Group items tagged

Content Summary: The content for this site was lower than the other sites I looked at. The authors name is not located on the site nor was the latest revision date. All of the links to other sites were currently working properly and were useful extra information that was helpful for the topic. The purpose of the site was clear right when you first looked at it. There is no grammar or spelling errors throughout all the information on the site. Design Summary: The Science Kids web site is full of information that was organized and easy to navigate around within the site. The home page was very busy but it was broken down in sections like, Projects, Lessons, Quizzes, Games and Experiments and Videos. They had graphics that fit the idea of the page and topic. The site was also easy to navigate around and had useful links on the page that downloaded efficiently. Overview: Science for Kids is a site that provides information about science and technology. The site can not only is used by kids but also by teachers and parents. The site was very well designed, easy to use, and contained useful information. It had a wide rang of useful information and had pictures to go with every subject fro visual learners.

Jennifer Durn January 24, 2010 ArtsWork - The Kax Herberger Center for Children and the Arts - http://artswork.asu.edu/ OVERVIEW The ArtsWork site, part of the Kax Herberger Center for Children and the Arts at Arizona State University, provides a multitude of resources and art educational materials for K-12 students, their parents, and teachers. Lesson plans, teaching resources, and curriculum are available to teachers to view and utilize in their classrooms. The site offers interactive activities on various subjects for students and their parents to complete, links to arts-oriented websites for children of various age groups, and listings of activities for children in the Tucson and Phoenix areas. CONTENT When the user first accesses the ArtsWork site, the purpose and mission is readily apparent - to educate children and their parents about visual arts, dance, theater, and music, and to provide K-12 teachers with tools to best instruct their students. Sources and authors of material on the site are clearly identified and their contact information is provided. Information appears to be relatively current as the most recent update occurred in November 2009 but some out of date references were detected. DESIGN The ArtsWork site features a pleasant visual design with multimedia teaching resources such as Ben, the guide to political cartoons. The site is simple to navigate and links to other subject and age appropriate websites were plentiful and featured sites from around the world. Using Mozilla Firefox, I did not encounter difficulties with the content or links presented on the site. The primary sponsor and host of the site, Arizona State University, was mentioned and had logos displayed in a tasteful manner.

Sara Scribner 1/22/10 Overview: This website is intended for students and teachers in Elementary Education. It includes interactive games ranging in difficulty from grades kindergarten through 5th. Although some games are less educational than others, this site offers some helpful, fun tools in teaching most subjects. Overall, this website is very credible and well suited for Elementary Education. Content: At first glance, the audience and basic content for this site are easily determined. Located at the bottom of the homepage are links to find information about the author, the site sponsor, contact information, and a note to parents and teachers with more information about the site. A copyright date was available, but a revision date was not provided. However, the site seems to be current. As I navigated through this website, all links were working. ABCya! is well organized, easy to understand when learning a new game, and provides accurate (content-wise and spelling/grammar-wise) information. Although this site offers games for all subjects, it seems primarily focused on student math skills, for majority of its games are math related. Also, it is clear this site is commercial because of the many ads that litter the pages. Despite the multitude of ads, I believe the content is accurate and useful in the classroom. Design: This quickly downloaded website is visually appealing to me and to young children. Although the rainbow of colors makes the page seem busy, it is very organized and the content is easy to locate and use. Links to other websites are not given, but there is so much information provided one could most likely find what he is looking for. Fun sounds accompany most games one plays adding excitement. For Kindergarteners, all games have sounds and the instructions are read aloud. I would however caution students using this site unsupervised because of the many advertisements.

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.

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.

Sara Scribner 1/24/10 Overview: This website is kid-friendly and offers a wealth of information about the weather. Included are weather games/activities, encyclopedias, teacher resources, environment conservation ideas, and the daily forecast. Content is applicable in a classroom and is fit for its audience of elementary school students. Content: Audience and content for this site are easily determined. The sponsor of this site is The Weather Channel and a contact is given for the site, but other than that I was unable to find an author, a revision date, or a copyright date. To my knowledge, the information provided on this website is accurate, but I do not think one would be able to find in-depth information on a certain topic. Overall, the content on this site is well organized and easy to understand. It also offers a variety of learning tools from activities to videos to glossaries to encyclopedias which is helpful in a classroom. Design: The Weather Channel for kids has a lot of useful information for students desiring to know more about the weather. This visually appealing site downloads efficiently and one can easily move within the website because of superb organization. It incorporates graphics as well as informational videos with elementary students in mind. Although contact information is available there is not a date with the site's last revision or a copyright date. Also, there are a few advertisements on the sides of the page.

Lucas Sutton Feb. 1, 2010 Content: Upon entrance into Mathtv.com I am immediately drawn to the well developed table of content on the side along with links to "Contact Us", a "FAQ", and a "Terms and Conditions." The content is really well displayed on the page and is very easy to navigate. Although each subject and problem includes a tutors name, there is limited information on each of the tutors. The use of video tutoring is very prominent with the web page. The information looks very accurate and is well explained. Design: The design of Mathtv.com is very streamlined but very in depth. Although very simple, the page does a good job of categorizing the available information and displaying it. The use of multimedia is very prominent using video lectures as a way to help students understand the subject. All of the information included on the page looks to be up to date and all of the links work properly. Overview: Mathtv.com is a good website overall for help on math. The website covers many different levels of math and explains all of its information very well. The video lectures are a great way to visualize the content and really give the user a one-on-one approach to the subject. Overall, I would be very comfortable recommending this site to anybody needing help with higher levels of math.

Shelley Limegrover January 22, 2011 OVERALL The third site I evaluated is the Physics 2000 site. The site explains general physics concepts in a dialog format using an imaginary cast of physics professors and students. One or more interactive simulations accompany all dialogs. The site is intended as a resource for high school and non-science college students that presents otherwise abstract material in a more comprehensible format. I found the presentation of material to be very creative, although the site itself seemed visually "busy" and awkward to navigate. CONTENT The authors of the site are clearly identified and include a physics professor, various science advisors as well as a high school physics advisor. The credentials of all authors and advisors are not provided, but the site claims to be funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, giving it some credibility. The dates of copyright and last revision are not readily apparent. However, the main page states that they are looking for sponsors to support continued operation. Recommendations for supported browsers are a few years out of date. The content itself does not seem adversely affected by lack of updates. All content links are functional as are all interactive applets that I tried at random. DESIGN Some pages of the site are designed better than others. The choice of colors and layout do not make information immediately visible. The navigation is not consistent across pages. The relevant content, however, is presented nicely once I get to it. This makes it worth a visit to the page. Interactive applets are provided wherever they are beneficial.

Erin Kirby January 23, 2011 Overview: The sight http://www.brainpop.com/is a good sight for older elementary students, and middle school students. The homepage offers different subjects that a student would learn everyday in school. Each time you click on a link it keeps breaking down into certain subject. This makes it simple for students to use, each link is filled with helpful information. The site is very 21st century based and there are many different things to do such as read, play games, watch movies, and more. The content on this site would be helpful to use in a classroom and would get more students interested and involved in certain subjects. Content: Everything on this site seems simple to use, easy to follow, and has very reliable information. There is a link that allows parents, students, or teachers to see what brain pop is all about. It tells you that there are other brain pop sights that are for younger children and even some for teachers that will help them create lesson plans and other activities. It is an educational website that contains a lot of material that all seems accurate and easy for children to understand. One thing that could be a problem is that on some things on the site you need to subscribe to get the full information, but they do have tutorials and lots of other helpful information. I think that most students would enjoy looking through the subjects on the sight and finding something that they are interested in to learn about. This sight is easy to get involved in and enjoy it at the same time. There is so much information that some kids might stay on for hours! Design: The websites speed is fast and works smoothly link to link. All the videos and games that I tried ran great and I had no problems. The graphics are clear and entertaining for students. When starting at the homepage, it is simple to follow and not distracting at all. There are no pop up that get in the way or take away from learning. This sight is great for

Overview: This website was very visual and very organized. This website was good for educational purposes at the high school level. There were many different subjects with interactive games involved. Content: Each subject that this website offered had alot of information in it. There was a wide range of topics under each subject which helped the viewer get a better understanding. THe content of the site was clear and obvious. All of the information for the providers of the website was easy to find. I couldn't find the lates revision date, but other than that, the information quality was accurate based off of my knowledge. There were few links to other sites. Design:Everything downloaded efficiently. The hompage was very organized. The copyright date was obvious. Navigation was easy and clear cut, it was easy to move around the site. There was alot of interactive games that consituted as multimedia. This website had plenty of useful info. that made the site worth visiting

Lauren Peterson 10-21-13 http://www.brainpop.com/ Overview: This website is a multifaceted educational website that contains numerous subject matter. The site provides educational tools that can be utilized within classroom activities; furthering understandings of various subjects. In order to simplify and further education in particular areas of study, this website makes use of games and videos. Overall, this site seems to be a rather useful tool for a classroom, as it is easy to navigate with content that is clearly understandable. Content: The content seems to be geared towards Jr. High students, although there are other websites from BrainPOP that offer similar content more appropriate for younger ages. This site makes the various subjects within Math, Science, English, etc. very clear through explanation and visuals in videos, as well as interaction through educational games. Design: The use of color and animation throughout this website seem to be rather appealing to the eye. Not only does this sites appearance have the potential to intrigue a viewer, it is also easy to navigate. The links and activities function successfully with very few issues.

Jessica Chandler January 24th, 2011 *Overview: This site is called Starfall. This website was designed to help students read. There are different categories to choose from such as ABCs, Learn to Read, It's Fun to Read, and I'm Reading. Each category has great contents once the recommended link is chosen. ABCs read the letter aloud that is chosen and shows word in which make the correct sound. Learn to Read contains different easy reads on line for the kids to read. It's fun to Read contains different types of reading such as tongue twisters, poetry, music, and etc. I'm Reading brings up a selection of books to read. This allows the students to choose what book sounds the best. If the child doesn't know a word, clicking on the word will read it out loud. There are many useful things to get out of this website for elementary and preschool kids, and for the teachers of that certain level. *Content: The content is very clear and prepared. It is easy for children to understand the concept of this website. It is easy to access everything to learn about reading. A child could participate in this designed website alone or with the parents. It has great content and is very beneficial for the younger students who cannot read. This website also makes reading fun! *Design: This website is fantastic! It helps the students love to read and demonstrates different patterns and the alphabet to the children. It is very colorful, but only the links are. Therefore, the content isn't hard to read. It is easy to find what you are looking for, and the site Is not overloaded with a bunch of information. It is quite eye catching and would be an excellent website for kids trying to learn how to read!

Whitney Reese Reviewed: 2/4/12 www.starfall.com Overview: The purpose of this website is to teach children to read with phonics. The intended audience for this website is children ranging from the prek grade levels to second grade. It includes many resources such as the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, tools to learn colors and numbers, short tales for beginner readers, several word and reading games, reading materials for more advanced readers including comics and plays, and many interactive educational games. It also has its own unique curriculum for teaching children to read. My overall impression of this site was very good. It was really easy to navigate and loaded quickly. It is very colorful and kid friendly. It also has great content for learning to read. Content: The content of this site is very clear and concise. It is organized in an orderly fashion, which makes finding where you want to go easy. The authors of this site are identified and are credible. The content of this site seems very up to date and serves as a great resource for teaching children phonics. The quality of information provided is very good and every aspect of the site seems to work properly.  Design: The design of this site is very attractive using bright colors and animated graphics. The homepage is set up easily so that kids are able to navigate but has links that adults can use to obtain site information as well. All multimedia aspects serve a clear purpose. Kids would love the design of this site. 

A free website to teach children to read with phonics. For preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. Exciting phonics games and online interactive books.

Caitlin Pilch 8/31/11 Content: At first look, I was unable to identify what the content is on this site. The author of this site is not clearly identified, and there is no obvious sponsor. The revision for the content on this site is not relevant. The information on this site is organized by grade level and also activity subject. There are games and activities for the different grade levels. There is not a large amount of resources/games/activities on this site. The content on this site is adequate but compared to other sites is lacking. The links on this site are unrelated to what the site's content is. Design: The design of the site is lacking. The site downloads quickly but there is no appeal to any of the pages. It is hard to tell what page you are on. There are two separate indexes-one for different grade levels, one for different activities which is confusing and it doesn't clearly indicate where you should navigate to. The content presentation is not sufficient compared to other children's websites. Overview: The purpose of this site is for entertainment and education. The recommended target audience is kindergarten to fifth grade. This site offers different games and activities like number games, word games and interesting facts. I am not impressed with this site. It does not offer very many activities and the ones it does offer do not seem to suffice for the target population. This site is not visually stimulating and I don't think a child would find this site entertaining.

Adrianne Lauman September 02, 2011 Overview The purpose of this free website is to provide knowledge and awareness of North American bird species and their habitat. The site encourages people to make connections to science and nature through bird watching. The information is directed toward people of all ages who have an interest or curiosity to learn more regarding ornithology. Video clips, audio clips, colorful photos, range maps and life histories are available for investigating bird species. The site provides expert knowledge on the subject of birds in a clear and visually pleasing manner. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology developed this website and the National Science Foundation supports it. Content The site appears well organized with a visible heading to initiate a search for information on bird species. The search feature has an automatic fill in based on the first letters typed to allow the user to locate the bird of interest. Interactive selections allow a person to listen to bird sounds, as well as watch video footage of the bird. The site provides opportunities to "ask an expert" about topics concerning ornithology and information on how to participate in bird projects. One project named Feeder Watch allows people to send in their own data based on their bird watching experiences. Design The website has clear headings to locate topics and information. The copyright information and developer of the site are displayed at the bottom of each page. The photos of the birds are eye-catching and appealing. The information provided by the site is abundant and well worth viewing.

Bridget Stein 9/14/11 Overview: This website is great for students who are ESL students, (English as a second language), or for teachers who will be teaching English. It is a user friendly website and has valuable information that can be used in the real world as well. Content: On this website, it has a list of things for students or teachers to. For students, there are activities that relate to the real world, such as dating and media, and relate it to them by having them answer questions or practice their vocabulary and grammar in English. For teachers there are activities such as lesson plans, word searches, reading articles, all that will help them teach English in a friendly and easy environment. Design: The design of this website is immediately inviting and opening. It is clear to see where you would click if you were a teacher, and what you'd do if you were a student on this website. It is visually appealing to the eye but also extremely helpful.

Michael Gonzales September 13, 2011 Overview: This website is perfect for any educators who are considering teaching Spanish as a foreign language in their classroom. This site focuses on information regarding Spanish vocabulary and grammar. It's filled with activities that you can easily incorporate into your classroom that will stimulate students to have fun and learn. It also provides additional information of projects that you can use in your classroom. Content: This site is filled with files that you can print off and give to students within your classroom to help them comprehend more Spanish words and grammar. Many of the worksheets allow you to color in the words and also provide excellent visual aids to help comprehend more information. The web page is very easy to navigate; this particular page revolves around Spanish themes. There are also several links to games and items that you can print off to test your students in the classroom. This site also offers you to explore more fully and see what else the company has to offer such as templates for holiday decorations and as well over 100 themes that apply to kindergarten through 3rd grade. Design: The design of the website is very simple and straight forward; the links and texts boxes do not look complex and are very easy to access. The webpage itself is a little boring, only supplying the viewers with pictures of images of what it has to offer. I have taken a few HTML coding classes and I can see that this is something that I can easily duplicate. The site is not complex but the information that is provided is perfect for teachers and students alike.

-Overview: This website is visually appealing for parents, teachers, and students to practice spelling and vocabulary. It is organized and easy to use for all ages. There are directions when they are necessary and headings on the different topics so users can easily navigate the page. There are resources for all three audiences on the website that are all clearly labeled. -Content: The content of this website is overall very useful. There are places where students are able to enter their own spelling words or can login to connect to a place where their teacher has entered their words and they have specific exercises that they can perform. They have spelling lists that teachers can use and they have tons of resources listed and explained for teachers and parents to use and help their students use. -Design: The design of this website is very visually appealing and user friendly. There is specific links that are labeled clearly for the audience it is intended for. There are specific things that are most used that come up first on the homepage that make it easily accessible for younger students who get on the computer. It is a simple design that is not overwhelming for users and it makes the entire website very user friendly.

Megan Switzer September 11, 2011 Overview: The cyber listening lab was a website that was quite intriguing. The main purpose of this website was for one to gain more knowledge about English through listening. Through listening one can grasp important concepts, build vocabulary etc. The targeted audience for this website is ESL speakers, although if one speaks English there is still interesting aspects to this website that may be beneficial for them. Links similarly created by the same author are available to aide in speaking, slang, accents etc. and could be beneficial for those interested in improving their language skills. Overall this web site has one main goal of using audio as a learning device and it does a great job of sticking with that one aspect of learning. Content: The content of this website was simple and easy to understand. It was well categorized/ organized and the author of the website was helpful in creating tutorials for first time users. All the information is clear and consistent seems to be quite accurate based off of the author's knowledge of the subject and although the currency was not easily found the information seems to be well up to date. All links are working and helpful. Overall I was quite impressed with what this website had to offer and the concepts that the author addressed. If auditory learners need a helpful web site, this would be the one for them. Design: Although it did not seem super visually appealing to me, the website was well organized easily navigable. The audio clips worked well which was the most important part of the website, and the purpose of the website is clearly defined. Overall the design is clear and concise not a whole lot of explanation is needed due to its simplicity, I was impressed with the materials involved with this website, the author did an exceptional job in making sure one fully understands what his web site is about and makes his other links available as well.

This website provides discussions and visualization activities to help students become more familiar with the data analysis.

Content: This website is also designed for all kinds of homework help in numerous subjects. They have different kinds of references, tutoring, and levels, although it looks mainly for upper level (high school and college) students, so for elementary children would find some difficulty using. I do feel like there is quite a bit of ad space taking up pages, so visually it becomes overwhelming. Design: The design of this website is good overall, because it looks organized and clear. It is easy for students to look up what they need research on, but any free space given is taken up by ads. I think that getting rid of all these advertisements would sure make this website more efficient in providing a positive and productive learning environment. Attributes: The purpose of this site is to help student's understand what they are bringing home for homework and research. It's a supplement to the textbooks they have and available information student's need. I don't think I would send my student's to this website because there are too many distractions, and it seems like they would get lost in the ample of available information. It's also hard to have online instruction because message boards and chat rooms become off topic without someone there regulating what goes on in those environments.

Posted by Allie Parrott 09/17/09\nThe Shakespearean Resource Center is a site dedicated to Shakespearean language, theatre, and history. Everything on the site is fully functional and thorough. Teachers and students alike could learn a lot from it. Content: The Shakespearean Resource Center is a perfect place for Secondary English teacher's to go for not only basic Shakespeare facts, but in-depth explanations of his language. This site is perfect for high school students and teachers that are struggling with Shakespeare's particular style. In one section "Dictionary of Shakespeare" there shows all of the words he contributed to our everyday vocabulary. I believe that this site is valid because at the bottom of the page it shows when it was last updated. June 2009 was the last time, and that is pretty recent in comparison to a lot of sources one will get concerning William. At the bottom the author and sponsor are also easily spotted, making it all the more credible. All links and information are related to Shakespeare or the Elizabethan time in England. It will help the student that everything on this site is well organized, and they can gather tons of information with out straying far from its links. Design: The site is designed exceptionally well. There are no bothersome pop-ups and there are a limited amount of ads. All the links are functional, and under each link there is a short description, telling the visitor exactly what they are about to learn. It does lack a certain visual effect. There aren't many pictures or graphics, but consider the fact that it is a site for Shakespeare information. Shakespeare had a way with words not pictures. Students who are researching him should be highly literate because there is a lot of reading. The design is perfect for what needs to be accomplished. Attributions: It would be extremely easy to cite this source. Information is not only found at the bottom of each individual page, but also in a link that says cite SRC

Ross Lindstrom - September 21, 2009 Website Evaluation #1: The American Political Science Association (APSA) The American Political Science Association's website is an aesthetically attractive website that also contains a wealth of information and additional resources. The Association brings together 15,000 members to form a community of political science study, fostering a healthy discourse and exchange of information. APSA organizes conferences, seminars, and produces publications for both students and teachers for the purpose of promoting the scholarly research of political science. My first impression of the website is a complete trust in the legitimacy of the information presented. Any student would find this website invaluable when looking for resources to do anything from simply understanding what political science is to writing a graduate dissertation or finding an internship in Washington. The website displayed efficient organization of the various areas of the site, a challenge when so much information is contained within. It had enough visual appeal to not become redundant while browsing and yet still retain the professionalism that should be inherent in such a field of study. However, a high school age student may find the website a bit dry and the content a little too advanced. Most of the publications of the website aren't available in a direct .html format, but download speeds are quick. There is significant information overlap among the publications, but in a field of study where slight opinion difference is a cornerstone of the conversation, this can only be a credit to its legitimacy. The first glance at the APSA website yields both an understanding of its purpose and a desire to explore the website's resource. The content is clearly organized based on subject matter as well as practical application. Proper credits to authors are prevalent, new content is regularly added, and old content is constantly maintained. One of the