Group items tagged

Allison Lindgren September 21, 2009 Website Review http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ This is a frequently updated site on current health and medicine issues. The fact that it is a '.gov' website gives it extra credibility. It is a comprehensive site on medicine with information on everything from caffeine to swine flu. It also gives links to other medical sources. The website is not geared towards children or even young adults, but more towards parents looking for current health issues and students doing medical research. Content Summary: The content this site provides is stated clearly, but there is so much information that specific topics can be hard to find. The search tool is useful. Citations are clearly stated for every topic, and the site is updated very frequently. The links are very general due to the large amount of information contained in the site. Some of the news articles could be biased due to the fact that the government sponsors the site. Design Summary: The home page does not have a strong eye appeal. It looks cluttered due to the large amount of information on the homepage. There is a search tool, which helps to navigate the site more efficiently. All the links work well and are linked to useful information. There is an enormous amount of medical information, which makes this site very worthwhile to visit and the same basic design is used throughout most of the site. The site is updated frequently.

Erin Kirby January 23, 2011 Overview: The sight http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/index.asp is a good sight for grades 4-12. The site provides information to help you learn about schools, find a public library, play different games, take quizzes, learn different subjects in math and more. The site does have many different links and it is a simple easy to use site. It has many different educational facts that some kids might find interesting. I think overall the information could be helpful and many students in a classroom or at home would enjoy learning about the facts, getting involved and playing the games. Content: This website is simple to use and the links are easy to follow. It is a government website so there are not a lot of pop ups or things that get in your way when trying to learn or play games. The games are interesting and educational. There are certain games that allow you to pick what grade you are in so the information applies to that certain age group. At the bottom like on most websites there are links that will show information about the site, but there is no place to find one main author. When going through the site I found that it was all very educational and kids that are into math would really enjoy it, but kids that arent may have a problem enjoying the sight. The links on the site are very simple to follow and allow students to do many things on there own. This is a sight that involves a lot of involvement that can be very fun. Overall the sight seems good for grades 4-12, it would be a good tool for students to use for many different reasons. The sight has a lot of math, quizzes, and educational facts that change daily. Design: The websites speed is fast and the links all work very smooth. The graphics are good and very smooth. The homepage has very clear links and it is not busy. It is simple to use! There are not a lot of distracting things and the site is simple and to the point about educational information. The sight is great for s

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.

In the first article that I found, there was a study done on cyberbullying in Greece. They looked at all things that could impact the bully and the victim from things such as parenting to online impulsiveness. I believe the intended audience is for the general public especially parents and school staff personnel. As I read through this article I find that it is a very good study with relevant information and a good purpose. The introduction did a great job on explaining what cyberbully is and who are the bullies and victims. They also did a great job on explaining why people bully other online such as gaining a sense of empowerment or simply out of boredom. The article gave plenty of statistics that made the article easier to follow and understand. The results were very easy to understand which was nice when trying to apply this study to something else. I also think that they did a good job on correlating parent to child bonding and how that could make an impact. Something I did not particularly like about this study is that it was done in one place, on an island. I think that it is hard to truly measure how much adolescents get cyberbullied with the study if over a single group of kids. This study really focuses on the fact that cyberbullying is a big problem in the world of adolescents.

In the first article that I found, there was a study done on cyberbullying in Greece. They looked at all things that could impact the bully and the victim from things such as parenting to online impulsiveness. I believe the intended audience is for the general public especially parents and school staff personnel. As I read through this article I find that it is a very good study with relevant information and a good purpose. The introduction did a great job on explaining what cyberbully is and who are the bullies and victims. They also did a great job on explaining why people bully other online such as gaining a sense of empowerment or simply out of boredom. The article gave plenty of statistics that made the article easier to follow and understand. The results were very easy to understand which was nice when trying to apply this study to something else. I also think that they did a good job on correlating parent to child bonding and how that could make an impact. Something I did not particularly like about this study is that it was done in one place, on an island. I think that it is hard to truly measure how much adolescents get cyberbullied with the study if over a single group of kids. This study really focuses on the fact that cyberbullying is a big problem in the world of adolescents.

Brie Scott October 13, 2014 Harvard Chaucer Interlinear Translation The intended purpose of this website is to provide a line by line translation of The Canterbury Tales. The website is geared toward upper level students in late high school or college English classes. The information on this site is excessively adequate. While the design of the website is somewhat lacking, quality of the translation is superb, making this an excellent resource of translation. Overall the content of this website is good. The name of the author and an email address for him are provided but the information on the particular author is otherwise slim. While the website has not been edited in several years, this is appropriate considering The Canterbury Tales is an ancient text. As stated in the previous paragraph, the translation provided on the site is excellent. The design of the site is not particularly eye catching. In fact, overall the homepage of the site is a little bland. However, there is an easy to navigate table of contents. Thus, navigation is simple and to the point. Graphics are subpar, but for a site meant to translate Chaucer, visual aids are not particularly essential.

Brie Scott October 13, 2014 Harvard Chaucer Interlinear Translation The intended purpose of this website is to provide a line by line translation of The Canterbury Tales. The website is geared toward upper level students in late high school or college English classes. The information on this site is excessively adequate. While the design of the website is somewhat lacking, quality of the translation is superb, making this an excellent resource of translation. Overall the content of this website is good. The name of the author and an email address for him are provided but the information on the particular author is otherwise slim. While the website has not been edited in several years, this is appropriate considering The Canterbury Tales is an ancient text. As stated in the previous paragraph, the translation provided on the site is excellent. The design of the site is not particularly eye catching. In fact, overall the homepage of the site is a little bland. However, there is an easy to navigate table of contents. Thus, navigation is simple and to the point. Graphics are subpar, but for a site meant to translate Chaucer, visual aids are not particularly essential.

Brienna Gregor 10/11/12 Overview: This site would work best for students from late elementary to high school levels (5-12). This website is intended to help students and other educators understand the underlying factors of predicting volcanic eruptions. Available resources provided include: Melting Rock, Dynamic Earth, Judging Hazards, Forecasting, Coping with Risk, and more. Initially I predicted that this website wasn't going to do well in the content standards because the design standards were a little bit lacking compared to other sites however, I have come to find that this website is a very handy tool and does well in both content and design standards. Content: This website is very good in that its information is always up to date, the information quality is great, and it provides more information. Some sites lack in giving the viewer options to leave the site and look at links that are provided. This website does lead viewers to learn out of their site in a constructive way while instilling learning on their site as well. Design: This website isn't the most appealing to the eye after following the introductory page. Despite this fact, it is fast, easy to navigate, and uses videos as a media source. It gets the job done in fulfilling its purpose by instilling the idea that natural disasters, such as volcanoes, can be predicted (not stopped) and then can lead to less of a disaster through preparation. Information is what is most important in educational websites and I believe this website is great due to that aspect.

Kerensa Aris 10/10/12 Shotgun's Home of the American Civil War: The purpose of this site is to gain information on the Civil War, most information pertains to the Confederacy. The intended audience is both students and teachers, both can collect useful information from the site and it is appropriate for all audiences. The site contains links to many other sites for available resources. My overall impression is that this is a quality site containing pertinent information. There is some bias since the site is run by a southern college, but upon first looking at the site this fact is very clear.  I assessed the content of this site as worth marking for future reference. The site is run by qualified individuals from LSU, and information is useful and trustworthy. The site is revised frequently but new information is not routinely added because it is a Civil War site. The site is well organized and all external links are in working order.  The design of the website is well done and easy to use. All pages download quickly and site indexes are available. The home page could have more detail to make it more eye catching. There are several different kinds of media such as audio and visual files, and likes to further information and useful sites are available. The site is compatible with other browsers, and the content is presented neatly and is organized. 

Derek Peil 10/7/2012 Overview Purdue University Press is a substantial source of poetry and literature for educated audiences. The website's purpose is to offer intellectual texts for educators and students to incorporate into their curriculum. Carrying a simple, pleasant tone this website lists suggested poems and literature. Although the website lacks clearly stated dates of revision, it still scores high on the evaluation guides; and I recommend this site to those who are looking for some rich pieces of literary work. Content The University of Purdue's sound reputation of information precision is exemplified throughout the course of the website. This site contains sound organization and easy navigation. With genre listings and a friendly search engine, users can find what they need quickly. This allows for Educators and Students to spend less time searching for the material and more time studying it. In contrast to these strengths, the website is weak in terms of its currency. The site fails to display a revision date. But since the site is always uploaded with new inventories and sales, one can assume the site is fairly current. Design This site's display style is definitely suitable for an educational setting. The modest, yet contrasting colors make the site enjoyable to navigate. Also, the pictures of the book covers are very useful in helping to identify one from the others. Waiting for links to load is nonexistent, and this site is multi-browser friendly. Yet, this website lacks external sources from which users can broaden their findings. All of the links are internal. Do to the fact that this site is both education and profit oriented, this weakness is easily overlooked by the benefits of a deep library of texts that this site easily lays out for the user.

Deneé Chintala October 7, 2012 Overview The purpose of judging101.com is for the instructor of a livestock judging team/class to provide their students with online classes of beef, lamb, pig and horses to learn how to judge livestock. The audience includes an agricultural education teacher or a livestock judging coach as well as their students. The site has a free example class for the instructor to see the basis of the site but further purchase is necessary for access to all of the different species with multiple classes under each. The design of it doesn't appeal in terms of color and flare, but I have used the site when I was a student and was really impressed with the consistent content of the site. Content All of the information on the site is incredibly accurate due to the authors of the site. Despite the fact that it is hard to locate the list of authors, once they are found it is clear that they are reliable sources. All of the reasons and placings are given by judging coaches from all across the nation at universities. The content is easily definable in terms of knowing that this is a large livestock judging website. The url itself explains the topic of the site. Once further into the site with the purchase of an account, the site is easily navigated and the content is consistent with a set of reasons, cuts and placings for each class. From the other links on the page, all information is consistent across the board and tie into each other, such as from the judging101 page to the animalscience101 page to the horse judging page; all of these links intertwine with each other on how to judge horses to the end of actually judging a class. Design This site doesn't have a great deal of allurement, but it is easily navigable. If I wanted to judge a class of shorthorn heifers, I would be able to click on the cow silhouette and find a shorthorn heifer class and easily judge the class then find the reasons, cuts and placings. Finding the authors, when the site wa

Deneé Chintala October 7, 2012 Overview The purpose of cellsalive.com is for the instructor of a biology class to provide their students with interactive activities online regarding the parts of the cell, phases of mitosis and meiosis as well as more background information of microbiolgoy. The audience includes biology teacher as well as their students. The site is free with many different activities to do including quizzes and puzzles with content about cells.  Content All of the information on the site is incredibly accurate due to the author, Jim Sullivan. The site provides information in at least two ways for each link (interactive video and a summarization of the video below). Interactivity is huge on this website because the student not only gets to interact during the lesson but a review can be given to gage the student's progress at the end of the lesson. The fact that there are simple cartoon graphics which can allow students to depict different organelles help, but there are also real pictures of microorganisms throughout the site.  Design This site has flare to it with the black background and neon text. It's appealing to a middle school age group but I could see high school students finding it alluring as well. It is also easily maneuverable due to the hyperlinks on the left side as the title of the lesson. If I were to give a class of the links to click on to get to the lesson it would be a very simple task with little to no questions.

Kacy BaileyDate reviewed: October 8th, 2012All Weather, all the time web questContent: The content of this website was very helpful, and useful for teachers. It was clear that the content was meant for 2nd grade students trying to learn more about precipitation. It is clear who the author is. Even though it is not clear who the sponsor is, I do not believe that there actually is a sponsor. The website is providing second graders with information that is required to learn. It also has a teachers page making it easy for teachers to have their students complete a web quest like this one.  Design: The design of this web quest makes it stand out from a regular website, but it is not super interesting to look at. I do think that it will get most kids' attention though It could use some more designing. This website is also very easy to navigate. Each link is up to date and useful. The homepage clearly states everything that is needed (title, author, what the website is about, etc.) The only downside to the design of this website is that it may be kind of difficult for second graders to navigate. This is kind of hard to assume though due to the fact that children become more technological every day.  Overall: Overall this website is another great web quest to use for students. Instead of learning on the usual white board and projector, this gives students a more hands on way of learning. And of course students love using technology so a web quest is always a good idea to get them working with it. The website had great information for students to learn, and many links to look up the things that the website may have missed. Overall the website seemed to be a great teaching tool. 

Fact Family II - Game to master the relationship between multiplication and division.

ITEC Website, National Zoological Park

This website is full of nutritional information. There is information to be read over by parents/guardians but there are also games and activities that can be done by children. The site is very interactive and is a great way to bring healthy eating into children's homes. Parents/guardians can look up recipes and daily nutrition facts for their child.

Design Evaluation: When a viewer first arrives at this site they are welcomed by a colorful home page. The topics are organized in a table of contents. A viewer can easily navigate the site; the topics under each page are grouped to allow easy navigation. All the interactive games on the site work properly and are relevant to the purpose of the site. The copy right date can be easily located at the bottom of each page. There appears to be no dead ends and the pages load with ease. The overall design of this site is appropriate and relevant to the audience. Content Evaluation: When a viewer first arrives at this site the target audience can be determined quickly; the audience of this site includes teacher, parents and special needs children. The purpose of do2learn is educational. The information on this site gives parents and teachers tools to use and provides children with educational games that can help in overcoming aspects of their disabilities. The content is well organized and allows for easy navigation. The information seems up to date however the revision date cannot be located easily. The content of this site is appropriate for the intended audience. Overview: Do2learn is intended to be an educational resource for teachers, parents and children. The content available on this site includes basic facts about different learning disabilities, tools for teachers to use in the classroom, and educational games. To access some of the features on this site you need to sign up for an account; however a majority of the information is available without an account. In my opinion this site could be utilized in a classroom to assist with classroom instruction. I can see myself using this site as a reference source and I could see this site being used to help children with autism and Asperger's to understand nonverbal communication. Over all I feel this site would make a good resource.

Tyler Rogers February 4, 2012 Overview:  The purpose of this site is to provide users with concise and easy-to-read space science materials, and to help educators guide their lessons involving space science. This site is geared towards educators looking to solidify understanding, or develop new ideas for lessons. Though the site does not specifically provide lesson plans, it does provide the knowledge from which teachers could derive their own. There are links to other educational space science sites, as well a handful of interactive activities. I feel that this site is a valuable resource, contains high quality content, and could be well utilized by educators seeking to teach space science. Content: This site's overall content is clear from the homepage, though no specific authors are listed. All of the site's content is well organized in categories. Once a reader finds their desired section of the site, the content is coherent. The material is strictly factual and contains no bias, and none of the links are broken.  It is important to note that this site fails to provide any revision dates, rendering the currency of the site unknown.  Design: Amazing Space is easy to navigate and is compatible with many web browsers. There are two viewing options a user can pick from. Not both options present the same information, but it is all organized the same. A sidebar to the left of the screen organizes all of the site's content. Users can easily find lists of clearly labeled fact sheets and activities.  The site makes use of multimedia, especially photos and pictures. The pictures contribute to the visual appeal of the site, but do not serve a greater purpose. The site's organizational downfall is that users often have to click through many links to find the desired material.

Design Evaluation: When a viewer first arrives at this web site they are greeted by an appealing and when organized page. The topics of this site are clearly presented in a table of contents. A viewer can easily navigate through the pages to find information and each page loads quickly. The copyright date and sponsor are clearly displayed; the copyright date is located at the bottom of each page and the sponsor is located in the upper right hand corner of the home page. The information on this site is worthwhile and relevant to special needs education. Overall the design of this site helps its purpose. Content Evaluation: When a viewer first arrives at this site the audience can be easily determined; the target audience is made up of teachers, parents and care givers of children with learning disabilities. The purpose of LD Online is informational and to provide news related to learning disabilities. The content is well organized in a table of content that can be easily navigated. The content seems to be updated frequently; however a revision date cannot be easily located. There are no dead ends on this site and the links load efficiently. The information on this site appears to be accurate and error free. Over all the content of the site meets the purpose well. Overview: LD Online is intended to be a resource for teachers, parents and care givers of children with learning disabilities. Information on this website includes basic facts about learning disabilities, finding the help you may need as a parent or care giver, and links to other resources. In my opinion this site would be very useful to teachers and parents in order to better understand their children's disabilities. The content and design of this site meets the needs of the viewer. I feel I would use this site as a resource to gain further knowledge and keep up to date with new information on learning disabilities.

Overview: This website serves as a creative online music environment for children of all ages. Kids are able to compose music and play with musical performance. It also includes many music games and puzzles and educational facts about music. I think this is a great site for children learning music and expanding their music knowledge. The content of this site is very educational and the design is very kid friendly and of high quality. Content: The information provided in this website is straight to the point and its purpose is easy to determine. Author information is clearly identified and easily available. The purpose of this site is clear and the overall content is great for children learning aspects of music. Design: The design of this website is very kid friendly and easy to navigate. It is definitely a site aimed more for kids than for adults including many graphics but very little text. All information is organized and labeled well and can be found easily. The information is sufficient making this site worthwhile.

Justin Sanchez Reviewed 10-21-13 www.canaryzoo.com Purpose: The purpose of the site is to provide biology related information through facts, games, and other entertainment. Intended audience: This site is mostly intended for high school students. Available resources: Links are available, but they are not biology related. Overview: The best part of the website is the biology games. They are very education and are trivia based games. There are also some biology jokes and facts that are entertaining. The website is a little busy, making it a little hard to navigate to where you want to go. Content: In the biology games section, the content is good. Some of the other sections are not so biology related. Design: The design of the website is a little too busy. There are a lot of links to different stuff that seem a little unrelated. The website does download fast and movement between the pages is quick.