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Sara Scribner 1/23/10 Overview: This website called Beeswax is meant for elementary students to inform them of current events in a fun, interactive way. It is a new website so the creators are still looking for feedback to improve the site, but it is a great tool for students to learn about current happenings in the world. Currently it is only updated twice a week, but for elementary students I believe this to be sufficient. Content: Information presented on this website is high quality. Its purpose, to present news, is clear, complete, easily understood, and is interactive. Contact and sponsor information are current and available. There might be potential bias on this site however because of its sponsor, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The amount of information offered on this site is sufficient, but the teacher would need some background knowledge about the event. An advantage to this site is that it is free of advertisements. Design: Beeswax communicates the news in a fun, interactive way and is aided by graphics that you click on to see the related story. It has a unique organization that is effective yet appealing. Sounds also accompany your actions as you navigate the site.

Overview: This Chronicle of higher education is a very useful website. Its purpose is to provide news and information on many topics and current events. It is accessible to anyone, but probably intended for educated adults. Content: This website contains a lot of information. Its content consists of that of a newspaper plus much more. It provides tabs for the homepage, which has many headings links articles, and video clips on current news and events. The Chronicle also contains several other tabs including news, opinion and ideas, facts and figures, topics, jobs, advice, forums, and events. When you access the site is easy to determine the content and intended audience. The is avaliable information and the authors and researches for the different articles. The information is always constantly being updated and revised so nothing is out of date. The links also are easy to use and work properly. The information and content presented is not biased and achieves the intended purpose of informing and entertaining. Design: The chronicle of higher education is set up much like an online virtual newspaper. It has columns and headings like any ordinary newspaper but is also colorful and neatly organized to include many tabs and links. It is easy to read and very understandable and accessible. The website downloads efficiently and the site is appealing and grabs tor attention. The sites also provide copyright informational the provider is clearly identified. The links are clear and helpful and all the information including the photos videos and articles serve a clear purpose to the site.

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.

Overview: The purpose of this site is to show simulations/animations of biological processes. It's more related to higher-level biology classes but there's basic animations for mitosis, meiosis, and cellular respiration that would be useful for high school students. This is a really great site, especially for college students because there's more complex processes that will be more easily learned with these animations. Even though there's not as many for high school students, it's still a good resource and has the main processes that high school biology students will need to know and understand.  Content: the content of this site is quickly determined: all of the animations available are clearly visible and laid out. Authors and copyright information is available for each module when clicked on. The date posted is within a few years of todays date so it's pretty recent. The quality of this website is phenomenal - the animations are easily accessed and understood. There are also links to other science current event topics upon clicking on the science in focus tab. Design: The homepage downloads quickly. Each topic is clearly noted with tabs for different services. The page is very user friendly, each module is where it would seem to be. The multimedia use is phenomenal - the animations are very useful for learning different biology processes. It is browser compatible with its use of IOS or flash. There is a lot of valuable content for biology students as well as links to other science current events. 

Tyler Knowles August 31, 2010 Review of World Facts and Figures Overview The purpose of this site is to inform the user of fun facts about different countries around the world such as population of a country or city, maps and country flags. It is very easy to navigate and very interesting. This website would target students, or anyone for that matter, looking to find out interesting facts about a certain part of the world. It also has links to current news going on around the world which stand out drawing the attention of the viewer. Content It is easy to determine the content of the site, however there is no information about the creators of this site. The content is to inform people of different statistics as well as interesting facts around the world which is kept up to date. The site offers links to such as measurement and currency converters which would be handy to any traveler, but is aimed for those seeking general knowledge of other countries. Design The design of this site is very user friendly, again appealing to students. The layout is easy to navigate and has many graphics to help you find out maps as well as flags for countries. By giving top ten country and city population ranks it enables the user to want to inquire more about population rankings and by simply clicking a link this is possible. The date of last revision is not exactly shown however links to current news events from around the world show that this site is updated frequently.

John Paul Evans May 18, 2011 Historyteacher.net is a content heavy page providing many teaching resources for history teachers. The website is usable but needs many improvements. Purpose: Historyteacher.net provides a large amount of content for history teachers. This includes, quizes, timelines, study guides and much more. It also devotes some of it's resources towards updating readers on current events in the field. Content: This website does not lack for content. Unfortunately not all the content is managed appropriately. A person can look at the page and reasonably grasp it's purpose, however they may have difficulty finding the content they are searching for. The site provides a great deal of information and is clearly unbiased when approaching history. However, much of the information reads as if it is pulled directly from a text book and often fails to provide citations or even authors. It does provide many links to credible and useful content providers when more information is required. Also all of the content it provides is free of charge. Design: The design of this site is atrocious. It loads up quickly but has so many links and information on a single page that a user does not know where to begin. It doesn't help that flash animations, gifs and unneeded icons and pictures litter the page almost randomly. The color scheme also seems random and makes your eyes begin to verbally cry out in pain. I would recommend an entire overhall on this website's design. It would also be helpful if news and articles would list an author or at the very least a date posted. As it is I have no idea how regularly the site is updated or if it is even currently active.

Ross Lindstrom - September 21, 2009 Website Evaluation #3 - Politico.com This website is a flashy, attractive website that provides news stories on the American political arena in an easily digestible and easy to navigate format. The audience is pretty vast, including anyone interested in current events in politics. The purpose is to provide newsworthy political articles as well as a forum of discussion to debate content areas such as public policy, congress, lobbying, community, etc. My impression of Politico.com is that it is a well-designed, well-written conglomerate of differing opinion covering a wide array of political topics. However, at times it tends to emphasize the gossip aspect of Washington, running articles such as "Palin emerges as Facebook Phenom". Politico.com is incredibly well designed, with coherent organization of topics and content areas, relevant information regularly at the top, and an easy platform with which to navigate the many intricacies of American politics. There is a healthy balance of information and multimedia without the multimedia being too distracting and without the information being too monotonous. Loading and downloading times are quick. Gossipy stories about Washington tend to get more emphasis on the main pages, but browsing around the site and reading a few articles will tell you Politico is a heavyweight when it comes to intelligent political analysis and debate. The information is current, and links to other useful websites are prevalent. The first look at politico effectively tells you the purpose of the website, as well as the wealth of information it contains. The authors (and their legitimacy) of the various articles are all easily identifiable. The content of the website is all interesting, well-written and fresh. The website tends to lean on the liberal side of the spectrum, but still endeavors to include all dissenting viewpoints. The multimedia section contains a vast amount of information av

Posted by Allie Parrott 09/17/09: Homework spot is a site that simplifies the search for popular homework topics assigned to students K-12. It can also be used by parents and teachers. Content: This site covers a variety of topics. There are even virtual field trips. Other benefits this site provides are SAT tips, current events, and how to write a great book report. Students can find almost anything they need here. The site was last updated today. The incoming information is always fresh and relevant to what students are learning today. There are not only articles from their own authors, but also links to articles that may provide better information for the student. Information is presented in a clear manner. The sight is sponsored by a bigger company StartSpot Media Works Incorporated. HomeworkSpot would help any child navigate their way around the internet. It is also beneficial because the sites that are recommended are credible well researched sites. Design: The most helpful part of the design is that is separates the topics in to age groups. There are a number of links under the heading "Elementary" and the same goes for the headings "Middle" and "High School". This way there is no time wasted, looking but information that is above a child's head, or below their level. The only flaw in the design is that the user has to click at least links to find what they are looking for. However, once they find it the information is most likely exactly what they are looking for. There are Google ads, however advertising is only on the homepage and is kept to a minimum. Attributions: The most helpful link for this is the "About this Site" link. It gives the user all the necessary information about what the site is about and who is running it. It makes the purpose very clear. This would be another site I would recommend due to its fairly obvious credibility. \n

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.

A website for students to learn about current events.

Lynnsey Patterson January 23, 2011 Overview: The intended audience for this site is anyone interested in modern art. The Museum of Modern Art is the be all and end all for artists today and this site is a great resource for finding anything ne would want to know about the modern art scene including the artists, shows, and to see example of how different kinds of media can be used. Content: I find myself feeling a little lost on this site. There is no clear side bar , header, or footer that contains links that I would consider important. The homepage also contains several pictorial links that could be confusing. Aside from the poor organization, the site does contain very useful information about upcoming events at the museum as well as the current collection. Design: Like I said before the organization of this site is questionable but the look of it is very aesthetically pleasing and professional looking.

Karsten Hiser January 30, 2011 Overview Worldwar1.net is an internet site that provides information on World War 1 (WW1). The intended audience for this website is anyone who looking for information on WW1. This site is probably for individuals in early secondary education. On this website you can find a timetable for events that happened during the war, links for other useful websites, and videos on WW1. I think this website was efficient at its purpose. It provided a lot of information on the topic. However the biggest lack of this site was the information providers. There were no names of authors or editors listed. Design For the design of worldwar1.net I found that it was good in many of the areas on the evaluation form. The speed was very fast; there is little wait time for the page to load. On the home page the only area this site lacked in was eye appeal. The background is white and had one black and white picture on it. However the site was very easy to navigate and had no "dead ends" on the site. This site provides the means of accessing many types of media. Worldwar1.net contained a long list of DVD s that could be watched to gather more information on WW1. The website is rather current and provides content in an appealing way for users. Content At first glance, worldwar1.net it is easy to determine the content. The currency of the site is clearly provided, however it is not updated frequently. This can be due to the fact that it is a history site, so facts on the subject do not change frequently. This site has a lot of quality content and is very organized. The information provided is accurate and uses correct grammar and spelling. The weakness of this site is the lack of information provided on authors and editors.

Kent McKee 1/31/11 Overview: http://www.ala.org/yalsa is a website by the Young Adult Services Association that intends to provide information to teachers and students alike in the field of Young Adult Literature. There are copious amounts of information on the site about novels, authors, online classes, news and events etc. The site is well organized. The purpose of this site is clear from the second you navigate to it, it's a resource for anyone interested in English Educations-specifically reading. Design: This website is put together in a clear and effective manner. It has multiple navigation options and is designed in a way that it is easy to get around; it's simple but still looks professional. The site achieves what it is intended for clearly and effectively. It's well organized and clear enough to understand that students and teachers alike could use this site. And because it isn't an overly complex website, it loads almost immediately. Content: The content on this site is clear from the second it is loaded onto the computer screen. It has all of the sites information on the center of the page with links taking you all throughout the site, and to the left hand side of the screen there are also many links to different, applicable websites. The authors of this website are clearly identified and all the information is very current.

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.

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.

New Horizons is an educational site that contains strategies for teachers to enhance and expand their educational curriculum. I chose the Arts in Education page for this review. Content: This website has been around since 1980 and although it is currently retired, it has been the launching platform of many new educational sites. In specific the Arts in Education page offers resources pertaining to art's beneficial attributes in brain stimulation and possible scientific processes that can be applied to art. Design: The design of the site is very easily understood and followed. There are no advertisements on any of the pages and links navigate within the newhorizons.org site only. Although it lacks the appearance of similar websites, this is a very simplistic and easily run learning tool. Attribution: This site's purpose is purposeful and educational. Its aims are primarily at benefiting the teacher and helping to incorporate pertinent tools to their educational programs. As a teacher I would very likely use this in constructing different approaches to learning, however I would be weary of how current and valid the information actually is due to the fact that it is retired.

Beau Pitt 1/31/2011 mises.org Overview: The Ludwig von Mises Institute is an educational website with a clear bias towards the education of the Austrian School of Economics. Its main purpose is to advance "the scholarship of liberty in the tradition of the Austrian School" of economics in opposition to the commonly taught theories of John Maynard Keynes. The website is generally directed towards more advanced students who are interested in a more practical view of economics and is particularly geared towards those individuals already interested in the subject who wish to further their education. This is a very powerful website that offers updated daily articles, audio and video presentations, blog discussions, various events, and even offers online courses through the Mises Academy. Additionally, there are a variety of links to related social networking sites and information sites that greatly add to the quality of the website. The website further expands on its quality by presenting a well-designed home page with an attractive "coat of arms" style logo that catches the eye and helps to achieve credibility. Content: At the first look, the user of this website is able to determine the basic content and audience of the site simply by reading the title. Authors are clearly identified and information is provided about who they are and it is even possible to e-mail the author about their articles! All information is presented either as daily updated articles or in an archives section with dates provided for when the contents were first published or presented. All links are current and work properly. The site is very well organized and easy to navigate. It is clearly biased in favor of Austrian Economics and more conservative principles, but the information is accurate and well-researched. There are many educational options and activities that aid in furthering the user's understanding, and articles are all reviewed by the operators of the web

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

Brick Cegelski 9/5/11 Overview: AAG Center for Global Geography Education offers educational resources for teachers and students. It is very easy to access and is a useful tool for teachers. It provides teaching modules that relate to current events and issues. The website would be very useful to teachers trying to find a good way to teach one of the themes of Geography and to get a look at different geographical issues from a worldwide perspective. Content: The basic content is easily accessible and easily found. The intended audience is stated on the main page. Its intended for higher education teachers, college students, and teachers of Advanced Placement in high school. The authors are clearly defined and information about them and how to contact them are also given. The sponsor of the site is clearly identified and displayed on the main page. The material was updated in the last year and is current enough to still be relevant for the information. The content is complete, well organized and accurate based on my knowledge of the information. Design: The website is easy to follow and downloads quickly. The website isn't too flashy but everything is clear and concise. The contents of the site are clearly indicated along the left side of the main page of the website. Information for making contact with the sponsor and the authors is readily available under the about us tab. The copyright date is easy to determine. All of the links work properly and lead to good information. The graphics are helpful and contribute to the information on the site.