Group items tagged

Katrina Swanson February 26, 2013 Overview: This website was created by a kindergarten teacher who wanted to share her ideas and lesson plans from inside her own classroom. It is intended for the kindergarten aged level but teacher access only. The teacher looks at the material and then creates her own ideas from it. The site gives tons of lesson plans for every day of the month and even extra fun things to do with kindergarteners. Content: The content of this site is very helpful to kindergarten or early childhood teachers. It is easy to determine what the site contains and also that it is created by a former kindergarten teacher. There is contact info available to contact her if there are any questions or ideas that come up. She provides updated content to the site daily and the links are all working correctly. The site is intended for others to get information as well as entertainment from to use in their classes. Design: The design of the website is very fun and entertaining. It includes lots of visuals of example lesson plans, words, links to different places on the site, videos and even has printables! The pages load efficiently and the links are correctly labeled. The information is organized in a way that everyone is able to view easily. It is a great website for any kindergarten teacher to have to spice up their classrooms!!

Katrina Swanson - February 25, 2013  Overview: The purpose of this website is to engage young children in elementary school but specifically focusing on a kindergarten aged level. It allows students to explore different games and activities regarding letters and numbers as well as incorporating the use of technology. There are numerous resources for children available to use from this website such as learning their numbers and letters while using a computer.  Content: The content of this website is pretty decent. From the first look of the site, the user is able to determine what audience the site is intended for and also to tell the basics of the site. There is no clear author or creator provided due to the fact that it is a student oriented site and not a site with "specific information." The site works properly and all the links provided are available and easy to access for students. The purpose of this site is very clearly indicated that it is for entertainment and learning at the same time. It is very well organized and easy for young children to maneuver around and interact with. Grammar and spelling are correct and this site has great content for students to learn about letters and numbers.  Design: This website is very intriguing by first look. A student would be enthused to use this site and eager to do the activities. The pages are attractive, and easy to access the different links to games as well as other things on the site. The site is very user friendly for young children due to the fact that they can easily go around the site. Lots of pictures, colors, and sounds are used all throughout the site to engage the children as well. It is also a great site because although it looks fun and intriguing it is also very informational to young kids.  Great website!! 

Overview - This website is suited for all people of all ages who are interested in learning about the history of anatomy. It has articles on anything history, but the page I bookmarked is based on history if human anatomy and vivisection. A very helpful page to anyone interested in these topics. Content - The content of this site is pretty good for somebody like me who is wanting to learn a little more about where the technique of dissection came from and how it was brought into the fields that we use it in today. It has strong information and the writers seem to be very credited and know what they are talking about in this topic. Design - The design of this site is really easy to use and easy to find good information. I don't think that the background and borders really match the topic of anatomy, but that doesn't take from the article and the information in it. To me the design is fair and shouldn't strike a reader as something that shouldn't be there.

Zachary Donnan 2/5/12 Overview: This site is essentially a blog site for teachers to bounce teaching strategies off of each other. This site also includes lessons along with what ages that the lessons apply to. There are also opportunities on this site to rate and comment on lessons which could be very valuable for those who are trying to adapt their lessons to their own classes. Content: This site contains a great amount of useful information for teachers focusing upon geography. There are many lesson plans and even examples of assignments for teachers to use in their own classrooms. This site could be very useful for most any teacher at any grade level for a range of different subjects. Design: The design of this site looks like it may be a little outdated, but it still uses many modern facets within it. This site has a good set up that seems to be user friendly, and it includes all kinds of different media to help present visitors with the information included within it. This site seems to be very useful for most any teacher and also seems to be very helpful for working teachers.

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.

2-5-12 Overview This website was designed by the Okaloosa School District in FL. It has sections for the administrators, parents/community, students and teachers to be involved in fun learning. The student resources have many sections such as Brain teaser, Student games, Principal's Club (more games and activities) and Practice activities. The student games are organized by subject and by age level. Activities are easy to find and easy to use. Overall, this website is a good source for students and others in the community to find games, activities and other resources for learning. Content This site has a lot of information for a wide variety of audiences. In student games, there are sections that are then broken down further into different skills in the subject. Overall categories include math, language arts, science, social studies, technology, games for fun, research and homework resources, search engines and preschool games. Once you choose a topic within the subject then links to games in this subject come up. For example, when you choose Number Basics within Math there are 13 different links to games. Each link has a description of what the game teaches or practices. There are a lot of information and fun activities on this site. Design This website is very organized. The whole website is broken down by who will make the most out of the resources. Once in a section such as student's games, it is broken down further and further to really find a game or activity that fits what you want the students to practice. It is not too complicated to get to, it is simply systematized. This makes navigating the website very easy and allows you to spend more time doing the activity you were looking for instead of searching for it or sorting through games that don't fully match the topic. I really like the organization of this website and how easy it is to use.

Stephanie Mecca 2/5/12 Overview: The purpose of this site it to provide art students from the ages of 4 to 12 years of age with a fun, interactive game site to both play and learn through art. There are a variety of games ranging from drawing different types of pictures to game shows to help students determine different types of sculptures and what they are made of. As students play games they are able to learn some art history and are quizzed and art basics which are helpful resources to the viewer. Overall this is a very interactive site where students can learn as they play. Content: After clicking on the little figure to enter the site the viewer is able to read about the site, what its purpose is and who created the site. If the viewer has all ready read this information they have the option to "skip the intro". Although there aren't any links that allow the viewer to read about the sites authors there is a basic link on the main page so that the viewer can redirect the main Abright-Know Gallery website which provides information about the Gallery, copyright information, and contact information. The quality of the Artgames site is great; the site is well organized and understandable for young viewers to follow. Design: On the main page of the Artgames site the viewer can see that the developer of the site is the Normal Force which used Macromedia flash technology to create the website. Once the viewer enters the interactive site they are greeted by a page that has numerous pictures that are links to different games. These links are easy to follow and are usually pictures of the different games. There are helpful directions to read through before playing the games and the same format is used throughout the site. Although there isn't any place in the site that the viewer can find out when the site was last updated and there are no outside links.

This site's audience includes ages 13-100 but it is focused more towards middle school to high school ages. There are plenty of different level of math curriculum from addition to calculus. This site includes games, practice problems, pictures etc. The website definitely catches the eye but I'm not sure if I would count that as appealing. It is very jammed packed with a ton of links for different material. Also the color scheme doesn't seem to serve a purpose but to seem like an arcade. This was the first of my three websites to have a lot of information about the authors which was a good thing. Most of the games were educational and served a purpose but I did find some games that didn't even seem to be mathematics based. The website was organized for the most part, but I feel that there was too much and too many links to choose from, especially from the home page. There needed to be more categories, or less material. Overall, I think this website would help prove to students that math can be fun. I would use it in my classroom.

Candace Carder October 13, 2014 Overview: The website is geography for kids, and the study of our Earth. The website is intended for the audience age of 6 to 9 year olds. The video is copyright from 1998- 2014©. The website is written by Debora Dyess. All of the information is provided in a clear and organized. Overall, the website was created for students to learn more about seasons in a fun and creative way. Content: It talks about the seasons and how the seasons affect the calendar. It then talks about two important events that happen with seasons. It explains the orbit of the sun, and how the sun orbits the sun. Then the website explains how the seasons are different amongst different regions. Design: The website is very organized, but there was some advertising throughout the website which was distracting. This website was designed for younger students, and the adds about Amazon was unnecessary. The website used a lot of words for explaining the four seasons, but they should have used more pictures, if they were aiming for the younger age groups. Overall, the design was clear they should have went without the ads.

Candace Carder October 13, 2014  Overview:  The video focuses on the four seasons in a year, and is aimed for younger children. This video was published on January 14, 2013, and the category that it is focusing on is education. The video is intended for the audience age of 5-8 year olds. The videos information is all there and easily seen.  Content: The website talks about the four seasons, and sings about each season. The video first talks about winter, and how you build snowmen, go sledding, and how you need hats and gloves to go outside. The next season they sing about is spring, and how it rains for hours, and the flowers are starting to bloom. The next seasons, they talk about is summer and how you go to the pool, and how it is very hot outside. The last season the video sings about is fall, and in that season you rake leaves, and wear sweaters. The video then recaps singing about all four season in a year.  Design:  The video is set up to be a cartoon video that catches students attention. It is a song that will stink in your brain after you listen to the song. The video is made for younger students, it is supposed to catch young students attention. The video was pretty accurate and gave good information to students. 

Aylin Márquez 13 September 2011 Overview: Math-Play.com provides a variety of games designed for mainly elementary and middle grades. The games are categorized based on the grade level, subject and type of games. The site has a list of games for teachers and students that is designed to improve students learning skills while they have fun. Content: Math-Play.com offers easy-to-play games. The site includes classroom games that teachers can add to their lesson plans to make learning interactive and fun. The site also shares links to other math games. Even though the date of the last revision is not clearly labeled, the copyright is 2010 dated, and the sponsor of the site is under Doina Popovici name. Design: The homepage downloads efficiently, and the games are readily available. However, elementary or middle grade students may not find this website appealing based on the design of the homepage. The top of the homepage has only one image and lots of text until the user scrolls down on the page. The games are labeled, organized, and ready to use with ease. The graphics, animations, sounds clips serve a clear purpose, and they are appropriate.

Meghan Frank The purpose of this website is to provide math games of different skill levels and different grades to students. The intended audience are students in almost any grade level. This website is intended for students to use to not only get more math practice but to also have fun learning math. My overall impression of this website is that it would be a good website to use to practice math. It meets almost all the criteria of the cyber guide ratings and would be a good resource for students to use in and out of the classroom. This website meets most of the content criteria of the cyber guide ratings. At first glance you are able to determine what the content and the intended audience is of this website. The author of the site is identified, we do not know any other information about the author or whether or not they are qualified to present information on this topic. The sponsor and revision date is also not provided. However, the website seems up to date and all the links work to the different games. The content of the website is clear and it achieves its intended purpose. It is also well organized and easy to understand. The website does better with the web design criteria. The homepage loads fast and is eye catching. You know where you are immediately and there is an index of all the games on the website and age groups. The site is easy to navigate and directions are provided and easy to follow. The links to other pages work and are appropriate to the webpage. Use of multimedia serves its correct purpose and relate to the math on the website. There is plenty of information and games that make this site worth visiting and using. All the information is clear and organized and consistent throughout the site. There is no revision date but all the information looks up to date. Over all it seems like a good website to use even though not all the criteria are met.

Content: This website contains lots and lots of stuff. It is set up like a classroom and has a reading link, a math link, a playground link, and an arcade link. I think this is more of a game site than an educational one. There are also lots of links to other help sites, but the majority of the links are for advertiser's webpage's, distracting visitors. Design: After looking at it for awhile, I started to feel lost and uninterested because of all the advertisements and the lack of visuals. There are thousands of links for kids to go to, and the actual site doesn't really support a good learning environment. As said above, it's mostly games with reading sections that really looks fun, but if you have to look through the games to get to that section, students will probably never get there on their own. The visual part of this website is interesting. The homepage is pretty boring and filled with links, but the reading and games tabs are designed for younger students. Attribution: The purpose of this site is probably intended to promote learning is fun, but becomes easily more of a distraction with all of the advertisements. I don't think I would promote this site in my classroom without adult supervision because students could so easily be distracted by toys and games.

Overview The purpose of this website is to help kids interact with math and reading. The intended audience is K-8. My overall impression of the website is that is very beneficial and a good free website for students to practice math and reading, whereas with other websites you have to pay to use the website. Content The only thing that I would critique on this website is having other links that would be appropriate and have to do with reading and math. But other than that, I would highly recommend this website. Design I think that everything is up to date but there is no for sure way to tell on the website, there is the copy right that does say 2013 but there is no one hundred percent way to tell if it has all been updated. So this is one thing that I would change on the design for the website.

Trevor Montgomery For this resource, we see another website that in a way, tricks students into thinking they are just playing games by giving them subject related activities. With the subjects of math and reading, students having interactive games, books and comics and even more fun links, without thinking they are doing much work. Through the "Funbrain" arcade, students can also complete activities and must pass obstacles to get through an interactive game board. If they do not successfully complete an activity, they will not be able to get past their current location, but will feel challenged to get through each activity and will most likely attempt multiple times until mastery of the activity. The great thing about this website is that students can also use codes to pick up where they left off on the game board so that they do not have to start over each time they log on (with their parents' permission of course). From grades 1st through 8th, there is a great variability from subjects, and students who are feeling extra brave might even try a level of difficulty higher than their current grade level. As someone who used this website in school when he was in elementary school, I can say that this resource is extremely effective and I think that students will come back to it time and time again. Navigating the website is easy enough. If you type in www.funbrain.com in the url box, you will be directed to the site. From here, you can choose to use the math arcade, reading, fun arcade, playground, and all games tabs, as well as books & comics and more fun activities. This website is specifically directed towards the audience of students in grades 1st through 8th, so as a teacher you can trust it to be safe and student-friendly.

Overview Garbology is an interactive online game that is designed for educators to use with their kids to learn about waste. I think this game would be best used with kids that are in upper elementary or middle school but you could expand that age range. It is intended to increase awareness of garbage, recycling, composting, and nature conservancy. This website is well designed and easy to operate. It is clear that they have a lot of resources put into this site.

Overview Code Academy is a website that is used to promote the proper teaching of different computer languages to people of all ages. It is mostly aimed at people who are in computer science classes from middle school through college. The site has a number of corporate sponsors as well as many 'teachers' that donate their time to creating lesson plans for this site. They really advocate the teaching and learning of these computer languages. For being programmers, the site is actually fairly simple and had some glitches on my computer. I will attribute that as much to the computer as much as their programming.

Overview: This website is about different subjects in math. The audience is for students of all ages. It is a little more difficult to navigate in, so you may need to assist your students. This website would be very useful for students to practice and challenge themselves. Design: Like I said before it is not the easiest site to navigate around on for students. And it is not the most attractive site. But it has very useful activities and has very clear directions to help students understand the specific math subject they need more help on. Content: This website has a lot of math content. The point of this website is to help students of all ages get extra practice on their math subject they are currently studying. The content is very useful and will help students in many ways. There are also some free ideas for teachers to use in their classrooms, such as worksheets and videos.

TeacherTube is an educational resource found at teachertube.com. It is a filtered, child-safe video website based off of the popular video site called YouTube. The site, geared towards teachers and students, was initiated by a superintendent from Texas named Jason Smith and is maintained through uploaded user content. TeacherTube is a fantastic source of videos to supplement lessons of all subjects in an elementary classroom. All content on this educational website is current, and its copyright has been updated as of 2015. All video links are informational and relevant, and some information about the people who uploaded each of the videos is available; however, no contact information is provided for the website. Also, the audience and subject matter of the videos are easily determined. The site's credibility is improved by its associations with the American Institute for History Education, Glogster EDU, NASA Ares, and other highly esteemed educational online resources. Over all, TeacherTube provides reliable, audience-appropriate, educational content to students and teachers alike, making it an excellent tool to use in a flipped-design classroom or to supplement any lesson in an elementary classroom. The website's design allows users to easily navigate TeacherTube's videos. The homepage displays a sample of educational videos and organizes them into rows by audience and then by subject matter: teachers, parents, students, and then math, science, and history. Each video shows appropriate content according to the subject and audience it is labeled. Additionally, users can search video channels or specific usernames of people who upload videos. This simplistic format of the homepage is consistent with all other pages, making navigation easy for users of many ages and ensuring efficient loading on any web browser. Clearly, TeacherTube is a well-designed, user-friendly, educational resource for teachers, parents, and students to find credible and informational

A free community for sharing instructional videos and content for teachers and students. We are an education focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners.

Monique Koller Jan. 24 2010 Cool math games is a website that has games, lessons and interactive ways to learn to enjoy Math. Content: The site has some fun games that I can see the educational value in, but not all of them, nor do I see where Math is a part of all of them. For the most part it seems like a worthwhile site I would allow my kids and maybe students to play on. Design: It looks like a fun site from the get go and I enjoyed exploring it. It is pretty easy to navigate around. There are some good lessons and the games are pretty amusing. I could easily find most of the stuff I needed. Overview: The purpose of this site is to be an aid while a student is learning math. This site is definitely directed towards kids. The authors are also hoping that there is adult supervision so that the kids can interact and get help. The games are good most of the time and have good content I think this could be a valuable site to visit.

Purpose The purpose of Cool Math Games is to help integrate math into a more fun environment. This site is geared for young grade school kids. There are different games that are aimed at tackling different types of skills that are needed in math. There are also different lessons that specialize on other skills. These are targeted at a much higher audience, with lessons like algebra and pre-calculus. This site has a lot of good information that could be used, I am just not sure if it is very helpful to students. Content This site contains a ton of materials. It has games and activities for such a wide range of math skills. The entire site seems to be working, however, it doesn't seem like it all is up to date as it could or should be. The games have good skills to be learned, but they are not up to date with as good of programming as possible. It is also not always apparent who the game or activity is accredited to. It is also not too accessible to contact them with as much ease as I would like. Design The design of the page seems to be a little crammed. They have a lot of link and titles, however, it is not done so in a way that is too pleasing. The color scheme is also very scattered and does not seem to blend well together. The pictures also do not seem to add as much to the page as needed. There also seems to be little order to how the games and activities are put up. This site has a great plan, I do not however feel like they completely got it all correct.

This site is used for elementary students to learn and expand their understanding of math in a more fun way than just the textbook. The intended audience is upper elementary students because a teacher can pick a game that will enforce what they have learned, but it will challenge them to think a little bit harder than they might have doing a word problem. The children also don't see this as boring learning; they see it as a fun game. There are various math games that are specifically targeted for a certain math levels throughout the website. For example, there are games for the upper elementary to work on multiplication, fractions, percentages, and negative numbers. Based on the first two questions that the evaluation for content asks, the answers are: yes, I can identify the purpose of the site, and no, the age group is not explicitly stated, but the intention and vernacular leads us to believe that age of the intended audience. At the bottom of the page it is easy to identify who the creators of this website are and how you can be in contact with them. If the sponsors are the advertisers, then they have clear demonstration of their sponsorship in four distinct locations. We can know that his site was last updated in 2015. We don't know how often it is updated, but we know that everything works according to plan. We know that the intentions of this site is to be a fun learning experience that is organized in a way that children can easily locate anything that they may possibly need. Everything on this site looks professional, but it still appeals to a younger audience. This website provides great opportunities for children to grow in their learning of math as well as play fun games. Everything in terms of logistics measures up to what it should be. The design of the overall lay out is kid friendly, and functions properly as long as the updated version of the flash drive is installed. They have specific animations and sounds that correspond with certain games

Emily Pariseau The overall point of the website is clear from the opening page that details specifically that this site provides various creative resources for English teachers teaching to second language learners - specifically this site deals with teaching in Japan and the author of the site, Jeffrey, encourages people to share the site among Japanese teachers as well. The site is extremely simplified with just black Arial text on a white background with just one photo of the author at the top. He explains in the about page that he keeps the site simple so that it can be more internationally friendly across every web browser and on mobile websites of varying operating systems. The site is aimed at teaching English for grades 1-6 in Japan and each link to a grade level provides age appropriate in class activities and lesson plans for basic concepts like counting, animal naming, and holiday vocabulary. Every lesson is provided in word doc format and concise but detailed enough that one could use it in their own class, which the author encourages.

Emily Nielsen: April 15, 2015 This website is intended to educate viewers about rainforests. There is information available about where specific rainforests are, what animals and animals live in them, and how to persevere them. I think it would be a great resource to upper elementary school aged children. Overall, I really like this website because there is a lot of information presented in a format that is easy to navigate. The content of this site appears accurate and easily verifiable. The information is provided by MK and PK Productions and it is material that is copyrighted but can be used for educational purposes. There is contact information provided on the site. I cannot find a date about when the site was last updated but it seems current. The content is well organized into several different categories. The purpose of the page is clearly to be an educational resource about rainforests. Grammar and spelling are correct. The design of the website provides a format that is easy for viewers to use. The homepage catches the viewer's eye with lots of colorful pictures. There is information for contacting the maker of the site to find out more information. There is a wide variety of information on a variety of rainforest topics. The multitude of pictures adds to a viewer's understandings of the topics. The different topic pages on the site are easy to transfer from one to another and are all filled with information and pictures.