Group items tagged

Beau Pitt 1/31/2011 mises.org Overview: The Ludwig von Mises Institute is an educational website with a clear bias towards the education of the Austrian School of Economics. Its main purpose is to advance "the scholarship of liberty in the tradition of the Austrian School" of economics in opposition to the commonly taught theories of John Maynard Keynes. The website is generally directed towards more advanced students who are interested in a more practical view of economics and is particularly geared towards those individuals already interested in the subject who wish to further their education. This is a very powerful website that offers updated daily articles, audio and video presentations, blog discussions, various events, and even offers online courses through the Mises Academy. Additionally, there are a variety of links to related social networking sites and information sites that greatly add to the quality of the website. The website further expands on its quality by presenting a well-designed home page with an attractive "coat of arms" style logo that catches the eye and helps to achieve credibility. Content: At the first look, the user of this website is able to determine the basic content and audience of the site simply by reading the title. Authors are clearly identified and information is provided about who they are and it is even possible to e-mail the author about their articles! All information is presented either as daily updated articles or in an archives section with dates provided for when the contents were first published or presented. All links are current and work properly. The site is very well organized and easy to navigate. It is clearly biased in favor of Austrian Economics and more conservative principles, but the information is accurate and well-researched. There are many educational options and activities that aid in furthering the user's understanding, and articles are all reviewed by the operators of the web

Overview: The intended audience for this site is current special education teachers. The purpose of the site is to provide resources such as chat rooms, lesson plans, and join mailing lists. The site offers resources for the classroom as well as offers the chance to talk to other teachers within the special education field. The site also offers a wide range of various links to other sites about special education.

Chemistry Professor Overview: Chemistry professor is a website that sells DVD's and chemistry notes intended to help a chemistry student. The website was recommended to me by my chemistry teacher from high school if I ever need good, extra material. I used his DVD's to study for the AP exam, and they were extremely valuable. They presented content in a unique way, however free general chemistry information can be just as good, such as the other website evaluation I submitted, General Chemistry Online. Content: The site's purpose is easy to determine, and it's also easy to determine the site is not free. The information is cited in the DVD's themselves, but not on the website. The courses offered by the site are well-organized and it's easy to determine what information will be covered in each course. The information quality is very good, and more in-depth than free informational websites. Somebody could learn enough chemistry to be almost as proficient as through college courses. Design: The site's design is minimal, and uses a simple color palette that makes information easy to see, and the site easy to navigate. Checkout directions are easy to follow, and are secured through PayPal. Information is current and well-presented, and the authors are available for contact through phone or e-mail.

Content: The first look at the website does a great job of displaying the content of the article but it is more difficult to really pin down an audience. It seems like it is aimed at people who want a quick overview of the topic. The author of the article is not identified so it is hard to judge the qualifications of the author. The sponsor on the other hand is clearly identified. Idaho National Laboratory and Department of Energy sponsored the article. There are also two specific contact people identified. The user is given both a phone number and the ability to e-mail the two contact people. The site lacks any information about when it was last updated. This shows that the information may not be updated frequently and it is difficult to know if the user should use this information because there is potential that it is outdated. The only date I can find is actually on another page. Although there is no way to know how often the website is updated, the links all appear to be working appropriately. The information on this site seems to be of a pretty high quality. The purpose is very clear. It is an informational page and effectively achieves its purpose. The content is complete and well organized. The information is easy to understand for the most part. Some of the terms are a little confusing but otherwise it is very clear. I don't know very much about this topic, but from what I know this information seems accurate. The bias in this article is easy to identify because it is pro Xylanase. It really preaches the benefits of this substance. There are a lot of links to further information as well as links that take the user to other science related sites.

Content: The first look at the content of this website really gives the user a lot of information. It is very easy to determine the basic content of the website and the intended audience. There is a paragraph stating exactly what the website is about, providing science related resources, and who it is intended for, K-12 educators. The information providers are easy to find by simply clicking on the "About SNL" link. It states the staff members who work on the website; although there is no information presented about any of them which makes it difficult to determine their qualifications. There is contact information through e-mail to contact the staff if the user has questions or to verify information. The sponsors are displayed at the bottom of the page. They are the AAAS and the Verizon Thinkfinity Program. The information seems to be relatively current. It appears that it was last updated 7/10 and none of the information is older than 1999. Some of the older information might be out of date, but there is plenty of information that has been contributed over the last two or three years. Also the links are all working and lead the user to sites that are up and running. I believe the information provided on the website is very high quality. There is a large amount of information that is very well organized and easy to work with. There appears to be no bias and the information is accurate. It also provides information that meets my exact purpose. There are tons of places for find further information. There are links to other resources as well as the science benchmarks for grades K-12.

Learning math while having fun

Kayla Rider January 23, 2010 Overview This site, I believe, is a very resourceful website. It is for those intended audiences looking for more information on Queen Elizabeth 1. This would be useful for any history course involved with the years of which she reigned, or any Shakespearean class. I have used this site many times throughout my collegiate career. It has some great information within it and is easy to move around in. Content The content of this website is as I afore mentioned. It allows you the choice of U.K. or U.S. English to follow along to. It gives you a table of contents to divide the history and story of Queen Elizabeth 1. This website has a vast amount of information about her and does not get boring. It has a section about the author, giving her credit for this website, and also letting the readers know if she is credible, which she does seem to be. It allows you to e-mail her with questions in the About the Site link. Overall, I believe it is a credible and reliable source to venture to. Design The design of the website is very appealing. It catches your eye at the moment you log into it. However, it doesn't over power the content of the site either. It allows for pictures within the text to help you follow along with the times in which Queen Elizabeth ruled. Overall it is very appealing and informational.

Ryan Mikesell ITEC Web Review 1/23/10 Overview: Weldinghistory.org is an informational website about the history of welding technologies. The website's main objective is to provide information about the evolution of welding technology from 6000 B.C. to present time, from brazing to current welding processes. The author's name is Mark Sapp professional welder and author of many welding technology books. The website is designed for anyone seeking educational information about the origins of welding and can be useful for teachers of Agriculture Education, teaching welding tech. The content is very informational and easily accessed. Content: Although the page is managed and created by a single author he provides all his references and links to the sites he used information from. The content is organized in a way that it can be easily understood and navigated allowing the user to use the site for educational purposes. Upon arrival at the site you have the option of researching two of the main metal bonding processes, brazing and welding, making it twice as informational. The site provides video references and images as well as quizzes created by the author that can be used in a classroom. In addition to all the information the author provides he also includes and e-mail and a message board that increase the value and credibility of the website. All revision dates and information about the author is included. Overall the website content is highly professional and valuable to an educator or student looking for welding technology history and information. Design: The design of the website is very simple and easy to navigate. There are bold subject headings directing the viewer to the necessary pages with ease. No major ads distract from the information and images and videos are available to increase educational value. The author clearly represents the references for the information and provides the revision dates for each page.

Rebecca Gardner Jan. 24, 2010 The content of this website is based around math. It has links for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. It is very clear from the start what the website has to offer. The author of the website was not clear identified, but there was a link to e-mail them. The sponsor of the website was also not available. The last time the website was revised was May 21, 2008. So the information may be out dated. However the links were for fun math lessons and they still are very relevant to today's teaching methods.. The links to the other sites were working properly. The purpose of this site was clear and very helpful for finding math lessons and games. The content of the website is well organized and easy to navigate though. Grammar and spelling are correct and the content was free of bias. The links on the website were worthwhile and appropriate to my needs. The design of the webpage was attractive and very easy to read. The website down loaded efficiently and so did the links. There is a clear title and description of the webpage. Even though the website has not been up dated in awhile all the links were still appropriate and I ran into no dead ends. On the home page there was little multimedia, nut the links had a lot and they made a significant contribution to the site. The browser was effective with a variety of browsers. The information provided from this site is worth visiting and is very organized, and a basic format is used though out. I do believe however that the website needs to be updated, because there is a lot more links that can be added. However, the links that are provided are up to date. My over view for this website is that I found it very useful. The links were interesting and appropriate. I will defiantly visit it again for ideas on math lessons. The only thing I didn't like was that the website hasn't been up dated in a while. The information is still of good use and I would recommended it to a friend.

Keenan Zimmerman 2/1/2011 Review of: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/ Overview: Busyteachercafe is a site designed to help K-6 teachers come up with ideas. There are printables, strategies, themes, email sections and a store where I'm not sure what exactly you can buy. Most of the sections have useful ideas a teacher can use. The website is very colorful and looks like it is geared more toward 1-3 graders rather than on up to 4th 5th and 6th grade. It is not a very good website both in content and design. It has potential but at the moment it is not a very good site. Content: The content of the website seems very useful but it is very limited. There are few actual lessons or printables in each section. If the website is brand new than in a couple months I might say the website is very good content wise but at the moment the content is rather poor, another strike because we have no idea how old the site or information within the site are. The author of the material is nowhere to be found and even the e-mail section gives no clues as to who you are writing to. Design: The design is the worst part of the website. Although it has easy directions and it is rather easy to find what you are looking for, the site is littered with adds which are annoying and the search option is horrible finding almost nothing on the site when I used it. The search in the store section doesn't seem to come up with anything and because everything on the site is free I'm not sure why a store even exists.

Chelsey Lynch 1/31/11 * Overview: The purpose of this site is to aid students in higher level math classes with problems they may be having and provide further resources. There is an extremely wide variety of available resources on this site. There is everything from enrichment lessons, games, puzzles, links for graphing paper, and overviews of any math content areas. This website contains a great deal of information, but it is not organized very well. At first glance this site looks like it could be very helpful, but once you spend fifteen minutes trying to find what you are looking for it seems a little useless. * Design: This website is attractive and has an interesting layout upon first glance, but after further examination is clearly not very user friendly. The material on this site is far too broad to all be in one site. There are several topics to select from and once you click on that it takes you to another page where you then have to make another selection to actually get where you want on the page. The copywriter date is current and visible, but there are too many advertisements on this page to focus on anything, much less, mathematics. * Content: The basic content of this site is noticeably math but I find the bullets to select from rather broad. Information about the author cannot be found on the website, though there is a link to e-mail them. This leads me to wonder if this information is relevant or even accurate. The sponsor of this site was also very difficult to locate. This site is meant to be useful for higher level math classes, such as high school classes, but I found the help links difficult to understand. This site does contain links to the right of the page for other math related sites. This links worked, and were much more efficient than this one.

I have used the website www.TheMathWebSite.com in my classroom for the past 6 years. By using the internet technology fully in the math classroom, teachers spend less time in preparation/marking drudgery and more time interacting and helping your students. It is intended to be used to assist math class instructions by providing typical examples and solutions to most high school level math topics. 1)  Begin with Bellwork. Choose some questions from a Quiz or Test Sheet, and give out to the class via paper, blackboard or projector.  Let students mark their own or each others. 2)  Give a Quiz on yesterday's topics for marking.  Students can mark their own, each others, or the teacher can mark.  Everyone can do the same quiz, or a different quiz via paper, blackboard, projector. 3) Present the Class Lesson  using examples from the Quiz or Test Sheets.  Show questions and solution steps on a projector or overhead. Present as many examples as needed. Click on the question and the solution steps appear or disappear. OR Present the Class Lesson  via the Lessonboard using the mouse drag & drop method. The lesson can be created and presented line by line via projector/overhead or blackboard. OR Present the Class Lesson  via the Lesson Sheets. The Lesson Sheets only present one question or example at a time. Click on the question and the solution steps appear or disappear. Present as many different examples as needed. 4)  Give some Practice. Choose examples from the Quiz Sheets which allow immediate student checking of answers from the bottom of the sheets. Tests have answers that can be clicked out. 5)  Present a math Diversion such as a Puzzle, Activity, Game, or Enrichment topic to maintain their interest in math and to put some fun into the class. 6)  Assign the Homework. Show students the source of extra practice sheets on the website if they or their parents wish to get extra

Love this site! Simple... go on, pick a song or a genre of music that you like, put it in... then, boom! So much music that you like just coming up one after another. It is just such a great way to really listen to music you like and learn about other artist sound like some of your favorites. It is free too! After awhile, it may ask you to enter your e-mail and some information, but hassle free... and free!

Natasha Tuft Web Site Review September 20, 2009 http://ilovethatteachingidea.com/ The purpose of this site is to allow teachers to share and find creative classroom management and teaching ideas. "Get inspired with creative ready-to-use teaching ideas!" I was very impressed by all of the very useful links, organized information, and abundance of different kinds of ideas for different age groups. CONTENT This is a site with a very clear purpose. At the very top it says "We inspire teachers with practical, teacher-created ideas and resources that you can use in your classroom immediately." In an easy-to -find place you can contact the information providers. Not only is there a "About Us" link, the site encourages you to join their free e-mail newsletter in a few different ways as you navigate the site. If there is a regular newsletter that tells me that the site is regularly updated, current, and active. The quality of the information is very good, of course remembering that any teacher (or anyone for that matter) can post teaching ideas. The usefulness of each idea is in the eye of the beholder. There is much access to further information on any given subject as there are topics and many links. DESIGN The page loads quickly and the homepage is appealing. The sponsor can be contacted easily and the organization of the links makes it easy to navigate the page. In trying to find "use of multimedia" I actually found a couple of downloads that didn't work, which doesn't mean there aren't other useful downloads or clips. The site was compatible with my browser, had excellent content presentation which was organized and eye-appealing. Things seemed current as mentioned above and there was a lot of availability to further information. The site made me excited to start planning my teaching curriculum and methods!

Morgan Jenkins October 13, 2014 The author of this website wanted to help teachers find resources and lesson plans more easily. This website provides many different resources for preschool and kindergarten planning. It has lesson plans, activities, worksheets, math, and crafts. I personally feel that this site is helpful in many ways because it has a large variety of ideas and lessons. You can find specific lessons for holidays or seasons, but it still has generic lesson plans that can be modified for a specific class. The author of this website, Elaine Engerdahl, is a credible author because she taught Kindergarten for 31 years, therefore an expert by experience. The last copyright was in 2013. I would consider the materials up to date because the lessons all follow common core standards and include up to date technology and methods. There was a contact section that included the email and mailing address of the author along with a phone number. The content is clear and effective because the purpose was to help provide teachers with resources and the site effectively does that. My overall impression of this website was professional and helpful. This website was easy to navigate and had a clean design. There were buttons for lesson plans, activities, crafts and more. When you would click on the links to other websites they seemed to all work. The design of the simple but fun. There were graphics but not too many. The text was easy to read, and the font was not too big or small. Clearly the website was set up well and is easy to use.

Emily E. KrabbenhoftJanuary 22, 2011Overview: This website, created by Discovery Communications, is an excellent resource for parents, students, and teachers. For parents it provides ways to help motivate their children and ways to help with homework. For students it all gives homework help and other ways for students to further their knowledge or to practice what they already know. For teachers there is interactive projects, lesson plans, and puzzle makers. Content: The content of this website, the information providers, and the quality is well presented to users. While the information is provided by a company to further their products, it offers a lot of free resources for everyone. It also does not push its products on the user, for example no pop-ups or constant nagging to purchase things.Design: This website has a great design. You do not get lost when you are navigating the website because it has great descriptions and titles of the pages. All of the links work properly and direct you to the appropriate websites or links. 

Hannah Clucas. October 10, 2012. Overview: This website is a giant database for schools. It has something for administrators, teachers, students, and even parents. There are a lot of available resources. The website is amazing and helpful for all facets of learning. Content: For administrators, there are curriculum options, helpful assessments of resources schools are currently using, and a host of other useful things. For teachers there are lesson plans, puzzle makers, additional resources, and even information on student travel. For parents there is a section on ways they can motivate their students and give them help in homework. The student section has a homework help section as well as links to contests they can join and clipart. There are also videos that parents, teachers, and administrators can use. The website is probably more helpful to teachers and administrators. Lesson plans are divided into two grade level groups, k-8 and 9-12, making it easy to find lesson plans for intended grade levels. Some of the links on the website are not useful, such as the link to downloading Google Chrome. But none of the links are inappropriate. Design: The design of the website is logical and flows well. There is a section for administrators, teachers, parents, and students at the top and bottom of the home page. It is colorful and fun to get your attention, but not to the point that it is overwhelming. Its use of media is appropriate and helpful.

Lorena Garcia Evaluation date: 10/13/14 The site I chose to evaluate was Discovery Education located at www.dicoveryeducation.com. The purpose of this site is to provide free education resources. The intended audience of this site is teachers, students, and Parents. This site provides some downloadable lessons. It offers lessons plans for the various school grades. I feel this site could be a great resource for new and veteran educators. I found that this page is quickly to determine the content because there are links about who they are, what they offer, also they have links for students, parents, and Teachers who are the intended audience. In fact there is contact information for anybody who has questions or verify information about it. Anybody can contact them by phone, (1 800 ), Twetter, and Face book, and e-mail. It is clear that this page is to provide Educational information with the different options of downloadable lesson plans. It is worth visiting this page, specially Educators. They can find a lot information and great ideas for lessons. The information is clearly labeled and organized school year. These links are very well organized and easy to find. I did have some trouble finding my way back to the original page. However, overall I would most definitely recommend and use this website.

This website, found at education.nationalgeographic.com, is geared at teachers, families, and student audiences. The encyclopedia resources on the site can be altered to better fit each of these audiences depending on the user's selected audience. In addition to encyclopedia resources, videos, photographs, lessons, and educational activities can also be found on the website. The website developer, National Geographic Society, does a wonderful job of providing external links and updated information on a variety of scientific and social topics which could be helpful in elementary classroom research activities. National Geographic's website content is relevant and correct, since it's most recent update took place in 2015. Although the site identifies its sponsor as the Verizon Foundation, no biases in the texts can be detected. On every educational page, whether it is an encyclopedia entry for K-2nd grade audiences or a suggested lesson plan for teachers, National Geographic provides a multitude of working links to back up the site's information and facts. At the bottom of every page, the website provides contact information in the forms of email addresses, mailing addresses, and telephone numbers for users to use in case of any questions or concerns. Clearly, the National Geographic Education website's content is accurate and very useful for science and social studies education. The design of this site is compatible with all web browsers and downloads efficiently. The Education home page offers an attractive, organized display of the website's resources and choice of audiences. This easy-to-follow format also flows onto every page on the website for easy navigation, and all links are integrated into the website's text for convenient learning and fact-checking. Over all, the presentation of National Geographic's content is attractive, organized, and current.

Beau Pitt 1/31/2011 www.mcwdn.org/ECONOMICS/EconMain.html Overview: The purpose of this website is to provide information on economics with no clearly identifiable intended audience. As such, it must be assumed that the intended audience is everyone interested in economics; however, the information provided is only a general overview of economics and provides no information on current topics. The website provides links to various topics that open onto a short web page with only a brief definition and short overview of the subject. Anyone hoping to gain an in-depth understanding of economics will not benefit from this website as it provides little information and is poorly designed. Content: It is difficult to quickly determine the purpose of this website. Only a strange and distracting animation at the top of the page provides any sort of clue. The user has to read the main description to get any idea about what the website is. No author is accredited to the production of the website other than simply stating that it is a VirtEd site. Whether this is a sponsor or the company responsible for the site is unclear. No contact information is provided and the logo connects to a dead link. There is no date for revision provided, although there is a US National Debt clock that appears to be current, but still offers no clue as to when the site was last updated. The purpose of the site is not clear, the content is insufficient and possibly incomplete, and while it is moderately well organized, the interactivity does not increase the value. There is a quiz available for the subjects presented, but the information is so basic that it would only be valuable to a child trying to get a better understanding for the definition of economics. The information is accurate, but simplistic, and offers no real educational value. The author of the website did not bother to edit out grammatical errors. The links provided to other websites were attached to similarly u

Overview: GOOD originated as a magazine company and with advances in internet, GOOD has designed one of the most unique interfaces to gain information, current issues, and learn more about community ideas. Concept: The concept of GOOD is that of news organizations, but in a sense that breeds community. Some ideas shared can seem a little more one sided than others, but it brings good ideas, people, and news to the front page. This positive interface brings education aspects to social constructs and the newest in each subject. I especially like the Challenges they give the readers each month for August "The effects of going Vegan" or for September "Send someone a Post Card." We value getting mail, but never seem to be able to write to our dearest friends. I love the facts that back up this simple good idea to become more outgoing. This can be a resource for teachers to challenge students. Seek through news and actually find "good" stories to share to the class. The content in comprehendible and an awesome resource to get students away from main-stream media to understand community polls on political standings or engaged in dive into design, food, or education. Design: GOOD is a website that values its high design, easy access, and reader friendly qualities. I am also thoroughly impressed with Good's Infograph posted to tell stories of simple if "If Facebook users are more Trusting?" The design is so user friendly you can quickly glance over headlines while browsing each most viewed story. Students of post-primary education can access with without being drowned in adds or bias news articles.