Group items tagged

Jacqueline Twiford Web Site Review September 20, 2009 http://www.schoolworld.com/teacherSites.cfm?subpage=502 "School World", is wonderful way to incorporate technology into your classroom. This site allows you as a teacher to post assignments, announcements, and messages and even quizzes online. By incorporating this site into your classroom you are also including parents in their student's education. CONTENT This site's purpose is very obvious once you read through the first few paragraphs. Through this site you can build a webpage for your classroom, for a small cost. By utilizing this website you can bring your classroom into the student's home, including parents in their learning. As a teacher you can post grade book information to quizzes and notes to the parents and students. This is a great way to incorporate technology into your classroom on a daily basis; also it is beneficial to have a site that you can check on student's progress at any point. DESIGN "School World", is a very organized website allowing you to immediately see what the content is and how it can apply to you and your classroom as well as how it can help you. An interesting icon I noticed was the awards of excellence and teacher's choice winner, all very reputable awards that makes me feel this site is a very reputable one for teacher s to use. It also encourages use of this site to include organization ad technology as well as including adults in the child's education. Through this site you can have students help you update content as well as yourself in seconds. This site is an excellent way to incorporate technology as well as keep a well organized classroom for a small amount a year.

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

Mike Wilson Site review September 18, 2009 Dr. Saul's Biology in Motion Introduction Biology In Motion is a relatively simple website designed to provide engaging animations for basic biology concepts. The site is designed for both teachers and students. Student level is Junior High School but could be easily used for entry level 10th grade Biology. Teachers can use the site for in class presentation. Teacher tips for in class use are provided. There are 9 animated self guided lessons and/or games. These lessons are information correct and convey the material to be learned very well. This is an excellent site targeted at specific biology topics. Google ranking of 6/10 - Excellent with 61 backward links. Content Evaluation First Look The home page clearly in both text and graphics conveys the purpose of the site. All the key information is above the fold. Information Providers Biology In Motion is a creation of Dr. Saul, a university Biology Professor and Web game / site developer. Links to Dr. Saul's credentials and additional websites are top left on the home page Information Currency While the site has not been updated for 4 years, there is not a need to do so. The science content is fundamental concepts that will not change. The graphics are age appropriate and play quickly. Information Quality Site is fully functional. Each interactive lesson through the use of text and animations teaches the subject concisely. There are Google link ads on each page which I do not like from a pure educational standpoint. On the other side, the ads are not obtrusive and what are a few extra bucks in a teacher's pocket. Design Evaluation Speed All pages and graphics load very quickly. Animations are well designed but are not speed bulky. Home Page Very appealing and all critical information to keep you on the site is above the fold Ease of Navigation All lessons are linked from the home page and need to know information is top lef

Brianna O'Shea October 13, 2014 Overview: The purpose of this article is to talk about what the purpose of the No Child Left Behind Act was and how it has changed. Even though NCLB hasn't reached the goal it was designed to in the allotted time, the change of focusing on growth rather than test scores, has shown an improvement in schools and has seen to help students. The audience of this article is those doubting what good NCLB can offer and why it is still in effect. Overall, this article shows a side perhaps unknown about NCLB and would be good for potential teachers to read. Content: The purpose of the article and its audience is clearly identified, as well as the author yet no links are given to contact or look into the author. The article is recent and links to other sites work and provide good additional information. The purpose, informal, is clear and its purpose is achieved. There seems to be a little bias towards NCLB, yet the article does point out on critique of the Act and accepts it.  Design: The title is clear and the article is well organized with headers and good lengths of paragraphs. The sponsor and copyright are clearly identified while the site is easily maneuverable. The links to other sites are helpful to look at if confused or wish for additional information. Information is easy to find under each header. There are no additional links for the author or similar articles from this page. 

Deneé Chintala October 7, 2012 Overview The purpose of cellsalive.com is for the instructor of a biology class to provide their students with interactive activities online regarding the parts of the cell, phases of mitosis and meiosis as well as more background information of microbiolgoy. The audience includes biology teacher as well as their students. The site is free with many different activities to do including quizzes and puzzles with content about cells.  Content All of the information on the site is incredibly accurate due to the author, Jim Sullivan. The site provides information in at least two ways for each link (interactive video and a summarization of the video below). Interactivity is huge on this website because the student not only gets to interact during the lesson but a review can be given to gage the student's progress at the end of the lesson. The fact that there are simple cartoon graphics which can allow students to depict different organelles help, but there are also real pictures of microorganisms throughout the site.  Design This site has flare to it with the black background and neon text. It's appealing to a middle school age group but I could see high school students finding it alluring as well. It is also easily maneuverable due to the hyperlinks on the left side as the title of the lesson. If I were to give a class of the links to click on to get to the lesson it would be a very simple task with little to no questions.

Shaya Wolf - 2/26/2013 Overview This website is for teachers need ideas on assessments in the math field. They can choose between Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, and Trigonometry and assessments are given under each subpage. All of the assessments are complete but in need of small changes to fit your needs. It includes many resources, but they are all very similar and lack variety. Overall, this site is worth bookmarking and provides simple assessments organized by subject. Based on the content and design quality of this site, it is worth your time to visit the site if you have the time. Content At first look, you can easily tell that the purpose of this site is to provide assessment ideas for teachers. The information providers section of this website is lacking significantly. The author and sponsor are not clearly identified nor is their contact information provided. The currency of the information is debatable. The site doesn't provide a latest revision date, but at the same time, most of these assessments will ever change. They don't seem to be too outdated. So far the content doesn't sound too good, but the information quality really brings the site back to a site worth bookmarking. All of the information is of quality. The purpose of the site is clear and achieves the intended purpose, which is to provide teachers with assessment ideas. The site is well organized and easy to understand. It is free of bias, accurate, and consistent with similar websites. Design This site loads quickly but lacks a homepage altogether. The site is still easy to navigate, although there isn't necessarily a main title or base to jump off of. The site sponsor and author are not included. It is very easy to navigate throughout the page and all of the links work properly. There are no dead ends or incorrect links. There is a main graphic used under each page, however that is the only multimedia. The graphics enhance the site overall. This site works well with all browser

OVERVIEW: The purpose to explore readingrockets.org is to learn how to teach small children how to read and to see research that has been done on children reading. The audience for this website includes parents, teachers, principals, librarians, school psychologists, school counselors, and speech pathologists. If you fit into one of these specific categories all you need to do is click on the link at the top of the home page. There are numerous resources available on Reading rockets ranging from videos on how to teach reading to resources for school psychologists helping struggling readers. The Reading rockets website gave me a fantastic first impression. One of the first things I did on this site was watch a movie and I learned many new and interesting things! CONTENT: Like all of the other websites I reviewed, the content of readingrockets.org was fabulous. The information given seemed to be accurate and the content is complete. The information was easy to understand and extremely interesting. If anybody was struggling teaching a child to read, this is the first site I would direct them to. It does a wonderful job satisfying the need of teaching literature and reading. DESIGN: There is a lot going on at the home page of readingrockets.org, but it is well organized and easy to navigate. There is a table of contents bar with links not only on the top but also on the left side. All of the links work great. I did not experience any problems with getting to a specific web page on the site. Finally, the website is current with a 2012 copyright date at the bottom of the home page. Overall the design of Reading rockets is fantastic.

Tyler Rogers February 4, 2012 Overview:  The purpose of this site is to provide users with concise and easy-to-read space science materials, and to help educators guide their lessons involving space science. This site is geared towards educators looking to solidify understanding, or develop new ideas for lessons. Though the site does not specifically provide lesson plans, it does provide the knowledge from which teachers could derive their own. There are links to other educational space science sites, as well a handful of interactive activities. I feel that this site is a valuable resource, contains high quality content, and could be well utilized by educators seeking to teach space science. Content: This site's overall content is clear from the homepage, though no specific authors are listed. All of the site's content is well organized in categories. Once a reader finds their desired section of the site, the content is coherent. The material is strictly factual and contains no bias, and none of the links are broken.  It is important to note that this site fails to provide any revision dates, rendering the currency of the site unknown.  Design: Amazing Space is easy to navigate and is compatible with many web browsers. There are two viewing options a user can pick from. Not both options present the same information, but it is all organized the same. A sidebar to the left of the screen organizes all of the site's content. Users can easily find lists of clearly labeled fact sheets and activities.  The site makes use of multimedia, especially photos and pictures. The pictures contribute to the visual appeal of the site, but do not serve a greater purpose. The site's organizational downfall is that users often have to click through many links to find the desired material.

Morganne Harper The site http://specialed.about.com/ contains a lot of materials that could be useful when teaching or handling a child with special needs. There are many articles talking about behavior and how to handle certain types. There are also links to sheets that help with fundamental skills such as counting. Towards the bottom on the left, there are more detailed sections that you could navigate to, which would give you more specific information on a certain area. At a quick glance, it is not easy to see that it is about special education. There is small gray font near the top that says special education, but not much else. The authors and resources of their information is relatively easy to find. It is at the top of any article or link that you click on. I had trouble finding the date that anything was published or updated. Some areas that should be put together aren't and some things are put in what seems like random places. Information contained on the site is of good quality. It is meant to be a helpful source to utilize, and does a decent job at giving content to allow this to happen. The homepage opened quickly and lead me to what I was looking for. Near the bottom of the page there are multiple colors in links that draw your eyes to them, but on the top and in the middle there was a lack of appeal. It looked like something about "boring" education. You have to scroll for a little bit to get to the links that you might want, until then there are just articles that seem to be in random order. Some of the graphics that are used as clip art for articles are repeated, losing the effect and interest.

Sarah Schepp September 1, 2010 Website Evaluation #2 Overall- This website was created to give high school students worksheets they could do that would let them still have fun like kids. The worksheets focused more on engaging the students so they don't always have to do book work or listen to a teacher give a lecture. The worksheets seemed very useful but I didn't care for the layout or design. I couldn't find the information I was looking for very easily. Content- The content of having the information that gives students worksheet that is fun to them is a wonderful idea. This will keep the students wanting to do the homework. I couldn't locate any information from this website other than the copy right date at the bottom of the page and sponsor who's name was in the lower left had corner. Other than that I couldn't get any of the information and it made this website not seem so good. Design- The design was very flashy and full of graphics, this livened up the website and made it seem like students might actually like the worksheets that it provided. It had a black background with white words which seemed to make the words explode from the page. The information seemed more interesting. Everything was labeled clear and seemed to be easy to locate, it even brought up worksheets for elementary students.

Ramon J. Sandoval September 1, 2010 Website Evaluation Site Title: Ask Kids URL: www.askkids.com Authors of website: Ask Kids Subject: Elementary Education Content Summary When I first went to the web site it was unclear what the website was intended to do. The website does not have easy access to the author identity. It never gives you a name of someone to contact. There is not any information about the author or when the site was last updated. This site is a search engine for children age's six to twelve and claims to be safe. The links to the website are easy to navigate through but unclear to me where to go next. Design Summary The home page downloads quickly and when clicking on the links there is not a waiting period. The home page is kind of bland but it does allow the user to dress it up with stamps and drawing on the front. I did not find a clear set of direction. I had to just click the links to see where and what was under the tabs. The same basic format is used throughout the website. There is a copyright date on the website but it is unclear how often the site is updated. This site does have games but the one I played did not give me an extra knowledge. Overview When the website first came up it was not very inviting. With the lack of computer experience I have it would not have enticed me to proceed. The subjects on the left side did not have me wanting to find out more about it. When I typed in a question the first thing to pop up was the advertisements. It does have some good aspects and content in it but I don't think it was easily accessible. This web site is designed for kids to ask common questions in the search engine. It is much like google but without the risk of finding something bad. I think with more time and experience on the computer the w

Ramon J. Sandoval September 1, 2010 Website Evaluation 1 Site Title: Enchanted Learning URL: www.enchantedlearning.com Authors of website: Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector Subject: Elementary Education Content Summary This website is great for teachers looking for curriculum material for elementary school students. It is broken down into categories making it easy for the teacher to navigate the website and obtain subjects specific to their desired projects. The content appears to be complete and is regularly updated. If any problems with the site are experienced the site has a page dedicated to addressing these problems. Design summary The home page of the website downloads fast. The links within the site come up quickly. The information on the pages is easy to understand and navigate through. There is an appendix on the left hand side of the page to help guide you through the site and take you to your desired subject. This site has sufficient information for the teacher to browse through and select what will work best for them. The material is updated regularly and has a link directing you to the newest projects. If any problems occur with the site then a link is provided at the top of the page to deal with any concerns. Overview This is a site I will be put in my favorites. For an elementary school teacher it is a good resource. It has a variety of subjects and suggested projects for them. It has suggestions for early childhood activities to give children a jump start in their education. I would recommend this site to parents that are interested in enhancing their child's education. It is very user friendly.

Kacee Von Krosigk 1-24-10 Content Web English Teacher is a way for teachers to learn new ideas to incorporate into the classroom. The viewers can follow this website on facebook.com or twitter.com. I believe this is a way to get teachers to discuss ideas for the classroom. Sharing ideas is a great way to use new and fun activities and projects in the classroom. There are also book report ideas, children's literature, mythology, poetry, speech, vocabulary, writing, and many other categories to choose from. Design The website doesn't seem to be very well made. There are a lot pop ups which become very off-putting and bothersome after awhile. There is a column on the left side which allows easy navigation from page to page. There is a Google Search on the bottom of the page. It is very distracting seeing all of the other ads. I wish this website would have a place where teachers or students could write other ideas to use in the classroom. There seems to be a lack of communication among anyone when there is definitely a need for it. Overview This website has a lot of creative writing prompts that I would love to use in my classroom. I think many teachers would be happy with this website because it has creative and new ideas for many different teachers and subjects. The content is easy to understand but it seems as if the page hasn't been undated in quite a while.

Jennifer Durn January 24, 2010 Pioneer Drama Service, Inc. - http://www.pioneerdrama.com/ OVERVIEW While this site was more of a commercial nature than the others that I reviewed for this assignment, the Pioneer Drama Service website appears to be a valuable resource for the director of a children's theater program or a school drama advisor. The company provides a useful search feature to locate the appropriate play or musical and utilizes a shopping cart, as do many other e-commerce sites. I plan to bookmark this site and use it in my career when I have the opportunity to be a drama or theater advisor in a school setting. CONTENT The intended audience is readily apparent when one first navigates to the Pioneer Drama Service site - the "educational and amateur market." The site is well organized and information is logically presented. The site is updated regularly with the most recent update having occurred on the day I viewed the site. Given the abundance of copyrighted material on the website, playwrights and authors are cited consistently. DESIGN The "Ask the Playwright" feature and blogs are two tools that I had not expected to see on the site. The "Ask the Playwright" button allows the user to send a message through the Pioneer Drama Service to inquire about the particular work. The blog section provides postings from staff as well as news feeds from other relevant websites. Many of the plays and musicals featured on the site also contain production photos and production notes, a useful tool when deciding which theatrical works will be featured in the upcoming season. The site performed without incident using Mozilla Firefox and presented information in a simple and user friendly fashion - search features at the top of the site and a toolbar with drop down menus on the left.

Content: This site is a monster. I was looking for a site to explain landmark cases in the Supreme Court. What I found is a site that not only explains but also gives political reactions and the aftermath of the decision. For instance, I clicked on Marbury v. Madison. This is the case that allowed Judicial Review. The site divides the case in two sections Resources and Activities. In the Resources section you can read about the case etc. The Activities students can read logistical information about the case for further understanding. Design: The design is geared to educate. The visual make you think of the Constitution a crinkly brown. I like how the homepage lists the cases on the left side and concepts that came from some of those cases on the right. When you click on a case there is a wealth of information that can further understanding of a case. Many of these cases are a little complicated and I feel that this site can tie up loose ends. It is even geared toward high schools, the sub title reads "one-stop shopping for activities related to key Supreme Court cases and concepts as mandated by State standards. Overview: This site is put on by the Supreme Court Historical Society, meaning it is rather legitimate. I would love to use this site in an activity for class. The site is rather bland but I believe that students would love to be directed to find info and be able to present that info to the class. I could even make them use technology in their presentation. This site is not a baby sitter in the least it is a way for students to use technology and not listen to a boring lecture.

Emily E. Krabbenhoft January 22, 2011 Overview: This website is a resource for teachers who are using SmartBoards in the classroom. It gives teachers different ideas for using the SmartBoard in Math, English, and Geography subjects. Content: The content of the website is really useful for people who are looking for new and innovative ways to use a SmartBoard in their classroom everyday. The website was created by a teacher in the UK. The website provides a way for teachers to lead the conversation not the entire lesson plan so it allows for teachers to decide what will be learned.Design: The website is very easy to navigate. Clearly labeled titles and links on the left side of the web page allows the user to switch from different subjects easily. 

Gary Allen Jan 23, 2011. Overview: As the title suggests, this is a website designed to help kids learn about American history. The site is authored by a man with much experience in presenting history for kids and includes a link to his biography. Content: This site contains many easy to follow links, a glossary, interesting facts, a search box and even some educational games to help present the content. Also included are links to other sites of similar content and a weekly newsletter. There is no date for the last revision of the site, but there is a link to contact the author and ask questions.  Design: The site is fairly simple in design with the main navigation across the top, another menu of links down the left side, and ads on the right side. The lack of flashy elements helps the site load extremely fast however. Navigation is very straightforward and clearly labelled.

Overview: This website's purpose within in a classroom could be for research papers and projects. Each student could choose their own topic and then navigate the links easily to learn more information with concise bullet points, pictures, correlations to current events, and related games. This website included topics in several areas but primarily history, geography, economics, and government. Content: This website has a wide variety of upper elementary social studies information including even broader topics of history, geography, government and economics. The home page had a general toolbar that provided information about the site and the creator. On the left side was a huge bar that linked to many specific history topics such as current events, teaching resources, timelines, and maps. Once you have clicked on a topic from the side bar there are even more links to even narrower research areas. This would be a good site to use for students to create a research project about a topic that they are interested in. There was only one link found that was not up-to-date. Design: The design is not very appealing especially for young children it initially looks a bit bland. Once you have picked a side link and narrowed your topic there are visually appealing pictures and games to go along with the information being taught. The home page took a while to download and had an ad that was generated more towards adults pop-up. The site is easy to navigate following all working links. The website did not work well in Internet explorer but did work well in Google Chrome.

Brianna Gillespie 9/14/11 OVERVIEW: This website is to teach students about the many different subjects related to social studies. Students can use this website to answer almost any questions they could have about social studies. This website is mainly for older children because it has a lot of reading that may be a little difficult for younger children to comprehend. CONTENT: The content includes current events, games, economics, geography, presidents, states, and many more. Within each subject are a variety of links to choose from. Each link is focused on a main point of the subject. There is also a section on the main page titled "This Week in History" with some facts about a certain event that happened in the past. DESIGN: The design has some color, but is a little bland. However, each page has a piece of clipart on it, so it is not completely boring. Children would be able to navigate around this website fairly easily too.

Overall of Website This website is a great source for helping students learn in all different styles and with different subjects. It teaches you things from time management to studying to different ways you can prepare for tests. It also has a list of different languages that you can choose from so everybody can use it. The purpose of the website is to help students with schooling in many different ways. It is very organized and easy to find what you need help with. It's a great student help. Content of Website The information providers are pretty clear about who they are it is found at the bottom of the page and you can find out more about who they are. Information Currency is clear the last time the website was evaluated was 2011 by SGS annual report and the material seems correct. The information Quality of the sight is good you can tell the main purpose is to help students better understand schooling. The website is very well organized and the spelling is all correct. Further information is that all the information is appropriate and helpful. Design of Website The speed of the website is very fast it has a good speed. The website has a cool look to it and all the different languages are on the left side which makes the website interesting to look at along with pictures and ads on it. The tables of content really organizes the site very well. You can easily navigate through the website all the buttons and links work. Every link has a specific purpose and it describes what that is before you click on it. There is a lot of information on the website but its easy to get to and understand.

Karsten Hiser January 30, 2011 Overview World War 1 Trenches on the Web is a site that tries to provide information on World War 1 (WW1). The audience intended is for anyone who is looking for information on WW1. Sadly this audience will not find any information but they will find a lot of ads. While ads provide pictures that are pleasing to the audience's eyes, they aren't provided with content concerning WW1. Design The website downloaded quick and efficiently. The home page was very eye appealing and clear on the purpose of the website. However it was very confusing to leave the home page. Many links on this site were dead ends, and it was impossible to expect what information you were going to get when you clicked on a link. This site was very confusing, and as a result I never left the homepage. Content It is very easy to tell the purpose of worldwar1.com. Sadly that is about the only positive I got from the evaluation form. The site listed an author but when trying to find more information it came up with a dead end. Links on the site lead to dead ends or to content that was not relevant. This website was not well organized in content but it did look appealing. This site also lacked a professional feel to it. At the bottom of the homepage the site had a disclaimer that was very unprofessional. This webpage had little to no content on it.