have. This website also clearly shows the latest revision date of its material, which just so happens to be September 2011, this shows me that this site is very current and is revised frequently. All links available on this website in order to gain additional information work properly and take the viewer to very helpful websites. DESIGN: At first look, this website has a very professional feel to it. The colors used for this site are all complementary to one another, and aren't too flashy and bright so the reader concentrates on the content of the site as opposed to the appearance. The words are all legible and it seems that it would be easy to navigate around this site. It al

Allison Lindgren September 21, 2009 Website Review http://www.bestedsites.com/ "Best Educational Sites" is a collection of educational games for all areas of learning. Its fun layout with bright colors and bouncing graphics make it most appealing to young children. I think it would be very useful for teachers looking to integrate learning games into their curriculum. There is also basic information on everything from astronomy to engineering. Content Summary: This website has a lot of information in it, but there are no citations. Most of the links work well, but a few are dead ends. The website tells when it was last updated, which was recently, and who it was updated by. The purpose of the site is clear, though. The fun graphics and bright colors would appeal to children, and all the links are geared towards elementary to middle school aged children. There are no obvious spelling or grammatical errors. Design Summary: There are no problems downloading the pages except for the few broken links. The homepage is attractive to young children but the bright colors could be an eyesore if looked at for an extended period of time. The person who last updated the site gives a contact email. The information is well organized into several links provided on the home page and every page has a link to the home page, which makes this site very easy to navigate. The graphics and animations make the site fun and appealing for children, and each page displays a theme common to the information being presented.

Shea Mangold August 31, 2010 This website is used to connect you to different websites like a map or navigation page and it's great for that. This is also aimed for more of a elementary teacher audience it seems like. The owner is Janice Berthiaume, MEd and she has a MEd so I would guess she is qualified and the information is good, but she doesn't have any background information except there is a place with her email to contact her. There are also a bunch of different sponsors and even a place to make donations. It is very well updated, it was last updated August 26, 2010. All of the links worked pretty well except it took forever to load and some led me to a internet is not working page, and took along time loading after that. But when I got to the pages I was very pleased, there's so much information and lessons to choose from. The content was great but in saying that, the design is awful. On the hope page it looks as though someone just threw it together in a hurry, tried to be cute, and then added some cheesy clip art pictures and then threw in some very annoying bouncing books to distract you the entire time. Also, at the bottom of the page all of the sponsors, donations, author information is very bunched together; it does not look very professional. The other pages it links too are pretty simple, bright colored background with links in a different bright color. Everything is on it that needs to be just not great looking. I would have to give this an A for content but a C or D for design

Lacey Boyles April 15, 2015 This website ran very smoothly. I was able to find what I was looking for and also browse other articles easily. The intended audience is anyone who is interested in early childhood development. The purpose of this site is to give advice to parents/teachers, and also ideas on games/activities/art. Over all this is a very well set up website. This site is set up very well. Things are easy to locate as they have blogs set up in different categories. From what I read through the authors grammar and spelling is all correct. They try and set up two blogs a week, I would say they stay pretty current. I did not have any problem clicking on different blogs/articles, I was able to access all that I clicked on. The only thing I think they could add is links to other websites that relate to what they are talking about in a specific blog/article. When first clicking on this website it is very clear as to where you are. The site is nothing fancy so it does not take away from the content. On the homepage there is not too much going on and is easy to read. There is a variety of different information that would help with many different questions. From what I read through articles seem to be up to date and there is not a lot of very old material. This is a website that I will be returning to in the future.

Katie Hurrell January 21, 2010 Overview: Apples4theteacher.com is a website that allows students and teachers to access interactive learning games in creative arts, foreign language, language arts, math, science, and articles. Teachers can also create quizzes and worksheet generator tools in the previously mentioned areas. Additionally a teacher may get articles and literacy coloring pages. Parents may also access the website. The intended audience in this website is teachers, parents, and students. My overall impression bases on my content and design reviews are the website is very easy to use and the content is very simple and easy to understand. Content: Based on the first look on this website the user is able to determine the basic content of the site, also the user is able to determine the audience of the website. The author is clearly identified and information about the author is available. Sponsor of the site is also clearly identified and there is a contact person and address on the bottom of the website. The information quality of the website is all generally easy to understand and locate on apples4theteacher.com. There are links to other sites that are related to both mine and the audience's needs. I would say that this website is very useful and definitely worth bookmarking. Design: The homepage is not very attractive, it is kind of plain but you can tell that you are on the homepage and near the bottom of the page there is a table of contents that describes what is in every section of the website. The copyright is established and very easy to find. The user is definitely easy to move around the website and links to other websites within the original website are very easy to use. There are not very many graphics on the website but it is still easy to use even without the use of graphics or animations. There is sufficient information to make the site worth visiting and it is very well organized. When I was on the website I

The content of this website is focused on teachers and students. It is for elementary classes. The website developer is Judy Miller. She has provided links for every subject. She has also provided lesson plans and activities you can print off and use. Most of the ones i veiwed would be fun and useful in an elementary class room. It was however had to detirmed what tabs were for teachers and which were for students. The design of the website was quite plain. Its does have a clear tilte, description, and image captions however. The boarders are filled with advertising and i did run into a lot of pop ups. These things were very destracting. The website was fast and easy to navigate. The list of links were well organized and easy to use. It was also very easy to contact the person that created the website if you have any questions. The website was up to dat. I couldn't find a date that it was last revised, but the copy right date was 2010. My over view for this website is good. I have saved it in my favorites and will refer back to it for future lesson plans. I found the design and content to be helpful and appropriate for elementary education.

-Overview: This website is a very good resource mainly for teachers that provides ideas for worksheets, activities etc… for them to use. It is not a very visually appealing website, but it holds some good information. It is a good informational source for parents and teachers to gather resources and information for their children. -Content: The content is well organized and fairly easy to access. It is mostly simple worksheets and activities for teachers and parents to print out and work with the students on. There are specific ideas that are featured on the side based on the time of the year and what holidays are coming up. It is good to have the students aware of the holidays and will help the students in the classroom to understand and learn the history of the holidays. Also, the teachers can use the print out coloring sheets as parts of projects or decorations for the classroom. -Design: The website is organized if you are able to look past the advertisements that are on the top and sides of the home page. If you know how to navigate the website, and you are able to focus on the content it way easier to use and the design improves. There are specific tabs that help teachers and parents to find exactly what they are looking for and browse easily around the website and find things that are useful for them.

Scholastic.com Learning Activities (Grades K-5) Sara Scribner 1/23/10 Overview: I found this website to be very helpful. It has numerous resources for student activities and links to other sites with information and resources for teachers. Ads are present throughout this site, but they do not overwhelm you. Also, on the primary page with learning activities for students there aren't any ads at all. Not only would I use this source in my classroom, but I would recommend it to others. Content: Scholastic, a website for teachers is very credible. Information found on this site is current (updated and links work) and information to contact or learn about the sponsor/author is available. There does not seem to be any hidden agendas on this site. This site is organized according to grade level, K-2 or 3-5, and has activities for both age groups. Its information is consistent/accurate, easy to understand, and organized making it easy to navigate. Another positive aspect of this site is that it has activities for subjects like math, science, language arts, social studies, and Spanish. Design: This site is definitely worth visiting. It's content and links to other useful websites makes it a valuable resource. Content layout is organized and everything is clearly labeled. Graphics provide a glimpse of what each game entails and add appeal to the page/game description. Animations and sounds make one's experience as he plays the games enjoyable and exciting.

Hannah Streeter 2/1/2010 Overview- This website had great potential. Unfortunately, it falls short in my opinion. It's a spelling game, but its content is weak, and It doesn't do a lot to help improve or correct. Content- You open the website and come to an explanation page for the game, which honestly would be hard for anyone but a teacher to read if they were there to use the website. Once you start the game, there are five categories to choose from. when you open the topic, there are a bunch of pictures and a wheel of letters. you pick a word and try to spell it. If you get it right, they congratulate you, and you move on. If you get it wrong, the website only tells you you got it wrong. It doesn't do anything to correct you, or help you learn. I see this as a MASSIVE flaw. Design- There isn't much going on on the website. It is very simple. The pictures are clip art animation. I like the fact that the word is spoken, as well as the letters as you pick them. The letter wheel does this spin thing that seems cool but takes forever to load the letter you pick or find letters, due to the fact that it stops at the arrow, then doesn't reset so A is at the top, which is frustrating to me as an adult. There are no links to anything else, except the "contact us" button. So its kind of a cool idea, but it could definitely be instituted better.

great information, great design, reliable resource