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Rebekah Asay January 23, 2011 Overview: This website is an online game that quizzes students on geographical information. It includes quizzes on locations, climates, industries, physical systems, population, culture, environment, and society. Content: The website is fun and educational. It has many categories to choose from and tests students on their knowledge of the world using fun, educational questions based on those categories. The content is mostly for older middle school or high school students. Design: The design is fun and interesting. It is easy to navigate and is engaging.

Overview- This site is intended for older elementary students and well as 7th and 8th grade students. This site communicates civics in a very exciting way. There are selections and choices to pick from on the opening page. These choices range from categories such as quizzes, independence, the constitution, legislative, executive, and judicial braches and well as elections, and citizenship. Following your selection of the topic of your choice, one is given additional categories to explore. Content- I like this website because it is very simplistic, but very informative for educational purposes. It is clear and detailed. As an elementary or middle school child this type of website would be an excellent way of establishing ones first book report or learning about government. It is very easy to access all areas of the site. Design- The design is very colorful and eye catching.

Sheppard Software is a website for students of all ages in all subject areas. It has hundreds of games for a very wide variety of audiences. However it is a commercial website with as many advertisements as games in the free version. It does have an ad-free version, but it comes at a pretty steep price for a school or school district.  Content: This website does not have a specific audience, it is directed to students in all grades. It covers many bases, but in is mostly online games and doesn't really offer any classroom activities. I was also disappointed by the number of advertisements and user reviews on each page. This only distracts from the true purpose of an educational website.  Design: This website I found to be pretty disorganized. There are breaks in the middle of lists of games for ad banners that do not relate to kids and user reviews of the website. They do have a toolbar at the top that navigates to pages if you are looking for specific types of games, but those are colorless, and still full of review and ads. I also did not see information for when it was last updated or contact information. 

The content for this site is very well put together. It is a site where you can go and start a new language and you can either start a free trial or pay to use it. It might be similar to Rosetta Stone. It has a easy to use box that will start you with the basics of the language you are trying to learn.The design is simple you have the unit and lesson at the top of the square saying what one you are on. On the left had side there are boxes with learn, review, write, and speak. Once you have completed all of those levels you are able to use the skill builder exercises to improve your skill. In the middle of the box is a picture with the word of phrase you are trying to learn. Underneath is a rewind play and fast forward button so you can move back and forth from picture to picture. I think that although this could be done from beginning to end I didn't find a way for someone who already knows some words. I also don't think that the exercises were very fun and one would get bored after a while and either stop paying attention or their motivation would die so they would want to do something else.  I am also not sure who the author is or what date it was updated, the only information it said was copyright in 2011.

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.

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 NGA Kids Overview: NGA Kids is a site created by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. This website provides an interactive page where kids can make their own art and zoom in on the works of famous artists, providing an overall collaborative exposure to art. NGA is geared toward younger students, as denoted by the 'Kids" but I think there are tools and games on the site that could be utilized with students up to middle school age. NGA also has resources dealing with the National Gallery of Art available on its page. Overall, I think this is a very fun website and although it is geared toward younger students I really did enjoy playing the games, arguably making it a good way to pass time for older audiences as well. Content: The overall content of this website is good, although the immediate site is not super informative, it provides many educational and interactive games for kids. NGA does contain links to other portions of the National Gallery of Art, which are helpful and more informative, making them a good resource for older students looking for information. Contact information for the website creators is readily accessible and there are explanatory directions for the games and activities on the site. Design: NGA's design is well put together and almost reminds me of looking at a National Geographic magazine with its black and yellow layout. Information and games are easily accessible and labeled and the same basic format is used throughout the site. The links provided by NGA work well and are informative and the use of graphics and animations really bring the website to life for it's users. Overall, it is a well-designed site and easy to use.

Korinne Thoren 14 September 2011 Art History.net Overview: Art History.net is a website providing information about art history, including: famous artists, art styles and periods, and art mediums. This is a website intended for older students, middle school aged and up. The site does not provide a lot of available resources but I think it is useful for gaining background and basic information. Content: This website contains information about art history but there is no information provided about authors of the text or any dates of publication or revision. Basic information dealing with art history is presented, but outside of that the user is not given much else. Also, a disclaimer at the bottom of the page reads, "Information and materials on this web site may be incorrect, unsuitable, incomplete and/or outdated. Users of this web site are responsible for verifying the accuracy, completeness and suitability of all information and materials" making the user wary of trusting the site. The content of arthistory.net is well organized and easy to read, however I personally cannot get over the disclaimer, making this a site I would only use to gain basic, informal information. Design: Art History.net's website design is not as exciting or clever as the other websites I have explored, however the overall design is simple and somewhat appealing. The site's information is displayed well and easy to navigate because the same site layout is used throughout. There are also a few graphics on the site, but they do not really add much to the overall appeal or serve that much of a purpose. Overall, the design needs some work but the site is usable.

Billie Slyman, 9/11/11 Purpose The purpose of this site is to provide resources for teachers for teaching weather. It's part of a larger site that has resources about all kinds of topics. There are websites, print-out activity sheet and Power Points. Although there are a lot of links, about half of them don't work, and there isn't any information on the site about how the sites are found and who runs the site. My overall impression is that this site has some good resources that could be helpful to teachers, but the link you want might not work, and there's no guarantee it is a good site. Content There really isn't any information (that I could find, anyway) about who develops or maintains this site, or any indication of when it was made. Although there are a lot of links to other sites, there is nothing about this site. There is a link to "Contact Us", but who is "Us"? However, it is nice that the links are divided into separate themes, like Weather, so it is easy to find the topic you are interested in. Design The site looks pretty plain. It's really just a list of links. However, this does serves the purpose of the site. It doesn't really have much reason to look nice because most people won't be spending a lot of time there; they'll be on the other sites. Although, even though the site is plain, it still manages to feel cluttered. With the links in the middle, navigation menu on the left and ads on the right it can be a little hard to stay focused. But the site is functional, and it can be helpful to have a large amount of sites about the topic all put together.

9/13/11 This website is great for middle school and older students. There are many links to other important websites that are useful when teaching geography. The website is not flashy like most learning websites, the information is strait forward.

Good website for middle school kids, this will help in a lot of areas of geography.

9/14/11 This is a great website for students k-12 learning social studies. There are plenty of games, trivia, and useful facts for all ages. The website is very well organized and is easy to maneuver.

9/13/11 This is a good starting point for a history project. The website has many links to other credible sites including government site. The target audience is late middle school to high school. The main page is easy to navigate and links open easily.

Themathworksheetsite.com This site is created for teachers. The purpose is to provide easy to use worksheets for the classroom, and there are several different types of worksheets available. The target is more toward middle school and elementary age kids. The website is pretty easy to maneuver, and the subject material is relevant. Content: The website is easy to understand, and gives quick and simple worksheets that are very easy to figure out. The website's provider, Scott Bryce, is given at the bottom, and the updated date is easy to find as well- July 7. The content is easy to find, and user-friendly. Design: The website's design is boring, not very eye-catching, but seeing as the audience is more directed toward teachers, it doesn't seem to matter. The information is very useful to teachers, and is very relevant. There is a lot of information and resources available and make the site worthwhile to teachers. The site is fairly quick, and easy to maneuver.

Tyler Igo The purpose of this resource is to aid students in learning fractions. There are games available for grades 1-4. The intended audience is students in grades 1-4. This site looks pretty fun and interactive. I would use this site to help teach my students fractions. Content of my website. The user easily identifies the content. The sponsor of the site is clearly presented. The content achieves its purpose pretty well. There are links to other math games. Design of my website. The homepage downloads very quickly and is covered in color and big icons to click on. The title is large and right in the middle of the page so it is easy to see where you are at. There are some links to other games which are not relevant to my purpose. The interactive portions of the game are easy to follow and complete. The content is presented with the same layout each time and is easy to move along. The material cannot really be outdated considering it is teaching fractions. The presentation of the game does seem up to date.

John Ripley 9/12/11 Khan Academy Overview: This website is intended to provide a free, high quality educational experience for anyone interested in the material presented on the website. Based on my content and design evaluations I would say that this site achieves it's objective and is a useful educational tool. Because of the seriousness, for lack of a better word, of the layout it is probably more suitable for people in middle school and up. Content: The content covers math and science topics extremely well while the social studies fields are a little sparse. I focused on the math content and it was excellent, covering about every imaginable topic. The videos were easy to follow and informative and the practice problems were pertinent to the lessons shown in the videos. Design: The design of the website is straightforward and direct. It is easy to navigate and find exactly what you want. As I mentioned above, the design is fairly serious and I would think that elementary age students might prefer something a little more catchy and flashy. However, for a little older audience I think that the design is very good.

10-11-12 Step up to Writing is a website designed to show students how to write a well-structured paragraph using the step up method.  The Step up method is simple and compares writing to an everyday concept. The intended audience is for all students but would be best used for students between 3rd and 5th grade. Other than the links to the different paragraph sections no other resources are presented. If you want a good website to teach writing methods this is one to use.  The content on this site is very well organized that you can maneuver is very easily. At first look it provides basic information, the method is simply put until further clicking on each link to further diverge in to the each section. The information is written in a way that children can understand the information.  The website design was good but not perfect. Everything downloads effectively. When looking for the developer you need to go to the link at the bottom; it isn't very easy to find but is still accessible. No other links are on this section of the webpage but on the main homepage many helpful links are presented.  Overall this website need to improve the design a little but presents good information worth investigating. 

Overview: The purpose for exploring this website is to obtain resources to help students look at U.S. history more objectively. The audience that this website is aiming at is teachers of middle/high school U.S. history courses. The available resources of this website are various historical subjects ranging from colonization to the 21st century; and a vast library of U.S. historical themes (e.g. slavery, civil rights movements, etc...). This website does a great job of supplying sufficient information while presenting itself in an appealing way. There numerous links and PDF documents that relate to the specific content area being looked at. Its design is very appealing and is also well organized. It is easy and quick to find information on the website as well. Content: One of the best things that this website accomplishes is its coverage of topics from colonization to the 21st century. Each section has numerous PDF's and/or websites that teachers can use to help teach that content area. Information about the authors/sponsors are readily available under the "About" section. The thing that this website lacks, however, is the revision history; there is only a copyright year. Overall, the website achieves its purpose of giving teachers the tools to help students learn about U.S. history more objectively. Design: This website has a very appealing design to it. Not only does it look nice, but visitors know exactly where they are once the home page loads. The site has an effective layout; the audience only has to click a couple times to get to the information that they need. The downside to the design of the website is the use of multimedia. There is little to no use of graphics, audio, and/or video. The overall design, though, makes this website worth visiting again in the future.

Melissa Mings 11/16/12 Audience: Educators Author: A Professional teacher, Mr. G Purpose: This article is to let educators know some advanced Elementary and Middle school students are using iPads as a tool to extend their normal math lessons into group work that may be beyond other students in their grade level.

Make Me Genius provides videos, projects, tests, educational powerpoints, and more all on the subject of science, for elementary and middle school aged kids.