Group items tagged

Overview: Doodle is a website that can be used to collect survey information and collect polls. You simply create a poll and then distribute your poll's URL via email, or Facebook or by whatever electronic means you wish. This would be extremely helpful in a sociology or psychology class where one needs to collect statistics on their sample population. It is also great for scheduling meetings and such. While this is pretty much its only feature, they have expanded to mobile phones as well. Content: It is apparent what the function of Doodle is when you open the page and it is apparent that the intended audience is anyone wanting to conduct a poll. Since it is not an informational cite, it is not necessary that the authors be qualified, but there is easy access to contact the authors. The site gets updated regularly to keep up with new browsers and new versions of browsers. The purpose of the site is pretty obvious and it is well organized. I have used it many times to conduct polls. It is extremely useful. Design: The design of Doodle is simple and easy to use. It is very navigable and clear. The buttons and purposes for every link are well outlined. Every tab has a specific purpose and is visually appealing. It works on all of my browsers and is useful in many settings.

Audrey Stevens 9/20/2011 Overview: Kidsites.com is a site that is directed towards elementary teachers, parents of elementary kids and elementary kids themselves. It is basically used as a guide to find educational websites, as well as some websites with fun activities and games. Resources for this site were nearly limitless. It provides so many useful sites and activities, along with the separate tabs for parents and teachers. Overall, in my opinion, I found this site to be very useful for my information needs and very well designed and easy to use. Content: There were few things that I found that were candidates for the "no" column. One would be that there was no contact information or way of contacting a person if the user has questions. The other would be there was no revision date provided. Other than that I found nothing wrong. All of the links were working properly and led to educational websites or educational activities/games. It was easy to understand how the site was set up and how to navigate through the site, as well as there were no grammatical errors. The provider of this site seems to have known what they were doing and all of the information on kidsites.com seemed legitimate. According to the rating for content evaluation sheet, kidsites.com is very useful for one's informational needs and worth bookmarking for future reference. Design: For the design portion of this site, it only had a few problems such as there was no information for contacting the sponsor of this website. Even after going through and looking through all the tabs and links, I never was able to find any information on, or way of contacting them. No date was provided for when the website had been last updated either. I also went through and looked for this and never had any success. A copyright date was provided but no date of revision. When accessing this site, it is very easy to read, it has a simple, easy to follow design for children and it is incredibly easy to

Great for incorporating History and Technology in the classroom

Amy Andreen 9-14-11 Overview: thwt.org is intended for the use of History and Social Studies Educators. It is a great resource for finding ways to incorporate technology and the various content areas in the classroom. There are various links to other sites as well as links to other pages within the site that would help Social Studies Teachers to devise lesson plans that incorporate technology. This site can also be used to help brainstorm for project assignments to use in the classroom. There are explanations as to why it is important to include certain aspects of technology in the classroom and what ways we as educators can utilize the resources we have. Content: The content on this site ranges from external sites for historical information to internal resources within the site to help in teaching with technology in the content area of history. There are videos, podcast, articles, chats, and many different ideas about how we can bring all the technology around us into a content area that many student find boring. Design: thwt.org has a very "sleek" design. It is very simple as far as design goes, but so easy to navigate. It was easy to find the tabs that I wanted. Also, the color scheme used wasn't overwhelming and made it even easier to travel around the site. The contacts page was so easy to find and very accessible with questions.

Overview: This site was very informational. THere was plenty of instructional, educational tools invovledin this website. My overall impression was what one would have of NASA n general; awe. Content: This site was very good at backing up it's information and as far as I could tell, the information was all accurate. The author,sponsor, and contact person were provided. There were no comercial adds and all of the links directly pertained to the information on the site. Design: The page downloads fine. The layout and decorum of the site was very fitting for NASA> There was alot of links and information, but it was not cluttered. Navigatino around the site was clear cut and simple. There was alot of multimedia on the site that added to it's depth.

An amusement park of math and more! Math lessons, math games, math practice, math fun! Coolmath4kids.com This website is targeted toward parents, teachers, and young kids interested in math and math games. The purpose of the website is to give lessons and games that will allow kids to easier understand math. The website seems easy to understand and gives simple explanations on math concepts. Content: The website is easily understood, and very clearly promotes math games and lessons to younger elementary age kids. The president, Karen, and writers of the website are clearly presented. The starting date is given, and the material seems to be up to date. The content is user-friendly and appropriate. Design: The website is very colorful, and appealing to the eye, especially for kids, who are most likely to use this site. The information is very useful and relevant to the younger kids, and easy to comprehend. There is enough info given to make it a useful website, and there are links to further info and to the creators.

CoolMAth.com- Review on 10/4/12 Diigo i.d= Jessle33 CoolMAth.com purpose is a site designed to make math more fun; referring to itself as an "amusement park" of games used to help make math more enjoyable. This site is designed for students of age 13 and up. The lowest level of math that it provides is pre-algebra so students younger than 8th grade may struggle a bit if using this site. There are various resources available for students who use this site: math lessons, math practice, math dictionaries, math games, all levels of math pre-algebra and up, puzzles, books, etc. There is also a tab that parents and teachers may visit that provides ways to help your kids with math homework, web education, and certain resources (books) that are available to them. My overall impression of this site is that it is easy for students to navigate no matter their age and bright colors are used. There are games that keep the students engaged and help to make the lessons educational, but beneficial. There are a lot of various activities for the students to use and that helps in many ways.

Kayla Hyde 10/20/2013 Overview: This website is made to make math cool and fun to students. It would be great for those students that don't think math can be fun or that rather play computer games then do math. It is a great way to promote learning in a new way. Content: This site is full of information and different links to different games based on different skills. There are puzzles and games that can be targeted for children ages three to five to eighth grades. Any student at any math level can find a game to help increase their learning of the subject. Design: The website can be a little overwhelming with so many links and so many colors. Because the site is set on a black background and multicolored text, it can be a little too much at times. Also there are many ads that can be a little much, but the content is still worth it.

Overview - Kinderart.com is a strong resource for elementary art educators where they can find lessons, teaching kits, supplies, community, and more. Content - The content and the intended audience are apparent from the get go at Kindart.com. The authors of the site, Andrea and Jantje Mulder-Slater are credible in their art education backgrounds and have provided accessible contact information. The site is kept current, indicated by its recent update and its up and running links. Content is purposeful for art educators and should be easy to navigate by its simple organization. My only complaints are in the pop up ads. Design - The design elements at Kinderart.com are clean and crisp for the most part. Aside from a bit of clutter near the foot of the home page the tool bars are easy to spot and navigate. Labels are appropriate and links are well organized. Again, my only complaint are the pop up ads.

Nathan Wonnacott 9/9/11 Overview: The purpose of Kinder Art is to supply teachers and parents ways to teach art. There are many lesson plans as well as supplies at the site. The pull-down menu contains a direct link to several art topics, craft ideas, and contests. Content: The first impression of the site is for teaching children, but it is littered with advertisement on the side bars. The authors, Andrea Mulder-Slater and Jantje Blokhuis-Mulder, are described as active and efficient teachers. Contacting them is a hassle, but possible. Overall, the content is updated and relevant, but is easy to say that major revisions are needed to make this site effective. Design: This site is not particularly fast, efficient, or effective. To obtain information one needs, he or she needs to navigate for a few minutes. I found a few dead ends when searching links. For the time it takes to finish searching, the information is not efficient.

Posted by Kirsten McAlexander on 9/20/2009 Enchanted learning provides a variety of material for teachers of all different grades. It provides printables and information in an easy to understand way. Especially useful for k-6th grades, but has content for every grade. Content: Although this website must be paid for, you can still get many things free. It is very cheap to join only $20.00 a month and well worth it. This site provides information on a variety of languages from everything from English to Dutch. It has every subject matter as well science, math, history, and writing. It has printables, lesson plans, places for students to look things up, activities, and books to print. This website is very helpful for teachers because it has such a wide variety of things. Design: This website is very easy to navigate. The only problem I have run into is on occasion it will not accept the login. The website is very colorful and attracts the attention of young minds easily. It is full of pictures to aid learning. Attribution: Since you must pay for this website, or even the pages you can get without paying for them, you can use everything on this site without citations. A student can get on and take information without plagiarizing. Teachers can print everything on the site. The point of the site is to have information and printables that are easily accessible by teachers and easily usable by teachers.

Amanda Lemaster January 24, 2011 overview: The purpose of this website is to provide materials and ideas for elementary age children. It is intended for teachers or children to use. The resources in the website are almost endless, there are activity worksheets, coloring pages, and craft ideas. I feel that this website could be very useful for a teacher, or even a parent. The content is semi-educational, so I be careful with how I use it. content: There is a lot of content in this website. Almost all the resources that can be used are print-out activities. There are coloring pages, maps, diagrams and basic information about specific subjects. The subjects range from animals, to music to geography. There might almost be too much to this website, just be prepared to weed through a lot of information about the subject used. design: The design of this website is not exactly what most people would call up to date. When a person looks at this website they may think that this is an unreliable source. Just because of the poor quality of how it looks. There is lots of white space and many bold colors that stand out. The layout is very simple. The website is useful but could have a little better layout.

The purpose of this website is to provide information on various topics. LearningEnchanted.com provides information including sciences, literature, arts and crafts, history, and many content areas. The information provided seems to be directed towards an older audience whose life entails interaction with young children. However, it is very possible that grade school children would be able to access the website themselves. There is an "early reader's" section where children can access short chapter books or short stories. My overall impression of this website was fair. It met many of the credentials provided on the criteria sheets for content and design. However, it lacked visual appeal but excelled at providing applicable information for me as a future educator. Content: At first look, this website clearly identified its purpose and content. The founders of this website, Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector, were clearly credited. Information on both is provided. The authors were both very well qualified to present this information and held degrees in various fields. Contact information was available. This website is updated quite frequently. Last update was on August 25, 2011. I did not find any links to outside websites. They were all connected within the EnchantedLearning site. The purpose was clear. There was commercial use because you can subscribe to the website to get more access. Also, there was basic access to many web pages that made it informational as well. The content does present the information in an effective manner but the site lacks the use of interactive opportunities. Based on my knowledge, all the information provided appeared to be accurate, consistent, and in good grammar. Although a huge fault of this website was the lack of exterior links, the content of this website are very helpful for future educators and parents. Design: The homepage of this website downloaded without any problems in two different browsers. There was no real eye appe

Allison Lindgren September 21, 2009 Website Review http://www.bestedsites.com/ "Best Educational Sites" is a collection of educational games for all areas of learning. Its fun layout with bright colors and bouncing graphics make it most appealing to young children. I think it would be very useful for teachers looking to integrate learning games into their curriculum. There is also basic information on everything from astronomy to engineering. Content Summary: This website has a lot of information in it, but there are no citations. Most of the links work well, but a few are dead ends. The website tells when it was last updated, which was recently, and who it was updated by. The purpose of the site is clear, though. The fun graphics and bright colors would appeal to children, and all the links are geared towards elementary to middle school aged children. There are no obvious spelling or grammatical errors. Design Summary: There are no problems downloading the pages except for the few broken links. The homepage is attractive to young children but the bright colors could be an eyesore if looked at for an extended period of time. The person who last updated the site gives a contact email. The information is well organized into several links provided on the home page and every page has a link to the home page, which makes this site very easy to navigate. The graphics and animations make the site fun and appealing for children, and each page displays a theme common to the information being presented.

Shea Mangold August 31, 2010 This website is used to connect you to different websites like a map or navigation page and it's great for that. This is also aimed for more of a elementary teacher audience it seems like. The owner is Janice Berthiaume, MEd and she has a MEd so I would guess she is qualified and the information is good, but she doesn't have any background information except there is a place with her email to contact her. There are also a bunch of different sponsors and even a place to make donations. It is very well updated, it was last updated August 26, 2010. All of the links worked pretty well except it took forever to load and some led me to a internet is not working page, and took along time loading after that. But when I got to the pages I was very pleased, there's so much information and lessons to choose from. The content was great but in saying that, the design is awful. On the hope page it looks as though someone just threw it together in a hurry, tried to be cute, and then added some cheesy clip art pictures and then threw in some very annoying bouncing books to distract you the entire time. Also, at the bottom of the page all of the sponsors, donations, author information is very bunched together; it does not look very professional. The other pages it links too are pretty simple, bright colored background with links in a different bright color. Everything is on it that needs to be just not great looking. I would have to give this an A for content but a C or D for design

Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: Lesson Planet is a search engine designed to save the effort of designing various lesson plans by providing over 150,000 teacher approved lesson plans and over 75,000 worksheets. This site provides material for all subjects in grades K-12 and also includes state standards. Content: This Education World sponsored site has an incredible amount of information that has been provided by many teachers in various fields. It has lesson plans for all grade levels and all subjects including math, science and technology, language arts, education, social studies, health, art and music, and it also includes research resources. Each lesson plan includes the author and date that the lesson plan was posted. Also every lesson plan is rated on a scale of 1-5 by other teachers so you don't waste your time searching through inadequate lessons. Another great feature about this site is that because teachers can post their own lesson plans, there are always new and relevant lesson plans. These plans are easy to access due to multiple links which are designated to different fields of education i.e. science or math. There is also a search bar at the top of the web page that allows the user to search specific lesson plans as well as narrow their search results to grade level and rating (1-5). Overall this is a well organized site that provides a wealth of knowledge. The only thing to keep in mind is that these plans are posted by individual teachers which could contribute to a partial bias in the lesson plan. Another thing to consider is that there is $40 dollar membership fee for this site which is an inconvenience, but this fee also discourages the submission of junk lesson plans and worksheets by other internet users. Design: This site is well designed and very easy to navigate. There are no advertisements or links to unrelated material. The sponsor of the site and contact information is clearly displayed at the bottom of the page as well as t

-Overview: Lesson Planet is an excellent resource for teachers to find ideas and lesson plans for specific topics and grade levels. They are able to type in exactly what they are looking for and it is just like a Google search engine just for lesson plans. There are other links to related articles and blogs for teachers, and there are places where teachers can access the standards. It is a very good place to create lessons from and gain ideas for teaching successfully in the classroom. -Content: The content is easily accessible from exactly what the teacher types in to find. There are specific tabs and easy instructions to help the teacher find what they are looking for. It is a very helpful resource tool that teachers can use to plan activities for specific subjects, for a specific standard and find worksheets and articles that relate to the topic they are teaching. There is a huge amount of content within the website that is easily accessible for anyone who would like to use it. On each page there are tabs to things that relate to the topic as well as a list of subtopics that are easily accessible as well. -Design: The creators are in the process of creating a new design that may be more visually appealing, but currently the design is very simple and professional. It has enough color and visual recognition tools to help you locate specific things quickly and find what you are looking for without creating distractions and taking away from the content. The search portion is big and centered on the top of the homepage so it is easy to type in and find exactly what you need right off the home page.

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