Group items tagged

Interactive site for math, vocab, memory, and geography and puzzles.

Ryan Pinkston January 22, 2011 1) Overview- This is a web site that parents and kids can use to learn basic skills while having fun. This goal is to provide a safe place to learn computer skills, math skills, reading skills and problem solving skills in a context that is fun to use. 2) Content Credibility- It is easy to determine the basic content and intended audience. The author was not clearly identified however, the contact information was readily available and easy to locate. The latest revision date was not given and it's not stated how frequently the page is updated. The purpose of the site is effective for the intended use and is well organized with information that is easy to understand. 3) Design Evaluation- The page downloads efficiently and it is somewhat attractive and appears to have strong eye appeal to children. There is an index, the information for contacting the provider is available, and the copyright date is at the bottom of the page. The same basic format is used throughout the whole site, the information is easy to find, and everything is clearly labeled. 4) This is a site that I would use. It has a variety of games for children to use to learn about math and English or science.

Gary Allen Jan. 23, 2011 Overview: This site is centered around everything Greek, from its history and mythology to the olympics and even the geography of the country. It seems to be geared toward a more mature audience such as high school students and above. It is a highly interactive site and is very easy to navigate and use. Content: This site is very complete in its details and the author is very reputable. The copyright is a few years old, but I've noticed no other shortcomings otherwise. The lower navigation menu includes a sitemap, glossary, bookstore, course directory, bio of the author, and contact info. Design: Simple yet effective, the design of this site is almost the perfect balance of plainness and eye catching items. All of the links loaded very quickly for me and it is very easy to navigate through the site. The ad bar on the right side of the website seems a little large and distracting, but that may just be on my browser. There is a forum included along with a photo gallery and even essay assistance, all of which I feel are useful resources for anyone interested in ancient Greece.

Overview: This is a wonderful site for uniting geography with history. The whole site is devoted to evolving maps showing important events such as Magellan's voyage and historic trends such as the spread of the Hellenistic world. Content: The content is completely focused on maps set to narration which makes this site a perfect learning tool for grades 6 through college. The variety of narrated moving maps spans ancient history to modern times which makes it even more valuable to different classes. The downside to the content is it was developed in France so the content is mostly focused on European history and European viewpoints. It also makes customer support difficult with the only contact coming from France. Also, only ten percent of the maps are free. If a history department was willing to pay for the additional maps it would be a great addition to the curriculum. Design: The design of the website appropriately advertised the site's content. The homepage looks like an old cartographer's office. Any topic map was available from the home page and the multiple categories were well organized. Overall it's a very good site.

This website will help students understand geography and the layout of the world. There are many interactive games available to help students get the material.

Memorizing Countries in the world and states in the United States with map-quizzes.

Katya Larson February 2013 Overview: The purpose of this website is to visually map major events in history chronologically. There are brief descriptions of the events for each map. The audience is for educators and secondary level students. There are many map and picture resources under the "Maps & Modules" section including previous editions of the website. I think this website is well set up because it is easy to navigate to the time period of your choice to see the corresponding map. It is nice that there are brief descriptions so you can easily review what the map is about. I think it is a very easy to use and useful site.  Content: The content is accurate and easily accessible. The maps are interactive and user-friendly. There are many links within the site to access different content. The content is free of bias and informational.  A possible downside is that there are no dates of revision, but there is evidence that the content has been revised in the past because you can view past versions of the website.  Design: The website itself does not attract the eye readily. While the information is easy to find, there are few graphics or colors that are appealing (excepting the interactive maps). The information is clearly labeled and the maps have useful descriptions. It may not be "fun", but this is a very useful site. 

Over View: Activity Village is a website that allows children to explore various subjects from Thanksgiving, to Steve Irwin Day, to Japan. It gives children examples of activities that they can do to learn about their subject which includes color pages, crafts, some youtube videos, and geography if they are learning about a country. Content: This sites purpose is easy to determine. It is a free site where children can learn about various topics and subjects. Everything is free and can be printed easily. The audience is for younger kids, but there are subject areas for all the grade levels. This site would give kids a good introduction into a variety of subjects. Design: The design of this website is very child friendly. There are a lot of colors and the text is fairly large. I think that it is probably meant for teachers and parents to find the activities and give them to the children, but an older child would be able to navigate the page with little supervision.

Overview: Academic skill builders is an educational gaming site. it allows children to improve their skills in math, language arts, and geography while holding on to their attention through car races and meteor destruction. Content: the site is quite obviously designed to help educate and entertain children in elementary school. Links at the top of the web page take you to other pages including information on the site's creators, and research on how video games could improve a child's education. Each game fits completely into the parameters of "educational gaming" as they all included different ways of helping kids hone their academic skills. I did not discover how often the site is updated or revised, however, and think that frequent updates to a game site are important so the content will not lose excitement. Design: This web site was well designed. It was easily navigated, and the games and links loaded properly. the homepage is attractive, and you are easily able to find links to all of the content on the site. These links are labeled effectively. Shadoe Konicek 8/31/10

Overview: The National Geographic website is informational and entertaining it is Is full of startling photography and mind-expanding writing on space, the environment, animals, and even world music. Its purpose is to inform people on interesting news and events along with many entertaining stories and topics. Its intended audience is for anyone and everyone even a link for children. Content: There is so much content and information on this site. On the homepage there are top stories, videos, photos, and polls. There are tabs to photography, environment, travel, adventure, National Geographic TV, kids, and shop. There are also links to the magazine, news, animals, science, video, education, maps, games, music, blogs, movies, in the field, and a site index. When you access the site is easy to determine the content and intended audience. There is available information about the authors and researches for the different articles. The information is always constantly being updated and revised so nothing is out of date. The links also are easy to use and work properly. The information and content presented is not biased and achieves the intended purpose of informing and entertaining Design: The design of the National geographic website is very organized and easy to navigate through its many links of information. It is full of eye-catching photos and colorful links and tabs. It is easy to read and very understandable and accessible. The website downloads efficiently and the site is appealing and grabs tor attention. There is a site index and search box. The sites also provide copyright informational the provider is clearly identified. The links are clear and helpful and all the information including the photos videos and articles serve a clear purpose to the site.

This website is highly recommended in the world of educators. National Geographic is a well-known magazine. The purpose of the site is to make their information more accessible. When looking for an article for a science report this is a good site to go to. The audience for National Geographic is from 5-100; they have articles designed for young children but also sophisticated articles for a more mature audience. Also on this website if you wanted a hard copy of the magazine you could subscribe. My overall impression was very good. The content of the website is easy to maneuver around and find. Because National Geographic is a well-known magazine you know that the information presented is reliable and accurate. The website has access to games and videos to further explore the concepts.  As for design, it scores just as high as content. The homepage is appealing to look at and easy to use. When searching for a topic many articles come up giving many different perspectives one could choose from. The site has many colorful pictures that make your research more appealing to conduct.  Overall this website is very well designed and easy to use. 

Overview: This website is fun and informational providing many items on common questions and articles. There is an updated homepage with photos articles polls, quizzes, and videos. This site aims to explain everything from DNA coding to car transmission problems in simple articles and videos. This site's intended audience is for adults due to the article and links provided. Content: This website provides up to date headings and topics on anything and everything you may want to know. It has tabs for adventure, animals, auto, communication, computer, electronics, entertainment, food, geography, health, history, home and garden, money, people, and science. When you access the site is easy to determine the content and intended audience. There is available information and the authors and researches for the different articles. The information is always constantly being updated and revised so nothing is out of date. The links also are easy to use and work properly. The information and content presented is not biased. All the articles also are valid and have an intended purpose to entertain or inform. Design: The design of howstuffworks.com is easy to use, organized and attractive. The homepage provides many interesting headings, photos, and videos. It is easy to read and very understandable and accessible. The website downloads efficiently and the site is appealing and grabs tor attention. The sites also provide copyright informational the provider is clearly identified. The links are clear and helpful and all the information including the photos videos and articles serve a clear purpose to the site.

Overview The first website that I evaluated was howstuffworks.com. This is an educational website aimed at all age groups that can answer questions about how many different things work. The website offers a variety of different resources. An example of the resources would be how the site teaches skills that everyone should have on topics such as money. Overall, I thought this website was great. It's easy to navigate, and offers many different types of educational materials. Content Not only is this website educational, but it is fun as well. You can come to the website to find out something serious, but you can also come to find out something that's entertaining and fun. The content of the website is easy to understand for any age. Things are explained simply so that you can actually learn at your own pace. It's also easy to find out about the website by clicking on the "about us" link at the bottom of the page. There you can find who sponsors the site and where the content comes from. Design The website is very easy to navigate through. As soon as you get to the homepage you are faced with many different tabs and also a search bar so you can find exactly what you are looking for. In addition to the tabs, there are resources such as videos and blogs that you can get access to through the site.

Overview: This websites main focus is to breakdown simple mechanics of almost anything from how a toaster works to economic policies of the year 2011. This is a source to explore the world around us and understand the things that we encounter and use daily, as well as providing a guide for users ion new endeavors into of learning. Concept: The classification of materials found within this writing is more vast than an encyclopedia. It includes multi-media and interaction presentations to gain the attention of the reader and create a better understanding. The material can become more complex and technical, but can be a resource for any researcher. I would recommend for teachers seeking to better explain concepts or to satisfy the curiosity of a learner. Design: Clean, simple, and precise. This website has a rather challenging searching process, but a pursuing researcher can use the search tool to peruses topics that coincides. The clean layout of the material and explanations make the learning process something to be a part of. As well as a social network application installed to share the knowledge of "how stuff works".

Good historical maps.

Overview: This website is targeted for students and is proken up into categorys these category's are ages 4-11, 11-16, and 16+. This website offers educational tools for subjects such as: geography, literature, science, math, music, numeracy etc. Content: Since I am focusing on math once you click the math tab a list of activity comes up (depending on which grade level you chose) under some of the activities there are sections where parents or teachers can have lesson plans, worksheets in order to help your student or child. Design: The design is fairly easy, if you were going to allow your students to use it in class you might need a fast tutorial so they are comfortable but all in all it is very easy. The site uses fun and bright colors so its appealing to students. Each activity has a description so once the student has read through each description they can decide what activity is most appealing to them.

Posted by Kirsten McAlexander on 9/20/2009 Enchanted learning provides a variety of material for teachers of all different grades. It provides printables and information in an easy to understand way. Especially useful for k-6th grades, but has content for every grade. Content: Although this website must be paid for, you can still get many things free. It is very cheap to join only $20.00 a month and well worth it. This site provides information on a variety of languages from everything from English to Dutch. It has every subject matter as well science, math, history, and writing. It has printables, lesson plans, places for students to look things up, activities, and books to print. This website is very helpful for teachers because it has such a wide variety of things. Design: This website is very easy to navigate. The only problem I have run into is on occasion it will not accept the login. The website is very colorful and attracts the attention of young minds easily. It is full of pictures to aid learning. Attribution: Since you must pay for this website, or even the pages you can get without paying for them, you can use everything on this site without citations. A student can get on and take information without plagiarizing. Teachers can print everything on the site. The point of the site is to have information and printables that are easily accessible by teachers and easily usable by teachers.

Amanda Lemaster January 24, 2011 overview: The purpose of this website is to provide materials and ideas for elementary age children. It is intended for teachers or children to use. The resources in the website are almost endless, there are activity worksheets, coloring pages, and craft ideas. I feel that this website could be very useful for a teacher, or even a parent. The content is semi-educational, so I be careful with how I use it. content: There is a lot of content in this website. Almost all the resources that can be used are print-out activities. There are coloring pages, maps, diagrams and basic information about specific subjects. The subjects range from animals, to music to geography. There might almost be too much to this website, just be prepared to weed through a lot of information about the subject used. design: The design of this website is not exactly what most people would call up to date. When a person looks at this website they may think that this is an unreliable source. Just because of the poor quality of how it looks. There is lots of white space and many bold colors that stand out. The layout is very simple. The website is useful but could have a little better layout.

The purpose of this website is to provide information on various topics. LearningEnchanted.com provides information including sciences, literature, arts and crafts, history, and many content areas. The information provided seems to be directed towards an older audience whose life entails interaction with young children. However, it is very possible that grade school children would be able to access the website themselves. There is an "early reader's" section where children can access short chapter books or short stories. My overall impression of this website was fair. It met many of the credentials provided on the criteria sheets for content and design. However, it lacked visual appeal but excelled at providing applicable information for me as a future educator. Content: At first look, this website clearly identified its purpose and content. The founders of this website, Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector, were clearly credited. Information on both is provided. The authors were both very well qualified to present this information and held degrees in various fields. Contact information was available. This website is updated quite frequently. Last update was on August 25, 2011. I did not find any links to outside websites. They were all connected within the EnchantedLearning site. The purpose was clear. There was commercial use because you can subscribe to the website to get more access. Also, there was basic access to many web pages that made it informational as well. The content does present the information in an effective manner but the site lacks the use of interactive opportunities. Based on my knowledge, all the information provided appeared to be accurate, consistent, and in good grammar. Although a huge fault of this website was the lack of exterior links, the content of this website are very helpful for future educators and parents. Design: The homepage of this website downloaded without any problems in two different browsers. There was no real eye appe

This website is called Core Knowledge Lesson Plans at coreknowledge.org. Download was quick; without delay. Homepage is attractive and well organized. Critical pieces of information (sponsors, contacts, and copyright) are easy to locate and navigate to. Media is effective and while there is not a lot of it, I believe the lack of it adds significantly to the effectiveness of the site. The worth of visiting this site is high; there is plenty of useful information that can help educators in creating lesson plans with a purpose. The date in which the site was updated clearly viewable at the bottom of the page and is also current within the month. Contact and copyright information are also given here. Overall this site is useful and easy to navigate. It is worth visiting.