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Lana Macdonald Aug 31, 2010 Overview: As the site indicates, it is for dummies. The content is very elementary for those who wish to learn algebra. A few reviews of the page state that it is a waste of time, yet others state that the site cleared up questions they have had for years. If the user of the site has some algebraic knowledge then the site is most likely not useful. However, if the user struggles with the terminology and basic steps of algebra, this site is for them. Overall the information given in the site is correct but the graphics make it hard to learn. Content: The author of the site is not given; however, the site is based off a well-known series of books that are considered creditable. The site is current, all links are updated. The content of the site is very vast, however the organization of the site allows the user to find what is needed quick and easy. The information given is very helpful, but since the information is given by video, the user may feel that the video explains too quickly. The resources given on the page are not very helpful in learning more about math. Design: This site is attractive, and uses up to date graphics to attract users. The site is easy to navigate and very user friendly. The format of the site is consistent throughout the pages. The new age technology may not work well for teaching math. The site employs video to teach math problems. This has some advantages and some disadvantages. Some advantages allow for the type of people who learn best by listening to learn easily. However, the videos can go fast for the user, and make it harder to learn. Another advantage is that a problem can be explained more effectively as the speaker walks through a problem. One solution the site might try is in addition to the video, have a few problems worked out below the video for a quick overview of what is in the video.

Shaya Wolf - 2/26/2013 Overview This website is for teachers need ideas on assessments in the math field. They can choose between Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, and Trigonometry and assessments are given under each subpage. All of the assessments are complete but in need of small changes to fit your needs. It includes many resources, but they are all very similar and lack variety. Overall, this site is worth bookmarking and provides simple assessments organized by subject. Based on the content and design quality of this site, it is worth your time to visit the site if you have the time. Content At first look, you can easily tell that the purpose of this site is to provide assessment ideas for teachers. The information providers section of this website is lacking significantly. The author and sponsor are not clearly identified nor is their contact information provided. The currency of the information is debatable. The site doesn't provide a latest revision date, but at the same time, most of these assessments will ever change. They don't seem to be too outdated. So far the content doesn't sound too good, but the information quality really brings the site back to a site worth bookmarking. All of the information is of quality. The purpose of the site is clear and achieves the intended purpose, which is to provide teachers with assessment ideas. The site is well organized and easy to understand. It is free of bias, accurate, and consistent with similar websites. Design This site loads quickly but lacks a homepage altogether. The site is still easy to navigate, although there isn't necessarily a main title or base to jump off of. The site sponsor and author are not included. It is very easy to navigate throughout the page and all of the links work properly. There are no dead ends or incorrect links. There is a main graphic used under each page, however that is the only multimedia. The graphics enhance the site overall. This site works well with all browser

Lucas Sutton Feb. 1, 2010 Content: At the top of the website, the subtitle has the following to describe the site, "Created by the people. Can you help?." As a website reviewer this is a big red flag. All of the information on this site is user based and the site does not explain the information screening process. There is no contact information available on the site and there is no mention of anybody in charge of the web page. There are also no available content revision dates. The content is organized well in groups and subgroups. Overall, I would be tentative trusting any of the information on this website because of the unknown nature of the info, and if it is correct or not. Design: Upon arrival at the site algebra.com, you can tell it has been very undeveloped. It is covered in adds that are not related to the subject and many odd links at the bottom. To find the information the site makes available you must actively search through all of the links and other clutter on the site. The information although well labeled, is not very thorough and very hard to understand. Overview: Algebra.com is a user based site for help in pre-algebra through geometry and up to algebra II. The website includes many resources useful to a student having trouble with math. Overall, the home page, although very basic, gets its intended use out very well. But because of the clutter and ads on the home page, I would be very careful trusting any of the information on the page because of the unknown authors and lack of contacts on the site.

How to tackle word problems in Algebra

Algebraic Equation

Posted by Amber Rittenhouse on 1/23/10 Overview: Coolmath is a site that assists ages 13 and above in learning math. The site teaches a math concept with a lot of detail, and then encourages the viewer to try it themselves. Links to further pages work properly and are generally useful. It is very easy to understand and follow. Coolmath looks like it is a very useful and fun website that helps students better understand math. Content: Coolmath contains pre-algebra, algebra, and geometry lessons, with many different categories in each. It also contains many math games. Information about the author can be found through this site. The author has a master's in math and is a college math teacher, so she is well qualified to present information on math. The site is well organized and easy to understand. However, there is no date of last revision, so it is unclear about how often this website is revised. Therefore, the accuracy of the site can not be detected. There are a few ads around the outside, but they are not very distracting since the main page is more colorful and catches the eye very easily. Design: Overall, Coolmath is well designed. The homepage is very colorful, making it look very appealing. There are links to go to specific places to learn specific math problems. There are, however, numbers that follow the cursor when it moves, which is kind of distracting. The information of the site looks well organized, so you can go to exactly where you desire. There is a link to contact people in charge of this site. There are also links to other math websites for further reference.

Overview: This website is targeted for people between the ages of "13-100" its means for people who are confused, hate, or are bored with math. Cool Math is updated frequently and was created by Karen who is a teacher and has a Master's in mathematics, she made the website because she had a difficult time growing up with math and she did not want others to have the difficulty that she had. Content: There are math lessons, practice, and games all focused on math. Though this website does not cover a wide variety of math subjects, the subjects that it does focus on Karen did a wonderful job. These subjects include: pre-algebra, algebra, pre-calc, calc, and geometry. This site is definitely focused on the students and helping them. Design: The design is child friendly, very colorful and welcoming. The cursur is the numbers 1 through 6 which is a fun change, the graphics are cute and as a younger student I would have been attracted. The only negative part of this design is that it seems a little cluttered at times but I might think that because we are always taught "less is more" but a student might find this "clutter" appealing.

Overall I think that this is a very good site; I think that it would really help children that need help with math, or need help enjoying it. The author has a master's degree in math, and is a math teacher, which I think helps because she is knowledgeable about math and teaching it. This site could be a very helpful math resource. I also think it is a good idea that it is for everyone over the age of 13, not just school age children. Design The design of this site is very good, the page does not have any links that do not work or that aren't relevant to the purpose. The graphics are all relevant and appealing and they do not take too long to download. Criteria There are many different types of activities on this site that will help the audience enjoy and be better at math. The information is all relevant and the author provides a long page about herself, her qualifications and why she created the site.

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

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

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

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A story on NPR about community colleges and failing math scores

A story on NPR about community colleges and failing math scores

OVERVIEW Khan Academy is a site to help students supplement their learning. It allows students to go over materials at their own pace so that they are able to better understand the material. Overall, this is a good site to help students, and I would recommend it especially for math help. CONTENT The information is current enough for math. The content well organized and helpful to students to understand subject matter. It appears bias free (for math, not sure about other subjects) and the information is accurate and consistent with other sources. Grammar and spelling are correct. DESIGN The design is attractive and you can easily tell where you are within the site. There are not directions on how to move around the site, but it is fairly intuitive. All links that I have tried have worked, and are helpful. Janissa Martinez

Lana Macdonald Aug 31, 2010 Overview: This site is set up to teach students how to do basic mathematical problems, such as algebra and beginning calculus. The audience is focused on older students. The content of this website makes up for the design. The site may not look pretty, but information is far more valuable to the student. Content: The content of the page is clear that it is an aid in learning some basic mathematical problems for students. The interaction is better than some sites in that it gives a problem, but the user has to click on "answer" for the problem to be solved. This allows the user to try to work the problem out by themselves before they are given the answer. The site also gives a fair number of examples to help the student. There is a short bio of the author which allows for author qualification, and facilitates finding the contact information. The author of the site has also offered his time to answer mathematical questions to aid in the students learning. The site updated frequently, and all links are working properly. Design: This site is not very esthetically pleasing; conversely the graphics are helpful and clear. However, for the most part the site is easy to work with the exception of the organization linked sites. The placement of the linked sites makes the page a little confusing, and hard to move around. Also the contact page was not easy to reach

Overview: The website MathisFun.com is a math website for elementary and middle school aged children. The purpose of this website is to help children understand math in a fun way. In this website there are many different fun learning tools to help the students understand geometry, algebra numbers and measurement better. This website gives links to other helpful websites that have games using base ten blocks adding and subtracting games, and much, much more. Content: The content of the website MathisFun.com is very clear and organized in a very interesting way. This website is fully completed and is used effectively with a well organized and interesting home screen that is easy to understand and helps the child or the teacher find different types math subject areas without any problems. There are other games that have been listed for the higher grades such as 5th grade to help challenge the students in a fun way. The website offers many different types of games and puzzles, along with games to further the education of elementary and middle school aged children. Weather the teacher had the games pulled up on the smart board and then the students could interact with other students and work as a class to figure out the answers. This is a great interactive website for students and for the teachers. Design: The website MathisFun.com is a well designed website that looks like a road with many math stops. This website is full of different colors that grab your attention. The website does not have any ads which is a good thing so the children can focus on just the math subject areas. This website also offers worksheets and a dictionary that the teachers section that offers many different tools like print zone of different activities and work explains different math terms.

Whitney Mills; Website Reviewed: January 24th 2010 Overview: Mathisfun.com immediately draws a person's eye in with a fun, exciting homepage. Anyone can see clearly that the purpose of this website is to help teachers teach their students math. Content: This website has a clear and definite purpose, and that is to help teach children math in a fun and exciting way. The site is very well organized and very well made. I feel like there was much work put into making this site effective for children. The author is very clearly identified, and the links to other websites do work effectively. This website also covers many different areas of math such as; algebra, geometry, data, etc. It is stated on the actual website that the content is updated frequently, which is a huge plus for using this site in a classroom. A person can also check out all the different additions added to the website which could be helpful. Design: The website is very well designed. It is exciting to a child's eye. He/she would be more than happy to learn math using this website. For adults/teachers the website is very organized and clear throughout the entire page. The design is the same throughout the whole site and it seems like a very fun and exciting site to use anytime, anywhere!!

On math playground there are a variety of different math ideas and concept that students can practice through online math games. This website includes games for students from kindergarten through seventh grade as well as topics like algebra, geometry, and precalculus. The website is designed very well and looks welcoming when you log on. There are pictures of some of the different games offered by the site that look fun and can draw attention to students using the site. One strength from the website is that it covers a vast majority of mathematical skills that are taught and practiced throughout elementary school. Although a weakness this site has is that they group different mathematical ideas together by grade, when even though we like to think that every fourth grader across the country are learning the same concepts, the likelihood of that being true is very low.

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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.

Posted by Amber Rittenhouse on 1/24/10 Overview: This site is used primarily for educational reasons. It is intended for high school students and beyond. The site offers help in many areas of math in order to help with the understanding. Links are provided to get more help beyond what is provided in the site. This site accomplishes its purpose of teaching very well through the example problems given and the lessons provided. Content: This site offers help in order to learn many math concepts, including algebra, trigonometry, calculus, differential equations, complex variables, and matrix algebra. Once you select one of these categories, you can then pick a certain area within the subject. It then offers you an example problem and solution. It is very easy to navigate around the web page. The site offers a lot of information and a lot of help to better learn many math concepts. It does list the date that it was last revised, so the viewer can tell how accurate the information is. Links to other sites are provided to get more help. There are very few ads, so you are not distracted from the learning. Design: The site is very well designed. It is not hard at all to get to a certain subject area that you would like further help in. The site is not incredibly colorful, but this does not distract the viewer from their learning. There is a lot of useful information in this site, so it is definitely worth visiting if you need help in math.

Overview SOS Mathematics is a site for high school students and higher for extra practice and review of materials they are learning in class. It is easy to use and has easy access to where students should go for certain subjects. There is easy access to the other links on the website that allow the website to be complete. Content The content of this website is mainly informational about giving review in higher level math classes for at least high school students. The content of the website is complete because there are no broken links or part of the website does not have any incomplete content. The links are all up to date so there are no problems with the other sites it is linked to. The website is well organized and easy to understand. It is worth bookmarking and given to students to use as review. Design The design of this website is appealing to the eye because it is not too crowded or overwhelming because of the content. All the links are working properly and easy to follow. The website is available on all internet browsers. Due to its easy access students can use it not just only at school but as home as well for extra practice and review so it is easy for students to do better in the class material and subject matter. The website is well designed and easy to use.

Overview: This site is so cool; I wish i knew about it earlier. I was refered to it by my current math professor because we are discussing manipulatives in his class now. Manipulatives are usually the little blocks and shapes kids can use for learning math. On this site, they have a huge variety that extends beyond that. It can be used by students of all ages and of any skill level. Content: This site has a huge library of different manipulatives broken up by the age group that would most likely use them. They also have some information about the site and how it came about. I had no problem accessing any aspect of the website. Design: The site is really easy to use. The first thing visible when you open the site is a big grid breaking up the manipulatives by grade level and the sub-subject of math it deals with. All you need to do to access the manipulative you want is click on the square in the grid that it corresponds to and find exactly what you want on the big list. I think something that could improve the site would be to include a better discription of each different manipulative. While it is easy to navigate and well designed, I think the site could have been made more aesthetically pleasing.

This website contains virtual manipulatives for all grade levels in Numbers & Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, and Data Analysis & Probability. These virtual manipulatives help the student understand the formulas, principles, and concepts in mathematics and science.

Overview: Fuel the Brain is a math website which provides games for students at different learning levels. This site is mainly geared towards lower grades including K, 1, 2 and 3. This site seems really fun upon first glance. Not only are there games for children, there are also printable worksheets for teachers and parents. Teacher guides and articles are also available.  Content: This website offers games that cover counting, numbers, operations, algebraic thinking and geometry. These games would be ideal for young children. The website has minimal advertising. The author information is available under the 'About' link and the contact information is available under the link labeled 'Contact'. The copyright is not available. Design: Fuel the Brain's homepage is very colorful and attractive to younger children. However, older students would not appeal to this website. At the top of the homepage the links are provided clearly for easy navigation. 

Overview: S.O.S Mathematics is a free resource for math help for high school, college and adult math students. The website reviews all different math subjects ranging from Algebra to Differential Equations. You can also get help regarding specific topics rather than the subject as a whole. The website has more than 2,500 math pages that are easy- to- understand and helpful. This website also helps with test preparation and offers 'Cyberboard', which is a help forum used to ask specific math questions. Content: The homepage loads quickly but there is an advertisement pop-up along with an advertisement on the top of the homepage. Above the advertisement is a toolbar with links to each subject of math. There is a wide variety of subjects that are available to the student for help. There is a current copyright date on the website and the content appears up-to-date. At the bottom of the homepage is the company's contact information. When clicking on a subject, lists of sub-topics are included under that subject, which makes navigation on the webpage easier for the student. Design: The content of this webpage may be very helpful to students, but the design of the website is a bit bland and boring. The design does not look very up to date. The design of this website could potentially turn away a student looking for help at first glance because it's not appealing to the student. 

This website includes an activity to help students have a better understanding of how to formulate questions and gather data to answer the questions.