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Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: Internet 4 Classrooms is a website with many components. The purpose of this website is to help teachers use the Internet effectively. On the "Home" menu the user can choose to visit any of the seven links posted. Those include: Grade Level Help, Links for K-12, Technology Tutorials, Assessment Assistance, Daily Dose of the Web, On-Site Training, or About Us. This is a free website that is designed to help teachers find free Internet Sources to use in the classroom setting. Content: This site is full of information and consists of many separate components. This site is mainly visited by teachers who are hoping to find a way to integrate the Internet into their classrooms. From the site the user can choose a specific grade level and subject. Once the user has selected a grade level and subject a list of sites that can be used for classroom instruction appear on the screen. For example, if the user chose Language Arts for Elementary Students, sites such as "American Literary Classics" or "Brain Food" would appear and the user would then choose one of those links to instruct their students. These links can take you to anything from a list of good books to read in the classroom, word puzzles to challenge your students, or anything else related to Language Arts for Elementary students. Design: The website is somewhat organized, however, it can be a little confusing to navigate since there are so many separate links on the Home page. There are also several ads which can become distracting. Overall this site provides good information for teacher and students about using the internet as a learning tool.

Trevor Santy Sept 14 2011 Overview: This site is mostly a teaching resource with activities for grades from preschool to 12th grade. With many different activities ranging through different class levels. The activities also cover a large variety of topics from science to math to English making it a good learning tool as well as a good place to practice the skills associated with that subject. It even says the grade level the activity was meant for making it a must have for a teacher's resources. Content: This site contains different activities for different subject matters such as history, math, science, and a few others. It also has a games tab that contains learning activities for all ages ranging from the easy to some that are very challenging. Also the activities make great lessons for aspiring teachers and the site has help sections in case you get lost or don't know what grade to do an activity for. Design: This websites design is extremely simple and straightforward. With tabs to take you to individual class levels and activities. On top of that it has a handy on site teacher training for using the activities that is pretty easily designed using a mix of videos and text.

Randi McInerney September 15, 2011 Overview: Internet4Classrooms is an educational website primarily for teacher usage, but could be used by students. There is a good amount of information available on a variety of topics, but the site is not as organized or appealing as it could be. Helpful links, educational games for k-12, assistance and information for teachers, technology tutorials, and SAT/ ACT prep are available. Content: There is a lot of information available, but the SAT/ACT prep is only accessible if you become a member. Interactive games, tutorials, and information are available. The content could be easier to find and access. There is email information to contact the website developers. Design: The site does download, but is not that visually appealing or organized. The site provides tabs to find information, but then will just list a large amount of information that you are expected to look through in order to find what you need.

This is another resource for teachers. This site provides free shape worksheets that a teacher can print for their students. This can help your students to recognize shapes.

Whitney Mills; Website Reviewed: January 24th 2010 Overview: Kidgen.net is a helpful website for teachers who are looking to help their students learn to read, write, count, etc. It is suitable for all ages and can also be used in different languages. The only downfall is that there are different levels of membership, when it would be much more helpful if it were free. Content: It is very easy to understand what the purpose of this website is as soon as a person clicks on the link. The intended audience is anyone at any different ages, which is stated right away. The author is listed at the bottom of the page. The links to the other sites do work properly and the site is current. The purpose of the site is clear; it is intended to teach students words, spelling, counting, etc. Overall the site is well made, organized, and looks professional. Design: I feel that this website is ok in the design. It could be a bit more worked on to be a little more exciting or appealing to children. However, the site design is common throughout all the links, and isn't confusing to look at. The site has very current information and looks as if it is visited often and revised often. I would recommend this to anyone who'd be willing to pay for the memberships but not to anyone who is looking for a free website to help teach their students.

Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: Internet 4 Classrooms is a website with many components. The purpose of this website is to help teachers use the Internet effectively. On the "Home" menu the user can choose to visit any of the seven links posted. Those include: Grade Level Help, Links for K-12, Technology Tutorials, Assessment Assistance, Daily Dose of the Web, On-Site Training, or About Us. This is a free website that is designed to help teachers find free Internet Sources to use in the classroom setting. Content: This site is full of information and consists of many separate components. This site is mainly visited by teachers who are hoping to find a way to integrate the Internet into their classrooms. From the site the user can choose a specific grade level and subject. Once the user has selected a grade level and subject a list of sites that can be used for classroom instruction appear on the screen. For example, if the user chose Language Arts for Elementary Students, sites such as "American Literary Classics" or "Brain Food" would appear and the user would then choose one of those links to instruct their students. These links can take you to anything from a list of good books to read in the classroom, word puzzles to challenge your students, or anything else related to Language Arts for Elementary students. Design: The website is somewhat organized, however, it can be a little confusing to navigate since there are so many separate links on the Home page. There are also several ads which can become distracting. Overall this site provides good information for teacher and students about using the internet as a learning tool.

Hannah Streeter 2/1/2011 Overview- This website is colorful and fun. It has lots of games based on literary skills driven toward elementary school students. Its a little silly, and easy to use. There is also a really great teacher/parent link on the home page. Content- The content of this website is literary games with fun characters like monsters, animals, dwarfs, and other fun characters. The content is based on auditory explanations, uses simple words to explain the games, and then expounds into more complex concepts to help teach things like Poetry and the alphabet, depending on which category you pick from. The games are super fun, even for a big kid like me. Design- The design is bright and colorful. The games load quickly and the sound is clear. There are many different games and animations for all elementary grades. there are links to the home page, and other games to play and learn from. All in all, a really great site!

Literary Learning

Erin Kirby January 23, 2011 Overview: The sight http://www.brainpop.com/is a good sight for older elementary students, and middle school students. The homepage offers different subjects that a student would learn everyday in school. Each time you click on a link it keeps breaking down into certain subject. This makes it simple for students to use, each link is filled with helpful information. The site is very 21st century based and there are many different things to do such as read, play games, watch movies, and more. The content on this site would be helpful to use in a classroom and would get more students interested and involved in certain subjects. Content: Everything on this site seems simple to use, easy to follow, and has very reliable information. There is a link that allows parents, students, or teachers to see what brain pop is all about. It tells you that there are other brain pop sights that are for younger children and even some for teachers that will help them create lesson plans and other activities. It is an educational website that contains a lot of material that all seems accurate and easy for children to understand. One thing that could be a problem is that on some things on the site you need to subscribe to get the full information, but they do have tutorials and lots of other helpful information. I think that most students would enjoy looking through the subjects on the sight and finding something that they are interested in to learn about. This sight is easy to get involved in and enjoy it at the same time. There is so much information that some kids might stay on for hours! Design: The websites speed is fast and works smoothly link to link. All the videos and games that I tried ran great and I had no problems. The graphics are clear and entertaining for students. When starting at the homepage, it is simple to follow and not distracting at all. There are no pop up that get in the way or take away from learning. This sight is great for

Overview: This website was very visual and very organized. This website was good for educational purposes at the high school level. There were many different subjects with interactive games involved. Content: Each subject that this website offered had alot of information in it. There was a wide range of topics under each subject which helped the viewer get a better understanding. THe content of the site was clear and obvious. All of the information for the providers of the website was easy to find. I couldn't find the lates revision date, but other than that, the information quality was accurate based off of my knowledge. There were few links to other sites. Design:Everything downloaded efficiently. The hompage was very organized. The copyright date was obvious. Navigation was easy and clear cut, it was easy to move around the site. There was alot of interactive games that consituted as multimedia. This website had plenty of useful info. that made the site worth visiting

Lauren Peterson 10-21-13 http://www.brainpop.com/ Overview: This website is a multifaceted educational website that contains numerous subject matter. The site provides educational tools that can be utilized within classroom activities; furthering understandings of various subjects. In order to simplify and further education in particular areas of study, this website makes use of games and videos. Overall, this site seems to be a rather useful tool for a classroom, as it is easy to navigate with content that is clearly understandable. Content: The content seems to be geared towards Jr. High students, although there are other websites from BrainPOP that offer similar content more appropriate for younger ages. This site makes the various subjects within Math, Science, English, etc. very clear through explanation and visuals in videos, as well as interaction through educational games. Design: The use of color and animation throughout this website seem to be rather appealing to the eye. Not only does this sites appearance have the potential to intrigue a viewer, it is also easy to navigate. The links and activities function successfully with very few issues.

Jessica Chandler January 24th, 2011 *Overview: This website is to help kids with their math skills. The ages are from preschool- eighth grade. There are very many links to click once you choose the appropriate age group. It seems to be quite simple if you know what you want to expand your learning on. It may be difficult for the younger kids to read the different types of things to learn, but the requirements for each are quite simple. *Content: There are several skills to choose from among each age group. This is just a math website, so it deals with different sorts of categories such as the Pythagorean theorem, shapes, fractions, exponents, and etc. The games are very educational and help the students to learn the content. I especially liked this website because it gives explanations to the problem you missed by going through step by step. It also gives the score and how much time was spent doing that certain exercise. You can complete the different skills in however much time you prefer. It will give you feedback once you hit submit and finish. Otherwise, you just keep practicing! *Design: The design of this website is very clear. It opens by stating, "Where your math journey begins." It is very eye appealing and colorful. There isn't too much content to overwhelm the users. It is very easy to use. The grade levels appear right on the home page, making it clear for students to use on their own. Once the level is chosen, different skills appear-all categorized, and then the only thing left to do is select what you would like more practice on. The site looks very professional and up to date. Overall, the design is catchy and great for students to use!

Overview: This website is designed for K-8 aged children, and it includes several different games primarily focused in math. The website is highly interactive and clearly represents the idea of integrating education and fun. Each game has a clear purpose, and they are actually very entertaining. Content: The purpose of the site is easily identifiable in the homepage, where bright colors and very childlike design catches your eye. The content is organized primarily by grade level, so it is easy to find appropriate games for whatever grade you are teaching. Although it is unclear when the website was last updated, the information appears to be up to date and relevant for elementary education standards today. There are not outside links to similar or relevant websites to enhance what is being presented on the site, but the content on the site is very thorough, so other resources aren't really necessary. Design: The design of the site is obviously very child-centered; however, it is well done, not cheesy or obnoxious. The homepage catches your attention, and the information is easy to access. Each game is unique, has its own fun, vibrant design, and is highly educational. Since the website is primarily organized by grade level, the design enhances the user-friendliness of the website. I believe this website would be good for use in the classroom because there are minimal advertisements, and children could easily find a fun and educational game that suits their needs.

I really like this website; I will be using it in my WebQuest design!

Jessica Chandler January 24th, 2011 *Overview: This site is called Starfall. This website was designed to help students read. There are different categories to choose from such as ABCs, Learn to Read, It's Fun to Read, and I'm Reading. Each category has great contents once the recommended link is chosen. ABCs read the letter aloud that is chosen and shows word in which make the correct sound. Learn to Read contains different easy reads on line for the kids to read. It's fun to Read contains different types of reading such as tongue twisters, poetry, music, and etc. I'm Reading brings up a selection of books to read. This allows the students to choose what book sounds the best. If the child doesn't know a word, clicking on the word will read it out loud. There are many useful things to get out of this website for elementary and preschool kids, and for the teachers of that certain level. *Content: The content is very clear and prepared. It is easy for children to understand the concept of this website. It is easy to access everything to learn about reading. A child could participate in this designed website alone or with the parents. It has great content and is very beneficial for the younger students who cannot read. This website also makes reading fun! *Design: This website is fantastic! It helps the students love to read and demonstrates different patterns and the alphabet to the children. It is very colorful, but only the links are. Therefore, the content isn't hard to read. It is easy to find what you are looking for, and the site Is not overloaded with a bunch of information. It is quite eye catching and would be an excellent website for kids trying to learn how to read!

Whitney Reese Reviewed: 2/4/12 www.starfall.com Overview: The purpose of this website is to teach children to read with phonics. The intended audience for this website is children ranging from the prek grade levels to second grade. It includes many resources such as the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, tools to learn colors and numbers, short tales for beginner readers, several word and reading games, reading materials for more advanced readers including comics and plays, and many interactive educational games. It also has its own unique curriculum for teaching children to read. My overall impression of this site was very good. It was really easy to navigate and loaded quickly. It is very colorful and kid friendly. It also has great content for learning to read. Content: The content of this site is very clear and concise. It is organized in an orderly fashion, which makes finding where you want to go easy. The authors of this site are identified and are credible. The content of this site seems very up to date and serves as a great resource for teaching children phonics. The quality of information provided is very good and every aspect of the site seems to work properly.  Design: The design of this site is very attractive using bright colors and animated graphics. The homepage is set up easily so that kids are able to navigate but has links that adults can use to obtain site information as well. All multimedia aspects serve a clear purpose. Kids would love the design of this site. 

A free website to teach children to read with phonics. For preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. Exciting phonics games and online interactive books.

Chelsey Lynch 1/31/11 * Overview: The purpose of this site is to aid students in higher level math classes with problems they may be having and provide further resources. There is an extremely wide variety of available resources on this site. There is everything from enrichment lessons, games, puzzles, links for graphing paper, and overviews of any math content areas. This website contains a great deal of information, but it is not organized very well. At first glance this site looks like it could be very helpful, but once you spend fifteen minutes trying to find what you are looking for it seems a little useless. * Design: This website is attractive and has an interesting layout upon first glance, but after further examination is clearly not very user friendly. The material on this site is far too broad to all be in one site. There are several topics to select from and once you click on that it takes you to another page where you then have to make another selection to actually get where you want on the page. The copywriter date is current and visible, but there are too many advertisements on this page to focus on anything, much less, mathematics. * Content: The basic content of this site is noticeably math but I find the bullets to select from rather broad. Information about the author cannot be found on the website, though there is a link to e-mail them. This leads me to wonder if this information is relevant or even accurate. The sponsor of this site was also very difficult to locate. This site is meant to be useful for higher level math classes, such as high school classes, but I found the help links difficult to understand. This site does contain links to the right of the page for other math related sites. This links worked, and were much more efficient than this one.

I have used the website www.TheMathWebSite.com in my classroom for the past 6 years. By using the internet technology fully in the math classroom, teachers spend less time in preparation/marking drudgery and more time interacting and helping your students. It is intended to be used to assist math class instructions by providing typical examples and solutions to most high school level math topics. 1)  Begin with Bellwork. Choose some questions from a Quiz or Test Sheet, and give out to the class via paper, blackboard or projector.  Let students mark their own or each others. 2)  Give a Quiz on yesterday's topics for marking.  Students can mark their own, each others, or the teacher can mark.  Everyone can do the same quiz, or a different quiz via paper, blackboard, projector. 3) Present the Class Lesson  using examples from the Quiz or Test Sheets.  Show questions and solution steps on a projector or overhead. Present as many examples as needed. Click on the question and the solution steps appear or disappear. OR Present the Class Lesson  via the Lessonboard using the mouse drag & drop method. The lesson can be created and presented line by line via projector/overhead or blackboard. OR Present the Class Lesson  via the Lesson Sheets. The Lesson Sheets only present one question or example at a time. Click on the question and the solution steps appear or disappear. Present as many different examples as needed. 4)  Give some Practice. Choose examples from the Quiz Sheets which allow immediate student checking of answers from the bottom of the sheets. Tests have answers that can be clicked out. 5)  Present a math Diversion such as a Puzzle, Activity, Game, or Enrichment topic to maintain their interest in math and to put some fun into the class. 6)  Assign the Homework. Show students the source of extra practice sheets on the website if they or their parents wish to get extra

Overall: The website that I chose for my good example was Mrs. Herbies Kindergarten Web site. This was a website for teachers to go to get help setting up their own websites. It had links to example pages with ideas of what would be helpful to parents to know what is going on with their kids' school day. I tihknk this is an example of a good educational website because it was organized well, it was bring and had relevant graphics. The website also showed that it was recently updated and had contact information in case of questions. Content: At first glance it is easy to determine basic content, you know that this is a teacher website creator by the graphics and titles. Both the author and sponsors are listed through titles and at the bottom. All of the links were up and running. They all were worthwhile examples of her work or links to email in case of help. Design: The website uploaded quick and efficiently in multiple browsers. It is colorful and really catches your eye even as it begins to download. As I mentioned copyright, sponsors, author and clear titles were all present. Information and links were easily directed through and were current, useful information. The same format was used throughout the whole site. Last date revised was listed as 2011.

Overview: the Between the Lions website is a very good website for both students and teachers. It gives teachers ideas to make reading and learning more fun for young students. It also has games right on the site that students can enjoy and learn to read without really knowing they are learning. The games do take a little long to load though and I'm sure children would get very impatient with that Content: The content of this website seems to very reliable. There are stories kids can read themselves, there are video clips and games. They all seem to be helpful and very fun. If I found them helpful I'm sure the young learners would too. The website also offers tips to teachers and parents about how to help their children and students have fun while reading. It does not give a specific age group. Design: The layout of this website is very user friendly. It is very easy to navigate. Children using this site would have no problem at all figuring it out. It is very colorful and designed cleverly. On the home page when you scroll over the picture they talk to you. For example, if you scrolled over the words stories, the character would say "stories". I think the design is great I would use it in my classroom.

Nathan Wonnacott 9/9/11 Overview: The Smithsonian Institution web page is a way to allow people to access the galleries without visiting the museum and provides insightful ways to teach students as well. The target audience is parents, teachers, and even students. Some of its topics are history, science, art, and technology. I believe this site to be a very useful tool in educating. Content: The first impression of the Smithsonian webpage is a sense of variety. There are pictures of exhibits and links to others not depicted. It doesn't appear childish, but more for anyone interested in American history. Once I explored, I found that the links work successfully and are full of up to date information. The website does leave out links to other sites, which limits resources to the site alone. It also doesn't specify an author, leaving only the sponsor to be contacted. Design: The setup is both fast and easy with organized pull-down menus. The pictures and references to their exhibit are detailed, useful, and attention grabbing. Activities are also available, and help to locate new information. The pages are current, last revised on July 6, 2011. The site is effective and worth visiting.

Taylor Pilch 09/09/2011

Taylor Pilch 09/09/2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide an easy online educational website to help with learning and provide teaching games. The fun games use technology to teach kids. The intended audience is for Pre-K to 8th graders, but you have to sign up to use everything on the site, so it is primary for parents at the beginning. I did not find any resources on this website; it just contained things from the website that I could see. The overall impression of the website was that it could be really fun and helpful, but the fact that you have to sign up made me want to find somewhere else to go to that would be easier to start using. Content: As for the content, it was easy to tell what kind of content was in the site and who it was intended for. The information quality was good- the purpose was clear, it was organized and easy to use, and it seemed pretty reliable. On the other hand, I could not find an author of the site as well as information about the author. There was a place to contact them, but I did not see any names about who was in charge or anything like that. Also, I did not see any links to other websites or sources, which could be a bad thing. Design: Everything was clearly identified and you could find where you wanted to go without much difficulty. There was a copyright date and everything seemed to be in working order. It seemed current and the same format is used throughout the site.

Overview: This site offers learning tools for students as well as lesson plan ideas for teachers. It offers online resources to teachers and parents as well. It has interactive learning from games to activities kids can do for hands-on learning on topics such as math, science and language arts. Content: The homepage is laid out in a child friendly way. It is organized and grouped in all the different subjects so kids can find things easier. The author is hard to find but it is an educational sponsored site. There is a place on the bar left of the screen that offers a link to ask questions about the site. The site is frequently updated to keep the resources current. Design: The design is fun and brings value to the site with its interactive graphics. It is a great site for children to use as well as teachers. There is a table of contents to navigate to different links easier as well as places to seek help for problems. All links uploaded easy and were very organized so you didn't feel lost.

Michelle Jacobsen 9/14/11 Overview- The purpose of this site is more for teachers rather than students. The teacher can get onto this website and type in the spelling words that the children are going to be tested over and can decide if they want to make it into a game, writing practice, or just for spelling practice. The teacher can either have the students get online and type in all of the spelling words or they can print out copies of the game or worksheet with the spelling words on it. There is also an option to become a "premium" member that allows you to have more options; you just need to make an account. Content- The content of this website is very helpful for an educator; my mom is a 5th grade teacher and uses this website quite often to help her students be able to have fun while learning how to become better spellers. The teacher can make a free online account and put in their spelling lists and the students can also log on and have access to the words. Design-The website design is definitely lacking in creativity, however it is extremely easy to navigate and figure out. It even has a video tutorial to help you figure out the site if you get confused. There are tabs for parents, students, and teachers. Overall I find this a really helpful website for elementary educators at any level!

Whitney Lindt Purpose: I think that the purpose of this website is to make a website available that teachers could send their younger students to. This website makes it a fun way for students to learn and it also gives them time on the computer which they need to move up in school. Overview: This site has great links that teachers can use in their classroom and with some direction could actually send their students to and students could probably easily navigate this sight. There are many activities for the children that would make learning fun and keep the younger students' interest while the teacher is teaching them how to navigate a computer or just about any subject because this website goes over almost every subject in some way. Content: The content of this site is very useful especially with the younger students in grade school because it is easy to navigate through and teachers would be able to tell their students where to go and the students would be able to do it themselves. The other thing that I really like about this website is it has links to sites that could help students learn and then it has sites that students could just go for fun such as coloring pages. All of the links off of the homepage of the website would serve great use in the classroom and just for parents to send their kids to without having to worry about the safety of the internet. Design: This site is easy to navigate because the table of contents is in alphabetical order. All of the links from the home page work extremely well and one can navigate through this site quickly.

Overview: Purdue OWL (online writing lab) serves as a gold mine of information for formal writing. This website is intended for students or anyone attempting to write a formal paper. It provides the newest and latest information on MLA and APA formatting information, along with a "how-to" guide for formatting your papers and citing your sources correctly. On top of that it also provides links for English as a Second Language learners, parents, and "how-to's" for cover letters and résumés. This website is extremely useful ad helpful for anyone looking for help writing a paper or teachers looking for a good resource to teach their students. I highly recommend Purdue OWL. Content: When you enter Purdue OWL you are immediately able to tell what the site is about. All the content is easily accessible and bookmarked on the home page. Although author information is not immediately available, you are able to see that it is created by a credible source, and you are able to contact the creators. Purdue keeps their information up to date and uses the latest MLA and APA handbooks to create their site. The purpose of the site is obviously informational and educational. It is well organized and the information is complete, easy to understand, and consistent with other similar sources. Design: Purdue OWL is visually appealing along with efficient. The home page is clearly labeled with an index and site sponsor obvious and visible. It is easy to move around, and if you feel lost there is a link for a "site map" in the upper right hand corner that can be used. The links on the page are highly relevant and help the users navigate to more specific cites. It is easily accessed on different browsers. There is a plethora of information readily available for the users so they do not need to visit other sites.  

Michelle Jacobsen 9/16/11 Overview: This website is useful to both teachers and students. It focuses on grade levels K-6 and helps improve students reading skills. Teachers can get onto this site and create an account and put on the different book that their students are reading. After they do that the students can then log in and find their teachers name and practice their reading skills. Content: This website is used to help students improve their reading skills by reading for practice, recording their reading, checking with comprehension quizzes and listening for modeled fluency. For teachers there is a "teacher's corner" that helps them learn how to run through the website and even gives printable directions for students and their parents. Design: The overall design of this website is eye catching but not so over the top that it's hard to manage. It is extremely easy to navigate around and has a video on the homepage explaining the reasoning for the website and how to use it.