Group items tagged

Ask Jeeves.com is a website that can give you definitions, images and answer all your questions. This site helps students of all kinds with projects, essays, news, and references. The sites images though have some raciest pictures that make fun of President Obama. These pictures should not be allowed on these sites yet they are. Ask Jeeves is note a good site for pictures showing true photos of a person's real character. The intended audience for this site is anyone needing to find something or asking a question about a certain topic. A lot of college and high school students use this site for problems they may face with a project, paper or definition. The resources for this site contain photos, web findings, news, and videos. The resources are mostly correct, but like Google they have photos that are not accurate. This site is very good overall and the only thing it lacks is its credibility of some of its images. I have used this site for definitions, resources and web findings. My impression of this site is good; I just would just like to see that they ban pictures that show raciest pictures or pictures with no reliability. I would use this site for about anything to help me to complete a paper or project.

classic game of lemonade stand

Charlene Asay: 1/23/2010 *Overview: I think that the first promotion of this site is to learning, and to get students to think that learning math is cool and fun. In the end this site becomes more of a distracting site because of all the advertisements. I wouldn't use this site in my classroom without having me there to walk my students through it so it would be easier to get to the lessons I wanted them to do. *Content: This website has a lot of different things that you can use it for. It has different math and thinking games, puzzles, for every age. There are different links for certain subjects such as arithmetic, prealgebra, algebra, and all different math lessons. There is also a link for parents and teachers. This is more of a game site than an educational site, but if you look closely at the certain games, you could be learning from them. There are a few advertisements on the webpage. Such as Walgreens, and Triaminic ad that has a coupon to click on. This webpage has many advertisements that will distract the visitors into clicking on them instead of playing the math games. *Design: The design of this webpage is quite confusing. If I were a young student and my teacher as me to get to a certain lesson in prealgebra, I would get lost with all the different advertisements and other links there are to look at. I would also want to go to the games instead of the lesson my teacher as me to do.

Sarah Skinner on January 22, 2010 Overview The purpose of this website is to give educators some new material for their classroom. There are suggestions on ways to use new tools to get your students more involved and more excited for learning. There are math activity instructions, blogs for people to read about different age groups as well. There are instructions to help a student learn to read music. My overall impression on this site was that it's very informative. Content This site is very easy to determine the basic content of the site. The intended audience is stated in the introduction paragraph that gives a little information on what the website is about. The author is clearly stated at the top of the page. There isn't a lot of information on the author. The sponsor is identified and contact information is available. The latest revision date is stated clearly on this page. The date is a little old but it has been updated in the past year. All links are working properly. The purpose of this site is mostly informational. There are no under construction signs on this page. The content of the site is well organized and is easy to understand. There is a sufficient amount of information related to my purposes. The content may be bias. Articles are written by different people saying what their opinions are. There is some interactivity and the information appears to be accurate based on my own knowledge. The information is consistent with similar informational sites and grammar and spelling are correct. Design The homepage downloaded efficiently but it kind of has a bland look to it. You can tell where you are immediately when you come to this page. There is an index to lead you to different links. The site sponsor is provided and there is a contact link available. A copyright date is at the bottom of the website. I am able t move around within the site with ease. There are no distinct directions for using the site, but it is pretty straight forward. The

Megan Ridings ITEC 2360 Website Evaluations January 24, 2010 Overview: On the website, Hotchalk Lessons Plans Teaching Page, is to have information and sources on all areas of teaching, including receiving a degree. It is clear that this website is designed for an audience of elementary school teachers, student teachers and parents who are homeschooling their children, and those hoping to obtain a teaching degree. Overall I feel that the site is well made, and clearly organized, and easy to understand. The site is easy to easy to navigate, and helpful in many aspects, but not necessarily made with the intention of helping with lesson plans like I was looking for. This site is a little bland, and is not one that really caught my interest. Content Summary: I have found the content of this site to be "worth bookmarking for future references." The site is up to date and current, and it is easy to tell that the purpose of the site is to be informational. The content of this site is well organized, easy to navigate and understand. In addition this site is full of information of all types. The site appears to be complete, and offers a sufficient amount of information for elementary school teachers, however is not solely intended for those interested in elementary school lesson plans, and therefore does not provide a large amount of lesson plans. The information provided appears to be accurate, and up to date. In addition it seems to have authors that are qualified and reliable. Design Summary: On this site the design doesn't lack much and is easy to appreciate. This site downloads efficiently, and is full of information that is colorful and designed to entice the audience. The site contains a large amount of multimedia, and graphics that serve a clear purpose. As for navigation, the design of this site is easy to follow and has a massive amount of information of all types that is well organized. Based on my evaluation I would say that the design of

Kayla Rider January 23, 2010 Overview This site is amazing for kids of all ages! Even if you are a kid at heart, it is still a great site. Also, it is very informative. It is a history site for the United States of America. It has games and loads of information on it, especially information that is normally not found on information and educational websites. It is brought to you in a fun way. I would definitely use this site to teach my students a thing or two about history and to keep them involved with it. I would also use it in the home for my children. Fun and very informational. Content This website provides a fun filled environment of historical facts about the USA and people of the USA. It is provided by the Library of Congress, so therefore it MUST be credible. However, if you don't believe in the title of it, there is a very informative About Us section that will have you believing in the content of the site. It also provides contact information so that you can ask questions about anything on or off the site. Overall, very impressive. Design The design of this website catches your eyes immediately. It is fun! It is easy to navigate through, especially since it was designed with young minds in mind. There is a table of contents and colorful links to navigate through. Overall, again, very impressive.

Cole Baumann January 24, 2010 This website holds many hints and suggestions on how to help children with dyslexia. The site holds many suggestions on how to help students with dyslexia such as little ways to help them remember things and suggestions on ways to help them feel more comfortable in the classroom. This is helpful as children with dyslexia do feel a lot of stress that no other student does due to knowing there is something wrong but not knowing exactly what. They do not know why they struggle with work in the classroom while other students seem to perform just fine. This website will help teachers and parents make the students feel more comfortable in the classroom and may even be able to help the students work with their problem to become more literate and, consequently, be able to help them grow as a student and a child. The design of this website is very entertaining. There is a picture for almost every paragraph which is just pleasing to look at. This prevents boredom as you search through the website and explore. Also, this website allows you to change the background color which is not a real important thing but it is always fun when websites add little things like that to keep it more entertaining and more appealing to use. Additionally, the site looks presentable and very nice. It is not a very 'sketchy' website to go to which is very important if you are trying to help your student and you do not want your computer to fail due to finding a terrible virus. Though the website is for parents who have children with dyslexia, this website could also help teachers improve the learning abilities of any student that seems to be having trouble reading. This website does not consist of large programs or big dramatic ways to help dyslexic students learn, but there are small items and suggestions that in the end if you put them all together the teacher may be able to help the child function as a better student.

Jaymes Talkington January 23, 2010 http://www.gilderlehrman.org/ Content This is a great American history site. It is full of historical documents, maps, and podcasts of historians by era. This site also contains curriculum models and quizzes for history teachers to use in class. It also has a lot to offer for students as well. Most of the information is either talked about by a historian, or comes from digital copy of a historical document so it is cited and creditable. The content of the site seems to be updated daily. Design The website is pretty user friendly and simple to use. The headings are noticeable and specific. There is a search box instead of an index. The site loaded regularly with no delays as did the podcasts. There is no unnecessary advertising on the site. All the links I tried seemed to be sufficient. The browser capability works for Internet Explorer. There doesn't seem to be any 'out of date' material on the site. Overview The web site seems to be mostly for the use of teachers; however I think it has a lot of information that can be used by students. The historical documents, maps, and podcasts are primarily for students, but can also be used by teachers. Its main purpose is to educate, and aid teachers with American history. I think this site would be very useful for teaching an American history class or even writing a paper on a certain event in American history. I was impressed with the amount of information the site contained.

David May 1/23/11 Fun website full of games for all ages. Captures attention right away with the bright colors and clickable items. Overview: This site promises to make learning fun and it sure succeeds. Many games are at the user's disposal of learning and having a bit of fun. The games have a game part to learn and then another option of taking a quiz to prove that information is actually learned. The science games are fun and have animations which help show the user what is being learned. The history game is more of a pop quiz that has some interesting things that not that would know. The website has testimonials of users explaining how much they enjoy the site. The entire website has many things for children all the way up to adults and college students. The website has some questionable content in the history quiz portion asking about facts of playboy the magazine which isn't so good if taken by younger children. Content: The user is easily able to discern what the content is. The audience is younger children with the colorful pictures and animals all over. An email is provided with easy access to the email through the contact link. The author is listed as well as everyone involved with the website is listed in the about link. The author is listed with credentials and with the amount of patents he currently has. The website doesn't display any kind of updating date nor a copyright date. The website claims that the sole purpose is for educational purposes. On closer inspection one can see that the purpose is to sell software games to schools, teachers, and parents. The site gains loyalty and then sells software. The site keeps the attention focused and doesn't lack in entertainment with all the games. Any type of game is easily found by category. Some games have to been dug for with multiple clicks. The games do provoke learning, but none of the information is listed where it came from. Design: The website has good appeal with the bright color

David May 1/23/11 This site is very educational. Great information with a reliable source. Too much advertising the museums. Overview: The website of the Smithsonian museum with a fun educational spin. The site has a few games with animations that are well put together. The games have good images and great animations that put complex things in simpler terms like comparing a planet size with a beach ball compared to a golf ball. The site overly advertised visiting the actual place too much. Everything that was clicked on encouraged visiting and it got very tiresome very quickly. Content: The site is very easy to navigate and find what one is looking for. There is a constant sidebar with information about where you are and what things are easiest to link to.. They list the curator of the museum who is in charge of the content on the website. The copyright of the website is 2010 which shows recent content on the website. There is an informational theme to the site, but the clear objective of this site is to get visitors to the museum. Design: The website is very well put together. It is impressive with the amount of graphics and page design that they put in effect on the site. The problem is that if users don't have the latest flash player they will have to download it and go through the download process. If this is for students the schools might restrict the ability to download the software. The website other than over advertisement is good for information and reliable for what one is looking for.

Laura Rice 2/5/12 Overview: The purpose of this website is to expand educational knowledge and resources for education. The intended audience ranges from educators, families, and students. This website provides many resources for public use. The educators are provided with resources for field trips, professional development organizations, lesson plans, resource library, and online events. For families the website provides information about what is available at the Smithsonian, time you can spend together as a family, and events families can do together. The students are also provided with information about the Smithsonian, topic they can explore, secrets of the Smithsonian, and events available for kids. This website is a great source to a variety of people. The links to each page provide a lot of information useful to educators, families, and students. Content: The website is extremely useful to all types of people from educator, families, and students. Teachers have access to lesson plans for all subject areas ranging from K-12th grade. Teachers are also provided information about taking a field trip to the Smithsonian and the programs it has to offer students. The tab for educators also has a link to online events that are taking place. For families the website contains different activities the Smithsonian has to offer as well as activity sheets for children. Students are provided with events at the Smithsonian that may interest them, as well as topic they may enjoy to see there. Overall the content is very educational and centered around what the Smithsonian can offer to others, and also provides lesson plans that could help educators in their future career. Design: The overall design is easy to understand and information is extremely easy to access. Tabs clearly identify the intended audience from educators, families, and students. Under each tab there are others that provide information useful to each age group. At the bottom of the page ther

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.

Danie Thiel1-23-11The layout of this site is very organized and well thought out. The site gives you a detailed list of steps to making a pinch pot. With in the steps there are highlighted words that lead to links to help the reader better understanding the world. At the end of the nine steps to making a pinch pot there is a warning advisory that provides safety precautions. After that the viewer will find a list of materials to help make the pot more successful. This site correctly tells how to make a pinch pot and would best be used in a high school classroom. This site lacks pictures, which would make the site more successful. The site also offers links to other sites that might be found helpful.           

Becky Stewart 1/24/11 Average Site Overview: The site http://www.greatschools.org/ is a site designed for parents would be my hypothesis. This site is comparing different schools, and seeing which ones are the best. That is why this site would be good for parents. The parents would be able to compare schools and see which ones they would be okay with their children attending. Young children wouldn't be able to navigate this for themselves, because the site is pretty complicated so they wouldn't be able to follow it like its supposed to be used. Content: At first glance the site is very complicated. There are a lot of links that have to be followed if the right information is to be found. It is easy to identify that this site is for adults who are able to follow the links and different information. There is no easy to get information about the author, however, there is a copyright date. The date says that the site was last updated in 2011 so this is a good recent website that will carry the most recent information. An address and contact are listed however which means that contact is possible, just with some effort. The content is pretty well organized for someone that is interested in following all of it. The only flaw in the content is that if the user is looking for specific information about something than it could be very hard to find because other results may pop up that are unwanted. Overall the website has good content that would just have to be sorted out a little by the user. Design: The homepage took a little time to download, but nothing really above normal. The homepage is attractive with a lot of colors and pictures. However, it seems like there is just too much going on at once. It makes it look very confusing and can turn people off of the site just because its so much to follow. The site is easy to navigate and follow the links. On the other hand, just because the links are easy to use doesn't mean the the exact results the user

Kent McKee 1/31/11 Overview: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ is a website for literature and history education. There is a lot of information on this site. Having spent a good amount of time navigating this site I can say with confidence that while there is quite a lot of information on the site, it is fairly poorly organized and it's still somewhat hard to know the basic purpose of the site. Design: The design of the site has some definite positives and negatives. As I said before, the organization of the site is difficult to understand at first and it almost has too much information on it. Not to mention the fact that the black and red design and a spinning medieval helmet (that looks like a bad clip-art) make this site pretty ugly to look at. Content: It seems as though the content of this site is all over the place. It offers tons and tons of links to navigate to, which is good, but there seems to be little discernable connection between much of the information. There is no clear author of the site either. That said, there is a lot of useful information here, it's just that the makers of the site could do a much better job in presenting it.

John Paul Evans May 18, 2011 Historyteacher.net is a content heavy page providing many teaching resources for history teachers. The website is usable but needs many improvements. Purpose: Historyteacher.net provides a large amount of content for history teachers. This includes, quizes, timelines, study guides and much more. It also devotes some of it's resources towards updating readers on current events in the field. Content: This website does not lack for content. Unfortunately not all the content is managed appropriately. A person can look at the page and reasonably grasp it's purpose, however they may have difficulty finding the content they are searching for. The site provides a great deal of information and is clearly unbiased when approaching history. However, much of the information reads as if it is pulled directly from a text book and often fails to provide citations or even authors. It does provide many links to credible and useful content providers when more information is required. Also all of the content it provides is free of charge. Design: The design of this site is atrocious. It loads up quickly but has so many links and information on a single page that a user does not know where to begin. It doesn't help that flash animations, gifs and unneeded icons and pictures litter the page almost randomly. The color scheme also seems random and makes your eyes begin to verbally cry out in pain. I would recommend an entire overhall on this website's design. It would also be helpful if news and articles would list an author or at the very least a date posted. As it is I have no idea how regularly the site is updated or if it is even currently active.

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.

Overview: This website is intended for Preschool teachers who would like lesson, ideas, and printouts. Within each subheading there is background information of the subject for the teachers, as well as activities and printouts for the students. There are up to date materials that relate well to students, and are easily accessible by teachers. This is a wonderful, one that I will be using once I graduate and start a Preschool. Content: When the website is first opened it is easy to determine the purpose and audience that was intended. There are no authors available but the sponsor is at the bottom of the website, with a link to give feedback. This was last updated in 2010, which is very current considering the type of material; material for little kids do not change all that much within a year. There is a ton of information available on this site. There are themes as well as activities. Within each of these there is a little info about the subject for the teacher and resources, activities and printouts for the students. There is also a links that leads to what they call their sister sites, which provide more ideas. Design: This site is pleasing to the eye. There are colors that go well together, but are not over-powering. The information is well organized and clearly defined. Each link works and leads to where is desired. There is a link to many others links that are helpful and along the same subjects.

Overview: This website is a good website for teachers who need fun and creative ideas for many different activities and lesson for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners. The last time this webpage was updated was in 2010, this is fairly recent, since that is within the last year. There are a variety of activities, games, quizzes, and many printouts. The intended audience is teachers who are looking for ideas. I love this website. It was easy to navigate and gave me a ton of great ideas and printouts I can use. Content: This website is full of links, all of which work, that lead to many different types of content from letters and numbers to animals to coloring pages. Within each of these sub-headings there are many activities and ideas to use for the children in your class. Each section and sub-sections are clearly defined and have pictures that correspond. The last update was last year, this seems to be a while ago, but since material for pre-k does not change drastically in a year, it is still up to date. There is not any information on the author, so that is lacking, but overall the content on this website is up to date and easy to access. Design: The design of this website has all links well defined and organized. There are pictures that also correspond to all of the links and headings. There is easy navigation throughout the whole website and everything is easy to access. Everything is up to date. There are a few varieties of media, mostly in the form of words and images. There is a copyright, also with a description as to how the website can be used for educational purposes.

The content for this site is very well put together. It is a site where you can go and start a new language and you can either start a free trial or pay to use it. It might be similar to Rosetta Stone. It has a easy to use box that will start you with the basics of the language you are trying to learn.The design is simple you have the unit and lesson at the top of the square saying what one you are on. On the left had side there are boxes with learn, review, write, and speak. Once you have completed all of those levels you are able to use the skill builder exercises to improve your skill. In the middle of the box is a picture with the word of phrase you are trying to learn. Underneath is a rewind play and fast forward button so you can move back and forth from picture to picture. I think that although this could be done from beginning to end I didn't find a way for someone who already knows some words. I also don't think that the exercises were very fun and one would get bored after a while and either stop paying attention or their motivation would die so they would want to do something else.  I am also not sure who the author is or what date it was updated, the only information it said was copyright in 2011.

Korinne Thoren 14 September 2011 Art Project-Powered by Google Overview: The purpose of Art Project is to allow users exposure to some of the world's best works of art without ever having to leave their home or classroom. The website is geared to older students, I think this site would work well for anyone middle school aged or older. My overall impression of the site is a good, I particularly like the quality and quantity of artwork users have availability to and the virtual touring is fun; the only thing I did not like was that it took a while to get used to the virtual tour navigation tools, however there is a instructional video provided on the website for users. Content: This interactive, virtual touring website gives its users access to 17 of the most world renowned art museums, allowing users to view all works of art or tour the museum virtually. This makes for exposure to thousands of famous pieces of art over a very unique and fun experience. The site also allows users to view very high quality, detailed photos of the art that can be zoomed into, which would not be found through just a Google search. Each painting contains the title of the work and the artist, but no mediums or dimensions are provided. There is a "create an artwork collection" feature that allows users to compile their favorite works, which could be useful for studying a specific movement or time period. The website does not provide contact information for the site creators or links to the actual museums. Design: The overall design of Art Project is superb. Upon opening, the site really draws users in because of the changing and vivid, zoomed up view of artworks used as the background. The listing of museums and artworks on the left-hand side is very clean and simple, thus making for a very appealing website design overall.

Sam Burns, 9/20/2009 The Leo Translator site is better than most online translators I have found four many of reasons. First of all it is a German site so it is easier to find the word that you are looking for. Also, the site is made by professionals and is designed to help with finding specific words, not for writing sentences like other translation sites which more often than not, are completely wrong. Content: The Leo Translator is basically just a giant online German to English dictionary. It is in German but has a link to switch the site to English. Leo has a spot to type in any word, German or English, and then it quickly brings results in the opposite language the initial word was typed. My favorite part about Leo is that when a word is typed, it gives many different translations and then it is the user's job to pick the correct one. On most other translation sites the word is just assumed and one translation is given. This can cause mistakes and is also, in my opinion, a waste of time. I think that Leo is more for advanced levels of students because of how in depth the translation results are, but it is a very useful tool. Design: Leo is very easy to navigate and very well planned out. It is easy to find where to type the word that you want translated. Also, the translated words are displayed clearly and in bold font. The website is not too appealing as far as color and pictures go but that is not necessary. The site loads quickly after every word and is very efficient. Another benefit of Leo is that after each search, related links to the word are displayed at the bottom of the page. This can be very helpful when trying to understand a new word.