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Scott Chanthongthip on January 23, 2010 Overview: National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a free website offered online to help teachers us visual aids to teach mathematics. The content is from the Utah State University and is edited by the university. Content is easy to navigate and understand because it focuses on students from K-12. Content: The National Teachers Council of Mathematics five content standards are listed vertically in a grid, while the grades for each of the standards are listed across the top of the grid. Navigation based on the content standard and grade level appropriateness is accessible because of this organization. Teachers just need to find the content standard and line it up with the appropriate grade level. Although the site has a version that it offers to schools many of the virtual manipulatives are easy to use as long as one's computer has JAVA capabilities. There are four different language options for the different virtual manipulatives, so it makes it easy to use in bilingual settings (English, Spanish, French, and Chinese). The main reason for this website is to offer teachers with computer technology to teach manipulation of different math areas when the physical manipulatives are not available. Teachers can also use the site to help explain concept clarity of hard to understand math functions. Design: The initial web page offers a grid of math standards and grade levels from K-12. Teachers can click on the appropriate link and it will lead them to more options on different subjects in the content areas. None of the links are broken for the virtual manipulatives. Design of the website is updated often by the USU. NLVM also allows users to select from four different languages.

Kaci Philpot Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide teachers and students with fun, interactive Math manipulatives online, because manipulatives help students to see visual relationships in Math and help to actively engage students. The website has the following standards for math education; numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis & probability. Each standard has four different age groups to choose from: pre-k through 2, 3 through 5, 6 through 8, and 9 through 12. This website is one of the very few educational websites I have found that is free and clear or useless information and clutter. Content Summary: This website content quality is very high; it has an index chart on the homepage with grade levels and math standards. Each box on the chart is linked to a page of full of various virtual Math manipulatives. If you navigate to the credits page you can see who is in charge of creating what, however it does not provide information about or credibility of those individuals. It also does not have revision dates. But the site is well organized and has very rich content. The manipulatives are an excellent way to get students excited about learning math. Total yeses: 19 Total no's: 2 Total N/A: 3 Design Summary: The homepage of this site is very easy to navigate and understand, but it does not have very strong eye appeal at all. But the manipulatives are very useful and all have clear directions if necessary and all internal and external links work properly. It does not appear to have any outdated content, if Mathematics can even be outdated. My favorite link on this website is the link to the Spanish page. This would be very useful for teachers with ESL students; it helps to ease the language barrier. Total yeses: 22 Total no's: 2 Total N/A: 0

Chelsey Lynch 1/31/11 * Overview: This website is for the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. The intended audience of this site is teachers, and students of all ages. The available resources are a wide array of virtual math manipulatives. This website is extremely useful to teachers because it provides children with a firm grasp on concepts by letting them learn directly through physical objects that enable students to visualize relationships and applications. * Design: This website is attractive and very easy to navigate. The main page of the website contains a large grid system which serves as a menu for the math content area and grade level. All information to contact the sites provider is given, and all the information is current. The instructions for the manipulatives are very easy to follow and the site even provides examples when necessary. This site has adequate graphics, though the music and sounds in games is a little dated and sometimes annoying. * Content: The authors of this site appear to be highly education and experts in this field. The purpose of this site is very clear and the content achieves the intended purpose effectively. This site is extremely interactive, well organized, and easy to navigate. I have personally used this site numerous times and love it. The only things I wish this site contained more of are links to websites that are similar to this or had further information.

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

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

Virtual manipulatives for mathematics

Illuminations is a NCTM site that provides and lesson plans interactive manipulatives for mathematics teachers and students

This site provides several virtual manipulatives, lesson plans, and other resources for mathematics teachers. It also documents the NCTM standards

Kathryn Slothower September 11, 2011 Overview: This website has a very clear purpose to help and inform students and teachers about math. There is a very nice website as it very easy to navigate through the website. This website is for all age groups in math. The website is broken down nicely into different sections to find what you are looking for very fast and easy. Although students could use this I feel like the main purpose and audience is for teachers to make math fun and interesting for students. My overall impression of this website is very good.  Content: There is a lot of information available within this website. Between the information that the author placed in this website and the links that are found on the website it provides lots of useful information. The last revision date was not found, although the information seems to be up to date from my prior knowledge. The content meets the purpose of the website and is very organized to find.  Design: The design of this website is very appealing. There is not too much white spaces to make the website look plain but there also isn't too much color or activity to make the website too busy. When you are on the website it is very easy to determine where you are and what you are able to accomplish through this website. There is a very nice presentation of this information through this website. 

Overview: In this Mathplayground.com there are many different types are math problems for students K-8. Some of the problems come in an educational game form. Some of the games that this website has to offer are word problems, percentage, and multiplication, finding different angles and even math videos for students to watch. Content: The content of the website MathPlayground.com is very clear to understand. The different types of tools that this website has to offer are all given on the side of the website making it very easy to find the different problems that the students or teachers are looking for. This website even offers logic puzzles that are fun for students to play and not know that they are actually using math in the mean time. This website also offers a teachers section that offers many different tools like flash cards, math worksheets and even math manipulatives. Design: This website is a little more difficult and it would be geared to the older students and not the younger students. And yet again this would be a great tool to use as a reward in the classroom. The website does have a few ads that can distract the eye to look at the ads instead of looking at what the website has to offer. Also this website is kind of boring looking and the students could get lost and not know where to look when asked to find something. Overall this website can be a great tool to use in the future at home or in the classroom.

Chelsea Brunski 10-08-12 Overview The purpose of this website is to allow students to play games that will help them with math. The intended audience for this website would be for children in grades first through sixth. There aren't any outside resources but I think that it is okay for this website. This website has so many interactive games and videos that it doesn't need any other resources. My overall impression of this website is that it is a pretty good website. It is kind of confusing to decide what games teach what concepts but it is very interactive. I think when you are dealing with younger students and a subject like math you need something to keep them intrigued. Content The content on this website is all interactive. Every page that you go to you can find different games to play. All of these games have to deal with different type of math problem. They range from fractions to proportions. You can also practice word problems and watch videos for extra help. All of the games that are provided have a video game feel to them which draws children in. All of the games do serve an educational purpose and are reliable. The author of this website is a math teacher as well so she is a reliable source. Design When you first open this site you are taken to a webpage that is full of color. It has very strong eye appeal which attracts you to stay on this site. Since this site is for younger users I think that the vibrant colors work well for it. There is only a small amount of ads at the top of the page that blend in with how the homepage looks. This is something that could be confusing to a child. It is easy to navigate to all of the different games. Since it is for younger children I think that it is okay that the games are all put together instead of broken up into different subjects. There are also tabs at the top which help organize the site into different content area.

This site provides several examples of universally designed ebooks for students ages 10 and up. ebooks provide scaffolding techniques to understand passeges (editable by teachers), read content back to students, provide Spanish translations, and allow markup and note taking

Scott Chanthongthip on January 25, 2010 Overview: Although the website has seven books students can read from, it offers a helpful tool in learning to read while listening to the computerized voice. The computerized voice can be distracting to young readers though that cannot put aside the monotonous tone and lack of colorful personality a real teacher can provide. Manipulation of the tool bar for the story can help students highlight text, translates highlighted words from English to Spanish, and allows students to stop the reading to answer critical comprehension questions. The design of the website looks simple at first but I think if this a website to help students read it should be in simpler terms. Use of the computerized reading voice can read the whole page to students, so this can be helpful to navigate the pages. Content: Most of the content is laid out simply but it takes a while to get used to navigation of the different tools. Students that would use this site would probably have some background in reading already, as stated ages 10 and up by the UDL. It takes previous knowledge of reading ability to understand some of the more complex stories the site offers. Using the "Stop to Think" option asks listeners to pick multiple-choice answers that show the student comprehends the story they just heard. If readers miss the questions, clues to the right answer help the reader find the correct answer. As a teacher, I would use this site sparingly because I believe the computerized voice reading to students can bore them quickly. The website also takes away the ability for students to learn from their peers. The books used in this selection from the UDL provide just small glimpse at the plethora of reading material out there. The project team for the website consists of people with Education Doctorates , Master's of Education, and translators. As far as the content update, I could not find when its updates or when the site came into ex

Overview: This site is really geared toward students and not so much for teachers but I liked it because it has a couple games that create real-life scenarios. In these games students had to do calculations that applied high school math. I think the website would appeal to secondary education students in more advanced math classes. It also has link that show students about jobs in the financial field and they can hear from people who currently work in this area, which I think can help students find the area more interesting and they may be able to connect better with the subject that way. Content: Most of the content is definitely for older more advanced students. The games are slightly challenging must are intriguing at the same time. The website has many links to various areas of finance that can help students find jobs in the future if they are thinking about this field. It also shows them that there are people their age running billion dollar companies. Design: The design of the website is geared toward high school students, showing money, nice cars and vacation spots. The links are also very organized and easy to see where stuff is at. The games are set up in an easy to follow manner with guided steps of how to start.