Group items tagged

a. Overview: The first thing I noticed about this site is that it is a dot-com site. Even though this is the case there are virtually no advertisements. There is a section on the bottom of the page that you can subscribe to this site through RSS feed, google, my yahoo, my MSN, and my blogline. b. Content: The content of this site is very strait forward that this is a site for educational purposes for all ages and audiences. The "about" section contains the authors/owners of the site and why they built the site. There is contact information included. This site is dedicated to sharing knowledge to other teachers. The menu bar includes kids activities and lesson plans. There are no costs involved in this site so it is accessible and easy to use. The only problem is that the credentials of the authors is not listed anywhere which makes the site slightly untrustworthy. c. Design: I personally enjoyed visiting this site. The content was put together very well with the readings enjoyable. What I liked about this site is the homepage specifies that this is an educational site. The homepage is professional and inviting. Each menu bar is linked well to other resource pages for further explanation on the subjects. This was the first website so far that mentions home schooled students and the teachers.

Posted by Kelsey Potter on January 24, 2010 Content: The basic content and audience were apparent on entering the webpage. There is background information and contact information on the sponsors and the authors. The revision date was posted on the bottom of the page and appearing to be frequently updated. All of the links are working properly. The organization of the page was crammed together bulking the links together. Although the information is easy to understand and sufficient to the purpose. The information is free of bias and is correct. Design: The webpage took a little bit longer to load than what was intended although was appealing to the eye. The information was evident and although a lot of information was organized. The site sponsor was evident and was easy to find contact information on. With no directions for the webpage it was still easy to browse through the information. The graphics that are given do not go along with the webpage because they are advertisement. There is a sufficient amount of information, is clearly labeled and easy to find. Summary: Overall this webpage would be beneficial to come to when a teacher is looking for lesson plans. The information is clear and easy to find. There are different subjects for all of the different ages benefitting all different teachers. The resources are trustworthy and the sections are interesting.

Katie Hertel 1-24-2010 Overview: SFS Kids Fun with Music is a website designed to educate children and adolescents about the fundamentals of music. It also provides a great way for people of all ages to hear, learn and have fun with music. Overall it has the accurate information needed and has valuable resources but it doesn't show where it is directly coming from making the accuracy and authority questionable. These resources help if the website is not working correctly along with system requirements in order for it to work effectively and efficiently. Content: The content of this website is supported as one of the best educational music sites out there but it has faults due to the system requirements that it has. In order for it to work the way it's supposed to the required content includes Flash and audio players and Quicktime VR. Although downloading these takes time away from the learning it's quick and easy to do. It includes the kinds of instruments in an orchestra and a music lab full of fun facts and definitions of things related with music. Most of it was easily accessible and contained a lot of information but it didn't give credible information on where it was coming from. It also includes various symphonies that you can take children to enjoy great music and educate at the same time. All in all, the downsides of this included the required programs and not having credibility present. I also had trouble finding dates of publication which is definitely a disadvantage as well. Design: This site is somewhat visually attracting but it only takes up half of a webpage leaving the other side a solid yellow. It kind of takes away from the sites information that it can provide because of the little space used. While it has these faults, it also has good points to it visually due to no advertisements popping up randomly or on the side and is easy to navigate through. The headlines of the tabs easily show what that section is about and tidbits o

Olivia Mabie -January 24, 2010 Content: This website contains lots of information for teachers and future teachers. The website has links at the top of the page that will help with putting together lesson plans, finding out what is current, etc. The classroom link at the top has other links attached inside that will help with putting together lesson plans in certain subjects and it also has a link for the different age groups, elementary, middle, and high school. Other teachers have put this together for other teachers to use; it is a great website with information that is very useful for future teachers and current teachers. Design: This site is not hard to find the things a teacher would be looking for on this website. It is very easy to navigate and find interesting things that could be used in a classroom. The website does not have a lot of distractions on it and there is information any teacher would want to know. Once the links were clicked on there were certain ones that had graphics but not all of them. Not having graphics on each page was good because it does not draw away from the content of the website. Overview: The purpose of this website is to make it easier for teachers to find lesson plans, units, and web resources in a fast and easy way with no ads or pop-ups. Teachers, parents, and even students can use this website to find information they need using the subject/grade level search, keyword search, or the extensive menus the site offers. This is an excellent site for any teachers and future teachers. The website has a ton of good information that will help any teacher out if he/she is stuck on finding something to do in the classroom.

Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: Internet 4 Classrooms is a website with many components. The purpose of this website is to help teachers use the Internet effectively. On the "Home" menu the user can choose to visit any of the seven links posted. Those include: Grade Level Help, Links for K-12, Technology Tutorials, Assessment Assistance, Daily Dose of the Web, On-Site Training, or About Us. This is a free website that is designed to help teachers find free Internet Sources to use in the classroom setting. Content: This site is full of information and consists of many separate components. This site is mainly visited by teachers who are hoping to find a way to integrate the Internet into their classrooms. From the site the user can choose a specific grade level and subject. Once the user has selected a grade level and subject a list of sites that can be used for classroom instruction appear on the screen. For example, if the user chose Language Arts for Elementary Students, sites such as "American Literary Classics" or "Brain Food" would appear and the user would then choose one of those links to instruct their students. These links can take you to anything from a list of good books to read in the classroom, word puzzles to challenge your students, or anything else related to Language Arts for Elementary students. Design: The website is somewhat organized, however, it can be a little confusing to navigate since there are so many separate links on the Home page. There are also several ads which can become distracting. Overall this site provides good information for teacher and students about using the internet as a learning tool.

Trevor Santy Sept 14 2011 Overview: This site is mostly a teaching resource with activities for grades from preschool to 12th grade. With many different activities ranging through different class levels. The activities also cover a large variety of topics from science to math to English making it a good learning tool as well as a good place to practice the skills associated with that subject. It even says the grade level the activity was meant for making it a must have for a teacher's resources. Content: This site contains different activities for different subject matters such as history, math, science, and a few others. It also has a games tab that contains learning activities for all ages ranging from the easy to some that are very challenging. Also the activities make great lessons for aspiring teachers and the site has help sections in case you get lost or don't know what grade to do an activity for. Design: This websites design is extremely simple and straightforward. With tabs to take you to individual class levels and activities. On top of that it has a handy on site teacher training for using the activities that is pretty easily designed using a mix of videos and text.

Randi McInerney September 15, 2011 Overview: Internet4Classrooms is an educational website primarily for teacher usage, but could be used by students. There is a good amount of information available on a variety of topics, but the site is not as organized or appealing as it could be. Helpful links, educational games for k-12, assistance and information for teachers, technology tutorials, and SAT/ ACT prep are available. Content: There is a lot of information available, but the SAT/ACT prep is only accessible if you become a member. Interactive games, tutorials, and information are available. The content could be easier to find and access. There is email information to contact the website developers. Design: The site does download, but is not that visually appealing or organized. The site provides tabs to find information, but then will just list a large amount of information that you are expected to look through in order to find what you need.

Data Dragon describes itself as information services. It has friendly graphics and no advertisements. It is not intended for any particular age group, and appears as though both a teacher and a student could use it. Content: It provides online tutorials, a Sudoku game, an offer to remove banners from web pages, and a "This Day in Music History" section. This all sounds very nice, and although there is no outright problem with the information provided, it is a very basic layout, however, the tutorials have a very easy chronological layout. Design: The design is very poor. The animations are very reminiscent of bad clip art. The script is oddly spaced and there is little information provided about the creator or the websites purpose. Attribution: I would not use this in my class other than to possibly allow my students to play Sudoku. Although there is nothing incredibly suspicious about the information provided, it is not a good aid for teaching.

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

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

Overview This website is my favorite, even though it does not look very professional. It has links to other sites that are easy to navigate through and it has different classroom activities that are described and are to be used in kindergarten classrooms which is the age group that I intend to teach. I am able to find an author and author information as well as a recent "last updated" date and current links on the homepage to lead me to further information. The site lacks color and graphics, but the content and information makes up for it. Content I am able to clearly see that the purpose of this website is to inform teachers of many different classroom activities that can be used as well as a description of each. The author of the site seems qualified to be giving out this information and there is further information given so that you can find out more about the author and her credibility. The site was last revised in December 2009 so the information is very recent. The content of the site achieves the purpose which is to inform. The site appears to be unbiased, organized, accurate, and consistent. Design The homepage downloaded quickly and efficiently as well as its links and contact information. The home page is not attractive however because it lacks graphics or even color. I can clearly tell where I am once I get to this page and can easily find the table of contents and its links. The author, sponsor, and copyright information are easy to find at the bottom of the homepage. It was easy to move through the site and navigate each of its links and the site is reliable and current.

Sara Hindman January 24, 2010 Overview The site I evaluated was NobelPrize.org and its main purpose is to educate anyone about the history of the Nobel Peace Prize award and possibly convince people to pursue that award. Along with educating and persuading, the website has educational games in subjects; such as, chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, peace, and economics. The intended audience for the Nobel Peace Prize website is for anyone over the age or 18, while the educational games section of the website is for high school, middle school, and late elementary school students. Some games include blood typing, Pavlov's dog, Lord of the Flies, electrocardiograms, and a split brain experiment. Unfortunately there are no links to available resources outside of the website. The content was very clear and concise, but the only thing I had trouble with was who designed the website and who could I contact if I had questions. Design is awesome, everything is easy to find and there is clear instructions for the games. I would use this website in my classroom, but it definitely for older children. Content NobelPrize.org had many strengths and little weaknesses. Their strengths included understanding the purpose of the website, easy access to the latest revision dates, and information quality. Their one weakness was I could not find the name of the person who provided all the information. I assume that the Nobel Peace Prize Organization provided all the information and games and that it is credible, but I do not want to jump to conclusions. There were also no links to outside resources that related to some of the same areas of interest; such as, medicine or economics. Overall, the content was great except for the lack of authority. Design This website is one of the best I have seen. The speed was fast, the home page attractive and informative, and the website was extremely easy to navigate. All the graphics, audio files, and video files worked perfectly

Posted by Amber Rittenhouse on 1/24/10 Overview: This site is intended for anyone who wants to get better at multiplication, primarily students in elementary school. The site offers many different strategies and a lot of help to learn the multiplication tables. The site offers many games to apply their knowledge of multiplication to win the games. This site accomplishes its purpose of teaching. There are many links available through this site to go further and learn more. Content: This site contains many games, as well as techniques, tips, and secrets, that deal with multiplication. There is a way to contact someone in the case of questions or a problem of some sort. The purpose of the site is to help kids with their multiplication problems. The site does this through games, so the kids are entertained. Through the entertainment they are learning. The content is well organized. All of the games you get to choose your level of difficulty, so kids of a variety of ages can use this site. There are further links provided for more practice. There are only a few ads spread around the outside of the web page, so they are not very distracting. Design: This site is well designed. The homepage downloads quickly, and all of the links do so as well. It is very easy to get to the lessons and the games. Strategies to help someone better learn their multiplication tables is also easily found. The whole site is very colorful, and it catches the eye very easily.

Sara Hindman January 24, 2010 Overview I evaluated the Discovery Kids website because of my interest of the Discovery channel. The purpose of this website is to advertise the channel and I know this because of all the emphasis on their characters. Although the website's main purpose is to advertise, another purpose is educational. Most of their games have no educational value whatsoever, but I was did manage to find some that were extremely beneficial. One was the Build a Volcano game in which the student controls the viscosity and gas of a volcano and watches to see what happens when different variables are increased or decreased. Another game was Make a Mummy, which the student learns about the different procedures the body must go through in order to become a mummy. I learned many things I did not know before. The intended audience for this website is ages seven through twelve. I did not find any links to other websites. I find this website to be a waste except for the few games I found to be educational. Content The Discovery Kids website clearly stated its purpose of advertising and the intended audience by pasting most of their television characters on the home page. Like the nobelprize.org, kids.discovery.com failed to state who the author of the website is, although I was able to find when the last revision was (2010.) The information quality is great, there is nothing "under construction" or inaccurate. There is no further information for this website. Overall I would say the content is ok, nothing spectacular. Design The design of this website is good because of its eye-catching pages. I completely understand why children would find this website appealing because it has everything to offer children; their favorite characters and fun games. The speed of this website is fast and it is easy to navigate. All of the multimedia is loaded fast and provided perfect quality. I am not sure if this website is compatible was different browser bec

Jennifer Durn January 24, 2010 ArtsWork - The Kax Herberger Center for Children and the Arts - http://artswork.asu.edu/ OVERVIEW The ArtsWork site, part of the Kax Herberger Center for Children and the Arts at Arizona State University, provides a multitude of resources and art educational materials for K-12 students, their parents, and teachers. Lesson plans, teaching resources, and curriculum are available to teachers to view and utilize in their classrooms. The site offers interactive activities on various subjects for students and their parents to complete, links to arts-oriented websites for children of various age groups, and listings of activities for children in the Tucson and Phoenix areas. CONTENT When the user first accesses the ArtsWork site, the purpose and mission is readily apparent - to educate children and their parents about visual arts, dance, theater, and music, and to provide K-12 teachers with tools to best instruct their students. Sources and authors of material on the site are clearly identified and their contact information is provided. Information appears to be relatively current as the most recent update occurred in November 2009 but some out of date references were detected. DESIGN The ArtsWork site features a pleasant visual design with multimedia teaching resources such as Ben, the guide to political cartoons. The site is simple to navigate and links to other subject and age appropriate websites were plentiful and featured sites from around the world. Using Mozilla Firefox, I did not encounter difficulties with the content or links presented on the site. The primary sponsor and host of the site, Arizona State University, was mentioned and had logos displayed in a tasteful manner.

Emily Scoles 1/24/2010 Content Summary: This is a Russian language learning site. This site has some audio but is more in depth with writing, grammar, and sentence structure. There are links to other Russian language learning sites as well. Overview: The website clearly states it's purpose to teach the Russian language to anyone who wants to learn it. The layout is descriptive and organized. The site is geared toward older age groups. The site is basic in it's look with no pictures or graphics. Design Summary: The sponsor is shown on the website and a link for questions is given. There isn't information about the author on the site. Overview:This site fulfills it's purpose to explain and help teach the Russian language and writing. The site and links are working properly. The information is mostly unbiased, but some of the introduction paragraphs have opinion. The grammar and spelling is correct in the site.

Scholastic.com Learning Activities (Grades K-5) Sara Scribner 1/23/10 Overview: I found this website to be very helpful. It has numerous resources for student activities and links to other sites with information and resources for teachers. Ads are present throughout this site, but they do not overwhelm you. Also, on the primary page with learning activities for students there aren't any ads at all. Not only would I use this source in my classroom, but I would recommend it to others. Content: Scholastic, a website for teachers is very credible. Information found on this site is current (updated and links work) and information to contact or learn about the sponsor/author is available. There does not seem to be any hidden agendas on this site. This site is organized according to grade level, K-2 or 3-5, and has activities for both age groups. Its information is consistent/accurate, easy to understand, and organized making it easy to navigate. Another positive aspect of this site is that it has activities for subjects like math, science, language arts, social studies, and Spanish. Design: This site is definitely worth visiting. It's content and links to other useful websites makes it a valuable resource. Content layout is organized and everything is clearly labeled. Graphics provide a glimpse of what each game entails and add appeal to the page/game description. Animations and sounds make one's experience as he plays the games enjoyable and exciting.

Alexis Lunberg: February 1, 2011 The purpose of this website is to provide games and activities for young children in math, science, and literacy. The site also provides a link for homework help. Each section of the website is supposed to provide interactive teaching games and activities for the subject provided. The intended audience looks like it would be around kindergarten through third grade. The design is really simple and not very eye catching and there isn't very much content on the homepage. Since there isn't very much content it is hard to know what is actually on the site. Content There are a lot of things to critique on the content of this website. First of all it is very hard to identify what age group the site is intended for, and there is very little information about the person/people who made the website. Also the viewer has no idea when the site was made and whether the site has been updated. Some of the links to the other sections of the website are not working and the site doesn't really meet the purposes that the teacher would think it would. The games are of low quality and outdated. Overall the site doesn't have very good content. Design The design of the website can overall be confusing if you are trying to get back to where you started. The homepage isn't very attractive and the graphics can be kind of confusing. For instance the math section has a graphic of numbers above the text, so you would assume that the games in that section would be very basic. There are some basic games in this section but there are some that are so challenging that they seem like they don't belong. Several of the links are outdated or broken and there isn't a consistent format used throughout the website. Also the links on the website aren't very useful. Overall the design needs a lot of help.

Shelby Shatto January 22nd 2011 Overview: Purpose- Provides educational resources and lesson plan ideas. Attended Audience-mainly educators of various ages and subjects. Available Resources- "Shout" allows connection with experts and other educators. Overall Impression- Lots of information and great activity ideas for teachers. Content Overview: Attended audience is clearly identified; content is well organized and offers sufficient amount of info. Design Overview: Downloads efficiently; basic format used throughout the site; links are easy to use.

Sean Wilde January 2011 kids.yahoo.com Content At first look you defiantly can see this site if for kids, and that it is for entertainment. But as you explore the site you also learn that it is educational, and also can help the authors(which seems to be merely a company) make money. There seems to be many sponsors since it appears that multiple companies pop up at different and the same pages of the site. There is no readily available revision date, they must update frequently seeing as how well the site is ran. The desired affect is achieved in this site because even as an adult I found myself thoroughly entertained searching this site, with games and educational items throughout the site. All links and graphics worked and were smooth. Design For the amount of information that is on the homepage it loads very quickly. And with all the moving features and things that are jumping around it is attractive and really grabs your attention. You always know where you are in the site as links show you are switching and they correlate with the website. Its easy to move around and get to twhere youwant to go. The graphics and extra tidbits that are put on that come from different companies all coexist very well. Really the only downfall for this site would be, that it is very hard to get in contact with someone from the website that runs it where it isn't just a quick response email. Overview This site is a good everything a kid needs site. It has games and videos from kids shows and games that correlate to thos shows as well. It has research information for kids to learn educationally. This site is just very well rounded for kids that could really search for anything they want or need. That includes entertainment and educational.

Murphy Muirhead9-8-2011 OVERVIEW:  This Yahoo! Kids site is a great site for children to explore learning games, music jokes etc. and its all kid friendly! The intended audience of this site is kids age six through thirteen. Through this website kids have a variety of resources that are educational, fun and introduce them to great things to do on the internet, such as e-cards.   CONTENT: The content of this site is great for kids. It provides many educational learning opportunities for them. However, the author of this site, and the last revised date is not apparent.  DESIGN: The design of this site is very eye-catching and grabs the attention of the users. It is very organized and easy to use. In a way, all the content on the homepage could get a little overwhelming but for users who are familiar with the internet, this site should be easy for them to navigate through. 

Caroline Wittman (Virginia) January 31, 2011 Overview Ology is a fun website that allows children to collect virtual trading cards and use them to make online projects as they learn about different science topics. The list of topics is varied, including anthropology, archeology, astronomy, biodiversity, the brain, climate change, earth science, genetics, marine biology, paleontology, water, and zoology. Each area presents a plethora of interactive applications for children to explore: games, animations, quizzes, and suggestions and guidance for completing simple offline science investigations and experiments. There are also book lists and other helpful internet sources that can be consulted for further information. Content Ology is sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History. Accordingly, information was accurate and up-to-date. It was also well organized and communicated on a level that elementary school age children can understand and relate to. Information is also in line with what is covered in the typical elementary school science curriculum. Although specific authors of articles are not usually listed, it is easy to find contact information for the sponsoring organization. Links to other internet resources were relevant and informative. Overall, the content of the site serves to ignite children's curiosity about the natural world. Design The Ology homepage, as well as its interactive applications, downloaded quickly. The overall design is appealing to elementary school children, incorporating lots bright colors and bold shapes. Navigation is simple, even for young children. The major areas of the site are located in an obvious place on the homepage. Information is easy to locate within each of these areas. Directions for games and other interactive content are very straightforward and explained clearly. Close inspection reveals that each detail of the site's design works toward enhancing children's learning.

http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/civwar.html Michelle Petty, January 22, 2011 Overview: This site is aimed at informing viewers about the Civil War. It is aimed at kids the most, but would be beneficial for students of all ages writing a report on the Civil War. The site breaks down the Civil War on leaders, battles, states, pictures, and causes of the war, which then takes the viewer to the appropriate site. I am not sure if this is a site I would use, not all the links work and the page looks like several students put the website together as a project. It is easy to use, but again, not too sure on how reliable all the information is. Content: The site is aimed at informing and educating others on the Civil War. The author is clearly listed at the bottom, along with the date it was last updated and how to get in touch with him about questions. However, it was last updated in 2005 and some of the links no longer work. The links that do work, lead the viewer to mostly educational sites with the website endings of .gov and others along those lines, however some lead to regular .com sites that look like they were hardly researched. Design: The design is very simple and easy to navigate. The links to other sites are on the homepage and easy to use for all ages. However, the overall design is cheesy and unprofessional, with links that no longer work and others that lead the viewer to poorly constructed sites. I would not recommend this site, and would not use it in any educational setting.

Chris Riedl 1/23/11 Overview The purpose of civilwar.com is not only to educate all age groups of the historical significance of the Civil War but also to connect its readers with numerous links and articles giving all aspects of the war. Content The basic content of the site is quickly and easily identifiable, however the author and copyright information is not as clear. Overall a great tool for both educators and students. Design The design of the site is very attractive to the eye and the links all seem to be working properly.