Group items tagged

Gold information links

David May 1/23/11 Good site for base knowledge. It has fun videos and animated activities. It needs more eye appeal. Overview: This website gives history a multimedia and fun twist. Within the simple design on the homepage it contains links to old educational videos, activities, and, movies based on historical events. The educational videos are from decades past such as the 1950s. The videos are accurate, but they leave out some facts such as Native Americans and women that are part of history. That is from the age of the videos. The activities are not really that entertaining at least the ones I used. They do capture one's attention because of the progressive story line and multimedia pictures and animations. These however do have some accurate information. I played around with the Boston tea party activity and the information included in the activity was accurate and explained it well. Overall the website is an okay way to spend some time getting base knowledge on history. The site shouldn't be used as a source though. Content: When first arriving at the homepage it is clear what the site contains. History can be seen with the various pictures and clickable items around the home page. Where the information came from is hard to determine there is so citing of material or authors listed. The site is not clearly marked with a sponsor, but there is clear evidence that it is connected to Amazon.com because in the store section it says powered by Amazon. The most recent update was made in November of 2010 which makes it seem active. The copyright at the bottom of the page is for 2009. The links section of the site send the user to not so credible sites and some links do not work. Informational is the main target of this site with a mix of business which is made clear by all the Amazon.com ads and links. Content seems to be good if base knowledge is already with the user making the information good for most uses except college level detail. Navigation is simple

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

Danie Thiel1-23-11 This web page is very organized and easy to fallow. The important information is in the center of the page with other related topics highlighted in blue at the bottom of the page. The page starts out with an introduction on how and why glaze is used in pottery. Then goes into composition, processes and, history of glaze.  From this page you will read about different types of glaze as well as glazing technique. This site gives a clear reasoning as to why glaze is so important in pottery. This page would be best directed towards high school students, because they would have a better understanding on how glaze works.  

Overview This site offers a number of games for students to learn the human anatomy. Content The author appears qualified and the presenters of the site are easy to contact. The copyright is for 2008; however the material appears to be up-to-date and usable. There are links to add it to Facebook and other cloud sites. The information is educational and entertaining. The content and intention is clear. The only complaint I have, is that to use the boasted free games, one is subjected to ads. The ads are discussed in the content introduction and with purchase, games can be downloaded. The site is worth bookmarking for future reference. Design The website is attractive and though a bit cluttered, it is easy to navigate to the games. The games loaded easily and are simple to utilize. The use of multimedia is effective. I was able to find the site and use it, from multiple browsers. There are multiple game options that are broken down by physical system for easy adaption to a lesson plans. Overall: It is very well designed and easy to use.

Caroline Wittman (Virginia) January 31, 2011 Overview Worksheets4teachers.com aims to provide educational resources for children in kindergarten through high school and their teachers. I focused on the sections of the site dedicated to elementary school science. It quickly became apparent that worksheets4teachers.com has a large number of links to other websites and ads. Unfortunately, the other websites rarely contained any useful information, and they were more often than not entirely unrelated to science. The website did appear to contain significantly better resources for other subject areas, such as math and reading. In addition, the science activities for the upper grades were of higher quality than the ones for elementary school. Content The activities available on the website itself seemed like they would be unchallenging and uninspiring for elementary school children. The word searches, coloring pages, and craft ideas are ill-suited to reinforcing important scientific knowledge or skills. In fact, they were so trite that it's hard to imagine them having a place in any decent science curriculum. Contact information was not readily available, but it was clear the website is updated frequently with new worksheets and lesson plans. Design The layout of this website is confusing, and the design is monotonous, bland, and unprofessional. Many of the links that ostensibly contain information about different science topics or lesson planning resources are really links to for-profit companies offering online degrees, tutoring, or shopping. A significant proportion of these links did not work, and the pop ups are very distracting. Information is difficult to locate, and the format of the site is somewhat inconsistent. The one positive characteristic of the site is that it loaded quickly!

Sarah Kautzky January 31, 2011 Overview: The purpose of this website is to provide basic statistics help to high school and college level students. This site is intended for students who are enrolled in a statistics course and are seeking additional help and information. This website may also be used by statistics teachers to create lesson plans or be used as a reference. The information is separated into chapter like grouping. My overall impression of this site is a very good one. This is something that I would surely use as a statistics teacher and I would encourage my students to look at it and reference it as needed. Content: The creator of this website is an undergraduate professor who created it as a supplement to the textbook for his students.  He is a credible source and contact information is available in the form of a drop box. Links to other sites and sources are in working condition and are very helpful. This website achieves its purpose in delivering the basic information taught in a statistics class. All of the information is current, relevant, and correct. The information is easy to understand as well. The site is very well organized and free of bias and spelling or grammatical errors. Design: The design of this website is pretty good. There are no download errors or broken links. The homepage is very neat, clean, and organized which appeals to me, but others might be that it is plain looking. The site does not contain a table of contents because it is one in itself the way it is laid out. A copyright date is listed at the bottom of the page. Navigating the site is fairly easy and there are links that allow the user to jump to related pages. The graphics are only used when appropriate and when they add something to the material. The cleanliness and simplicity of it promotes learning and limits distraction.

Morgan Carlson 5-18-2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to help teachers create positive lessons about the Holocaust. The website is intended for teachers, and for students from kindergarten through college. Some of the resources available on this website are learning about the founding organization of the website, personal stories from Holocaust survivors, book reviews on the issue, and causes such as the Global Relief fund and Darfur. The content of this site is useful to my needs, and explains in detail the purpose of its postings, and also of the related links on the website. There are several other useful links from this page, and the design of the website is easy to use, and is appealing to the audience. Content: In the opening paragraph of the website, the purpose and intended audiences are clearly listed, along with information about the founder of the site and contact information. The purpose of the site is informational/educational, and the founder of the site is qualified. There are a variety of links, videos, reviews, etc. pertaining to the purpose of the website, and information is cohesive with one another. The website provides a link to the corporate sponsors, and it appears to be free of biased attitudes. However, there are one or two broken links on the page, and the date of last revisions is not stated. It is then difficult to assess how frequently the material is updated. The website's main purpose of providing a variety of instructional tools to help students and teachers is fulfilled, and easy to find using search tools. Design: The homepage is fast to load, and you can easily see the title, name of the sponsor, and contact information upon first viewing the website. There is a table of contents and a search bar that makes it easy to navigate the website. Graphics and videos are placed accordingly, and are relevant to the material being discussed. There are directions that explain how to click on certain links, and a dis

Brian Peterson9/6/11Overview The purpose of the site is to help anyone who doesn't know how to write a good resume. This is a very necessary thing to be able to do in modern culture. I am very impressed with this website as it is easy to navigate and has clear instructions.ContentOverall the content of resume-builder is very informative. With most material on the website easy to understand one can learn a lot about how to make a resume. Design The design of this website is also very nice. There are clear headers at the top of the main page that lead you into wherever you need to go. Also there are not to many pictures or random things that would make this page cluttered.

Overview: Preschool Activity Box has many good, different ideas, tips, and activities. The intended audience is teachers or parents who are teaching pre-k children. The website is well organized and easy to navigate. As soon as you click on the link to the website, you know where you are at and can see the index of activities and worksheets. The website is up to date although many of the links are dead ends. I like this webpage, it has good ideas but since most of the links are dead I probably would not use it. Content: At first look I was able to distinguish the purpose and audience for this site. There were no authors listed for this site but the sponsors are listed at the bottom, the only thing they don't have is contact info for the sponsors. The information was updated in 2011, so it is very current. There are very good ideas, activities and tips. Design: The website is concise and has good organization. The homepage loads well and at a first glance you know exactly what webpage you are on. The copyright and date are clearly seen and there is a link to their sister site. The first links are live and lead you to some tips and activity ideas, but when you go any further, for printouts, the links go dead. This is very detrimental to the site. There is a huge mix of live and dead links, so it makes it a guessing game as to which link will work.

Mary Goetz 9/10/11 Overview: ¿? Don Quijote is a great resource to Spanish teachers. The site has games, dictionaries, lessons, and other Spanish language tools. The site is also affiliated with a company for Study Abroad trips, which students can utilize. Students can also use this site, and its resources, such as the word of the day, games, and interesting facts, to expand their knowledge of Spanish. Content: The content available on this site is relevant to teaching and practicing Spanish. The content is also presented in a professional manner that meets the needs and purposes of the content available on the site. There are many internal links to a variety of resources. Interesting facts such as the word of the day and jokes in Spanish are great tools to engage students in learning Spanish. There are also external links, one of them is to a Spanish dictionary, that are helpful to both students and teachers. Although the latest revision date is not provided on the site the site does appear up to date and updated frequently. The content of this site is well organized with a side tool bar and a site map to help make navigation easy. There is a wealth of information and resources on this site that is useful to both teachers and students. Design: The design of this site is attractive and works efficiently. The side tool bar on the site is a clear and fast navigation tool. It is easy to go through the site and find the resources needed. There is sufficient information that is clearly labeled. The internal and external links used are also functional and relevant. The use of graphics and media enhances the site and its content. The overall design of this site is attractive and functional.

Mitchell Sept. 5, 2011 Overview: Elementary Math Games is a website that has various games for math subjects. It has different activities for all grade levels and you can select the grade level you wish to play games for. It also contains worksheets that can be printed off for each grade. There are flashcards and puzzles as well. Content: There are games and worksheets for grades first through eighth. It contains 3-4 games per grade level and 3-4 worksheets for each grade as well. These worksheets are organized by grade and cover different topics. They are basic worksheets that can easily be printed off. Design: The design of this site is much simpler than the other site I found. It is less colorful but easy to navigate. The pages are organized by the grade levels. The problem is that before seeing the worksheet at all, you have to open it up. You cannot preview them at all. This site has problems with ads being in the middle of the screen again and this distracts from the stuff that is actually found on the website.

Teaches and shows in detail how to cite in many different styles