Group items tagged

Overview
The second website that I evaluated was bartleby.com. This website is a resource to hundreds of different texts that are all available for free online. You can read these texts online, purchase them, or download them as ebooks from amazon.com. This is a great resource for all ages. Overall I thought the website was a decent website. It's not very catchy and doesn't offer much information about the site, but it is a good resource to have.
Content
This website isn't an eye catcher. I think it would be hard to get students interested in the site because it looks very dry. It offers lots of content for free which is great, but it doesn't do it in a catchy way. The site is easy to navigate and has great resources. It seems like there is something for everyone on this site as long as you stay long enough to look for it.
Design
The site is set up very basically. It's easy to find your way around and search for something that you're interested in. It doesn't offer information about the website though. There is information on how you can advertise on their site but now about where the site gets its content and how they put it up for free. The site really looks like a reference library, which is appropriate for a website of this type.

Jamie Szallar Website Evaluation #2 9-1-2010 History of American Education Web Project www.nd.edu Overview I was not impressed by this website. The idea behind it is interesting and if presented in a better form might have been more accepted. Professor Robert N. Barger created the site in honor of a fellow educator of his. Students of Professor Barger are who added the content to the site, which made me question the authority of the information. It is clearly started that the professor did not change any of the student's work. Content The content of the site is interesting; however, I found it questionable seeing as how students, not professionals, created the site. A brief explanation is given as to how the site was created, but no credentials of the students. I did not find any contact information for Professor Barger. The site was established in 2004, and has not been updated since. Design I found the design of this site very poor. The biggest complaint I have is there is not a link to return the user to the home page after navigating to one of the subjects. There is no eye appeal whatsoever; the only color added to the site is one shade of blue. All pictures are in black and white, which is appropriate for the older history sections, but not attractive for all subjects. This website could use a large amount of improvement.

Great informational video for how the newspaper is made.

Kayla Rider January 23, 2010 Overview This website, I believe, will be very useful for pre-service teachers as well as in-service teachers. It is an educational website for ESL students. It has many links within it that show you how to teach or how to use grammar, search for jobs, writing skills, etc. I have yet to use it for anything rather than this evaluation, but I could definitely see myself using it in the future for my students and myself. Content As said before, the content is for ESL teachers and students. It has links for grammar….etc. It has a table of contents of to the side to navigate through its perimeters. If you are stuck on MLA guidelines, it has a link to help you. It can be used for any writing mis-hap or question that you might have. It looks to be credible due to its vast amount of copyright restraints. I believe that overall this educational website can be very useful. Design The overall color scheme is appealing to the eye but does not distract you from its content. It is very easy to navigate through due to its overall set up. The tabs can be easily found, as well as the links in which you might want to navigate to. It has descriptors for its links that allow you to read a summary of what you are getting into. Overall, very effective design.

Kacee Von Krosigk 1-24-10 Content Purdue OWL Online is a great way for students to learn many skills needed in English classes. They can learn how to properly cite any information in any style. There is a writing lab that can be used for practice through exercises. All English teachers would recommend this website for students so that they could learn APA and MLA citations. The different information subjects offered on Purdue Owl are: * General Writing * Research and Citation * Teacher and Tutor Resources * Subject Specific Writing * Job Search Writing * English as a Second Language * About the OWL * OWL Exercises Design The design of the website is very confusing. The pages lead to almost random pages that don't seem to have been built very well. From using this website before, I know that it has very good information however; sometimes I am turned off by the confusion of the navigation of the website. There is a link about how to use the New Owl. This explains each aspects of the website which can be very helpful to many people. Overview This is a website that is easy to use if someone simply wanted a MLA or APA style guide for citations. This is why I use this website and I will recommend this website for my students one day. The purpose of this website is to correctly teach students and the community about many aspects about English. It is very helpful for some people but can be very confusing to others.

Amanda Lamey January 24, 2010 Overview This website is directed towards people who enjoy cooking or need something to bring to a party. Or just for chili lovers. The purpose of this web page is to teach you how to cook any kind of chili listed. This site gives you options from vegetarian chili to chili dogs and Asian style chili. You have multiple options to choose from. They were posted on January 26, 2009 meaning it has been updated recently, to where chili hasn't changed drastically. Evaluation of Design The layout of this site was simple and straight forward. There weren't any photos of the recipes. There was only a date when the websites were posted under each recipe. There was no copyright date or author. This website is missing a lot of key factors. It has a title and recipes listed below it. I think it's too plain and too simple. It needs photos, an author, and a date of revision. On the left hand side it allowed you to click the type of chili you wanted. At the very top it had a few websites to pick from, but it wasn't just one click away. The first website wanted your phone number to allow you to continue on, the second one didn't load at all, even with pushing the refresh button. The third one only led you to another site where you could purchase a Crockpot or click another website to find a website with chili recipes. Content The content of this website seemed accurate and precise. It told you exactly what to do and informed you of the content. For example in the Texas Style Chili it said it uses chunks of beef and not ground beef. This site was very informative. The grammar and spelling were accurate, I didn't see any errors. The contact button was located at the top left highlighted in blue. The titles of each recipe were in a bigger font and were in bold. There wasn't a copyright date or author, just the date it was posted. This site had a button that would allow you to visit older entries, but it didn't work. This website had more

Meghan Snell September 11, 2011 Overview: This website is mainly for kids and for fun learning. There are useful purposes for parents and teachers as well. At the bottom of the website, links are available to other sites more useful for teachers. It is well organized with links to grade levels as well as links to different subjects. There are 100's of different games which are all mostly educational and help improve children's skills. It's an extremely fun appealing looking site to catch kid's attentiong and easy to navigate. Content: The authors and sponsors were a little difficult to find although there was a nice section about the site itself and its purposes. The content of the site is mainly for children but teachers and parents can find uses out of it as well. I was not able to find information on how often or when it was last updated but the copyright of the site itself was clearly given. All of the links work fine and the site does serve its purpose. Design: The graphics of the site are very appealing, fun and contribute to the site. Everything loaded easily and now unecessary downloads had to be made to go through the games and activities. It was easy to find what activities were desired becuase of the headers being organized neatly.

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: The Worlds Smallest Political Quiz provides five questions concerning personal political issues and five questions about economic issues. Each question is followed my a matrix which includes whether you agree, are not sure, or disagree with the question. When you are finished with the quiz which literally take two minutes you are presented with a chart that shows where you lie on the "political map." Below the chart the site tells you where you are. For instance, mine is Liberal. Under that heading it explains what that political ideology means. The site also out lines the other political ideologies below yours Design: The design is rather modest in aesthetic appeal. However, in my opinion is appealing in the content it provides. The site that provides the quiz also has quotes from The Washington Post and USA Today hailing its legitimacy as a tool to understand the political system. In conclusion its content makes up for bland visuals. Overview: In my opinion, this site is very educational. I plan to use in my classroom. American High School students often have no idea where they stand on the political map. This quiz not only gives you questions to decide where you lie it shows you the other sides and shows you why you lie where you do. It is a good exercise to show how different the ideologies are and how extreme they are in nature. It is a valid teaching tool and is simple enough for complete naves to understand.

Ashli Hunter 2-1-11 Overview: This website is great for elementary students who are struggling with fractions. The purpose of this website is to see where the students struggle and succeed at in fractions. In this website the students are able to identify, compare, add, subtract, mulitiply, and divide fractions and then play games to further their understanding. The overall content and design of this website is basic and very easy to follow along without any broken links. Content: The content for this website is straightforward and brings you to each link that you need without going through a maze. Everything is up-to-date in information and if you should have problems it gives you the author and how to contact him. The content itself is simple and not over the top for elementary students. After each example they explain how to get the correct answer with the correct word terminology. This websit even offers worksheets that teachers can use in the classroom. Design: The design is very simple and you don't feel like you have to search for what you want. Each link brings you to each section with one click and then the student only has to count and type in the number then submit and it gives them a clear answer to the question. This website also has an explain button if the student does not understand what is being asked of him/her. This website can either be used in the classroom or at home.

Tells students how to critique poetry

Becky Stewart 1/24/11 Good Site Overview: The site http://www.school.com/ is designed for older students and parents with young students in school. This site is used to buy school supplies for students who are attending school. This is a good site for supplies because it has so many different options so people can get exactly what they need from it, and they don't have to worry about leaving to get the supplies. The main part of the site seems pretty complicated with a lot of information, but the side bar on the site has a lot with easy to follow links. Content: First looking at the site it looks very complicated and hard to follow. Fortunately, on the side of the site there is an easy to follow list of links that can make things more organized. There is no specific author recognized, but they do talk about how everything is provided by office depot. Also, there is a copyright date of 2010 which means that the information in recent, and people won't have to worry about the site saying they have something when they really don't. There is no address listed on the main page so the website would have to be searched to find one. A customer service number is listed so easy contact is still possible. The content is advertised very well, and users will easily be able to find what they need. Unfortunately, there is a lot of different content on the page so people may have to go through some unwanted stuff to get to the information they really need. There are no grammer mistakes on the page, and it seems like there is a good amount of further information for people. Design: The website actually loaded at a good time considering how many animations and pictures were on the page. There was no sitting around and waiting. The home page is very attractive and shows off the material that the website is advertising. It is a very good way to show the information, and appeal to peoples senses. The site is very easy to navigate. The information is clearly stated and

Danie Thiel1-23-11 This web page is very organized and easy to fallow. The important information is in the center of the page with other related topics highlighted in blue at the bottom of the page. The page starts out with an introduction on how and why glaze is used in pottery. Then goes into composition, processes and, history of glaze.  From this page you will read about different types of glaze as well as glazing technique. This site gives a clear reasoning as to why glaze is so important in pottery. This page would be best directed towards high school students, because they would have a better understanding on how glaze works.  

Brian Peterson9/6/11Overview The purpose of the site is to help anyone who doesn't know how to write a good resume. This is a very necessary thing to be able to do in modern culture. I am very impressed with this website as it is easy to navigate and has clear instructions.ContentOverall the content of resume-builder is very informative. With most material on the website easy to understand one can learn a lot about how to make a resume. Design The design of this website is also very nice. There are clear headers at the top of the main page that lead you into wherever you need to go. Also there are not to many pictures or random things that would make this page cluttered.

Mandy Toll 9/11/11 Overview: This website includes Abraham Lincoln learning games for kids. The website is intended for teachers and students who are looking for more information on President Lincoln. There are educational games for students to learn more about Abraham Lincoln, links to information on other U.S. presidents, the Gettysburg Address, famous quotations from Lincoln and many other informational things about Abraham Lincoln. Within the site there are a lot of links to other pages to further your knowledge about U.S. presidents but mostly Lincoln. I thought that this website was useful in allowing you to find information on Lincoln and would be suitable for students to use as well as teachers when learning more about Abraham Lincoln. Content: There was a lot of good content to this website. There are a lot of different links to allow both students and teachers to gain more knowledge on Abraham Lincoln and some information on other U.S. presidents. It is easy to tell what the website has to offer and who the audience is. The information is up to date and is appropriate for finding information on Abraham Lincoln. The links on the page to other sites are current and work well. The information on the site is for finding more information on Lincoln and games for students to play to gain more knowledge on the president among other things about Abraham Lincoln. The content on the site is well organized and easy to find. All the information is easy to understand as well. The information on the site also is consistent with other information in other sources. This site will most likely help in the future. Design: I did not think that the overall appearance of the website was very attractive however I liked how simple it looks and how easy it is to use. You can tell what you are looking for on the site and navigate around it with ease. The links on the site are helpful and appropriate and go with the subject matter. There were no uses of multimedia that I found wh

Overview: Even though the URL, on this site appears to be of a significant source, it is not. The site goes into detail what cyber bulling is, but it doesn't present any facts or statistics about cyberbulling, or states where it had obtained its information from. It also tends to take a more emotional view on the issues, instead of presenting information. Content: While it is easy to identify the basic content that is presented, and identify who the audience is, it doesn't provide specific material as to whom the author is in this site, as well as where they obtained their information from. The sponsor is not clearly identified as well, and it also doesn't state how current the information is. There is also a significant amount of bias presented in this article, and there are no obvious links at first glance. Website Design: Overall, I wasn't impressed with the design of this website. Even the the homepage, has a strong eye appeal, and makes the purpose of the website well know, it doesn't provide a clear method of organization such as an index or table of context. This site also doesn't clearly identify the sponsor of the site, how to contact them, as well as the copyright date. This site does use a significant amount of multimedia, and has browser compatibility, but the way the content is presented, is lacking. The information is not easy to navigate through, and the list of links are not easy to use. It also doesn't date when the site was last updated, or provide you with other links.

Ryan Magrum Sept. 15th, 2011 Overview: The site is an online game site known as Armorgames.com consisting mostly flash games aimed at wasting time. However, there is a game Armorgames offers called CellCraft. While CellCraft is fundamentally a game, there are many aspects of it that are very educational. The goal of the game is to command a cell to grow and function as an animal and/or plant cell would and utilize all the functions and organelles as would an actual cell. The game explains all of the functions of the organelles you control and gives some information on the different parts of the cell, how the cell utilizes energy, and reproduces and fights off attack. The instruction in the game is similar to a high school biology class. Content: The game has multiple levels. Each level has a specific goal for the cell which the user controls. Each level also give some explanation of the new organelles available for use as well as the intentions of the antagonistic elements that an average cell has to deal with on a regular basis like infection and replication. The game has instruction for both plant and animal cells and all the included features of cells. It focuses on teaching the user how a cell operates and how to create a strategy to help the cell survive. The effects of the game are very close to reality - neglecting the very fine details. Design: It's a game. It comes with instructions. The game goes chronologically, so to speak, beginning from a time where the user can only move the cell around, to growing and fighting off infection, then to exploring new worlds and avoiding extinction. Just like in a biology class room, the student is expected to learn the basics and then think critically about problems using the basic knowledge to solve the problem, so does CellCraft. The game takes the user, educates the user on how a cell works (and I mean just about everything one would learn in a general biology class), and sends the user off to ke

Overview This site deals with public education and its emergence as a Home-school alternative and is aimed at those parents who want a "quality" education for their child. I found it while searching for information related to teaching Spanish to Second graders. It is a well layed out site that answers the basic questions of who, what, when, where, how and why. Content The site contains all the information necessary to understand what the Wyoming Connections Academy is all about and how one may become involved in its academic service. Design The site design begins with an eye appealing tannish tab folder background. Upon this is layered the Academy logo, and a page containing information about the School and its services. Photographs of happy, smiling kids are placed in the top right corner of the page on a gray background. A little boy, happily doing his homework is the largest photo. The tabs at the top of the folder open to other pages. The design format is really easy to follow and keeps the user's interest.

Michael Gonzales September 14, 2011 Overview: The kid friendly website covers a wide range of topics from earthquakes, geology, rocks and minerals, and even fossil fuels. The information provided is supplied by government agencies that supply information that benefit many young scholars about information regarding science. Content: This website's homepage consists of a variety of links that offer a child to go and explore information regarding Earth Science. This site allows children to explore ideas of how things work like how earthquakes form as well information about NASA. This is a Government owned site that has material suitable for children as well as adults. The child base website is broken into two main groupings which has material that is suitable for each age group. The site is straight forward with its information and does not offer many things to sidetrack your learning. Design: The design of the website takes on a professional appeal, the layout and colors are eye catching and are simple and welcoming. The links that are provided allow the users to navigate through and find information with ease. The website provides information that is relevant to its topic and does not confuse or throw off the user. I can see this being beneficial in my classroom when I ask my students to seek a professional website that offers great information regarding science.

Overview: This website offers many different tools, programs, and links to other sites that can be very helpful for learning math. The site makes it very easy to browse through their catalog by subject, topic, or technology type. The site also is a nice place for teachers to go to find tools that they can use in class to help students get a better idea of the topic and how to solve problems more efficiently. Content: This website is mostly for students that are in high school math and up. It provided many different ways to go about learning different subjects. This is very useful because teachers tend to only be able to teach a couple different ways but with the site the students and search many different ways to find what is right for them. Others also rate all the links, so they know which other students have used and liked. Design: The design of the site is fairly easy to follow, it does have a lot going on which can be intimidating to the student but once they get the hang of how to search the site to find things it becomes very easy to navigate.