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Ivey Barnes 10/13/2014 OVERVIEW This website is an interactive math help website. It provides sample problems for many different topics from Pre-K skills all the way up to High School level materials. If a student enters in an incorrect answer, then the site provides a brief explanation on why the answer is wrong and how to fix it. Overall, I think that the website is a good resource to help students master math concepts either in the classroom or at home.   CONTENT The copy right is up to date by the current year and it is even stated that new topics are constantly being added. The source of all the information on the site is from a technology company whose goal is to create products to solve problems in education. This site is actually one of the products to help teachers and students. The only disadvantage to this website it that to get unlimited practice you have to pay and register to the site. The good part about registering is that they have different payment options for both parents and teachers.  DESIGN The IXL site is easy to navigate; it is broken up by tabs for each grade level and then the links are organized by subject from there. Each of the tabs are color coded and a preview of the content in each of the links is given before you click on the link. 

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

Kacy BaileyDate reviewed: October 8th, 2012All Weather, all the time web questContent: The content of this website was very helpful, and useful for teachers. It was clear that the content was meant for 2nd grade students trying to learn more about precipitation. It is clear who the author is. Even though it is not clear who the sponsor is, I do not believe that there actually is a sponsor. The website is providing second graders with information that is required to learn. It also has a teachers page making it easy for teachers to have their students complete a web quest like this one.  Design: The design of this web quest makes it stand out from a regular website, but it is not super interesting to look at. I do think that it will get most kids' attention though It could use some more designing. This website is also very easy to navigate. Each link is up to date and useful. The homepage clearly states everything that is needed (title, author, what the website is about, etc.) The only downside to the design of this website is that it may be kind of difficult for second graders to navigate. This is kind of hard to assume though due to the fact that children become more technological every day.  Overall: Overall this website is another great web quest to use for students. Instead of learning on the usual white board and projector, this gives students a more hands on way of learning. And of course students love using technology so a web quest is always a good idea to get them working with it. The website had great information for students to learn, and many links to look up the things that the website may have missed. Overall the website seemed to be a great teaching tool. 

Kayla Rider January 23, 2010 Overview I found this site and thought it to be a great idea for art classes to incorporate technology into their classrooms. It is aimed at art teachers and students. It grabs the reader right away with its qwerky sayings and great design. Thought it would be a lot of fun to navigate through entirely. Content This website is aimed at the arts. A portion of our lives that is slowly dwindling downward. It creates a technology environment to enrich and learn more about art. It is geared towards teachers and students but anyone can benefit from this website. Design Of course, being an artsy website, it is colorful and fun to look at. However, the overall design of it is quite applicable as well. It is easy to navigate through and catches a readers attention quickly. Overall, I believe it has great potential for a classroom and/ or a fun afternoon of learning more about art and yourself.

Overview: This website is intended for teachers and provides lesson plans and videos from grades Pre-K to Post Secondary. It offers free information in the subjects of Art, English, Math, Science, Social Studies and Health/Physical Education. This website would be wonderful for teachers who are looking for a new lesson plan on any subject or for any grade. If the teacher creates a free account, they have the chance to find and share any information and also have the privilege of seeing the standards that are required for the school they are teaching in. Overall, this website would be a very useful tool for teachers to plan and share lesson plans, video, other websites and interactive games. Content: After reviewing the content of this website, I have found that most people would not have any trouble navigating and finding information on this page. The homepage is a great place to start because it allows users to login to their account, search the webpage or click on the subject that they would like to further explore. One problem I encountered with this website is that it is hard to tell who the intended audience is. By the websites name one would think that the site was just for teachers, but when creating a free account you are able to select from students, parents, teachers, school administrators and librarians even though teachers would probably benefit the most from this site. All of the lesson plans seem to be up to date, but some of the videos are out of date. The links on the site are active and running and provide great information and resources. Design: While exploring this website, I was very disappointed to find that the graphic design did not have strong eye appeal, but the layout of the site was easy to move around. One of the best attributes of this site is the external links, which are helpful in finding more information in that topic and they were all working properly. There is also a lot of information available to anyone and after

Computer Lab Teacher channel on YouTube, has many educational videos

This site provides several examples of universally designed ebooks for students ages 10 and up. ebooks provide scaffolding techniques to understand passeges (editable by teachers), read content back to students, provide Spanish translations, and allow markup and note taking

Scott Chanthongthip on January 25, 2010 Overview: Although the website has seven books students can read from, it offers a helpful tool in learning to read while listening to the computerized voice. The computerized voice can be distracting to young readers though that cannot put aside the monotonous tone and lack of colorful personality a real teacher can provide. Manipulation of the tool bar for the story can help students highlight text, translates highlighted words from English to Spanish, and allows students to stop the reading to answer critical comprehension questions. The design of the website looks simple at first but I think if this a website to help students read it should be in simpler terms. Use of the computerized reading voice can read the whole page to students, so this can be helpful to navigate the pages. Content: Most of the content is laid out simply but it takes a while to get used to navigation of the different tools. Students that would use this site would probably have some background in reading already, as stated ages 10 and up by the UDL. It takes previous knowledge of reading ability to understand some of the more complex stories the site offers. Using the "Stop to Think" option asks listeners to pick multiple-choice answers that show the student comprehends the story they just heard. If readers miss the questions, clues to the right answer help the reader find the correct answer. As a teacher, I would use this site sparingly because I believe the computerized voice reading to students can bore them quickly. The website also takes away the ability for students to learn from their peers. The books used in this selection from the UDL provide just small glimpse at the plethora of reading material out there. The project team for the website consists of people with Education Doctorates , Master's of Education, and translators. As far as the content update, I could not find when its updates or when the site came into ex

Morgan Carlson 5-18-2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to help teachers create positive lessons about the Holocaust. The website is intended for teachers, and for students from kindergarten through college. Some of the resources available on this website are learning about the founding organization of the website, personal stories from Holocaust survivors, book reviews on the issue, and causes such as the Global Relief fund and Darfur. The content of this site is useful to my needs, and explains in detail the purpose of its postings, and also of the related links on the website. There are several other useful links from this page, and the design of the website is easy to use, and is appealing to the audience. Content: In the opening paragraph of the website, the purpose and intended audiences are clearly listed, along with information about the founder of the site and contact information. The purpose of the site is informational/educational, and the founder of the site is qualified. There are a variety of links, videos, reviews, etc. pertaining to the purpose of the website, and information is cohesive with one another. The website provides a link to the corporate sponsors, and it appears to be free of biased attitudes. However, there are one or two broken links on the page, and the date of last revisions is not stated. It is then difficult to assess how frequently the material is updated. The website's main purpose of providing a variety of instructional tools to help students and teachers is fulfilled, and easy to find using search tools. Design: The homepage is fast to load, and you can easily see the title, name of the sponsor, and contact information upon first viewing the website. There is a table of contents and a search bar that makes it easy to navigate the website. Graphics and videos are placed accordingly, and are relevant to the material being discussed. There are directions that explain how to click on certain links, and a dis

Mark Hyde www.quizlet.com Overview: This site is for students to study on using on line flash cards that they can make or use some that is already on the site. It can be used for any subject and any age of student preparing for a test. Once you get sick of flashcards you can also put them words and phrases into game settings to have a little more enjoyable time studying. Content: The site has various styles of study guides based on flash card studying. A student can do anything from study math to bodyparts in already save flashcards. If wanting to study their own words they can create flashcards of their own. It also has different kind of activities to do including testing mode and game mode which allows you to find out where you are. Design: Simple design that is easy to use. It is not much of an attention getter, but students can see what they need to do and is straightforward on how to use it. The only problem that may occur is some of the flashcards that are saved on there may have wrong information.

Quizlet is an online vocabulary tool designed to simplify vocabulary learning thru flashcards. It allows users to create and share flashcard sets with anyone on the web via facebook and twitter. Due to its simplicity and multidisciplinary capabilities, I definitely believe this site has a legitimate place in educational settings.

Audrey Stevens 9/20/2011 Resources for Kindergarten and Grade One Students Overview: This website was designed for most likely parents or teachers who could then help their children or students use the site. This site provided many links to educational sites free of advertisements and pop-ups. This site was invented with the intent of getting younger children familiar with technology. Many resources were available on this site and based on the evaluation sheets, this site is very useful for information needs, worth bookmarking for future reference and very well designed and easy to use. Content: On this particular website, only one thing fell into the "no" category and once again it was the revision, however other than that there were absolutely no problems. This seemed like the most legitimate site I reviewed. It was very well organized, had great educational content, there was contact information, instructions, information provided about the sponsor and author. There was even a specific tab for other useful websites. It was an extremely professional site that was very useful for information needs and certainly worth bookmarking for future reference. Design: Just like for the content evaluation, only one thing fell under the "no" category, and it was the same thing. The revision date, however, all the information in the site seemed very up to date. This site was still appealing to the eye, only it was not as appealing as most sites, most likely because they were going for a more educational view. The site was easy to navigate through and there were directions provided if needed. All the links opened with no dead ends, the graphics made significant contributions to the site and it downloaded with no problems. It was very well designed and easy to use.

This website is called The Biology Corner. It's a website that is edited by a high school biology teacher who has a bachelor's in Biology and a Masters degree in Educational Technology. The Biology Corner is basically a compilation of useful links for studying, as well as links for worksheets, videos, and resources a teacher would find useful in writing lesson plans. The audience of The Biology Corner includes high school teachers of biology, and high school biology students. I think that this website would be very useful, and it's design is fairly appealing. On the homepage, it's easy to see what the purpose of the website is, with minimal reading. It is mentioned that the website is meant to be a resource for students as well as teachers. The author is clearly identified and there is even a link for more information on her qualifications. All of the content is easy to access and every link works. The website is catered to a single textbook (the one the teacher uses at her school) which causes it to be a bit less useful, but altogether, the website has very good content. The design of this website is okay, but not really appealing. It's very plain and there aren't that many photos or videos that are actually imbedded into the site. None of the important information (table of contents, links, revision dates, author) is missing from the site but it isn't presented to the user in the most attractive way. 

* Jessica A. Wilhelmsen Reviewed August 31, 2010 o International Children's Digital Library Overview The purpose of this site is to provide accessibility to children's literature that spans multiple languages and cultures. Its audience is geared toward ages 3 to 13 as well as for librarians, educators, parents and researchers. The site is a collection of currently over 4400 children's books in 54 languages, with the goal of adding and translating even more. This site provides a plethora of resources for children and adults keeping with current technology as well as current research. Users are able to navigate easily through this site finding information as well as activities that makes it engaging and easy for ever user. Younger children will need some assistance when looking for specific books but will be able to turn the pages as well as make the print bigger or smaller. The overall feel from community postings and twitter, gives this site great reviews. Content The content of the Children's Library allows the user to quickly determine the point and use of the site. It provides a site map that is visible, allowing material on the site to be easily identified. Identification tabs with sub menus are located at the top for quick reference. Children accessing the site, interested just in reading would be able to identify the "read a book" button which is centrally located on the page. The content is free of biases and provides users with multiple opportunities to be interactive. This site is educationally based and updates are provided frequently. It is also, well organized providing information on its mission as well as its sponsors. Design The esthetics of the Children's Library is appealing. It uses mostly primary to pastel colors giving an ease to the feel of the website. The links are also helpful as well as appropriate. When navigators access the "read a book" button the format changes to a more interactive coloring b

Reviewed by Kelsey Bancroft 8/31/10 Overview This website targets educators. It is filled with lesson plans, technology integration, activity ideas, etc. for the classroom. Many teachers would benefit from this site, but especially teachers who are just starting out. There are many different links on this site to navigate to, but there are almost too many links. There is so much on this website, it's a little bit hectic for a person to find what they are looking for. The site is nice because of all the amounts of information that can be found, but it is a little busy. Content The content on this site for the most part is all very good. There is a lot of everything on this site to be found. The only downfall is the process of finding it. If a teacher or anyone has time to sit down and look for what they want, then it's a great site, but if they are crunched for time it may not be the right site for them. There is all sorts of lesson plans, technology integration, proffessional development, and so forth. There is a lot of information here on this site that is worth looking through and bookmarking. Design The design of this site is a little crazy. It is well organized by all the different categories being grouped together, but there is so much on the page that it may be hard to find exactly what one is looking for. The look of the page may turn someone away simply because of how much is going on, but if someone sat and looked through the information it gives, they might find it useful. The design could lose a little cluster.

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.

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

Nathan Wonnacott 9/9/11 Overview: The Smithsonian Institution web page is a way to allow people to access the galleries without visiting the museum and provides insightful ways to teach students as well. The target audience is parents, teachers, and even students. Some of its topics are history, science, art, and technology. I believe this site to be a very useful tool in educating. Content: The first impression of the Smithsonian webpage is a sense of variety. There are pictures of exhibits and links to others not depicted. It doesn't appear childish, but more for anyone interested in American history. Once I explored, I found that the links work successfully and are full of up to date information. The website does leave out links to other sites, which limits resources to the site alone. It also doesn't specify an author, leaving only the sponsor to be contacted. Design: The setup is both fast and easy with organized pull-down menus. The pictures and references to their exhibit are detailed, useful, and attention grabbing. Activities are also available, and help to locate new information. The pages are current, last revised on July 6, 2011. The site is effective and worth visiting.

Ryan Magrum Sept 15th, 2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide information and updates in science in the form of news articles to the general educated public. There are links to scientific news magazines as well as links to other scientific web sites. My overall impression of this site is that it is easy to read and navigate and there is a plethora of knowledge available within the contents. It's great for students studying specific topics in science to read. Content: PhysOrg, at first glance, is not flashy and aimed at consumers. The main goal of the site is general knowledge and entertainment in the form of scientific reading. The articles, with topics ranging from nano-science to medicine, are written with very few technical terms making the content easy to comprehend by the average educated individual including high school students with background instruction in the topic of interest. The articles are news updates on the emergence of new things in science sometimes with a brief explanation of the mechanism behind the new discovery complete with figures. Such articles would be a great starting point for a research paper. The articles also include hyperlinked citations to the primary sources. There are many links to other scientific news sites. Design: This site is not aimed at attracting a passerby web surfer. The target audience is attracted to the content within and already has a general idea of what they want to get out of PhysOrg. Therefore, the site is made easy to navigate and less flashy with few advertisements and the ads on the site are related to the scientific topics and links on the site. For example: an ad for paper that is really white for printing off the articles to read as a hard copy while making the articles easier to read. The links to the articles are strait forward not to bias clicking on any specific article if in the "spotlight stories" area. All the articles are arranged for the navigator to find specific arti