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Overview Although this site does not look extremely professional, I like it because it has several links to other websites that provide useful teaching tools and it looks more realistic and common. One can plainly see that the purpose of this website is to inform teachers of tools that will help them to teach more efficiently in their classrooms. This site also gives teachers connections with other teachers so that they can exchange ideas, teaching techniques, and other valuable information. Content The purpose of this site is very obvious at first glance. It contains the names locations of various teachers and schools as well as links that enable you to view the information they have to offer. The authors are easy to find, however I was unable to locate a publication date, therefore I do not know how current this website is. There is contact information on the authors, but because of the lack of a publication date, I am not sure of the site's reliability. The links to other websites work quickly and efficiently, and spelling and grammar are good. The only other problem I seemed to encounter is the lack of information on the author's background, the publication information, and a site sponsor. Design The webpage and its link downloaded quickly and efficiently. However the homepage lacks graphics such as pictures, colors, and font variety. It is easy to move around the site because all it really contains is links to other teachers and some information on teaching tools. The website lacks a table of content as well as any other information on the production of the website. This site is worth visiting if you need many resources to locate other teachers, but not worth visiting if you are looking for a professional site with a lot of options.

Morgan Kuchta September 1, 2010 Blackboard.com Overview Blackboard (Bb) is a company with a website (Blackboard.com) that is similar to eCompanion used here on the UW campus. It provides an online domain for teachers to post assignments, announcements, proctor tests, host chats and discussions, and post grades. It is an interactive site for teachers and students to communicate and use as a resource. Bb is obviously aimed at the education audience and has different tools for everything from kindergarten to college. I have used Bb in the past in high school and it was always a very effective tool. It was dependable and very user friendly. I would highly recommend this site to all educators wishing to use an online forum. Content Summary At first look, Blackboard is an extremely well organized website, it gives its purpose on the home page and all major pages for the site have tabs clearly labeled at the top. The author information is not available, however blackboard is a company that provides an online forum for teachers and schools to use as a means of communicating with their students and promoting online learning, so it more than likely has more than one author. There is an email address for any support that you need and they also have a frequently asked questions section, broken down by the type of client you might be, i.e. teacher, student, designer, or administrator so you are likely to get your question answered right then and there. The site is very up to date and claims to be adding new features about once every few months so it stays current. The Information quality of this site is great, it is obviously a business and their purpose is clearly stated and easy to understand. It has links to all their concurrent sites that have other tools you can use to make Blackboard more accessible to you and your students i.e. Bb Mobile. Design I had no trouble downloading the home page. Although it is not full of bright colors its appeal states its purpose: efficie

Jennifer Durn January 24, 2010 Pioneer Drama Service, Inc. - http://www.pioneerdrama.com/ OVERVIEW While this site was more of a commercial nature than the others that I reviewed for this assignment, the Pioneer Drama Service website appears to be a valuable resource for the director of a children's theater program or a school drama advisor. The company provides a useful search feature to locate the appropriate play or musical and utilizes a shopping cart, as do many other e-commerce sites. I plan to bookmark this site and use it in my career when I have the opportunity to be a drama or theater advisor in a school setting. CONTENT The intended audience is readily apparent when one first navigates to the Pioneer Drama Service site - the "educational and amateur market." The site is well organized and information is logically presented. The site is updated regularly with the most recent update having occurred on the day I viewed the site. Given the abundance of copyrighted material on the website, playwrights and authors are cited consistently. DESIGN The "Ask the Playwright" feature and blogs are two tools that I had not expected to see on the site. The "Ask the Playwright" button allows the user to send a message through the Pioneer Drama Service to inquire about the particular work. The blog section provides postings from staff as well as news feeds from other relevant websites. Many of the plays and musicals featured on the site also contain production photos and production notes, a useful tool when deciding which theatrical works will be featured in the upcoming season. The site performed without incident using Mozilla Firefox and presented information in a simple and user friendly fashion - search features at the top of the site and a toolbar with drop down menus on the left.

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

Overview: The purpose of this website is to provide Spanish language teachers with a resource for learning tools and lesson planning. The links are helpful and the content is easy to understand. It's not an elaborate website, but is simple and to the point in design. I feel there could be better information in this website. Content: When arriving at this website, you immediately know it is designed with teachers in mind. The authors have a link at the bottom of the screen and look to have won a number of awards for their information on this website. Some of the links don't work which leads me to believe the site isn't that up to date. The Lesson Planning section really isn't that helpful because the links take you to other sites that either don't work or require you to buy products for your classroom. Design: The homepage isn't that appealing to me. There are a number of advertisements that make the site feel it isn't real. It is easy to navigate using the toolbars even though some don't work. There are links to other languages. There aren't many graphics on this website, but I don't believe they are necessary in this instance.

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

Emily E. KrabbenhoftJanuary 22, 2011Overview: This website, created by Discovery Communications, is an excellent resource for parents, students, and teachers. For parents it provides ways to help motivate their children and ways to help with homework. For students it all gives homework help and other ways for students to further their knowledge or to practice what they already know. For teachers there is interactive projects, lesson plans, and puzzle makers. Content: The content of this website, the information providers, and the quality is well presented to users. While the information is provided by a company to further their products, it offers a lot of free resources for everyone. It also does not push its products on the user, for example no pop-ups or constant nagging to purchase things.Design: This website has a great design. You do not get lost when you are navigating the website because it has great descriptions and titles of the pages. All of the links work properly and direct you to the appropriate websites or links. 

Hannah Clucas. October 10, 2012. Overview: This website is a giant database for schools. It has something for administrators, teachers, students, and even parents. There are a lot of available resources. The website is amazing and helpful for all facets of learning. Content: For administrators, there are curriculum options, helpful assessments of resources schools are currently using, and a host of other useful things. For teachers there are lesson plans, puzzle makers, additional resources, and even information on student travel. For parents there is a section on ways they can motivate their students and give them help in homework. The student section has a homework help section as well as links to contests they can join and clipart. There are also videos that parents, teachers, and administrators can use. The website is probably more helpful to teachers and administrators. Lesson plans are divided into two grade level groups, k-8 and 9-12, making it easy to find lesson plans for intended grade levels. Some of the links on the website are not useful, such as the link to downloading Google Chrome. But none of the links are inappropriate. Design: The design of the website is logical and flows well. There is a section for administrators, teachers, parents, and students at the top and bottom of the home page. It is colorful and fun to get your attention, but not to the point that it is overwhelming. Its use of media is appropriate and helpful.

Lorena Garcia Evaluation date: 10/13/14 The site I chose to evaluate was Discovery Education located at www.dicoveryeducation.com. The purpose of this site is to provide free education resources. The intended audience of this site is teachers, students, and Parents. This site provides some downloadable lessons. It offers lessons plans for the various school grades. I feel this site could be a great resource for new and veteran educators. I found that this page is quickly to determine the content because there are links about who they are, what they offer, also they have links for students, parents, and Teachers who are the intended audience. In fact there is contact information for anybody who has questions or verify information about it. Anybody can contact them by phone, (1 800 ), Twetter, and Face book, and e-mail. It is clear that this page is to provide Educational information with the different options of downloadable lesson plans. It is worth visiting this page, specially Educators. They can find a lot information and great ideas for lessons. The information is clearly labeled and organized school year. These links are very well organized and easy to find. I did have some trouble finding my way back to the original page. However, overall I would most definitely recommend and use this website.

Ffa.org is one of the MOST important tools for when you are an ag educator. We use this sight to sign up for various national events and it is used for a resource for the various activities that take place in our program. It holds guidelines for the national competitions that take place and outlines for speeches that our students give. This website is what allows us to keep up to date also with the various changes that Ag Education are undergoing. As we learn and grow so does agriculture it is starting to focus more and more on the services that agriculturalist can provide since production agriculture is only ran by 3% of the American population. It offers us an opportunity to get more members in our chapter and allows us to help us offer those students a broader range of Supervised Agricultural Education Programs. Ag ed used a series of 3 rings to help us better our educational process; FFA, SAE and Agricultural Education, this sight is where all 3 are combined for us for easier access and information to help provide the public with in the future to help continue support for years to come.

Cassie Nelson February 3, 2012 Overview The purpose of this site is for FFA advisers, members, and alumni to get current information. The intended audience is advisers, members, and alumni. This site is very useful in getting members started in FFA and to learn what FFA is about. Overall, I like this website and will use it when I teach. Content At first glance the user is able to determine the content and audience of this site. The site has all of the information about the authors and who to contact for questions. The material is clearly identified. The site seems to be updated frequently. The downfall is there is no revision date provided. The information is accurate, organized and appropriate for the audience. The site itself worked properly, along with the links within the site. Design This website downloads efficiently and has strong eye appeal. This site is easy to navigate and you can tell where you are within the site. A downfall is that the site doesn't have a copyright date or date site was established. There is sufficient information and is clearly labeled and organized.

A free plugin for Firefox browsers on Mac, PC, and Linux that allows you to organize research articles for professional purposes

A free office suite alternative (includes word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, math formula writer, graphics, and database) to Microsoft Office and other proprietary alternatives

Open Source Desktop Publishing much like PageMaker or InDesign

This free applications provides presentation, word processing, and spreadsheet software and allows you to collaborate on your documents with others. It also provides a version history to show all the edits that you (or others) have made to the document. You can revert back to prior editions if needed.

This application offers a slew of services (including word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation). I don't like them as much as Google applications because they have a for profit mentality. They give you very limited services on many of the applications with the expectation that you will purchase a yearly subscription.