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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.

Overview: This website is a great website for children to explore. This website offers some great games and learning activities. This website is not only for science, but many other subjects. All over the website are characters from the movie Madagascar which Is a smart move for the website as a whole because it grabs the learners attention with the characters that they like to watch on the TV. This is a great website to use as a teacher because it has fun interactive games that students will enjoy doing.  Content: The content on this website is not only for science, but for other subjects as well. There are tabs for games, activities, videos, and mobile devices. The games and activities available are very informational and help teach the different subjects. There are informational videos as well that have the characters that all of the students enjoy to watch as well. There are science lessons, math, English/ writing, and geography lessons available to learn.  Design: The design on this website is very creative. The designer of this website used characters from the movie Madagascar to draw the students attention. This is a smart way to get younger children to go onto your website. The pages of the website are very colorful and welcoming to students. There are no advertisements, but there are links to share this website on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and some others. This would be a website that I would use a teacher because it isn't a boring page with links. This website would keep my students engaged and they would learn as well. 

Colter Huhn 1-25-10 The purpose of this site is to watch informational videos and read articles on science programs from PBS. The intended audience is all ages that can understand the material which looks to be about middle school age up. The site has many different science based categories with videos and interactive articles. Overall the content is very useful for exploring science television programming further with articles and online video on certain science based programming. The design is very professional and well layed out. The content is very good on this site, with a few minor flaws. Upon first look its fairly easy to tell the content for the site and from it know who the audience is. The information providers seem clear with the sponsor (PBS) being clearly identified and the makers of all videos. The currency seems very good with new material being added constantly and all links working properly. The quality of information is great with a clear educational purpose which is well executed. Every archived program is well organized into categories with easily understandable links and information. Many programs can be watched online with teacher links making the content very interactive. All information seems relevant and correct. The only flaws I found were no direct authors were shown or their contact information, but you can contact PBS. Also, I couldn't seem to find a date of revision, but all program dates are shown. The website design itself is also very professional. The speed is great and the site is compatible with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. The homepage is very attractive, clear, organized and all sponsor and copyright information is easily found. The navigation is simple with good organization of programs into categories and links. All videos are fantastic and relevant and the pictures represent these. The content is perfect for getting involved in science topics through documentaries and videos. There are plenty of links from eac

A great site for Science videos and documentaries. Includes links for teachers to utilize these as well.

This is a rally last week regarding the teaching bills going through Idaho right now. Senate passed them today, word needs to get out about what is going on! Please watch minute 1:10-9, I know it's long but PLEASE.

Hannah Clucas October 10, 2012. Overview: neoK12 is an educational video website. The whole site is basically a giant database to help teachers with their lesson plans. The main purpose of the website is to offer educational videos that teachers can use in their class. But there are also quizzes on topics of choice, diagrams, pictures on topics of choice, and even an option to create a school presentation. The site is simple but useful, though it is probably more useful for science and history teachers rather than language arts or math teachers. Content: As I said above, neoK12 is a website that allows teachers to find videos to help with their lesson as well as quizzes, pictures, and diagrams. All of the videos are from Youtube and cover a wide variety of age groups. The content was amazing in some areas and not so great in other areas. In regards to the history and science sections for videos, they are amazing. Several of the science videos are from National Geographic and the history videos are well done and cover a wide variety of eras and cultures. Several of the language arts videos were not made very well. They would probably be more useful to teach with if a teacher cannot come to class. It is the same for the math videos. The quizzes are useful and relevant. The ability to create a school presentation is a great tool for students to write about what they have learned or for creating study guides. All of the videos and other functions of the website are relevant and useful. Design: The site is extremely easy to navigate and is well organized. The home page is the list of the main categories of videos and their subcategories. The design is very simple, nothing flashy or amazing. The site does not bombard you with ads or other websites, which is nice and helps insure that students will stay on the website.

This website shows many different links to science videos, games and lessons. This helps the teacher and the student in many ways. It gives the teacher a way to look at other lessons and other perspectives to help them teach the class in different ways. The students also get to look at other ways to learn something, and they get to play games and watch videos to learn content instead of reading. Content: The website has multiple different links that relate to sciences from earth and space science to physical science. Each link that is clicked then shows different activities for different grade levels.

This website shows many different links to science videos, games and lessons. This helps the teacher and the student in many ways. It gives the teacher a way to look at other lessons and other perspectives to help them teach the class in different ways. The students also get to look at other ways to learn something, and they get to play games and watch videos to learn content instead of reading. Content: The website has multiple different links that relate to sciences from earth and space science to physical science. Each link that is clicked then shows different activities for different grade levels.

WatchKnow.org Michelle Petty, January 22, 2011 Overview: This site is aimed at students ages k-12, with a variety of educational portals from science to math to social studies. The site allows the user to select the area they are learning about, for example social studies and then within that category they can specify a content area like the Trail of Tears. Once the search results come back it offers a variety of information, however the information is only presented through videos and pictures. The site is easy to use and covers a wide variety of topics that makes it useful for students studying a variety of topics. However, without articles it makes using this site in research type projects difficult. Content: The website is clearly aimed at students and links to all content area taught to them. At the bottom of the site there is both a contact link and an about us & visions tab that informs the viewer who maintains the site, its goal, when it was last revised and how to contact someone with questions. When search results are found, the viewer can watch the video, go find the history of the videos to see where they came from and what the video has to offer and a separate tab to leave comments under. All of the video links work and are of good quality and offer a wide range in video content, from people reenacting historical events to math problems being solved step by step. Design: The website, while aimed at ages k-12, caters more to the younger audiences. The graphics used and even the color of font indicate that it wants to appeal to younger aged students. It is easy to navigate and use, and gives plenty of choices in videos and gives the appropriate information about the video that it can be used in an educational setting. I feel like this site would be very useful in replacing youtube videos used in class, because all of these videos are educational and meant for that use. I think I would use this site periodically, but I don't think I would

This video is a quick overview of the conjugations and some examples of how to use the verbs Ser and Ir. This is a helpful video for students going over this chapter in a Spanish class or for a teacher going over this material. The video is plain, simple, and easy to watch. The content was clearly discussed and the design wasn't distracting. It is easy to tell the content of the video by the description provided below in the information section. The author of the video and their information is listed and contact information is available. Links to other sites are functioning and a date of publishing is noted. It is clearly an informational video and it is easy to understand. The information covered in the video is correct and consistent. This video is a good learning tool for the conjugation of ser and ir. All of the content downloaded properly and the video loaded fully. The links provided to get more information on the topic are functioning and relevant. The animation used and the audio files all served their purpose of informing the viewer about the verbs. The information is consistent and organized, date of publication is listed, and a link to their website is provided so the user can contact if necessary.

Chelsea Brunski 10-08-12 Overview The purpose of this website is to help students with math, science, computer science, economics, and humanities. This website breaks down these subjects into more specific subjects so you can pick what topic you are struggling with most. Once you find the topic you are looking for you can watch videos on how to work these different problems out. The intended audience is for high school and college students because the subjects are at a higher level. All of the resources are different YouTube videos showing step by step instruction. I was really impressed by this website. It is very well organized and has a lot of great information. It provides plenty of help in the subject you are looking for. Content This website is full of different videos and a few games providing help. It is broken down into five different subjects that you would find in a college or high school setting. Every subject is broken down into different topics. This helps you narrow down the subject to exactly what you need help with. After you have picked your topic there is an abundance of videos that you can choose from. These videos break down different types of problems and teach you how to do them. Design This website is definitely more of a plain website but for the intended audience it is okay that it is plain. It is more of a straightforward approach instead of trying to catch your attention. It is a very well organized site which makes it enjoyable to work on. It is also really easy to navigate so you can find what you are looking for very quickly. Overall I think the design of this website is very nice for the intended audience.

Overview: This website had a large choice of topics to choose from where a student could get quick facts or information on a subject. On the homepage all the different subjects ranging in alphabetical order from Art to Social studies could be researched by students. The site led to other sites that contained the information and all the secondary sites appeared to work fine. This would be a good starter website for teachers to send students to check out because they know for sure information will be correct because the site is operated by the US Government specifically for kids to use. The site was very navigator friendly which works for the benefit for both the student and teacher. No update was listed on the page was the only problem again. The website says on the bottom that it is a service from the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, part of the U.S. General Services Administration Content: The content provided informational resources for students to use to do their research on a variety of topics. The website made it easy to find the different topics and the next link would take the student to another page that listed more specific content regarding the larger field of study. I focused on the kids part of the site but there was also more information for adults and teenagers. For the kids, they had three choices to pick from starting with learning stuff like information, playing games or watching information videos. Design: The design of the website was easy to follow. A bright background with slightly darker tabs made the page aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Three different tabs were listed for the kids section with learning stuff, playing games and watching information videos. The design of the site was easy to navigate and easy enough with navigation that kids in elementary school would not have a problem with it.

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.

Extremely comprehensive online math, science and programming video tutorials. Watch our sample lessons to see why students all over the world learn with Educator.com.

Overview: In this Mathplayground.com there are many different types are math problems for students K-8. Some of the problems come in an educational game form. Some of the games that this website has to offer are word problems, percentage, and multiplication, finding different angles and even math videos for students to watch. Content: The content of the website MathPlayground.com is very clear to understand. The different types of tools that this website has to offer are all given on the side of the website making it very easy to find the different problems that the students or teachers are looking for. This website even offers logic puzzles that are fun for students to play and not know that they are actually using math in the mean time. This website also offers a teachers section that offers many different tools like flash cards, math worksheets and even math manipulatives. Design: This website is a little more difficult and it would be geared to the older students and not the younger students. And yet again this would be a great tool to use as a reward in the classroom. The website does have a few ads that can distract the eye to look at the ads instead of looking at what the website has to offer. Also this website is kind of boring looking and the students could get lost and not know where to look when asked to find something. Overall this website can be a great tool to use in the future at home or in the classroom.

Chelsea Brunski 10-08-12 Overview The purpose of this website is to allow students to play games that will help them with math. The intended audience for this website would be for children in grades first through sixth. There aren't any outside resources but I think that it is okay for this website. This website has so many interactive games and videos that it doesn't need any other resources. My overall impression of this website is that it is a pretty good website. It is kind of confusing to decide what games teach what concepts but it is very interactive. I think when you are dealing with younger students and a subject like math you need something to keep them intrigued. Content The content on this website is all interactive. Every page that you go to you can find different games to play. All of these games have to deal with different type of math problem. They range from fractions to proportions. You can also practice word problems and watch videos for extra help. All of the games that are provided have a video game feel to them which draws children in. All of the games do serve an educational purpose and are reliable. The author of this website is a math teacher as well so she is a reliable source. Design When you first open this site you are taken to a webpage that is full of color. It has very strong eye appeal which attracts you to stay on this site. Since this site is for younger users I think that the vibrant colors work well for it. There is only a small amount of ads at the top of the page that blend in with how the homepage looks. This is something that could be confusing to a child. It is easy to navigate to all of the different games. Since it is for younger children I think that it is okay that the games are all put together instead of broken up into different subjects. There are also tabs at the top which help organize the site into different content area.

Cole Baumann January 24, 2010 This website helps teachers build their lesson plans and assists them to help the students. I could see this being a really good website for new teachers due to all of the lesson plan designs for any category of learning such as history, or mathematics, English, and literature. All subjects have different sections in the website showing how to make a lesson plan. For example, there is a lesson plan for a Kinesthetic, visual, and auditory method to teach students about the U.S. Constitution. I find this site to be very helpful for teachers that do not know how to teach a visual learner or a Kinesthetic or auditory learner. The website is very easy to navigate with a lot of fun little bits everywhere. There is a search bar in this website so that teachers can type in whatever they are looking for and find anything from how the Roman Empire fell to the book The Epic. There is also a whole section in this website devoted to video so if you are not much of a reader you can watch these videos and find new ways to teach in the classroom. This all helps teachers grow and become more successful in the classroom for the students. This website is good for any new teacher to learn how to finally develop lesson plans and be effective to all three ways of learning. Also, it could be good for teachers who want to teach the same thing, but they want to do it in new ways each year which keeps it fun and exciting for the students and the teacher. This website has many educational videos which is also very good for teachers to demonstrate other techniques of teaching.

Sara Hindman January 24, 2010 Overview I evaluated the Discovery Kids website because of my interest of the Discovery channel. The purpose of this website is to advertise the channel and I know this because of all the emphasis on their characters. Although the website's main purpose is to advertise, another purpose is educational. Most of their games have no educational value whatsoever, but I was did manage to find some that were extremely beneficial. One was the Build a Volcano game in which the student controls the viscosity and gas of a volcano and watches to see what happens when different variables are increased or decreased. Another game was Make a Mummy, which the student learns about the different procedures the body must go through in order to become a mummy. I learned many things I did not know before. The intended audience for this website is ages seven through twelve. I did not find any links to other websites. I find this website to be a waste except for the few games I found to be educational. Content The Discovery Kids website clearly stated its purpose of advertising and the intended audience by pasting most of their television characters on the home page. Like the nobelprize.org, kids.discovery.com failed to state who the author of the website is, although I was able to find when the last revision was (2010.) The information quality is great, there is nothing "under construction" or inaccurate. There is no further information for this website. Overall I would say the content is ok, nothing spectacular. Design The design of this website is good because of its eye-catching pages. I completely understand why children would find this website appealing because it has everything to offer children; their favorite characters and fun games. The speed of this website is fast and it is easy to navigate. All of the multimedia is loaded fast and provided perfect quality. I am not sure if this website is compatible was different browser bec

Purpose:  This website's purpose is providing educational videos on a wide variety of topics suitable for elementary age students. The topics range from math and science to memory and spelling techniques. There are quiz after the each video over the content. The website is very cluttered and not well organized. The video itself is poorly constructed with cheap animations and the audio is a monotone computer voice. The information in the movies is good for the age that it is geared towards. There are also links to other websites for educational games and more information but these links are not good and have popups or problems associated with the links.Content:The information in the videos just scratches the surface of the subject. The quizzes that follow are fairly difficult for the age group that these videos are aimed towards.  There are sections of the website that are currently not available. There are data bases that are more content focused and these sections are much better designed and informative then the videos and games that are on this website. Design:Maneuvering and finding information is one thing that is good at this website. There is a search engine that will navigate you through the website to find desired information. The main educational website is cluttered with informational video which makes it hard to know what you are looking at, and where you should go to find information. The designs of the videos are very poor and hard to watch and listen to. The animations look like clip art pictures and the audio is a computer voice.

Karsten Hiser January 30, 2011 Overview Worldwar1.net is an internet site that provides information on World War 1 (WW1). The intended audience for this website is anyone who looking for information on WW1. This site is probably for individuals in early secondary education. On this website you can find a timetable for events that happened during the war, links for other useful websites, and videos on WW1. I think this website was efficient at its purpose. It provided a lot of information on the topic. However the biggest lack of this site was the information providers. There were no names of authors or editors listed. Design For the design of worldwar1.net I found that it was good in many of the areas on the evaluation form. The speed was very fast; there is little wait time for the page to load. On the home page the only area this site lacked in was eye appeal. The background is white and had one black and white picture on it. However the site was very easy to navigate and had no "dead ends" on the site. This site provides the means of accessing many types of media. Worldwar1.net contained a long list of DVD s that could be watched to gather more information on WW1. The website is rather current and provides content in an appealing way for users. Content At first glance, worldwar1.net it is easy to determine the content. The currency of the site is clearly provided, however it is not updated frequently. This can be due to the fact that it is a history site, so facts on the subject do not change frequently. This site has a lot of quality content and is very organized. The information provided is accurate and uses correct grammar and spelling. The weakness of this site is the lack of information provided on authors and editors.

Overview: This website offers a way to help teachers with grading so that they don't have to spend so much time at it. The website does require a fee for each student and each class. The teacher can choose certain problems out of a variety of textbooks and also can add links where students can watch similar problems get solved step-by-step. Or there is another link that will take the student to the exact pages in the textbook that cover the problem. There is a home page that guides the students through all their assignments and keeps all their grades so they know how well they are doing. There is also a way for teachers to enter in other assignment grades that are not completed on the website, to keep students even more up to date on their progress. Content: The content of this website is very simple because it is just for grading. However, there are all the additional links that are very useful if a student gets stuck on a problem. The simplicity of the site makes it very easy to navigate between homework sets and problems. This website it designed for students mostly 5th grade and up. Design: The site's design in very pleasing to the eye, there is nothing flashy or distracting on the screen while students are working. The only downside is that the answers need to be put in a certain way or the website will not count it correct.

Taylor Pilch 09/09/2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide parents a great resource for fun ideas for their kids. Some of the available resources are online games, ideas for recipes and activities at home relating to characters on nickjr., and videos. My overall impression of this site is really good; it looks fun and it is full of fun things to do! Content: Some of the strengths of the content of this website are that it is easy to find out what this website is about, and it is easy to navigate. The information is current and the information quality is good- the links work and it seems to be a reliable website. The content is organized and it is clear that this website is for parents (although they can set up games for their children to play online). The only weakness regarding content is I could not find an author of the site. Design: The design of this website is excellent; everything is working properly and it is attractive. It is easy to find where to go based on what you want to do. The use of multimedia is good and kids would really like all the videos and pictures it contains. It seems to work with both internet explorer and firefox browsers. The website is current and I found no weaknesses with the design.

Overview: This is a free website that is based on a television channel for preschool aged kids. It has games and activities for kids and recipes, videos, and tips for parents. Content: The homepage of the site has a toolbar and a sub-toolbar. The main toolbar gives users the option of looking at the family/parent content, the kid content, or a list of all of the network's TV shows. For parents, the site offers parenting tips, printable activities parents can do with their kids, recipes, and articles about family life. Kids can play games, watch videos, and do activities (like drawing). Design: This website is bright and very stimulating. It is easy to navigate. I like how when you click on the kids tab, it opens a whole new window that only includes the things kids would be interested in. It doesn't take anymore than 3 clicks to get to anything you want on the site. I think it is well designed.

Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: HippoCampus is an interactive homework site that provides homework help in math, science, psychology, history and religion. Content: HippoCampus is a simple but very effective homework help site sponsored by the Monterey Institute of Technology and Education. This site uses a combination of resources to help students understand the basics of nearly any level of math, science, psychology, history or religion class that they might encounter during high school or college. The lessons on this site use images, audio and user interaction to help with the comprehension of the material at hand. In addition to this there are also Spanish options for subjects such as calculus and algebra. There are also links to actual text books, but they are deceiving. It turns out that instead of being able to view the text, the user is presented with a video interview of the textbook's author about a certain subject. This can display a certain bias if the interview is conducted poorly. Another potential problem with this site is that it was last updated in 2007. Now for some subjects such as math or language arts this is irrelevant but for subjects such as science and psychology this could result in the absence of new and important information. Aside from the "textbook" links, this site is so well organized that the user can easily find the exact chapter or concept that they wish to review with just a few clicks of the mouse. Design: This site is well designed and very easy to navigate. There are four advertisements but they are organized neatly on the right side of the screen and are nothing more than links to scholarship information and additional resource sites. The sponsor of the site is clearly stated at the bottom of the page and there is a link to their contact information. The site is mainly composed of two sections, the first being a list of general subjects that the user might be interested in, i.e. math and the second section is where

Ivey Barnes 10/13/2014 OVERVIEW This website provides a series of videos describing different concepts in mathematics to help high school students with difficulties that they are having with different math concepts. These videos can allow students to watch step by step directions on the concepts that they are having difficulties with at home. The site also provides practice worksheets about the concepts and a key for those worksheets.  CONTENT The website has been kept up to date, so far, from 2008 to 2013.  The site was put up by Charles McKeague, who has his B.A. in Mathematics, and six of his students. Each of the lessons can be taught by some of the students or Mr. McKeague, so that the students can pick who they want to watch. A helpful factor is that a Spanish version of most of the videos is available. DESIGN The websites videos are organized in different menus and submenus, and then by the problem that is being explained. This is an okay way to organize the videos, but I feel like it could be improved because if too many of the menus are open then the column becomes crowded. A nice design factor is that you can see an image of the instructor that is in the videos. All of the videos are easily and quickly assessable from the websites different menus without redirection to a different website and are also available in a full screen view.