Group items tagged

Candace Carder October 13, 2014  Overview:  The video focuses on the four seasons in a year, and is aimed for younger children. This video was published on January 14, 2013, and the category that it is focusing on is education. The video is intended for the audience age of 5-8 year olds. The videos information is all there and easily seen.  Content: The website talks about the four seasons, and sings about each season. The video first talks about winter, and how you build snowmen, go sledding, and how you need hats and gloves to go outside. The next season they sing about is spring, and how it rains for hours, and the flowers are starting to bloom. The next seasons, they talk about is summer and how you go to the pool, and how it is very hot outside. The last season the video sings about is fall, and in that season you rake leaves, and wear sweaters. The video then recaps singing about all four season in a year.  Design:  The video is set up to be a cartoon video that catches students attention. It is a song that will stink in your brain after you listen to the song. The video is made for younger students, it is supposed to catch young students attention. The video was pretty accurate and gave good information to students. 

Mandy Toll 9/11/11 Overview: This website includes Abraham Lincoln learning games for kids. The website is intended for teachers and students who are looking for more information on President Lincoln. There are educational games for students to learn more about Abraham Lincoln, links to information on other U.S. presidents, the Gettysburg Address, famous quotations from Lincoln and many other informational things about Abraham Lincoln. Within the site there are a lot of links to other pages to further your knowledge about U.S. presidents but mostly Lincoln. I thought that this website was useful in allowing you to find information on Lincoln and would be suitable for students to use as well as teachers when learning more about Abraham Lincoln. Content: There was a lot of good content to this website. There are a lot of different links to allow both students and teachers to gain more knowledge on Abraham Lincoln and some information on other U.S. presidents. It is easy to tell what the website has to offer and who the audience is. The information is up to date and is appropriate for finding information on Abraham Lincoln. The links on the page to other sites are current and work well. The information on the site is for finding more information on Lincoln and games for students to play to gain more knowledge on the president among other things about Abraham Lincoln. The content on the site is well organized and easy to find. All the information is easy to understand as well. The information on the site also is consistent with other information in other sources. This site will most likely help in the future. Design: I did not think that the overall appearance of the website was very attractive however I liked how simple it looks and how easy it is to use. You can tell what you are looking for on the site and navigate around it with ease. The links on the site are helpful and appropriate and go with the subject matter. There were no uses of multimedia that I found wh

Billie Slyman, 9/11/11 Purpose The purpose of this site is to provide resources for teachers for teaching weather. It's part of a larger site that has resources about all kinds of topics. There are websites, print-out activity sheet and Power Points. Although there are a lot of links, about half of them don't work, and there isn't any information on the site about how the sites are found and who runs the site. My overall impression is that this site has some good resources that could be helpful to teachers, but the link you want might not work, and there's no guarantee it is a good site. Content There really isn't any information (that I could find, anyway) about who develops or maintains this site, or any indication of when it was made. Although there are a lot of links to other sites, there is nothing about this site. There is a link to "Contact Us", but who is "Us"? However, it is nice that the links are divided into separate themes, like Weather, so it is easy to find the topic you are interested in. Design The site looks pretty plain. It's really just a list of links. However, this does serves the purpose of the site. It doesn't really have much reason to look nice because most people won't be spending a lot of time there; they'll be on the other sites. Although, even though the site is plain, it still manages to feel cluttered. With the links in the middle, navigation menu on the left and ads on the right it can be a little hard to stay focused. But the site is functional, and it can be helpful to have a large amount of sites about the topic all put together.

Overview: The purpose of this website is to give teachers tools to help engage student learning about U.S. history. The audience of this website is history teachers all the way from elementary school to high school. The available resources of this website are teaching materials for teachers, content about numerous historical topics, and a section about the best practices for teaching history. I like this website because not only does it offer history content to teach, it gives teachers tools to help engage students in the material. The quality of this material is high and is well organized and it is eye appealing to visitors. Content: At first look, visitors to the website are able to know where they are and it is made clear who the audience of the website is. The authors and sponsors of the website are made available and contact information is provided. The only negative point about this website is its information currency. There is no last revision date, only a copyright year. The quality of information is great. There are numerous links to sources about various historical events and there are links for each grade level as well. There are also quizzes on the website to help enhance student learning. Design: The speed of this website is high; the homepage downloads immediately. The main page is very appealing and the content is accessible from three different tabs on top of the page. The information regarding authors/sponsors is also accessible at the bottom of the page. The navigation of the site is good; however, there are no directions available to visitors for navigating the site. . The site is compatible with various browsers and the content of the website is well organized and is plentiful.

World War II in Europe: The purpose of this site is to give a general overview of the events that happened in Europe during World War II. It gives specific dates of the events that happened such as the Invasion of Poland. The attended audience of this website is 10th grade Modern American History students. The available resources on this website are good, reliable sources that give information about this topic but also about other countries in World War II. My overall impression of this website was that it would be a good website to use for a project that involves World War 2 in Europe because it can give the dates of events and a little information about it. Overview: This article is about World War II in Europe and the dates of the events in Europe. The strengths of this website are that the dates are accurate and that they do a good job of listing all of the dates in the corresponding year and that it doesn't just give the important dates. The weaknesses of this website are that they do not give a description of the events. Content: The content was strong because the dates were accurate and because the list of events had both major and not as major events. The content was weak because it did not have a clear author, had little information about the event, and did not discuss the role of the event. Design: The design was strong because it was easy to navigate around the site; it was well organized and knew where you were at all times on the site. It was weak because it did not have a lot of pictures and they could have done a better job of drawing the readers in.

Kate McDonnell October 13, 2014 The purpose of this website is to inform people about cyberbullying. Not only does it inform its reader about what it is, but what people can do about it as well as how to prevent it. This website makes many resources available, as well as valuable knowledge that can be put to use almost immediately for anyone who reads this. The intended audience is the general public, not just someone who is researching this topic. This website relates all of its information to society, so it is relevant for anyone who has taken notice to cyber bullying. Overall, this website seems reliable, though it isn't perfect. It is the better of the two resources I reviewed. The issues are minor, and the overall combination of design as well as content is strong. Content: When first viewing this website, the user can determine the basic content of the site, as well as its intended audience. The specific author wasn't clearly identified, therefore the information about whomever wrote the information on this site isn't available or known by the users of this website. The sponsor was clearly identified, though, as this is a government site so it clearly states that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sponsors this website. There is a link to the website for that specific department, where one can find more about the sponsor as well as how to contact them. The latest revision date wasn't listed, so it is unknown if the content is updated. The content is complete, well organized, and easy to understand. It is free of bias, as well as interactive. There are videos, pictures, blogs, and many other components that contribute to this website. Design: The download was affective as well as speedy. The homepage has strong eye appeal; it isn't too busy but there are pictures and colors that make it appealing. No directions are required to navigate this website, it is easy and clear for the user how to make their way around this websi

Overview The purpose of this website is to inform the reader about Benjamin Franklins many inventions. It is very easy for the public to access through Google. The best part about the website is there are a ton of links on his different inventions. Content At a first glance you can definitely tell the website is dealing with Benjamin Franklins inventions. The site also appears to be helpful to people of all ages. Neither the author not the publishing date is stated, but there is a homepage that will take you to all of the contact information. This site is really well put together. It talks about all of his inventions but from the website you can further you knowledge. Each invention has a separate link, which will take you to pictures or more information about the invention. All the information is clear and accurate and can be used by people of all ages and backgrounds. I would definitely recommend this site to any student of any age who would like to learn more about Benjamin Franklins inventions. Design The design of this website is good but not great. It does have a picture right at the top which helped to grab my attention. There is a very large homepage button at the top which takes you to any contact or author information you might need. All the information is organized very nicely making it easy to navigate the site. I found the links to the other websites very useful!

Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: World Digital Library (www.wdl.org) is a very informational site that can be accessed by anyone. This site could be a very useful tool in the classroom. It is a huge collection of documents that teach about places from all around the world and from all different times in history. All of this information is presented in a well organized easy navigable way. Content: The purpose of this site is purely informational. Historical information from 8000 BC to 2010 AD is available on World Digital Library. The user can also pick anywhere on the globe that he/she wishes to learn more about. The information on this site seems to be legitimate and the sponsor is clearly represented at the bottom of the page. Further information about the site, help, and contact information is all included at links at the bottom of the page as well. This website is extremely useful and educational. Design: World Digital Library loaded very quickly and the homepage has very strong eye appeal. The user is able to choose which era they would like to learn more about. They can then choose any part of the world. Content can also be found by browsing a specific place, time, or topic. The user just has to click on which part of the world they wish to learn more about. This website is extremely easy to use and involves simple navigation.

¬¬¬¬Mandy Toll 9/11/11 Overview: This website was very useful for finding information on the presidents of the United States. Within this website you choose a president to learn more information. By clicking on their name you learn more about what they did as a president, their election results, and other basic information about them. The audience of this website is directed towards students and teachers looking for more information on the U.S. presidents. There are a lot of reliable resources on the website to allow you to get more information on presidents. My overall impression of the website was that it was easy to use and very useful for the information I was looking for. I think that students and teachers will easily be able to use the site and it is easy to find more information by asking the ipl2 librarian from the button shown on the website. Content: It was easy to find the content of the website and who the website is intended for. On this website there was a lot of information on the author of the site and the sponsor of the site. There is also a button you can click to ask questions to gain more information about the topic you are researching. The information on the presidents from this website is updated to the most recent president. The links on the site also are up to date and working properly. There is a lot of information on this site to inform the user about the president they are researching. The content overall was organized and appears to be well done and the information is accurate. Design: This website was easy to use do to its design. The website looks attractive and you can easily tell what the website is trying to inform you about. This website is easy to navigate. All the links on the website are helpful and give you more information on the U.S. presidents. The only thing that this website did not have was graphics and videos which might have made it a little more exciting. All of the information on this site is easy to find and

Mitch Sexton January 20th 2009 The page provided by BBC about German culture and language seems to be a very interesting and educational tool to be used by anyone looking to learn about Germany. With so many different links and fun games it is impossible to search this site without learning at least a little bit about Germany and its culture. I feel that this would be a useful tool as a teacher because not only does it provide the site in German but it also gives you news updates, live television feeds, weather and even quizzes about cultural events. The intended audience is obviously any person that is looking to learn about Germany. But it also provides a more in-depth look with the television feeds and translation into German. I think that this is a wonderful site for anyone but a particularly great site for students that will be in my classroom.

Morganne Harper The site http://specialed.about.com/ contains a lot of materials that could be useful when teaching or handling a child with special needs. There are many articles talking about behavior and how to handle certain types. There are also links to sheets that help with fundamental skills such as counting. Towards the bottom on the left, there are more detailed sections that you could navigate to, which would give you more specific information on a certain area. At a quick glance, it is not easy to see that it is about special education. There is small gray font near the top that says special education, but not much else. The authors and resources of their information is relatively easy to find. It is at the top of any article or link that you click on. I had trouble finding the date that anything was published or updated. Some areas that should be put together aren't and some things are put in what seems like random places. Information contained on the site is of good quality. It is meant to be a helpful source to utilize, and does a decent job at giving content to allow this to happen. The homepage opened quickly and lead me to what I was looking for. Near the bottom of the page there are multiple colors in links that draw your eyes to them, but on the top and in the middle there was a lack of appeal. It looked like something about "boring" education. You have to scroll for a little bit to get to the links that you might want, until then there are just articles that seem to be in random order. Some of the graphics that are used as clip art for articles are repeated, losing the effect and interest.

Gary Allen Jan 23, 2011. Overview: As the title suggests, this is a website designed to help kids learn about American history. The site is authored by a man with much experience in presenting history for kids and includes a link to his biography. Content: This site contains many easy to follow links, a glossary, interesting facts, a search box and even some educational games to help present the content. Also included are links to other sites of similar content and a weekly newsletter. There is no date for the last revision of the site, but there is a link to contact the author and ask questions.  Design: The site is fairly simple in design with the main navigation across the top, another menu of links down the left side, and ads on the right side. The lack of flashy elements helps the site load extremely fast however. Navigation is very straightforward and clearly labelled.

Overview: This website's purpose within in a classroom could be for research papers and projects. Each student could choose their own topic and then navigate the links easily to learn more information with concise bullet points, pictures, correlations to current events, and related games. This website included topics in several areas but primarily history, geography, economics, and government. Content: This website has a wide variety of upper elementary social studies information including even broader topics of history, geography, government and economics. The home page had a general toolbar that provided information about the site and the creator. On the left side was a huge bar that linked to many specific history topics such as current events, teaching resources, timelines, and maps. Once you have clicked on a topic from the side bar there are even more links to even narrower research areas. This would be a good site to use for students to create a research project about a topic that they are interested in. There was only one link found that was not up-to-date. Design: The design is not very appealing especially for young children it initially looks a bit bland. Once you have picked a side link and narrowed your topic there are visually appealing pictures and games to go along with the information being taught. The home page took a while to download and had an ad that was generated more towards adults pop-up. The site is easy to navigate following all working links. The website did not work well in Internet explorer but did work well in Google Chrome.

Brianna Gillespie 9/14/11 OVERVIEW: This website is to teach students about the many different subjects related to social studies. Students can use this website to answer almost any questions they could have about social studies. This website is mainly for older children because it has a lot of reading that may be a little difficult for younger children to comprehend. CONTENT: The content includes current events, games, economics, geography, presidents, states, and many more. Within each subject are a variety of links to choose from. Each link is focused on a main point of the subject. There is also a section on the main page titled "This Week in History" with some facts about a certain event that happened in the past. DESIGN: The design has some color, but is a little bland. However, each page has a piece of clipart on it, so it is not completely boring. Children would be able to navigate around this website fairly easily too.

Kacy Jo Bailey October 8th, 2012 Content: The content of this website is for second grade students learning more about sharks. This website is a good way for kids to learn more about the diversity of animals we have in our environment, and how sharks are similar and different from other animals that we see everyday. The content of this website is clear, easy to understand, and easy for second grade children to work with. Some of the content is a little old, but for the most part this website still gives teachers the ideas they need to make a web quest similar to this one Design: The design of this website is relevant to it's topic. It is a website about sharks and it has sharks for animations, and a blue background to represent the ocean which sharks live in. This website is easy to navigate with it's layout. Things are clearly labeled and easy to find.  Overview: Overall this website is a great way to get kids involved with learning about sharks in groups and not just getting information from the teacher lecturing. The website has good information and links that are useful to further investigate the information that may not all be included on this website. 

This website is essentially an overview of the important events of the Trojan War. The website is clear and organized in chronological order. If you simply read the page top to bottom you get a clear and basic overview of the most important events of the Trojan War. This was written for basically anyone who wants to learn about the basics of the Trojan War. I read through and I feel that it could be useful for anyone in middle school or older due to the level of vocabulary. I feel that all the necessary content is there, however the design could use some work. Pertaining to content, this website is great. Everything someone would want to learn about the basics of the war is there. This website also brings a unique perspective about the war because of the link "The Women". It's not very often (especially in Greek or Macedonian) society that women's opinions or chronicles were valued at all, let alone saved like these were. Information on this site is very easy to find because the links and headings are clear, making it easy to find what you are looking for. The author's and bibliography section are done well, a background of the authors is present, and all websites are presented in order and correctly formatted. The pages about the important women may be the best of all. They included the original Latin text, and an English translation. They also include descriptions of how that particular woman impacted the war or society. Pertaining to the design, this website could use some design help. While it's nice and simple, there aren't many colors, for instance every page has black font with a white background. The images are useful and pertain to the website, but there aren't many of them on the main pages. The sidebar looks very nice, the top bar does as well, if this theme would have been utilized more throughout the whole website it would certainly add to the attention grabbing aspect of the website.

Design Evaluation: When a viewer arrives at this site they are greeted by a well-organized and appealing homepage. You can clearly tell what site you are on. The topics on this site are organized in a table of contents. A viewer can easily navigate through the site and the pages load easily. The sponsor and copyright are easy to locate. The same basic format is followed throughout the pages. The information appears to be updated regularly. The information and links on this site are relevant and worthwhile. Content Evaluation: When a viewer arrives at the site they can quickly determine the audience and purpose of this site; the audience includes teachers and parents of children with learning disabilities and the purpose of the site is informational. The information on this site includes basic facts about learning disabilities, links to financial assistance resources, and news about learning disabilities. All the information seems up date and accurate. This site gives information about the authors featured and lists of valuable links that viewers may find interesting. The content of this site is extremely relevant and meets the needs of visitors. Overview: LD.org is intended for teachers and parents of the children with disabilities. This site provides viewers with a wide range of resources including grants for education and the basic facts about learning disabilities. In my opinion this site is a wonderful resource. I can see referring this site to parents who need financial assistance for the children as well as using this site as a resource and guide to making lesson plans or filling out an IEP. This site has relevant information and links. I would strongly recommend this site to others.

Stephanie Mecca 2/5/12 Overview: The purpose of this site is to help students learn about the Renaissance in a fun and interactive way. The graphics and navigation tools are fun and interesting. The intro to the site is very fun and intriguing. The site includes a lot of information about the people, places, and art of the time. The interactive questionnaires are fun and keep the viewers interested. There are two working links to different websites that serve as other resources, one of which is the Allentown Art Museum which created the website. The intended audience is both students and teachers. Though the site is mostly for students to interact with, there is a tab for teachers which helps with lesson plans. Content: Although the content is easily determined and the quality is good, there is a problem with some links. Mostly the links about the authors of the site and the contact information are not working and one pop-up says "under construction". There isn't any place that lets the viewer know when the site was last updated either. The site is very interactive though and keeps the viewers interest and the interactive traits keeps increases the value of the site. The one good thing about the information about the authors is that the link to the Allentown Art Museum is working, so you can look about background information about the website there is needed. Design: The biggest problem with the websites design is the broken pop-ups that contain all of the information about the website authors and the contact information. There aren't any direction to using the site but those are not need very much, since the site is pretty user -friendly. The graphics and animations are what make the site interesting. The reanimated artwork that talks and makes sounds helps make the site more interactive and entertaining. The currency information is not working but the external link to the Allentown Art Museum is working. The overall presentation of the site is

Emily Nielsen: April 15, 2015 This website is intended to educate viewers about rainforests. There is information available about where specific rainforests are, what animals and animals live in them, and how to persevere them. I think it would be a great resource to upper elementary school aged children. Overall, I really like this website because there is a lot of information presented in a format that is easy to navigate. The content of this site appears accurate and easily verifiable. The information is provided by MK and PK Productions and it is material that is copyrighted but can be used for educational purposes. There is contact information provided on the site. I cannot find a date about when the site was last updated but it seems current. The content is well organized into several different categories. The purpose of the page is clearly to be an educational resource about rainforests. Grammar and spelling are correct. The design of the website provides a format that is easy for viewers to use. The homepage catches the viewer's eye with lots of colorful pictures. There is information for contacting the maker of the site to find out more information. There is a wide variety of information on a variety of rainforest topics. The multitude of pictures adds to a viewer's understandings of the topics. The different topic pages on the site are easy to transfer from one to another and are all filled with information and pictures.

Tyler Knowles August 31, 2010 Review of World Facts and Figures Overview The purpose of this site is to inform the user of fun facts about different countries around the world such as population of a country or city, maps and country flags. It is very easy to navigate and very interesting. This website would target students, or anyone for that matter, looking to find out interesting facts about a certain part of the world. It also has links to current news going on around the world which stand out drawing the attention of the viewer. Content It is easy to determine the content of the site, however there is no information about the creators of this site. The content is to inform people of different statistics as well as interesting facts around the world which is kept up to date. The site offers links to such as measurement and currency converters which would be handy to any traveler, but is aimed for those seeking general knowledge of other countries. Design The design of this site is very user friendly, again appealing to students. The layout is easy to navigate and has many graphics to help you find out maps as well as flags for countries. By giving top ten country and city population ranks it enables the user to want to inquire more about population rankings and by simply clicking a link this is possible. The date of last revision is not exactly shown however links to current news events from around the world show that this site is updated frequently.

Scott Chanthongthip January 25, 2009 Overview: The site offered interesting facts about sea turtles, but the majority of the organizational site purpose was to raise sea turtle awareness for conservation efforts. As a teacher, it may be useful to refer to the site for simple informational tidbits, but it is not a primary source for all turtle research. The site offers species only secluded to the Caribbean eco-system. Information on efforts to support the conservation of sea turtles helps website viewers get involved. People can volunteer, adopt a turtle, or donate money to sea turtle conservation. Content: Information offered on this site can be useful to teachers and their students. Easy to navigate the site has many interactive tools like the turtle tracking map, where one can pick a turtle and see where s/he has traveled. Tracking gives Information about the migration of the turtles often and updates site viewers about sea turtle behaviors. CCC is the longest .org website of its kind that lends its attention to turtle conservation. Dr. Archie Carr was the founder of the CCC and research efforts have accumulated almost 50 years of experience. Many of the people that edit this site and review it are turtle researchers giving it a credible source for information, but it also leans towards conservation efforts as its premise. Conservation may be the sites main priority, but lesson plans for teachers with available turtle modules for students to learn are helpful. I do not know if the website charges for the downloadable PDF files for teachers, but one must register to gain access to the teaching modules. The sites message is clear, so it provides multiple ways to contribute to the funds for seas turtle conservation. The site gave me the necessary tidbits that help me learn more about turtles, yet not a good place to start to teach about turtles. I would recommend this site more for making learning about turtles more interesting and possibly integrat

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.