Group items tagged

Overview: This website is directed toward preschool and childcare professionals. Its purpose is to teach these professionals more about play based learning and how to bring these elements into the classroom. Content: The content of this site is reliable and professional. The creator of the site posts her entire background of working in childcare facilities. Her seminars are posted for viewing and the information given has resources to back it. The site also provides different links to sites that use this play based learning approach, and you can browse their sites for more information on how they run their programs. Design: The design of this website is good. The pages load quickly and all the URLs are correctly linked and are available. The pictures used are relevant and tie to the material. Navigating this site is also very direct and easy to follow.

Overview Code Academy is a website that is used to promote the proper teaching of different computer languages to people of all ages. It is mostly aimed at people who are in computer science classes from middle school through college. The site has a number of corporate sponsors as well as many 'teachers' that donate their time to creating lesson plans for this site. They really advocate the teaching and learning of these computer languages. For being programmers, the site is actually fairly simple and had some glitches on my computer. I will attribute that as much to the computer as much as their programming.

Extremely comprehensive online math, science and programming video tutorials. Watch our sample lessons to see why students all over the world learn with Educator.com.

This website takes a look at some ideological approaches towards childhood obesity. The article on the website is intended for adults who work with children in any aspect. The author, James Hamblin notes that individual poor decisions are an extreme reductionist approach. The idea is that we can come up with programs in our schools that encourage healthy active lifestyles and that these programs, if effective, will help reduce childhood obesity and promote general overall healthy outcomes for children. One of the ideas expressed and refuted is that obesity is a loosing battle. The epidemic of childhood obesity has grown, this is true. The website and article are showing that our education and government society are concerned and want to help. No one situation is to blame, as suggested by the article. Sugar and soda pops are mentioned but abolition of any of these things clearly is not targeted as a solution. While no particular solution or method is presented, the idea is to keep thinking and not to dismiss this subject. I thought this was a good read and had helpful information for me. Knowing that others still take this problem seriously helps myself and those I can influence to remain aware and able to contribute in some way. This site is good for any person that wants to stay informed of efforts being made among multiple communities.

Content: The first look at the content of this website really gives the user a lot of information. It is very easy to determine the basic content of the website and the intended audience. There is a paragraph stating exactly what the website is about, providing science related resources, and who it is intended for, K-12 educators. The information providers are easy to find by simply clicking on the "About SNL" link. It states the staff members who work on the website; although there is no information presented about any of them which makes it difficult to determine their qualifications. There is contact information through e-mail to contact the staff if the user has questions or to verify information. The sponsors are displayed at the bottom of the page. They are the AAAS and the Verizon Thinkfinity Program. The information seems to be relatively current. It appears that it was last updated 7/10 and none of the information is older than 1999. Some of the older information might be out of date, but there is plenty of information that has been contributed over the last two or three years. Also the links are all working and lead the user to sites that are up and running. I believe the information provided on the website is very high quality. There is a large amount of information that is very well organized and easy to work with. There appears to be no bias and the information is accurate. It also provides information that meets my exact purpose. There are tons of places for find further information. There are links to other resources as well as the science benchmarks for grades K-12.

In Chicago, February 2009, at the annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, eleven poets were asked the question, "What Is Poetry...

Katie Hertel 1-24-2010 Overview: SFS Kids Fun with Music is a website designed to educate children and adolescents about the fundamentals of music. It also provides a great way for people of all ages to hear, learn and have fun with music. Overall it has the accurate information needed and has valuable resources but it doesn't show where it is directly coming from making the accuracy and authority questionable. These resources help if the website is not working correctly along with system requirements in order for it to work effectively and efficiently. Content: The content of this website is supported as one of the best educational music sites out there but it has faults due to the system requirements that it has. In order for it to work the way it's supposed to the required content includes Flash and audio players and Quicktime VR. Although downloading these takes time away from the learning it's quick and easy to do. It includes the kinds of instruments in an orchestra and a music lab full of fun facts and definitions of things related with music. Most of it was easily accessible and contained a lot of information but it didn't give credible information on where it was coming from. It also includes various symphonies that you can take children to enjoy great music and educate at the same time. All in all, the downsides of this included the required programs and not having credibility present. I also had trouble finding dates of publication which is definitely a disadvantage as well. Design: This site is somewhat visually attracting but it only takes up half of a webpage leaving the other side a solid yellow. It kind of takes away from the sites information that it can provide because of the little space used. While it has these faults, it also has good points to it visually due to no advertisements popping up randomly or on the side and is easy to navigate through. The headlines of the tabs easily show what that section is about and tidbits o

Cole Baumann January 24, 2010 This website holds many hints and suggestions on how to help children with dyslexia. The site holds many suggestions on how to help students with dyslexia such as little ways to help them remember things and suggestions on ways to help them feel more comfortable in the classroom. This is helpful as children with dyslexia do feel a lot of stress that no other student does due to knowing there is something wrong but not knowing exactly what. They do not know why they struggle with work in the classroom while other students seem to perform just fine. This website will help teachers and parents make the students feel more comfortable in the classroom and may even be able to help the students work with their problem to become more literate and, consequently, be able to help them grow as a student and a child. The design of this website is very entertaining. There is a picture for almost every paragraph which is just pleasing to look at. This prevents boredom as you search through the website and explore. Also, this website allows you to change the background color which is not a real important thing but it is always fun when websites add little things like that to keep it more entertaining and more appealing to use. Additionally, the site looks presentable and very nice. It is not a very 'sketchy' website to go to which is very important if you are trying to help your student and you do not want your computer to fail due to finding a terrible virus. Though the website is for parents who have children with dyslexia, this website could also help teachers improve the learning abilities of any student that seems to be having trouble reading. This website does not consist of large programs or big dramatic ways to help dyslexic students learn, but there are small items and suggestions that in the end if you put them all together the teacher may be able to help the child function as a better student.

Haley Brown 1/19/2011 Overview: The purpose of this website is to inform those who are interested in science in a fun way. One thing I really enjoyed was the Science Secret tab. Content: I do not know when the site was last updated. The link that shows files only lists three subjects to look over. On the other hand, this website does give the links to all of the video programs Design: The site catches the eye well. Almost every page has some reference to Mr. Wizard at the top so it is easy to know which site you are on which helps lessen confusion.

Keenan Zimmerman 2/1/2011 Review: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/ Overview: PBS teachers is a part of the PBS website but it is not readily available from the pbs.org homepage. Because of this I feel it is worth writing a review for PBS teachers even though there are other PBS sites that have been reviewed. PBS teachers is a place for teachers to find resources or lesson plans for their classrooms. The site is easy to navigate and is very well done. Content: The content in PBS teachers is outstanding. There are many, many pages with resources for all subject areas. This includes projects for preschool teachers all the way up to seniors in high school. The site looks to be updated regularly and gives links to other sites that contain more content for a teacher to use. The site seems to be free from bias and is easy to understand. The authors of the material are identified. Design: The design of the site is great. The homepage is inviting and easy to look at, it is not cluttered with ads and the colors blend well together. The site is very easy to navigate being sectioned into different grade levels which are further sectioned by content area. There is also a search tool which works rather well. All the links seem to work correctly and an A-Z list which is very useful when using the search functions to find a specific link. The site uses drop down tabs which makes it very easy to narrow a search and find exactly what you are looking for.

Ben Lebeda pbs.org/teachers 9/14/11 Overview: pbs.org/teachers is a website that is devoted to teachers and providing them with resources and lesson plans on a wide variety of subjects at all grade levels. In addition to the lesson plans, there is also a discussion board in which educators can discuss topics such as special education, the necessity of the arts in school, and a multitude of other topics. Another feature of pbs.org/teachers is the professional development section that can be viewed by topic. This section provides information for educators who wish to continue their education by taking online classes on specific subjects. Content: This website made a very good first impression, as it was easy to tell that this website was intended for teachers and contained resources for them. All the lesson plans that I saw came from PBS, either from the teacher site, or from an educational TBS television program. I had a hard time finding many publication or revision dates, but none of the information was outdated, and it was all credible. It was clear that the activities and resources were intended for educational use in a classroom. Design: The design of pbs.org/teachers is effective in that it is simple to navigate around and find the desired subject. It is organized according to grade level, and then further broken down by subject matter. The ease of access and amount of information available makes this website a very valuable teacher resource, no matter what subject or grade level. There were several advertisements for other non-related websites, but it was not really distracting or overwhelming.

Becky Stewart 1/24/11 Average site Overview: The site http://gseis.ucla.edu/ is a site for people interested in the areas listed in this site based on the college. There are no advertisements for anything that isn't related to the site. The purpose of this site is to inform adults about the graduate school, and the subjects that are involved in it. This site is for very old students or adults because this is a program that young kids wouldn't understand or be interested in them. The site provides a lot of links, and a lot of it is basic information which isn't really helpful if someone is looking in depth. Content: The site really isn't complicated to look at, but that is because there really isn't much on the site. The authors aren't clearly stated, however at the bottom of the page there is a copyright date and very good information such as an address. This site was last updated in 2010 so it is a very recent site, which is a good indication that the information is good and up to date. Since this site is more of an information and direction site, there is no indication of bias. There are no grammer mistakes or any indication that anything is wrong with the site. The website doesn't have a lot of extra information. Its is very basic, and that can be a good or bad thing. The sites URL helps to indicate that it is a good credible site where the information can be trusted. Design: The homepage for this site took some time to download because they have a big moving picture on the page and a lot of color and links. This is most likely the reason that the site took a little longer to load. The homepage is very simple and only has a basic information paragraph on it. Overall the site seems to be pretty organized and easy to follow. There is no overload of pictures or animations on the page to confuse people. Its is very easy to move around the site, the links do what

Overview: This website offers many different tools, programs, and links to other sites that can be very helpful for learning math. The site makes it very easy to browse through their catalog by subject, topic, or technology type. The site also is a nice place for teachers to go to find tools that they can use in class to help students get a better idea of the topic and how to solve problems more efficiently. Content: This website is mostly for students that are in high school math and up. It provided many different ways to go about learning different subjects. This is very useful because teachers tend to only be able to teach a couple different ways but with the site the students and search many different ways to find what is right for them. Others also rate all the links, so they know which other students have used and liked. Design: The design of the site is fairly easy to follow, it does have a lot going on which can be intimidating to the student but once they get the hang of how to search the site to find things it becomes very easy to navigate.

Content: This website's purpose is easily determined. As I am interested in being a science teacher, it is a great and valuable educational website for the teaching of photosyntesis. The author is actually an educational company titled Andrew Rader Studios. It is a company that displays alot of different scientific information, and there are various emails that are availalble to ask questions regarding content and or program use. The last time this website was revised was this past year 2009, the content diplays current knowledge regarding many different science topics. There are links to several other websites that all open and are available to further education if needed. It is a strictley educational website for the use of teaching science topics and providing visuals to assist in learning. There is previous knowledge form multiple sources and it is a great website for teachers to utilize as it is grade appropriate for several kids. This website is very valuable for me as a science teacher! It has so many interactive qualitites and if I had a smart board this website would be a great interactive learning tool. Design: The web page was easily accessible and it downloaded very quickly. The homepage displays all of the content in the other tabs, it is very clear and directive for the user as well as efficient in locating the science subject that one would like to teach.It is up to date and compatable on interenet explorere mozilla firefox and safri. All of the multimedia qualities are appropriate and not obnocious, and there are web links that help with the relativity to the age group. There is lots of visual descriptions, which in teaching science is a great way to teach the content. Attribution: My overall impression of this website is a positive one. The audience is for studetns, and also teachers. it is very clear as far as what links lead you where and so forth. It would be a valuable website for any teachers that are in science because the media is both inte

Katharine Johnson September 19, 2009 Ag in the Classroom Introduction: This website focuses on agriculture in the classroom. It has a variety of information and links for both educators and students. Content Evaluation: First Look: When I first looked at the site honestly I didn't think it would be much but it is easy to navigate and easy to understand. Information Providers: The website has been endorsed by the Americans Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Also it has been sponsored by the USDA Agriculture in the Classroom program and is manages through an agreement with Utah State University. Information Currency: The site is not clear about when it was last updated. But most of the events are current so that leads me to believe it has been update recently. The other site links are updated and in working order. The only one that I had problems with was the questions tab. It said the site was unavailable. Information Quality: This site offers a wide variety of information that I believe could be helpful to new teachers. Also I believe it could help students learn more about agriculture. Design Evaluation: Speed: Most of the pages opened quickly and effectively. Home Page: The homepage is attractive and eye appealing. All the information is clear and organized and easy to find what you are looking for. Ease of Navigation: The site is easy to navigate. All the information is clear and organized and helps you find what you are looking for easily. Having the main points larger and bold helps navigate through the site. Use of multimedia: All the graphics and other media's used are effective. Browser compatibility: Only tested Internet Explorer. Content Presentation: All this information could be really helpful in the classroom for both teacher and students.

Overview: This is a free site that allows users to create and publish their own stories after creating an account. It is intended for all writers, but has specific features for educators and students. Users do not need an email account and there is no minimum age requirement. The site has templates, artwork, and programming for book creation as well as teacher administrative capabilities. This site has excellent design and content and is perfect for the classroom. Content: Users can quickly tell that the site is for publishing stories and that it is appropriate for all audiences. No authors are identified, but it is clear that storybird is a corporation with many contributors and the content they generate indicates that they are qualified. There is a "contact us" link in the help section and there is an "about" section as well. Last updated information is available on all stories, but not on general site content. All links function. In addition, it is easy to navigate and there is a how to video. Content is complete, organized, easy to understand, and free of bias. The site is almost entirely interactive as it is based on creation. I explored several eBook tools and this one is the best one for teachers. The site does not have any external links, but all content serves its purpose. Design: The homepage is visually attractive and downloads quickly. Navigation is simple and content is clear. There are many resources to help first time users navigate and use the software. The site sponsor information is available at the blog and at the help section. There is a link to email for assistance. The site is easy to navigate, includes an index at the bottom of the page, and all links are active. Excellent multimedia is used to make the site look good. The website is available on a variety of browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. The content of the site is excellent for the classroom. The content is organized, easy to use, and design is consi

Kidport provides a unique, multi-step program to teach K-8 students thinking and learning skills. Kidport also provides math, science, social studies and language arts interactive education modules and reference materials.

Brianna O'Shea October 13, 2014 Overview: The purpose of this article is to tell the two sides of bilingual classes and what both side, whether to keep in schools or get rid of, think about bilingual classes in relation to their children. Some believe that teaching a second language simply hinders teaching and lowers test scores while the other side believes that students should have the right to learn two languages, including their home language. The audience is meant for those debating whether to keep bilingual classes in their children's' schools or not, especially Latino parents. Overall, this article is a good read and presents good reasons on both sides of the argument. Content: The title states both the purpose of the article and the intended audience, yet while the author is provided, information about the author is not available. The sponsor is identified, yet there is not obvious way to contact them. The article is up to date and the content is complete while also achieving its purpose. It is organized and doesn't seem to be biased as it presents both sides. Design: The title is clear and it is visually attractive with small, easy to read paragraphs. The sponsor is clearly identified and the copyright date is easy to find. It is easy to search the site and provides good information to make the site worth visiting. The format is consistent throughout the site and is easy to follow. The date is clearly visible yet no link is provided to contact the author.

The purpose of the wiley.com website is to have an interactive educational use about the cell structure of different types of cells. The audience for this site should be older students in science programs, high school age or older. Content The cell structure and being able to compare structures of different types of cells are very important to education of science students. I thought that this site had very good interaction as well as very intelligent and useful information for students. The site would be good to use with students who have a basic knowledge of the cell structures and are looking to enhance their knowledge and review it as well. This would be a good resource in a classroom setting with lots of applications possible from it. Design The design of this website was very easy to use. It had very clear instructions as well as easy to find help sites if you got stuck. The design of this site was helpful to being able to learn about all of the cell structures.

Monique Koller Jan. 24 2010 Cool math games is a website that has games, lessons and interactive ways to learn to enjoy Math. Content: The site has some fun games that I can see the educational value in, but not all of them, nor do I see where Math is a part of all of them. For the most part it seems like a worthwhile site I would allow my kids and maybe students to play on. Design: It looks like a fun site from the get go and I enjoyed exploring it. It is pretty easy to navigate around. There are some good lessons and the games are pretty amusing. I could easily find most of the stuff I needed. Overview: The purpose of this site is to be an aid while a student is learning math. This site is definitely directed towards kids. The authors are also hoping that there is adult supervision so that the kids can interact and get help. The games are good most of the time and have good content I think this could be a valuable site to visit.

Purpose The purpose of Cool Math Games is to help integrate math into a more fun environment. This site is geared for young grade school kids. There are different games that are aimed at tackling different types of skills that are needed in math. There are also different lessons that specialize on other skills. These are targeted at a much higher audience, with lessons like algebra and pre-calculus. This site has a lot of good information that could be used, I am just not sure if it is very helpful to students. Content This site contains a ton of materials. It has games and activities for such a wide range of math skills. The entire site seems to be working, however, it doesn't seem like it all is up to date as it could or should be. The games have good skills to be learned, but they are not up to date with as good of programming as possible. It is also not always apparent who the game or activity is accredited to. It is also not too accessible to contact them with as much ease as I would like. Design The design of the page seems to be a little crammed. They have a lot of link and titles, however, it is not done so in a way that is too pleasing. The color scheme is also very scattered and does not seem to blend well together. The pictures also do not seem to add as much to the page as needed. There also seems to be little order to how the games and activities are put up. This site has a great plan, I do not however feel like they completely got it all correct.

This site is used for elementary students to learn and expand their understanding of math in a more fun way than just the textbook. The intended audience is upper elementary students because a teacher can pick a game that will enforce what they have learned, but it will challenge them to think a little bit harder than they might have doing a word problem. The children also don't see this as boring learning; they see it as a fun game. There are various math games that are specifically targeted for a certain math levels throughout the website. For example, there are games for the upper elementary to work on multiplication, fractions, percentages, and negative numbers. Based on the first two questions that the evaluation for content asks, the answers are: yes, I can identify the purpose of the site, and no, the age group is not explicitly stated, but the intention and vernacular leads us to believe that age of the intended audience. At the bottom of the page it is easy to identify who the creators of this website are and how you can be in contact with them. If the sponsors are the advertisers, then they have clear demonstration of their sponsorship in four distinct locations. We can know that his site was last updated in 2015. We don't know how often it is updated, but we know that everything works according to plan. We know that the intentions of this site is to be a fun learning experience that is organized in a way that children can easily locate anything that they may possibly need. Everything on this site looks professional, but it still appeals to a younger audience. This website provides great opportunities for children to grow in their learning of math as well as play fun games. Everything in terms of logistics measures up to what it should be. The design of the overall lay out is kid friendly, and functions properly as long as the updated version of the flash drive is installed. They have specific animations and sounds that correspond with certain games