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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.

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.

Katharine Johnson September 19, 2009 Ag in the Classroom Introduction: This website focuses on agriculture in the classroom. It has a variety of information and links for both educators and students. Content Evaluation: First Look: When I first looked at the site honestly I didn't think it would be much but it is easy to navigate and easy to understand. Information Providers: The website has been endorsed by the Americans Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Also it has been sponsored by the USDA Agriculture in the Classroom program and is manages through an agreement with Utah State University. Information Currency: The site is not clear about when it was last updated. But most of the events are current so that leads me to believe it has been update recently. The other site links are updated and in working order. The only one that I had problems with was the questions tab. It said the site was unavailable. Information Quality: This site offers a wide variety of information that I believe could be helpful to new teachers. Also I believe it could help students learn more about agriculture. Design Evaluation: Speed: Most of the pages opened quickly and effectively. Home Page: The homepage is attractive and eye appealing. All the information is clear and organized and easy to find what you are looking for. Ease of Navigation: The site is easy to navigate. All the information is clear and organized and helps you find what you are looking for easily. Having the main points larger and bold helps navigate through the site. Use of multimedia: All the graphics and other media's used are effective. Browser compatibility: Only tested Internet Explorer. Content Presentation: All this information could be really helpful in the classroom for both teacher and students.

Katie Hurrell January 21, 2010 Overview: The website transforming teaching through technology is a website that provides students with free plug- ins that allow them to play interactive games for learning on the internet. The intended audience is both teachers and students. The available resources are the programs that are needed in order for the students to use different websites. There is different websites and sections that students can visit to find a game that sounds interesting to them. This website seems like it could be hard to use but the design of the website makes it look not as intimidating as it could be. Content: This website makes it hard for the user to understand what the basic content of the site is. There is no information on the author but the website does talk about plug-ins which might be helpful to a student who does not know what a plug-in is. There is a contact person which is helpful if a user has questions about installing plug-ins. The content on this website appears to be complete and the content of the site is well organized and the site does offer a lot of information on the plug ins and the games that the website has on it. The content of linked sites is worthwhile and appropriate to the audiences needs/purposes. The site is very useful and worth bookmarking. Design: The homepage downloaded efficiently and the copyright date was easy to find. When installing a plug-in there is directions for the user to follow in order to insure that they have downloaded the plug in correctly. The links that are provided to other pages within the site are helpful and appropriate. The site is equally effective with a variety of browsers. There is sufficient information to make the site worth visiting and the information is clearly labeled and organized. The links are well organized and easy to use. A working link is provided to contact the website with any questions or comments. This website is complicated but the design

Olivia Mabie-January 24, 2010 Content: This website has multiple links used in the classroom for teaching with technology. There are many interactive activities for all the subjects aimed at elementary aged students. There were a few things I could not be found on the website such as when it was published and when it was last updated. Before using the links to the other websites you have to make sure the correct media players are installed on the computers, most of these are free. The website is organized in a way that would be easy for elementary students to find what they are looking for. With the topic titles at the top of the page it is easy to get to the place where they need to be in order to complete the assignment. Design: This website was very easy to navigate and it was made easy for the elementary students to navigate it too. There was not any distracting pictures or pop-ups that made it hard to find the links. There are topics/titles at the top of the page which will help find the different links for the subjects. Once the link is clicked on it takes you right to the homepage of the next site, it does not take multiple clicks to get to the website you want your students to go to. There was information I could not find on the website such as when it was published and if it had been updated recently. Once the other links are clicked on there are many multimedia uses in the new websites. Overview: This is a wonderful website for teachers to use because it gets students out of their seats and they get to do something on the computers instead of just listening to the teacher at the front of the classroom. Some students learn differently and teachers need to do more interactive things in the classrooms to get students to understand the subjects better. The site was very easy to navigate and to find the other links/websites found within the original one. This would be a site teachers need to keep in mind to let students learn in a different way.

Colter Huhn 1-24-10 This site has a very clear purpose which is to be a resource for middle school teachers and students, which is the intended audience of the site of course. The resources available on this site lessons and activities for a classroom, project ideas for clubs and classrooms, information on science, games for students and a message board for teachers to share ideas. My overall impression of this site is it is a spectacular resource. The content is perfect for the intended purpose and the design is easy and also nearly flawless. For the content this site is very strong. The basic content is easily found as well as the audience. The author is found at the bottom of the page with some information as well as how to contact them. The information is current, revised within the last ten days, and all links seem to be working fine. The information meets the sites purpose, is complete, very well organized, easy to understand, interactive, accurate as far as I can tell. The web site design was also very strong. The site was fast and compatible with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. The homepage was attractive, clear; it has the site organized into sections, with the site sponsor, information of the provider, and a copyright date. The site was very easy to navigate with the site split up into sections of interest, and all links were appropriate and working fantastically. All videos and pictures helped to enhance the information and the site was very current. The presentation of content was sufficient in information to make the site worthy, it was clear and organized, basic theme, info was easy to find and the links were well organized.

For middle school teachers and students. Resources given are lessons and activities for a classroom, project ideas for clubs and classrooms, information on science, games for students and a message board for teachers to share ideas

Jennifer Durn January 24, 2010 ReadWriteThink - http://www.readwritethink.org/ OVERVIEW The ReadWriteThink site is a partnership between the International Reading Association, National Council for Teachers of English, and the Verizon Foundation. The site contains several sections such as classroom resources, professional development, and parent/afterschool resources. The purpose of the site is to provide a collaborative tool to share free resources in reading and language arts instruction. This site would be a great resource for both the prospective and experienced educator. CONTENT Information on the site is up-to-date and clearly attributed to each author. Each of the sections is organized logically and contains links to various educational and reading websites. Cutting edge teaching methods are featured on the site and include teaching with podcasts and online safety for students. I was impressed with the relevance of the information on the site to today's student and current issues in education. DESIGN The ReadWriteThink site is of high quality with many pictures and multimedia graphics. The site also contains interactive exercises for students from K-12, lesson plans available for download, projects, and games. These various tools present information in ways which are useful for a variety of learning styles. This site is also well organized with logical placement of links and toolbars.

Overview: Read Write Think is a website designed for teachers to assist them with lesson plans, classroom resources and overall classroom ideas. The website is unique in that you can search a subject, and it will give you several different lesson plan ideas for grades K-12. Beyond that, the lesson plan ideas tell you the required materials such as internet or textbook resources, and they also tell you the state standards the lesson will meet. This website is great for generating ideas about different subjects, and creating lessons you might never have thought of on your own. Content: The overall content of the site is very reliable; it was created by the International Reading Association and the National Council for Teachers of English. The ideas, standards, and recommended resources are also highly reliable. All the links on the site also bring you to highly relevant information to the topic you have searched. Design: The design of the site is very professional and easy to navigate. The content is all easy to access, and displayed in a way where you automatically know the intended, professional purpose of the site. All the links to other websites are relevant and fully functioning. There aren't many advertisements to distract you; however, there is hardly any use of multimedia. There are occasional pictures, but in general it is a strictly traditional, informational site.

Meghan Frank The purpose of this website is to help teachers not only be able to teach how to read, write, and think but to also provide resources and help to be able to teach these subjects effectively to their students. This is definitely a website that is more centered on teachers and maybe even parents. This website provides lesson plans, different student interactions and activities, professional development, and videos to help teachers in their classroom. When looking over the content evaluation this website proves to be very useful. It is easy to identify the content of these site as well the intended audience, which is teachers. You can easily locate who the author is, their information, that they are creditable, and they provide information to contact them if you need too. It lists that the latest date that it was revised was in 2014, and that it is updated frequently. All links are also working properly. This website also has high quality information. It achieves its intended purpose for the audience, and it is very well organized and easy to understand. The information appears to be accurate and up to date, and the information is consistent around the site and with the other links. This website also has an efficient design, according to cyberguide ratings. The homepage opens fast and you immediately know where you are and what information this website will give you. There is a table of contents, and you can identify the sponsor of the website and how to contact them. The copyright date is also listed. This site is easy to navigate and has pretty straight forward directions on how to navigate through it. All the links are working and relevant to the content of the site. All the multimedia aspects of the website have a purpose and contribute to the site. The information on this website is very relevant to teachers and would make it worth visiting. It is easy to navigate and is formatted the same throughout the site. Over all this would be a resourceful

Jacqueline Twiford Web Site Review September 20, 2009 http://www.abcya.com/first_grade_computers.htm This first grade website allows you to incorporate technology with your students by allowing them to do activities for learning. This webpage has activities for grade levels K-8 which is helpful for bringing technology to all grade levels. On this site it allows students to navigate the web with voice instruction, and has large navigation buttons for easy understanding. CONTENT On the "ABCya" website it allows students in the first grade to play interactive computer games to learn concepts such as the alphabet, drawing, lowercase and uppercase letter matching as well as mouse exploitation. This site has a list of activities that students can use in helping them learn some of the essential concepts they will need to know. DESIGN The design of "ABCya" is a very colorful and organized webpage. Having a large display for navigation buttons and voice instructions makes introducing technology to your young student very easy. The design of this game site is very easy to use and explains in voice as you go. The webpage's load very quickly and easily. Also, if there is something you do not understand, all you have to do is click on the icon for a description of what the icons meaning is. "ABCya" has a design that will allow you to use it in a short class period without having to run from student to student helping. This design is like having an assistant with each student explaining how to operate it. Wonderful for the introduction to technology in the classroom, without the time frame fear (not having enough time) that most teachers have with using technology in the classroom.

Whitney Lindt Purpose: I think that the purpose of this website is to provide parents and teachers a safe website to send their children to. There is so much that one has to worry about on the internet these days it is nice to know that there are safe websites for the younger children out there that they can learn from. Overview: I think that this site would be great for teachers and parents of young students to use. It seems that more often than not students are learning with technology and they think it is fun and it keeps their attention and this website is great for that too because it is so visually attractive. The main focus of this sight is numbers and the alphabet which is perfect for 1st graders because that is the main focus in the classroom. And this website provides links which would help the students not only learn the material but practice what they are being taught. Content: The content of this site is perfect for what 1st graders will be learning in school. As a teacher I would even recommend this website to the parents of my students so that they knew their children were going to safe websites. There are storybooks on this website which would just be fun for the students to go to or for teachers to use in the different subjects they are teaching if they can apply it. Also there are links that can have the students work with spelling and the alphabet and also numbers. This website might also work for younger students than 1st graders because there are some really easy ways of learning numbers and letters on this site. Design: This website is wonderful because as soon as it opens it would have the attention of 1st graders in school and it would keep them attracted to the website. This website is really easy to read even though it has a lot of colors. It is also easy to navigate instead of just a table of contents the different areas and links of the websites are split into different boxes with pictures on them so it makes it easy for a little kid to

Wonderful website for first grade learning games. There are games for letters and numbers

Michelle Hill February 24, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this website is to serve as a resource for instruction for 1st grade internet activities. Therefore, the intended audience is teachers 1st graders and 1st grade teachers. Available on this website are English activities online involving skills such as story listening, letter recognition, literacy activities sight words, and sentence structure and grammar. Also included are Math activities such as number recognition, patterns/shapes, counting, adding/subtracting and much more! There is also unit themes available for teachers of all kinds. 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. Some strengths of this website include the first look, how it was easy to determine the basic content of the site, the information quality, and the further information. The content of the site was well organized and easy to understand. Some weaknesses of this website are that information of the authors is not available, therefore I do not know if the authors are qualified to present information on the topic. Other weaknesses include that the content was not updated frequently, the last time being August 2007 and the fact that one link to another site was not working properly. Overall, there was an abundance of good content that will prove to be useful in 1st grade classrooms. 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 downloaded efficiently and the website was speedy, which was a good start to the design. Some strengths of the website include that it was well organized, the copyright date was easy to determine, the site is easy to move around, and the content was presented clearly. Some weaknesses include that there were no directions

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

Sarah Skinner on January 22, 2010 Overview The purpose of this website is to give educators some new material for their classroom. There are suggestions on ways to use new tools to get your students more involved and more excited for learning. There are math activity instructions, blogs for people to read about different age groups as well. There are instructions to help a student learn to read music. My overall impression on this site was that it's very informative. Content This site is very easy to determine the basic content of the site. The intended audience is stated in the introduction paragraph that gives a little information on what the website is about. The author is clearly stated at the top of the page. There isn't a lot of information on the author. The sponsor is identified and contact information is available. The latest revision date is stated clearly on this page. The date is a little old but it has been updated in the past year. All links are working properly. The purpose of this site is mostly informational. There are no under construction signs on this page. The content of the site is well organized and is easy to understand. There is a sufficient amount of information related to my purposes. The content may be bias. Articles are written by different people saying what their opinions are. There is some interactivity and the information appears to be accurate based on my own knowledge. The information is consistent with similar informational sites and grammar and spelling are correct. Design The homepage downloaded efficiently but it kind of has a bland look to it. You can tell where you are immediately when you come to this page. There is an index to lead you to different links. The site sponsor is provided and there is a contact link available. A copyright date is at the bottom of the website. I am able t move around within the site with ease. There are no distinct directions for using the site, but it is pretty straight forward. The

Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: Lesson Planet is a search engine designed to save the effort of designing various lesson plans by providing over 150,000 teacher approved lesson plans and over 75,000 worksheets. This site provides material for all subjects in grades K-12 and also includes state standards. Content: This Education World sponsored site has an incredible amount of information that has been provided by many teachers in various fields. It has lesson plans for all grade levels and all subjects including math, science and technology, language arts, education, social studies, health, art and music, and it also includes research resources. Each lesson plan includes the author and date that the lesson plan was posted. Also every lesson plan is rated on a scale of 1-5 by other teachers so you don't waste your time searching through inadequate lessons. Another great feature about this site is that because teachers can post their own lesson plans, there are always new and relevant lesson plans. These plans are easy to access due to multiple links which are designated to different fields of education i.e. science or math. There is also a search bar at the top of the web page that allows the user to search specific lesson plans as well as narrow their search results to grade level and rating (1-5). Overall this is a well organized site that provides a wealth of knowledge. The only thing to keep in mind is that these plans are posted by individual teachers which could contribute to a partial bias in the lesson plan. Another thing to consider is that there is $40 dollar membership fee for this site which is an inconvenience, but this fee also discourages the submission of junk lesson plans and worksheets by other internet users. Design: This site is well designed and very easy to navigate. There are no advertisements or links to unrelated material. The sponsor of the site and contact information is clearly displayed at the bottom of the page as well as t

-Overview: Lesson Planet is an excellent resource for teachers to find ideas and lesson plans for specific topics and grade levels. They are able to type in exactly what they are looking for and it is just like a Google search engine just for lesson plans. There are other links to related articles and blogs for teachers, and there are places where teachers can access the standards. It is a very good place to create lessons from and gain ideas for teaching successfully in the classroom. -Content: The content is easily accessible from exactly what the teacher types in to find. There are specific tabs and easy instructions to help the teacher find what they are looking for. It is a very helpful resource tool that teachers can use to plan activities for specific subjects, for a specific standard and find worksheets and articles that relate to the topic they are teaching. There is a huge amount of content within the website that is easily accessible for anyone who would like to use it. On each page there are tabs to things that relate to the topic as well as a list of subtopics that are easily accessible as well. -Design: The creators are in the process of creating a new design that may be more visually appealing, but currently the design is very simple and professional. It has enough color and visual recognition tools to help you locate specific things quickly and find what you are looking for without creating distractions and taking away from the content. The search portion is big and centered on the top of the homepage so it is easy to type in and find exactly what you need right off the home page.

See handout

Ross Lindstrom - September 21, 2009 Website Evaluation #2 - Teaching Comparative Government and Politics This website is a blog-based collective of information and resources for the purpose of aiding instruction of comparative government and politics. The audience is primarily secondary and postsecondary teachers of government and politics who are seeking resources about and/or specific examples of comparative government they can use for their class. The impression I had was that it was an interesting and at times very applicable for teachers, but the blog-style format and lack of information accessible on command makes the potential application of this website in a teaching environment limited. The website took a little while to load, which I believe can be attributed to the length of the continued thread of blogs/discussion. (Excuse my lack of correct internet jargon). The first thing I noticed was a cramped column of text, outside links, and pictures organized in a sequential, most recent blog entry- at top format. The website lacks a visible title. Even the purpose description is vague: "Teaching Comparative Government and Politics is a complex and demanding task. We can all use all the help we can get. This cyber place is somewhere to facilitate helpful interactions." The blog entries usually include relevant pictures and multimedia links. Despite the lack of outside sources, the blog is archived from 2006, so there is a large amount of articles to sift through. Even though I questioned the main author's legitimacy and authority in the area, all the articles contained something that had practical classroom application. The content is also constantly updated, with multiple meaningful posts coming within the period of one day. It is a bit difficult to determine the exact purpose of the website, as well as the main author. The name Ken Wedding is given as the author, but doesn't offer more information in the way of his legitimacy as an ed

Chelsey Lynch 1/31/11 * Overview: The purpose of this site is to aid students in higher level math classes with problems they may be having and provide further resources. There is an extremely wide variety of available resources on this site. There is everything from enrichment lessons, games, puzzles, links for graphing paper, and overviews of any math content areas. This website contains a great deal of information, but it is not organized very well. At first glance this site looks like it could be very helpful, but once you spend fifteen minutes trying to find what you are looking for it seems a little useless. * Design: This website is attractive and has an interesting layout upon first glance, but after further examination is clearly not very user friendly. The material on this site is far too broad to all be in one site. There are several topics to select from and once you click on that it takes you to another page where you then have to make another selection to actually get where you want on the page. The copywriter date is current and visible, but there are too many advertisements on this page to focus on anything, much less, mathematics. * Content: The basic content of this site is noticeably math but I find the bullets to select from rather broad. Information about the author cannot be found on the website, though there is a link to e-mail them. This leads me to wonder if this information is relevant or even accurate. The sponsor of this site was also very difficult to locate. This site is meant to be useful for higher level math classes, such as high school classes, but I found the help links difficult to understand. This site does contain links to the right of the page for other math related sites. This links worked, and were much more efficient than this one.

I have used the website www.TheMathWebSite.com in my classroom for the past 6 years. By using the internet technology fully in the math classroom, teachers spend less time in preparation/marking drudgery and more time interacting and helping your students. It is intended to be used to assist math class instructions by providing typical examples and solutions to most high school level math topics. 1)  Begin with Bellwork. Choose some questions from a Quiz or Test Sheet, and give out to the class via paper, blackboard or projector.  Let students mark their own or each others. 2)  Give a Quiz on yesterday's topics for marking.  Students can mark their own, each others, or the teacher can mark.  Everyone can do the same quiz, or a different quiz via paper, blackboard, projector. 3) Present the Class Lesson  using examples from the Quiz or Test Sheets.  Show questions and solution steps on a projector or overhead. Present as many examples as needed. Click on the question and the solution steps appear or disappear. OR Present the Class Lesson  via the Lessonboard using the mouse drag & drop method. The lesson can be created and presented line by line via projector/overhead or blackboard. OR Present the Class Lesson  via the Lesson Sheets. The Lesson Sheets only present one question or example at a time. Click on the question and the solution steps appear or disappear. Present as many different examples as needed. 4)  Give some Practice. Choose examples from the Quiz Sheets which allow immediate student checking of answers from the bottom of the sheets. Tests have answers that can be clicked out. 5)  Present a math Diversion such as a Puzzle, Activity, Game, or Enrichment topic to maintain their interest in math and to put some fun into the class. 6)  Assign the Homework. Show students the source of extra practice sheets on the website if they or their parents wish to get extra

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

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

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

Katharine Johnson September 19, 2009 Georgia Agriculture Education Introduction: This website is from the Georgia Department of Education and is there to help teachers in effectively teaching their classes. It has different power points and lesson plans. Content Evaluation: First Look: When I first looked at this site it was inviting. It is well organized and easy to navigate. Information Providers: The authors of the site are listed at the bottom of the homepage. It just talks about who they are and gives their job titles. There is contact information if you have any questions. Information Currency: It just says that it was last updated in 2009. From looking at the information it looks as though the site is maintained regularly. The other site links are updated and in working order. Information Quality: I think the information that this site provides could be extremely helpful to a new teacher. It gives power points with information that could be used and also has lesson plans that could help. Not only this but there is information for other organizations and other aspects of agriculture in the class room. However I did run into some problems opening a couple of the folders, but other than that everything is functional. Design Evaluation: Speed: Most of the pages opened quickly and effectively. Home Page: The homepage is attractive and eye appealing. All the information is clear and organized and easy to find what you are looking for. Ease of Navigation: The site is easy to navigate. All the information is clear and organized and helps you find what you are looking for easily. Use of multimedia: All the graphics and other medias used are effective. Browser compatibility: Only tested Internet Explorer. Content Presentation: All this information could be really helpful in the classroom.

Katharine Johnson September 19, 2009 National FFA Organization Introduction: The National FFA Organization website is a great insight to what is going on in the organization. It gives you events that are going on throughout the nation. Not only that but it has separate lings that can help you find careers associated with the organization. For FFA members it can help them find scholarships and learn about the many opportunities associated with the organization. Content Evaluation: First Look: The homepage is inviting. All the main components are bold and the site is easy to navigate through. It is obvious that the intended audience is for sure high school FFA members and also can be used by Agriculture teachers. Information Providers: The authors of the materials are not clearly identified. However knowing the FFA organization I know that the National FFA officer team has a lot to do with the sight along with the advisors and the employees of the organization. The site sponsors are sighted with a ling on the left hand side. Information Currency: It does not say exactly when the site was last updated. Even though the site does not say when it was last updated it is obvious that it frequently gets updated in order to keep up with all the events. All the links to other sites are current and in working order. Information Quality: The purpose of this site is informational in nature. The content of this site is effective in doing this. It informs the audience of all the news and updates that are happening. The site is also well organized. The main ideas are bold and eye catching while the information and links are all under titles. Design Evaluation: Speed: All pages and graphics load very quickly. Home Page: The homepage is attractive and eye appealing. All the information is clear and organized. Ease of Navigation: The site is easy to navigate. All the information is clear and organized and helps you find what you are looking for easily.

Overview: This is a free site that allows users to create and publish their own stories after creating an account. It is intended for all writers, but has specific features for educators and students. Users do not need an email account and there is no minimum age requirement. The site has templates, artwork, and programming for book creation as well as teacher administrative capabilities. This site has excellent design and content and is perfect for the classroom. Content: Users can quickly tell that the site is for publishing stories and that it is appropriate for all audiences. No authors are identified, but it is clear that storybird is a corporation with many contributors and the content they generate indicates that they are qualified. There is a "contact us" link in the help section and there is an "about" section as well. Last updated information is available on all stories, but not on general site content. All links function. In addition, it is easy to navigate and there is a how to video. Content is complete, organized, easy to understand, and free of bias. The site is almost entirely interactive as it is based on creation. I explored several eBook tools and this one is the best one for teachers. The site does not have any external links, but all content serves its purpose. Design: The homepage is visually attractive and downloads quickly. Navigation is simple and content is clear. There are many resources to help first time users navigate and use the software. The site sponsor information is available at the blog and at the help section. There is a link to email for assistance. The site is easy to navigate, includes an index at the bottom of the page, and all links are active. Excellent multimedia is used to make the site look good. The website is available on a variety of browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. The content of the site is excellent for the classroom. The content is organized, easy to use, and design is consi

Whitney Lindt Purpose: I think that the purpose of this website is to make a website available that teachers could send their younger students to. This website makes it a fun way for students to learn and it also gives them time on the computer which they need to move up in school. Overview: This site has great links that teachers can use in their classroom and with some direction could actually send their students to and students could probably easily navigate this sight. There are many activities for the children that would make learning fun and keep the younger students' interest while the teacher is teaching them how to navigate a computer or just about any subject because this website goes over almost every subject in some way. Content: The content of this site is very useful especially with the younger students in grade school because it is easy to navigate through and teachers would be able to tell their students where to go and the students would be able to do it themselves. The other thing that I really like about this website is it has links to sites that could help students learn and then it has sites that students could just go for fun such as coloring pages. All of the links off of the homepage of the website would serve great use in the classroom and just for parents to send their kids to without having to worry about the safety of the internet. Design: This site is easy to navigate because the table of contents is in alphabetical order. All of the links from the home page work extremely well and one can navigate through this site quickly.

Gary Allen Jan 23, 2011. Overview: As the title suggests, this is a website designed to help kids learn about American history. The site is authored by a man with much experience in presenting history for kids and includes a link to his biography. Content: This site contains many easy to follow links, a glossary, interesting facts, a search box and even some educational games to help present the content. Also included are links to other sites of similar content and a weekly newsletter. There is no date for the last revision of the site, but there is a link to contact the author and ask questions.  Design: The site is fairly simple in design with the main navigation across the top, another menu of links down the left side, and ads on the right side. The lack of flashy elements helps the site load extremely fast however. Navigation is very straightforward and clearly labelled.

Overview: This website's purpose within in a classroom could be for research papers and projects. Each student could choose their own topic and then navigate the links easily to learn more information with concise bullet points, pictures, correlations to current events, and related games. This website included topics in several areas but primarily history, geography, economics, and government. Content: This website has a wide variety of upper elementary social studies information including even broader topics of history, geography, government and economics. The home page had a general toolbar that provided information about the site and the creator. On the left side was a huge bar that linked to many specific history topics such as current events, teaching resources, timelines, and maps. Once you have clicked on a topic from the side bar there are even more links to even narrower research areas. This would be a good site to use for students to create a research project about a topic that they are interested in. There was only one link found that was not up-to-date. Design: The design is not very appealing especially for young children it initially looks a bit bland. Once you have picked a side link and narrowed your topic there are visually appealing pictures and games to go along with the information being taught. The home page took a while to download and had an ad that was generated more towards adults pop-up. The site is easy to navigate following all working links. The website did not work well in Internet explorer but did work well in Google Chrome.

Brianna Gillespie 9/14/11 OVERVIEW: This website is to teach students about the many different subjects related to social studies. Students can use this website to answer almost any questions they could have about social studies. This website is mainly for older children because it has a lot of reading that may be a little difficult for younger children to comprehend. CONTENT: The content includes current events, games, economics, geography, presidents, states, and many more. Within each subject are a variety of links to choose from. Each link is focused on a main point of the subject. There is also a section on the main page titled "This Week in History" with some facts about a certain event that happened in the past. DESIGN: The design has some color, but is a little bland. However, each page has a piece of clipart on it, so it is not completely boring. Children would be able to navigate around this website fairly easily too.

Whitney Lindt Purpose: The purpose of this website is for teachers to go to in order to get ideas about what they could do in their classrooms. Not only would this website be useful for just teachers but there are some links off the home page that would be fun for the students as well. Overview: This site would be great for teachers to get different ideas of ways to teach language arts and math to their students. Not only could teachers learn from this website but their students could also learn from this webstie because there are several links between these two subjects that students could play games from and learn at the same time. This website would keep the students engaged with what the teacher is trying to get across because when a teacher can teach with games students can learn more because they are actually involved in the learning process. Content: The content of this website I think does a great job providing links that teach the students in math and language arts. In the language arts section it goes from grammar, to phonics, to reading; meaning that it basically covers everything that students learn as first graders in the class room when it comes to language arts. In the math section of this website it covers mathematical processes, numbers and operations, algebra, geometry and measurement, and data analysis. Some of these math processes might be a little advanced for first graders but it would still be good for them to look at so they are not completely unfamiliar with them as they go higher up in school. Design: What I really like about this website is that it is extremely easy to navigate. It splits up the information into different grade levels and then from there it goes into the different subjects. I think this website was mostly designed for the teachers to use because it is not appealing to the eye if a first grader were to use it. That is the only thing that I do not like about this website is that it is not really that appealing to the eye b