Group items tagged

Gary Schmitt September 1, 2010 en.wikipedia.org Content: While Wikipedia provides tons of information, most of it is out of order and irrelevant. When I searched the word fine art I found that a lot of the information seems confusing and even a little bias. This web page draws information from lots of different sources so it's hard to tell what is true and what is just hear say. However it could be used to help somebody get a quick overview of a topic. Design: So just as the content of Wikipedia is unsatisfactory, so is the main design of the page. It's plain white background makes it seem as though little effort was put into it. Also when searching general topics you will be shown random pictures that aren't always explained very well. Overview: Wikipedia is a loosely constructed web page that is changed many times every day. Knowing this I would have to say that it is not going to be the most reliable place to find good information. If you're looking to get a quick overview of a person, place or event it might provide a starting point but if you need credible information it's not a good place to find it.

Haylee Bolinger Website Evaluation 2 9-2-10 Overview The website www.cremaster.net serves as a portfolio for Matthew Barney and as another medium through which people can view and discover his bizarre artwork. Content From the main menu you can pick from one of five Cremaster cycles, which are a combination sculpture, design, and performance. Once you have chosen one of these you can navigate through each cycle choosing from the following list: synopsis, characters, sculpture, trailer, screenings, cycle, menu. Once you have chosen from the list, new lists appear that are rather frustrating because they are not formatted in a western linear tradition. However, streaming videos can be seen of each cycle, which is far more interesting than viewing pictures of them. Design The home page of the web site is very minimal white on white with different style fonts for each of the five different crème cycles. Designs or visual descriptions are done using fine black lines. From main menue you can choose from a menu which often leads to more options. It is easy to navigate, however the icon for the main menu should be more prevalent.

Samantha Cook 10/11/12 The Renaissance website on philosophy of that time is very useful for someone either looking for some background information on this topic or also for research for a paper. The Renaissance was a time period where there was a great movement into many of the ideas that we have today, like philosophy and the idea of not a large empire but smaller countries. This site gives a good overview of the philosophy side of that change, and how these thoughts started coming around. The information provided is good and accurate and gives a broad range that allows someone to either get a brief or go deeper. The purpose of the sight is to provide information. The intended audience for this sight is either high school students learning about the Renaissance or College students doing the same thing. They use this sight and the quality information provided as more of a summary then a full out research area, to give them brief ideas of the subject but there is so much deeper. The information provided is from all current sources nothing more than 1970s but that is not necessarily a bad thing. This is where academics at universities have gone through and interpreted the older writings into what is needed to know. There is also a large amount of sources which helps weed out the biased sources and ideas you can have by having different opinions added together. My overall opinion of this sight is it is a good sight for basic information, if you want to go deeper then you need to go elsewhere but it is a good sight to give a brief introduction into the idea of philosophy. It is pleasing to the eyes even without pictures and looks academic in that sense, I personally think pictures could make it better but it is fine without them. Overall it is a good trust worthy site.

Jade Line April 14, 2015
This article is about how finger painting benefits children in all different ways. This resource is intended for mothers of toddlers and preschool teachers. It talks about the different motor skills that finger painting can help the young children develop. I think this website is well put together and easy to follow. It gives me great ideas for my lesson in class. This site is credible and the author is known, although she is a demand media, and isn't a credible teacher. In this article she talks about how fine motor development is the number one component of finger painting with children. She compares finger painting to having child zip up their jacket, they are using hand eye coordination which is helping them develop fine motor skills. Finger painting also opens children up to creativity and literacy/vocabulary. For example, the child could describe how the paint feels: squishy, slimy, or sticky. This website helps the teachers and parents to understand the importance of finger painting. It also helps them realize that it isn't just a mess, its fun and productive. The resource gives them ideas on what to do with the children and shows them different content areas they can take the finger painting with. The overall design of the website is appealing to the eye and very easy to navigate around. There are links provided with different content of finger painting as well, that work as well. There were no ads on this website that distracted the eye.

Levi Jensen September 2, 2010 Website Review http://www.nclark.net/Biology Overview The Amazing Biology Teacher Resource website was created to provide science teachers a place to reference when teaching their classes. I assume that this site was created by a present or past science teacher. The main focus of this site is in assisting in making lesson plans for teachers and to give helpful ideas for science activities. This site covers both biology and chemistry subjects and also offers many links related to science education. Overall, I found this site to be rather elementary in design, and also had some difficulty using some of the drop-down menus. Content At first look it is quite easy to understand that the intended audience is for science teachers. One drawback that this site has is that information about the author is vaguely apparent. There are no sponsors given, and the only way to contact the author is through a management email to which there is no name given to write to. It seems as though content is updated quite often due to the links posted but there is no revision date provided. As far as information quality I believe that this site does a nice job and the content is readily available and easy to read. Design I had some problems using some of the dropdown menus on this site. Upon trying them a second time they worked just fine for me. The visual appeal to me looked as if a child had designed it. This is supposed to be a professional website that is used by professionals. Also the home page is just a list of topics that could be broken down into groups in order to create a more orderly page. Finally this site needs to have citations behind the information that they are providing so that the reader is able to look the information up to confer the information.

Sarah Skinner on January 22, 2010 Overview The purpose of this website is to give educators some new material for their classroom. There are suggestions on ways to use new tools to get your students more involved and more excited for learning. There are math activity instructions, blogs for people to read about different age groups as well. There are instructions to help a student learn to read music. My overall impression on this site was that it's very informative. Content This site is very easy to determine the basic content of the site. The intended audience is stated in the introduction paragraph that gives a little information on what the website is about. The author is clearly stated at the top of the page. There isn't a lot of information on the author. The sponsor is identified and contact information is available. The latest revision date is stated clearly on this page. The date is a little old but it has been updated in the past year. All links are working properly. The purpose of this site is mostly informational. There are no under construction signs on this page. The content of the site is well organized and is easy to understand. There is a sufficient amount of information related to my purposes. The content may be bias. Articles are written by different people saying what their opinions are. There is some interactivity and the information appears to be accurate based on my own knowledge. The information is consistent with similar informational sites and grammar and spelling are correct. Design The homepage downloaded efficiently but it kind of has a bland look to it. You can tell where you are immediately when you come to this page. There is an index to lead you to different links. The site sponsor is provided and there is a contact link available. A copyright date is at the bottom of the website. I am able t move around within the site with ease. There are no distinct directions for using the site, but it is pretty straight forward. The

Zach Ajour 1/25/10

Charlene Asay: 1/23/2010 Overview: Puzzle maker on discovery education is a free teaching tool or resource. This website is used to make different puzzles on your own with your own information to put in them. This could be used for teachers to use as teaching resources in their classroom. Or a student could use them for assignments. All the different links seem to work just fine. You can buy different teaching resources software on this site. This site seems to be pretty user friendly, besides that there is so many different links that are distracting. Content: Besides all the different links and advertisements that can be clicked on this site, this could be a great site to use for an educational purpose. You can make different puzzles such as word searches, math squares, number blocks, and mazes on this site. There are also different links for brain boosters, science sites, and links to buying software. Design: The site is well designed. There is a lot of links, ads, and other distractions to look at on this site. There is a copyright date, which means that it was published, instead of just some plain old person getting on here and putting scam free puzzle makers online. There are difference chances of learning links that can be clicked on.

Charlene Asay: 1/23/2010 Overview: One more story is a great site for beginning readers. This site will read a book to you in English, Spanish, or Chinese. You can either have the site read a book to you or if you are learning to read you can read the book yourself. This site is a great way to learn about different great children's books, and to get children excited about reading. Content: This site could be a great tool to either entertain children, or to have them practice on their reading. And they could find books that they enjoy, and as their parent of teacher you could purchase those books. This site is a learning and profited site for the maker. There aren't a lot of different links to click on to distract others from the purpose of the site. Design: This site is pretty well done for the purpose the maker wanted it to do. I think that this site is made for advertisement of different children's books. If a child can read the book, or hears the site read the book to them they could fall in love with it and want to buy the book. This site doesn't however have a copyright date or who published the site. This could be a scam of a site. But all the links seem to work fine.

Colter Huhn 1-24-10 This site has a very clear purpose which is to be a resource for middle school teachers and students, which is the intended audience of the site of course. The resources available on this site lessons and activities for a classroom, project ideas for clubs and classrooms, information on science, games for students and a message board for teachers to share ideas. My overall impression of this site is it is a spectacular resource. The content is perfect for the intended purpose and the design is easy and also nearly flawless. For the content this site is very strong. The basic content is easily found as well as the audience. The author is found at the bottom of the page with some information as well as how to contact them. The information is current, revised within the last ten days, and all links seem to be working fine. The information meets the sites purpose, is complete, very well organized, easy to understand, interactive, accurate as far as I can tell. The web site design was also very strong. The site was fast and compatible with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. The homepage was attractive, clear; it has the site organized into sections, with the site sponsor, information of the provider, and a copyright date. The site was very easy to navigate with the site split up into sections of interest, and all links were appropriate and working fantastically. All videos and pictures helped to enhance the information and the site was very current. The presentation of content was sufficient in information to make the site worthy, it was clear and organized, basic theme, info was easy to find and the links were well organized.

For middle school teachers and students. Resources given are lessons and activities for a classroom, project ideas for clubs and classrooms, information on science, games for students and a message board for teachers to share ideas

Cole Baumann January 24, 2010 This website holds many hints and suggestions on how to help children with dyslexia. The site holds many suggestions on how to help students with dyslexia such as little ways to help them remember things and suggestions on ways to help them feel more comfortable in the classroom. This is helpful as children with dyslexia do feel a lot of stress that no other student does due to knowing there is something wrong but not knowing exactly what. They do not know why they struggle with work in the classroom while other students seem to perform just fine. This website will help teachers and parents make the students feel more comfortable in the classroom and may even be able to help the students work with their problem to become more literate and, consequently, be able to help them grow as a student and a child. The design of this website is very entertaining. There is a picture for almost every paragraph which is just pleasing to look at. This prevents boredom as you search through the website and explore. Also, this website allows you to change the background color which is not a real important thing but it is always fun when websites add little things like that to keep it more entertaining and more appealing to use. Additionally, the site looks presentable and very nice. It is not a very 'sketchy' website to go to which is very important if you are trying to help your student and you do not want your computer to fail due to finding a terrible virus. Though the website is for parents who have children with dyslexia, this website could also help teachers improve the learning abilities of any student that seems to be having trouble reading. This website does not consist of large programs or big dramatic ways to help dyslexic students learn, but there are small items and suggestions that in the end if you put them all together the teacher may be able to help the child function as a better student.

Nathan Hissong 1/23/10 Content: An important part of any government class is debating current issues in America. In fact POLS2000 is a class devoted to just debating the issues. Opposing Viewpoints is an excellent resource to research issues. When you search of click on an issue you get a list of articles from repeatable authors who either agree or disagree with an issue. A new addition to the site is that you can debate over message boards (which requires you to sign up). Now like message boards one cannot put a rating on the experience. In high school a student and either be censored or be understanding that some language is inappropriate. Being that the site I a beta site it is put up with the help of advertising. Personally, I find this annoying but it is a necessary evil in this instance. Design: Opposing viewpoints is a very eye-appealing site. I has a variety of issues you can look up. However, in the top tabs they are organized into menus that make it easy to fine a recent topic. This site is made for the ipod generation. It feels like social networking site with purpose. It is one of my favorites Overview: This site is a good research tool. It can also be used to implement the CRAAP test because it does have some questionable content. It is a good teaching tool telling students to fin a current issue to present and then debate it in class. Again a site I use quite a bit.

Billie Slyman, 9/11/11 Purpose The Kidstorm site is actually a section of a larger site dedicated to storm chasing. The rest of the site is fine, but the kids section has, in my opinion, the best resources and information. However, the information, while good, is pretty basic and could easily be found on other sites. So my overall impression is that while this site is okay for information about severe weather, its real value is in the photographs and resources that can be found there. There are tons of links to other sites, some on the main kids' page for general weather, and then more on each page about a specific weather. These links lead to good sites and would be a valuable resource for a teacher or student looking for information. Content The content on this site is appropriate for students in 4-6 grades and for adults as well. It is set out clearly, but the vocabulary would be difficult for younger students. Again, the information is basic, although the extensive safety tips are nice, but the pictures are great. There are high quality photos of every type of weather covered and more. These can be viewed online, and it is stated on the website that students can use them for paper reports in class as long as credit is given. The external links given are useful and would also be a good resource for student research. Design The site is easy to navigate and nice to look at, interesting while not being overwhelming. There is a lot of text on each page, but there are also a lot of relevant photos, so it is interesting to read. It is easy to go from one section to the other without having to go back to the homepage, and the external links are always at the bottom of the page. It's a well put together site.

The sites purpose is to provide a second source to Beowulf for the students in 11th Grade English. The site is composed of Beowulf translated into English as well as an index that has links to each individual section of Beowulf. I find the site to be exactly what it needs to be, an accurate, line labeled, online source of Beowulf. It is laid out very simply without distractions. The layout maybe dull, but it should be used in order to look up specific lines, so a lack of visual appeal is fine.

Overview: This website had a large choice of topics to choose from where a student could get quick facts or information on a subject. On the homepage all the different subjects ranging in alphabetical order from Art to Social studies could be researched by students. The site led to other sites that contained the information and all the secondary sites appeared to work fine. This would be a good starter website for teachers to send students to check out because they know for sure information will be correct because the site is operated by the US Government specifically for kids to use. The site was very navigator friendly which works for the benefit for both the student and teacher. No update was listed on the page was the only problem again. The website says on the bottom that it is a service from the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, part of the U.S. General Services Administration Content: The content provided informational resources for students to use to do their research on a variety of topics. The website made it easy to find the different topics and the next link would take the student to another page that listed more specific content regarding the larger field of study. I focused on the kids part of the site but there was also more information for adults and teenagers. For the kids, they had three choices to pick from starting with learning stuff like information, playing games or watching information videos. Design: The design of the website was easy to follow. A bright background with slightly darker tabs made the page aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Three different tabs were listed for the kids section with learning stuff, playing games and watching information videos. The design of the site was easy to navigate and easy enough with navigation that kids in elementary school would not have a problem with it.

Katherine Kerpchar ITEC2360 I found this website to be incredibly helpful, but very cluttered and hard to navigate. The information I found was very helpful and recently updated, and the links to other sites worked properly. The content was not very organized and was not very easy to understand. And the external links had very little to do with the content of the actual webpage. It was hard to navigate between the different links, and there are little to no instructions on how to go from link to link. The content was hard to find and the good information was overshadowed by the poor layout of the site. 

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.

This website is a lot better for kids than Google or other search engines because it is easy to navigate and easy to use! It also has a layout and design that is pleasing to kids.It has fun cartoon images instead of just bulleted lists. It has many great tools to help children succeed in their classes.

The name of this website is Fact Monster. It is a part of the Family Education Network and published by Pearson Education. The purpose of this website is to provide general information about common school subjects - such as math, science, and U.S. history - to children. The website is intended for use by elementary-aged children because the information given is commonly known by most students older than twelve years of age. If I were to approach this site from the viewpoint of a 2nd grader, I could find myself seeing this sight as informative but not extremely interactive. The content is very elementary, so a 7th grader could breeze through the entire sight in under half an hour. That being said, this site can be a great resource for students to use if they need a simple website to help them review certain concepts, such as converting measurements or learning about the presidents of the United States. I found the design of the website to be rather plain and unexciting. It hasn't been updated or changed since I last visited the sight when I was in 6th grade. The authors of the site are not clearly identified and the publisher of the site can be found at the bottom of the webpage in very fine print. All in all, I would not use this sight within my classroom, but merely inform my students that the website exists and can be used to review information that they all (hopefully) learned in previous grades.

Haylee Bolinger Website evaluation 1 9-2-10 Overview The website stickworks.net is a promotional tool for Patrick Dougherty. As an artist that is in demand worldwide he must keep a portfolio as accessible as possible. Fans and potential clients are welcome to look through Dougherty's work and his biography. On this website clients can make requests for his large scale installations, while fans are directed to admiring his work though books, videos, calendars, and even full length feature film. Content From the introductory page one has the option of continuing into the main site or purchasing a book about Dougherty. Once navigated into the main site you can view every location and date of Dougherty's work and you have the many options to choose from in the main menu. Stick Works contains a thorough biography and video resources that help the viewer better understand how and why Dougherty makes his artwork. This website is being updated on a monthly bases due to the demand for Dougherty's artwork. Present exhibitions are continually photographed and uploaded upon completion or linked to the collector's website while future exhibitions are scheduled and published. A few of the links in this website are incomplete which makes viewing some works difficult. The viewer is also welcome to preview clips from a full-length feature about Dougherty's life and artwork. Design The web site Stick Works is visually appealing with a slate background and white font. This sleek background draws attention to the striking pictures of Dougherty's artwork. Navigating is made easy with a menu bar at the top of every page. On this menu one can find out all there is to know about Dougherty: news, biography, installations (past and present), Curriculum vitally, resources, shop, and contact info.