Group items tagged

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.

2-5-12 Overview This website is an interactive learning website for everyone. The goal was to make learning fun as well as memorable and to provide an opportunity to learn and improve for everyone. This website has sections designed by subject as well as age. There are sections for preschool/kindergarten, elementary, middle/ high school, college, test prep and adults. There is something for everyone in this site with varied levels of difficulty. The site provides games, interactive reading pages, facts, quizzes and brain teasers. Overall I feel that this site is wonderful and I would use it in my classroom and suggest it to others. Content There is an unbelievable amount of information on this website. It is mainly based for elementary and is separated into subjects; USA, world, vocabulary, health, science, math, history and animals. The site also can be organized by age level. This makes it easy to find an activity based on interest. There really is something for everyone, from preschool games to chemistry quizzes to games for adults. There are also facts of the day in each subject. The hidden animals is great for learning about adaptations and the way animals camouflage themselves and survive in a fun, interactive way. The site can be considered a business since you can purchase software and materials from an online store. However, mostly it is a free interactive website that provides something for everyone. Design I am slightly disappointed in the design of the website. It does not give a revision date even though the information all seems accurate. I am also disappointed in the links. If you open the site from Diigo, the links to pages other than Hidden Animal Games do not work. However, if you open a web browser and put in Sheppard Software, the whole site works perfectly. Even though I am disappointed in these flaws, I really like the way the site is organized. It is colorful and appealing but more importantly it is extre

Becky Stewart 1/24/11 Average site Content: The site is a little complicated at first glance, and there are a lot of different options. Without looking into it as much the site looks very complicated, and its difficult to find a starting point for it. Its hard to tell what the exact purpose of the website is, and who it is exactly for. The author(s) are very hard to find on this website, however the site is sponsored by the government which gives it more legitimacy even with missing authors. The website has a lot of extra information about location, phone numbers etc, but there is no simple way to find out when the site was last updated. The site has plenty of good information, as well as many links to bring the user to different areas to look more in depth into anything. This site is probably used more for adults because of how complicated it is. However, The information on the site seems to be very good and a good resource if used correctly. Design: The site had a lot on the homepage, but downloading quickly. There was no significant wait time for everything to load. The home page is very strong and makes the site look very credible. The bottom of the home page has a list of links that the user can go to on the site, and seems to be pretty organized. The links work well and bring the user where it says its going to. The site is well organized and isn't completely overloaded with videos or pictures. Plenty of addresses and phone numbers are located in a link at the bottom of the page. Overview: The site http://www.ed.gov/ is a site designed for teachers a students. There are no advertisements on the page to be distractions, and the site seems very educational. The purpose of this site is to inform teachers and help out students who may have questions or concerns. In some ways it does this for teachers as well. This is a complicated site so it wouldn't be for younger st

Amanda Larsen 1/23/11 Overview: This is a website that provides free streaming for current television shows as well as a selection of older series and movies. There are few children shows but content is more directed to young adult and adult audiences.  Content:  This site has appropriate information about sponsors and authors which are provided on every show page. The content is current and constantly being updated. A good variety of shows are available for entertainment. Design: The homepage is well organized with little clutter and a clear description of how to navigate throughout the site. Videos are fairly quick to stream. New and popular shows are creatively displayed on the home page for and attractive and user friendly purpose.

Becky Stewart 1/24/11 Average site Overview: The site http://gseis.ucla.edu/ is a site for people interested in the areas listed in this site based on the college. There are no advertisements for anything that isn't related to the site. The purpose of this site is to inform adults about the graduate school, and the subjects that are involved in it. This site is for very old students or adults because this is a program that young kids wouldn't understand or be interested in them. The site provides a lot of links, and a lot of it is basic information which isn't really helpful if someone is looking in depth. Content: The site really isn't complicated to look at, but that is because there really isn't much on the site. The authors aren't clearly stated, however at the bottom of the page there is a copyright date and very good information such as an address. This site was last updated in 2010 so it is a very recent site, which is a good indication that the information is good and up to date. Since this site is more of an information and direction site, there is no indication of bias. There are no grammer mistakes or any indication that anything is wrong with the site. The website doesn't have a lot of extra information. Its is very basic, and that can be a good or bad thing. The sites URL helps to indicate that it is a good credible site where the information can be trusted. Design: The homepage for this site took some time to download because they have a big moving picture on the page and a lot of color and links. This is most likely the reason that the site took a little longer to load. The homepage is very simple and only has a basic information paragraph on it. Overall the site seems to be pretty organized and easy to follow. There is no overload of pictures or animations on the page to confuse people. Its is very easy to move around the site, the links do what

kids.discovery.com Reviewed by Kristie Neises on 8/30/2010 Overview This site is a branch off of the discovery channel main site. It features the television series that are on the discovery channel for their younger viewers. It also has games and activities and some television episodes meant to teach that are themed with the popular shows. This site is overall good for its content and design but it can be a little overwhelming for the audience it is intended for. The site has great graphics and would capture the attention of any child visiting the site, it is worth the bookmark to come back to because of how well it integrates teaching with its activities. The useful information that adults might need is a little hard to find. The main down side I can find is that younger kids might need an adult to find games and activities that they can do on their own since the site takes in such a wide spectrum of age categories. Content The content of this site would not be rated very high by adults. Sponsors are not credited, there are no specific things like author information or reviews. Even finding the contact information is a little tricky. Copyright is not posted since each part of the site has a different one based on the show the game or activity is themed after. There are no links to other sites since it is made to go with a very specific set of content to match the television channel. It is very clear on what the purpose of the site is, it is to entertain and even have a little bit of marketing to advertise for shows and the television channel itself. The website has its obvious upsides in that it is something that has accurate information as an educational program and it is made easy to understand for the age group it is intended for. Design The design of this site is well done. It stays true to its roots and copies the same theme colors and graphics that the television channel itself uses such as the chomping teeth and themed background of the month

Brienna Gregor 10/11/12 Overview: This website is very useful for students, teachers, and other educators in that it fulfills a plethora of scientific inquiries. This website is targeted for children from all grades and ages. Its purpose is to instill scientific exploration in children so as they grow older, they continue to be curious in the science world. This website provides many opportunities for both teachers and students to learn through interaction of available resources that include: Games, Puzzles, Activities, Quizzes, Tell Me More (further analysis for many different scientific interests), and more. I believe the design and content of this website is very, very well done. Content: The information currency and quality is superb due to the fact that it is sponsored and created by Discovery Channel. Contact information can be located at the bottom of the page through the link "viewer relations". This website is professionally done and very credible. Design: It is very easy to navigate and provides a huge amount of information. It is very fast, functional, and uses many different modes of media to stimulate children in their learning. Teachers can definitely bring their students to this website and build a lesson plan on one of its many subjects with ease and gratitude from the children. It is very appealing to the eye while stimulating little minds with information.

Kacy Jo BaileyDate Reviewed: October 8th, 2012 Content: The purpose of this website is to get third grade children to work together to learn more about a specific planet in an engaging and interacting way. The content of this website seemed very informational. There were many links that lead to gain more information if anything was missed within the actual website its self. The content was easy to spot right away, and was very clear who the audience was. The website had content that was meant for the correct audience that was listed. The content of this website also had a page for teachers which made this website not only seem like a good tool for students, but teachers as well.  Design: Because this website was about planets and space there were space ship animations and there was also a starry background. This website also had a very attention grabbing homepage, which is great to get students interested in learning. This website was very easy to navigate for kids and adults as well. Although the website did not have a "how to navigate" page, it was not really needed. The website did have a table of contents for navigation, but you could also get to everything by simply continuing to scroll down the page.  Overview: Overall I thought this website was great, especially for a teacher! Teachers are always looking for inspiration and new ideas to make their classroom more interesting. They are also always trying to find new ways to get kids involved in learning and actually have some fun while doing it. I thought the website had some great ideas, some that I myself, as a future teacher would like to use someday. 

Cassie Nelson February 3, 2012 Overview The purpose of this site is to help Agriculture Educators teach in their classroom. The intended audience is Ag teachers. This website has lesson plans to help Ag teacher in the classroom. Overall, I like this website and will use it for my classroom. Not only does it have secondary lesson plans but plans for adults and middle school as well. Content At first glance you can determine the content and audience. The material is clearly identified. There is information about the author and contact information. There is not revision date provided but the content seems to be updated frequently. The content appears to be complete, organized, and meets the needs of sufficient information. Design The homepage loads efficiently. The home page is attractive and you can tell where you are within the site. The site is easy to navigate. The information in the site is worth visiting. A downfall to the site is there is no date of last revision. There is also no copyright date or date the site was established.

Overview: This website serves as a creative online music environment for children of all ages. Kids are able to compose music and play with musical performance. It also includes many music games and puzzles and educational facts about music. I think this is a great site for children learning music and expanding their music knowledge. The content of this site is very educational and the design is very kid friendly and of high quality. Content: The information provided in this website is straight to the point and its purpose is easy to determine. Author information is clearly identified and easily available. The purpose of this site is clear and the overall content is great for children learning aspects of music. Design: The design of this website is very kid friendly and easy to navigate. It is definitely a site aimed more for kids than for adults including many graphics but very little text. All information is organized and labeled well and can be found easily. The information is sufficient making this site worthwhile.

Overview MyHistro is a multifaceted site. It's main purpose is to aid history teaching by providing interactive maps that display the locations of historical events. It also is trying to jump on the social networking bandwagon by allowing users to create their own timelines with maps of their own lives. It also does the same for businesses. For educational uses, this site can be used for middle school students and above. For middle school students, some discretion needs to be used when choosing which parts of the site to use. It might be a good idea for the teacher to operate the site on a projector. For networking uses, I would recommend that only adults use this site and even then with discretion as by doing so you put your personal information out there. My initial impressions were that this site is very professional and has a ton of content to explore. It is a site that is very engaging for both educational and other uses and could really be a good motivator for kids.

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

http://play.lego.com/en-US/default.aspx Reviewed by Angela Eiden 8/31/2010 Overview This site was created by the famous Lego Company. This site is loaded with fun and interesting games, comics, movies and downloads. Furthermore, this site has tons of content to entertain for hours. However, the drawback is that most of this stuff is not set up into a traditional educational way. Therefore, this site may be entertaining and loaded with fun stuff, but it will not be the perfect educational experience. The games are all Lego related and are quite engaging. However, they do have games for all ages, including preschoolers. Content This site is filled with content, including a copyright listed at the bottom of every page. However, there are no additional sites listed, with the exception of other sites that were created by Lego itself. There is also a copyright for all of the logos listed on the site. Design This site is extremely engaging due to the colors and themes used throughout the site. However, adult supervision may be required for younger kids. The site can be a little misleading on the easiness of getting to where you want to be. You may have to click through several pages to get to the one you are looking for. This may be quite difficult for younger ones to handle.

Overview: The website MathisFun.com is a math website for elementary and middle school aged children. The purpose of this website is to help children understand math in a fun way. In this website there are many different fun learning tools to help the students understand geometry, algebra numbers and measurement better. This website gives links to other helpful websites that have games using base ten blocks adding and subtracting games, and much, much more. Content: The content of the website MathisFun.com is very clear and organized in a very interesting way. This website is fully completed and is used effectively with a well organized and interesting home screen that is easy to understand and helps the child or the teacher find different types math subject areas without any problems. There are other games that have been listed for the higher grades such as 5th grade to help challenge the students in a fun way. The website offers many different types of games and puzzles, along with games to further the education of elementary and middle school aged children. Weather the teacher had the games pulled up on the smart board and then the students could interact with other students and work as a class to figure out the answers. This is a great interactive website for students and for the teachers. Design: The website MathisFun.com is a well designed website that looks like a road with many math stops. This website is full of different colors that grab your attention. The website does not have any ads which is a good thing so the children can focus on just the math subject areas. This website also offers worksheets and a dictionary that the teachers section that offers many different tools like print zone of different activities and work explains different math terms.

Whitney Mills; Website Reviewed: January 24th 2010 Overview: Mathisfun.com immediately draws a person's eye in with a fun, exciting homepage. Anyone can see clearly that the purpose of this website is to help teachers teach their students math. Content: This website has a clear and definite purpose, and that is to help teach children math in a fun and exciting way. The site is very well organized and very well made. I feel like there was much work put into making this site effective for children. The author is very clearly identified, and the links to other websites do work effectively. This website also covers many different areas of math such as; algebra, geometry, data, etc. It is stated on the actual website that the content is updated frequently, which is a huge plus for using this site in a classroom. A person can also check out all the different additions added to the website which could be helpful. Design: The website is very well designed. It is exciting to a child's eye. He/she would be more than happy to learn math using this website. For adults/teachers the website is very organized and clear throughout the entire page. The design is the same throughout the whole site and it seems like a very fun and exciting site to use anytime, anywhere!!

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.

Amanda Lamey January 23, 2010 Overview I chose this site because RosettaStone has seemed to help lots of individuals learn a second or third language. I was impressed when I came to this site. You can choose from a variety of languages, you can purchase packages or just one at a time. With each package it listed the price and a button for you to add it to your cart. They have a toll free number to call. There are videos of people who have used it and learned from it. I think this is a beneficial part in helping someone purchase this item. I know it would help me. I would want to know from experience whether a product is good enough to spend hundreds of dollars on. This website is designed for anyone, but limited to people with credit/debit cards. Any one person can learn a language with assistance and it has been proven that younger children learn quicker and faster than adults. They had a contact button for further information. It also had other available resources like case studies from a classroom, stories of individuals who had used it, videos of people who had purchased and used RosettaStone. It had different options to chose from like; Home school, Schools, Organizations and Personal. The purpose of this site is to let you explore multiple options and not limit you to one thing and one language, its open ended. I think it's a wonderful site and easy to use. I also think RosettaStone's product is expensive which is a downfall because as a college student I have enough bills and money concerns to worry about to where I can't just go spend three hundred dollars to learn a language on my own time. Evaluation of Design The overall evaluation of the design was accurate. It had useful information and sites to attend to gather further information. Instead of reading the material you would have to purchase it, but it showed what levels were for sale and for how much. It even had it available for different schools and organizations. It had a contact us box

Amanda Lamey January 23, 2010 Overview This website is designed for any individual who can drive a car. It's not meant for children. They don't need to know how to change a tire if they can't drive yet. They should focus on something they enjoy or want to learn more about. I choose this site because it was an ".edu". I figured it had been reviewed by more important individuals and was used for educational purposes. I knew I could trust the information located on this site more than a ".com" site where websites have not been reviewed or edited by someone else. It listed multiple sites that were related to this site and had personal information to contact the author of the website. It had the class involved and the copyright date listed. Overall this had all the required information needed to evaluate a website. Evaluation of Design The design of the website was simple. It was one page, but it had other sites listed that were available if this wasn't what you were looking for. All the information regarding the author contacting us, copyright information and location were all located towards the bottom. There were eight simple steps to changing a tire. There were photos involved, but most of all before it even began there was an insert of tools required for the job. That's something different that stuck out to me and I think it would make it easier for everyone if life was like an outline, this is what you need, here's how to do it. Towards the end if you had and questions or comments you could leave them. The only other available resources were the related sites you could visit, but they worked well. You clicked them and you were able to navigate away from you current page to your new one in no time. There wasn't a "error" can't load page or refresh here. The purpose was clear, it was informative. Content The content off the page was designed by children and could be read and understood by anyone. I think that the photos and beg

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

Shelby Shatto January 20th 2011 Overview: Purpose- Provides information to help keep kid's bodies and minds healthy. Attended Audience- Three separate pages for adults, kids and teens. Available Resources- Question/answer section. Overall Impression- Useful for health related curriculum and easy to navigate w/ lots of information. Content Overview: Purpose of the site is clear; sponsor and updates of the site clearly identified; author of information not found Design Overview: Downloads efficiently; great use of multimedia and easy navigation

David May 1/23/11 Fun website full of games for all ages. Captures attention right away with the bright colors and clickable items. Overview: This site promises to make learning fun and it sure succeeds. Many games are at the user's disposal of learning and having a bit of fun. The games have a game part to learn and then another option of taking a quiz to prove that information is actually learned. The science games are fun and have animations which help show the user what is being learned. The history game is more of a pop quiz that has some interesting things that not that would know. The website has testimonials of users explaining how much they enjoy the site. The entire website has many things for children all the way up to adults and college students. The website has some questionable content in the history quiz portion asking about facts of playboy the magazine which isn't so good if taken by younger children. Content: The user is easily able to discern what the content is. The audience is younger children with the colorful pictures and animals all over. An email is provided with easy access to the email through the contact link. The author is listed as well as everyone involved with the website is listed in the about link. The author is listed with credentials and with the amount of patents he currently has. The website doesn't display any kind of updating date nor a copyright date. The website claims that the sole purpose is for educational purposes. On closer inspection one can see that the purpose is to sell software games to schools, teachers, and parents. The site gains loyalty and then sells software. The site keeps the attention focused and doesn't lack in entertainment with all the games. Any type of game is easily found by category. Some games have to been dug for with multiple clicks. The games do provoke learning, but none of the information is listed where it came from. Design: The website has good appeal with the bright color

Becky Stewart 1/24/11 Average Site Overview: The site http://www.greatschools.org/ is a site designed for parents would be my hypothesis. This site is comparing different schools, and seeing which ones are the best. That is why this site would be good for parents. The parents would be able to compare schools and see which ones they would be okay with their children attending. Young children wouldn't be able to navigate this for themselves, because the site is pretty complicated so they wouldn't be able to follow it like its supposed to be used. Content: At first glance the site is very complicated. There are a lot of links that have to be followed if the right information is to be found. It is easy to identify that this site is for adults who are able to follow the links and different information. There is no easy to get information about the author, however, there is a copyright date. The date says that the site was last updated in 2011 so this is a good recent website that will carry the most recent information. An address and contact are listed however which means that contact is possible, just with some effort. The content is pretty well organized for someone that is interested in following all of it. The only flaw in the content is that if the user is looking for specific information about something than it could be very hard to find because other results may pop up that are unwanted. Overall the website has good content that would just have to be sorted out a little by the user. Design: The homepage took a little time to download, but nothing really above normal. The homepage is attractive with a lot of colors and pictures. However, it seems like there is just too much going on at once. It makes it look very confusing and can turn people off of the site just because its so much to follow. The site is easy to navigate and follow the links. On the other hand, just because the links are easy to use doesn't mean the the exact results the user