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Nathan Hissong 1/23/10 Content: An important part of any government class is debating current issues in America. In fact POLS2000 is a class devoted to just debating the issues. Opposing Viewpoints is an excellent resource to research issues. When you search of click on an issue you get a list of articles from repeatable authors who either agree or disagree with an issue. A new addition to the site is that you can debate over message boards (which requires you to sign up). Now like message boards one cannot put a rating on the experience. In high school a student and either be censored or be understanding that some language is inappropriate. Being that the site I a beta site it is put up with the help of advertising. Personally, I find this annoying but it is a necessary evil in this instance. Design: Opposing viewpoints is a very eye-appealing site. I has a variety of issues you can look up. However, in the top tabs they are organized into menus that make it easy to fine a recent topic. This site is made for the ipod generation. It feels like social networking site with purpose. It is one of my favorites Overview: This site is a good research tool. It can also be used to implement the CRAAP test because it does have some questionable content. It is a good teaching tool telling students to fin a current issue to present and then debate it in class. Again a site I use quite a bit.

Scholastic.com Learning Activities (Grades K-5) Sara Scribner 1/23/10 Overview: I found this website to be very helpful. It has numerous resources for student activities and links to other sites with information and resources for teachers. Ads are present throughout this site, but they do not overwhelm you. Also, on the primary page with learning activities for students there aren't any ads at all. Not only would I use this source in my classroom, but I would recommend it to others. Content: Scholastic, a website for teachers is very credible. Information found on this site is current (updated and links work) and information to contact or learn about the sponsor/author is available. There does not seem to be any hidden agendas on this site. This site is organized according to grade level, K-2 or 3-5, and has activities for both age groups. Its information is consistent/accurate, easy to understand, and organized making it easy to navigate. Another positive aspect of this site is that it has activities for subjects like math, science, language arts, social studies, and Spanish. Design: This site is definitely worth visiting. It's content and links to other useful websites makes it a valuable resource. Content layout is organized and everything is clearly labeled. Graphics provide a glimpse of what each game entails and add appeal to the page/game description. Animations and sounds make one's experience as he plays the games enjoyable and exciting.

Nathan Hissong 1/23/10 Content: In any good government it is important that students know who represents them. I chose Senator Mike Enzi's site just as an arbitrary example. Like many Congressmen's sites this is an informational site. Yes Mr. Enzi has a campaign site but I did not choose that one for a reason. The site features a featured story, a way to find issues in your county and even get an email newsletter. What really caught my eye though is that he has a separate tab for students. Here you can get valuable bill resources and even sign up for a internship which in my experience was amazing. Design: The design is rather appealing and makes the site easy to navigate. It is nice to Enzi's picture. It would help students identify his name with a face. I like the health care tab and a featured story that affects his constituency. Being that Enzi probably pays someone lots of money to work on his site it has to be designed well and updated frequently. Good design. Overview: As previously stated it is important for students to understand the congressional process and who represents them. It would be a cool assignment to use this site to see how congress works and who the main players are.

Amanda Lamey January 23, 2010 Overview I chose this site because RosettaStone has seemed to help lots of individuals learn a second or third language. I was impressed when I came to this site. You can choose from a variety of languages, you can purchase packages or just one at a time. With each package it listed the price and a button for you to add it to your cart. They have a toll free number to call. There are videos of people who have used it and learned from it. I think this is a beneficial part in helping someone purchase this item. I know it would help me. I would want to know from experience whether a product is good enough to spend hundreds of dollars on. This website is designed for anyone, but limited to people with credit/debit cards. Any one person can learn a language with assistance and it has been proven that younger children learn quicker and faster than adults. They had a contact button for further information. It also had other available resources like case studies from a classroom, stories of individuals who had used it, videos of people who had purchased and used RosettaStone. It had different options to chose from like; Home school, Schools, Organizations and Personal. The purpose of this site is to let you explore multiple options and not limit you to one thing and one language, its open ended. I think it's a wonderful site and easy to use. I also think RosettaStone's product is expensive which is a downfall because as a college student I have enough bills and money concerns to worry about to where I can't just go spend three hundred dollars to learn a language on my own time. Evaluation of Design The overall evaluation of the design was accurate. It had useful information and sites to attend to gather further information. Instead of reading the material you would have to purchase it, but it showed what levels were for sale and for how much. It even had it available for different schools and organizations. It had a contact us box

Seth Orndorff February 1, 2011 Bad site review Overview This site claims to have cool math, but fails to offer anything that can be considered as beneficial to students working on math. This site did more distracting than helping. The cool math games that are a part of the site do not teach any applicable math skills to kids. This site should not be used in an educational setting. There is no separation of skills and grade levels which means that it is difficult to assign certain activities to certain aged kids. The site is also very limited. Once a game is beat, it is beat and that is it. There are no further applications of what the student was supposed to learn. The site also lacks encouragement. Kids cannot see past results and compare them with new scores to see their improvement. The site is also extremely slow and has advertisements all along the side which do not help students with math. Content Evaluation The content of this website is very poor. When the page is first opened, it looks like a typical game page that is not educational. The name of the site, "cool math" is very deceiving. This site also lacks sufficient information on who created the site and whether or not they have any credentials. The date that the site was last revised is unknown to me. I could not find a date that it had been revised last. The information that it does have has very poor quality. Although it claims to be a math site, it is more of a game site where the games teach more problem solving skills than actual math. This may seem beneficial at first, but each game only has about ten levels. This means that after just a little while, the games are beat on memory rather than figuring out new ways to solve the problem. There is no further information that would lead a student to get more help on math. Design Evaluation The design of this site is just as poor as the content. The page takes a long time to load, and once it is loaded, there is no appeal to the h

Caroline Wittman (Virginia) January 31, 2011 Overview Ology is a fun website that allows children to collect virtual trading cards and use them to make online projects as they learn about different science topics. The list of topics is varied, including anthropology, archeology, astronomy, biodiversity, the brain, climate change, earth science, genetics, marine biology, paleontology, water, and zoology. Each area presents a plethora of interactive applications for children to explore: games, animations, quizzes, and suggestions and guidance for completing simple offline science investigations and experiments. There are also book lists and other helpful internet sources that can be consulted for further information. Content Ology is sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History. Accordingly, information was accurate and up-to-date. It was also well organized and communicated on a level that elementary school age children can understand and relate to. Information is also in line with what is covered in the typical elementary school science curriculum. Although specific authors of articles are not usually listed, it is easy to find contact information for the sponsoring organization. Links to other internet resources were relevant and informative. Overall, the content of the site serves to ignite children's curiosity about the natural world. Design The Ology homepage, as well as its interactive applications, downloaded quickly. The overall design is appealing to elementary school children, incorporating lots bright colors and bold shapes. Navigation is simple, even for young children. The major areas of the site are located in an obvious place on the homepage. Information is easy to locate within each of these areas. Directions for games and other interactive content are very straightforward and explained clearly. Close inspection reveals that each detail of the site's design works toward enhancing children's learning.

Amanda Larsen 1/23/11 Overview: This is a website for cooks whether amateur or professional to find virtually any recipe. It could be used by children as young as middle school age up to the elderly. By creating a profile the user can collect recipes in their "recipe box" and also give reviews on other recipes that they have tried to help future users. Content: The content is immediately visible on the home page with images of tasty dishes. A search bar and tabs of different food subjects make for easy navigation and a quick search to just what the user is looking for. At times the site can be cluttered however, with different advertisements and links to many different sites. But, the links are relevant and useful for a cook. Design: The search bar and tabs prove to be most helpful in a quick and concise search. Because the users can create a profile, advise and reviews are helpful in picking recipes for the most successful cooking experience. The site is dynamic in that it provides information for healthy cooking, How-To cooking, holiday cooking, etc.

Webquest website

Kaci Philpot Overview: The intended purpose of this website is to provide elementary level students with fun and engaging games that build different skills and knowledge. Teachers can use some of the games for supplementing lessons such as; "volcano explorer", "chill the spill", and many more. Even games that don't seem like they would be educational are full of facts about various subjects and environmental awareness. Content Summary: For "First Look" I could not highlight the information because it was not in a text format, but the audience and basic content of the site are very clear. There were no specific authors listed for the games or information. The credibility of the authors is evident though because at the bottom near the copyright statement, it states that the company/sponsor is #1 in non-fiction media. It also has a very clear link for any questions about the site that works properly. I found it hard to find the latest revision date, most likely because the website mostly has games, but the content must be updated frequently because it has games that are up-to-date with the environmental issues today. All links to other sites work properly. In the "Information Quality" section of the evaluation, the website received all yeses. There are biases. However, they are clear when glancing through the content of the games. There was not any further information related to my purposes, but I did not really need any because I was only looking for games and activities to supplement lessons. Total yeses: 18 Total no's: 2 Total N/A: 1 Design Summary: The homepage uploaded very quickly and received all yeses. It has very strong eye appeal, it's clear what website you are visiting, and the copyright date is clearly stated at the bottom of the homepage along with the sponsor/provider. The navigation is easy and instructions for games and such are very clear and easy to follow. All internal and external links work properly. And internal links a

Posted by Kendra Jones on 09/06/2011 This website has several math games of children and gives the children the option of creating their own game. Design: The home page of the website is kind of boring but once you click into a game the appearance is much better. Content: This website offers a variety of math games. There are several subjects with in math that they can choose from. They have the option of creating their own game also. Overview: The first appearance of the website seems kind of boring but once you click into things it looks like it could be really fun for a child. The front page could use more color. But overall I think this would be a great website for learning math.

2-5-12 Overview This website was put together by the Oswego City School District in NY. It is an interactive game site for kids. The games that are already on the site are math games for elementary students. However there is also an application to build your own game with matching or terms. This makes the website fun for kids, but also useful for others a resource to build your own game. Overall, I think this is a good website for many audiences to help build and practice skills. Content The content of this website is much less varied. The games on the site already are all focused on elementary math. This is nice if these are the kinds of games you are looking for because you don't have to navigate through the site or sort through other subjects. There are also many levels of the games to improve skills and build on previous information. You also have the option of making your own game including directions to do this. The directions are very full and this application would be very useful to others. I think that this is a very good math website for students and teachers. Design The design of this website is less impressive. It is easy to use the games that are available. The descriptions are very helpful in choosing a game and the directions for playing are very accurate. They are also organized well in an order that makes sense. However, I was not able to make my own game. The directions were very descriptive, but I got confused and was not able to pull the game I created up to play it. I feel like if someone spent a lot of time experimenting, it might have been possible however I did not feel like it was very accessible. The website was organized and useable but could definitely be improved.

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

Overview: Science for Kids is a website that covers a wide variety of subjects that relate to Earth Science; everything from weather and climate to things that deal with soil and water. This website gears towards agriculture research for kids as well and investigates topics about air, animals, minerals, and what is in the air that we breathe. Content: This website contains a lot of information regarding science that is applicable to anyone that is interested in Agriculture. On the homepage you are able to navigate to other links that allow you to travel to links that offer information regarding topics that are in the spotlight and also offers links to science projects and information for teachers to access. I also find it very cool that one of the websites main links offers you to cool Science careers. Design: I find this website to be very interesting and filled with information that children would love. The interactive home screen allows users to be part of its experience; there are sounds as well as animated images that capture your attention. I can see myself using this website in my classroom because it offers daily information that seems interesting to a young audience I definitely see myself as this being a great website for my future students to use in my classroom. The information is relevant and very well organized and the user interface was very easy to use; perfect for kids. Plus it was filled with information that anyone can learn.

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.

Korinne Thoren 14 September 2011 The Artist's Toolkit Overview: The Artist's Toolkit is a site for students around grades 5-8 that provides an interactive way to study the elements and principals of design. The site is a fun way for students to learn about important art concepts that are at the foundation of all works of art. Overall, this is a fun and educational site. Content: As previously mentioned, The Artist's Toolkit is a site designed to teach students about elements and principals of design such as line, space, balance, and movement. Examples and interactive games are provided for each concept giving the user the ability to see examples but also create their own work. The website contains a link of credits to the creators of the games, etc. but users must link back to the sponsor's page to find any contact information. This site would definitely be beneficial for younger students learning about basic design but would not work well for older students. Design: The design of this site is very appealing and student friendly and the same basic design is used throughout. The website does not, however, contain external links to other educational websites and some of the games did not work on the first loading. Information on the site is well organized and informative and there are lots of good graphics and sounds that enhance the overall site experience.

Billie Slyman, 9/10/11 Purpose The purpose of this site is to give information about all types of weather. This site could be used by students, but in my opinion it is better for educators based on the content and design. This site was made by Nick Walker, who is a meteorologist for The Weather Channel and a member of the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. He has also written weather songs to educate children about weather. There is quite a bit of information on the site and many links to other sites, the majority of which work. My impression of the site is that it is a very knowledgeable and credible source for information about weather, and a good resource for teachers who want to study weather in their classrooms. Content There is a lot of information on this site. It is divided up into different chapters, with each chapter presenting a different type of weather ("Snow", "Air Pressure and Wind", & "Lightning and Thunder", for example). The chapter will give an explanation of what that particular type of weather is, how it is caused and tips for staying safe in that weather. At the end of each chapter there is a section of experiments or activities related to the weather and ideas to discuss. The level of the content is good for the adults the site is more geared towards. It is put in simple language that would be fairly easy to translate for elementary students, but it's in depth enough to give a good understanding. The activities suggested are interesting and relate well whatever weather type is being explained. Design This page's design is functional and easy to use, but it isn't very aesthetically pleasing. The homepage has a grey background and black test, with just a few small graphics by links. It looks pretty boring, not a site a student would want to look at for long. In the articles, there are some nice pictures, but everything still looks plain and not exciting. However, everything is c

The intended purpose of this website is to have students review their knowledge in organizing and representing data. Each part of the session includes problems that students can experiment with.

This website helps students get familiar with the motion detector. It includes instructions and an experiment where students practice with the motion detector.

Mitch Sexton January 19th 2009 Spiegel Online is a form of a major German newspaper printed and distributed throughout Europe. I feel that this could be a very significant learning tool for any German student. The only downside to the site is that to navigate the site you must speak a fair amount of German to be able to eventually translate the site. However, whether you navigate the site in German or English you have access to news feeds, online dictionary, news flashes and even sports updates. This can make for a very fun and educational experience. The German language only really begins to take hold in your mind when you begin to use it and what better way than immersing yourself in what is happening over there right now as we speak? I feel that the advantages of this site strongly outweigh the disadvantages and anyone with access to this site would benefit from reading it and learning about what is happening in their area of study at the very moment.

Experience the wide world of Apple at the Apple Store. Shop for Apple computers, compare iPod and iPhone models, and discover Apple and third-party accessories, software, and much more.

This is a site mostly used by teachers for lesson plans within the art department. It is specific to the high school students but leaves much to be altered and adapted to other grade levels. The content on this page is very "short and to the point" plans for teaching students things like drawing hands, experimenting with other artists processes, and much more. The thing I liked about the content was the way you can adapt, alter, and integrate your own creativity and required learning into these lesson plans but that this gives you the foundation to build on. The design of the page leaves much be be desired though. General outlines of critiria, supplies, and objective with sparse thumbnail photo references of artist work or the process to be done with visual aid. None the less, this is a legitimate site updated regularly and used by teachers, adults, and even students since 1994. The lesson plans are also teacher submitted from working teachers from Florida and elsewhere.