Group items tagged

Morganne Harper The site http://specialed.about.com/ contains a lot of materials that could be useful when teaching or handling a child with special needs. There are many articles talking about behavior and how to handle certain types. There are also links to sheets that help with fundamental skills such as counting. Towards the bottom on the left, there are more detailed sections that you could navigate to, which would give you more specific information on a certain area. At a quick glance, it is not easy to see that it is about special education. There is small gray font near the top that says special education, but not much else. The authors and resources of their information is relatively easy to find. It is at the top of any article or link that you click on. I had trouble finding the date that anything was published or updated. Some areas that should be put together aren't and some things are put in what seems like random places. Information contained on the site is of good quality. It is meant to be a helpful source to utilize, and does a decent job at giving content to allow this to happen. The homepage opened quickly and lead me to what I was looking for. Near the bottom of the page there are multiple colors in links that draw your eyes to them, but on the top and in the middle there was a lack of appeal. It looked like something about "boring" education. You have to scroll for a little bit to get to the links that you might want, until then there are just articles that seem to be in random order. Some of the graphics that are used as clip art for articles are repeated, losing the effect and interest.

Rachel Keyes ITEC 2360 01/24/11 http://www.alternativeculture.com/index.htm Poor website Overview This site can be found by searching "alternative forms of literature" (commonly thought of as ways other than classical literature, such as graphic novels, movies, etc.) on Google. However, the purpose of this site is more to discuss alternative cultures and the negative influence that media has on society. My impression of this site is that it was made by a small magazine for a very specific audience. The audience is wary of the media and is searching for an alternative method to receive news. Content The content of this site is extremely random and scattered. At the top of the page there are quotes about being enlightened, followed by a listing of other alternative news sites, YouTube videos, and poems from different cultures about peace. All of the links work, but this site is just a random collection of information the editor believes is important. The editor is a man who, in his biography page, has no credentials other than he really enjoys writing. Design At first look, there is so much going on and so many links and videos posted that seem to be very random. There is a clear title, but some of the links on the page have nothing to do with the others; there is nothing connecting this information. The pictures and YouTube videos are irrelevant to the other links listed. There is no copyright date, so readers have no idea how up to date this site is. The only way to "contact" the editor is by subscribing to his newsletter. There is too much going on to accurately find any information, and because you can find this site while looking for alternative forms of literature, this site would be completely irrelevant to your search.

Dane Xavier Servantez 10/11/12 Overview: This website is very useful for students, teachers and parents who want to learn about the basics of health and safety. Some of the topics include chemical safety around the house, to drug abuse and nutritional value. This website is great because it comes with worksheets and advice for teachers and parents. Teaching health and safety isn't the funnest thing to learn in the first place, this website makes that fun for the students happen. The overall site is easy to navigate and deals with kids from K-5 and teens from grade 6-8. Content: The content of the page is exceptional, it is powered by USA.gov and has services from the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies which is part of the U.S. General Services Administration. There is a contact information link followed by the policies and privacy of the website. I assure you the information given is professional and current.  Design: The design of the page is not the most appealing page, but it gets the job done. The organization is not the best, its kind of random and everywhere. The links are all labeled in correct subjects, as are the pictures that are presented and the overall color is somewhat appealing. This website wont catch your attention right away, but it also wont drive you away either.

http://www.indianchild.com/know_the_solar_system.htm Revised by: Rhianna Kipper Overview: The intended purpose of this site can be assumed but it isn't clearly laid out exactly what it's meant to do. The audience isn't clearly laid out at all. The resources of the sight are limited to what is written and the author isn't clearly identified so there's no way to tell how credible it is. I didn't get a very good result from visiting this website and I wouldn't suggest it for anyone else. Content: The audience of this webpage isn't clearly identified at all and the basic content is partly outlined but not in a very effective way. The author is not clearly identified and no information about an author of any kind is available. The sponsor isn't available and a contact person or address isn't listed. There is not revision date. The links to other websites are working properly but they appear to be advertisements connected to random words. The purpose is clear and the content is somewhat organized but it isn't laid out in a productive way. It is free of bias but I wouldn't consider this a website to come back to. Design: This page seems to download fairly effectively. It doesn't have much eye appeal and seems very homemade with little effort. You can't really tell where you are and the content is somewhat clear but not as much as the NASA website. There is not site sponsor identified and there are no dates to show any upgrades or revisions. It's fairly easy to move around so directions wouldn't really be needed. Links to other pages are only advertisements which in most cases probably wouldn't be helpful in most cases. There is some sufficient information but it is very short.

Gary Schmitt September 1, 2010 en.wikipedia.org Content: While Wikipedia provides tons of information, most of it is out of order and irrelevant. When I searched the word fine art I found that a lot of the information seems confusing and even a little bias. This web page draws information from lots of different sources so it's hard to tell what is true and what is just hear say. However it could be used to help somebody get a quick overview of a topic. Design: So just as the content of Wikipedia is unsatisfactory, so is the main design of the page. It's plain white background makes it seem as though little effort was put into it. Also when searching general topics you will be shown random pictures that aren't always explained very well. Overview: Wikipedia is a loosely constructed web page that is changed many times every day. Knowing this I would have to say that it is not going to be the most reliable place to find good information. If you're looking to get a quick overview of a person, place or event it might provide a starting point but if you need credible information it's not a good place to find it.

Kacee Von Krosigk 1-24-10 Content Purdue OWL Online is a great way for students to learn many skills needed in English classes. They can learn how to properly cite any information in any style. There is a writing lab that can be used for practice through exercises. All English teachers would recommend this website for students so that they could learn APA and MLA citations. The different information subjects offered on Purdue Owl are: * General Writing * Research and Citation * Teacher and Tutor Resources * Subject Specific Writing * Job Search Writing * English as a Second Language * About the OWL * OWL Exercises Design The design of the website is very confusing. The pages lead to almost random pages that don't seem to have been built very well. From using this website before, I know that it has very good information however; sometimes I am turned off by the confusion of the navigation of the website. There is a link about how to use the New Owl. This explains each aspects of the website which can be very helpful to many people. Overview This is a website that is easy to use if someone simply wanted a MLA or APA style guide for citations. This is why I use this website and I will recommend this website for my students one day. The purpose of this website is to correctly teach students and the community about many aspects about English. It is very helpful for some people but can be very confusing to others.

Seth Orndorff February 1, 2011 Bad site review Overview This site claims to have cool math, but fails to offer anything that can be considered as beneficial to students working on math. This site did more distracting than helping. The cool math games that are a part of the site do not teach any applicable math skills to kids. This site should not be used in an educational setting. There is no separation of skills and grade levels which means that it is difficult to assign certain activities to certain aged kids. The site is also very limited. Once a game is beat, it is beat and that is it. There are no further applications of what the student was supposed to learn. The site also lacks encouragement. Kids cannot see past results and compare them with new scores to see their improvement. The site is also extremely slow and has advertisements all along the side which do not help students with math. Content Evaluation The content of this website is very poor. When the page is first opened, it looks like a typical game page that is not educational. The name of the site, "cool math" is very deceiving. This site also lacks sufficient information on who created the site and whether or not they have any credentials. The date that the site was last revised is unknown to me. I could not find a date that it had been revised last. The information that it does have has very poor quality. Although it claims to be a math site, it is more of a game site where the games teach more problem solving skills than actual math. This may seem beneficial at first, but each game only has about ten levels. This means that after just a little while, the games are beat on memory rather than figuring out new ways to solve the problem. There is no further information that would lead a student to get more help on math. Design Evaluation The design of this site is just as poor as the content. The page takes a long time to load, and once it is loaded, there is no appeal to the h

Jackson Miller 2/1/11 Overview My second site is an educational site designed solely for English teachers. It has a variety of English exercises that could potentially be used by English teachers in their classrooms. My overall view of this site is poor. It is very confusing to navigate, and the font with everything they use is much too small. It really advertises the University of Phoenix on its home page, which is cluttered and hard to understand. I would not recommend this site to English teachers. Content It is fairly had to navigate, as it is really just a bunch of random junk thrown onto one internet page. There is no author, date of revision, or reliable contact to be found on the page. The goal of this site is very unclear, as the titles to the suggested exercises and links make very little sense and many aren't even in English. Design It is not a well laid out site at all. The entire page is just a random mess. It has decent speed, but it links to too many other sites to be really effective. It is very hard to find what you may be looking for, and it just seems cluttered to me.

Shelley Limegrover January 22, 2011 OVERALL The fourth site I evaluated was the Physics Front. This site is intended as a resource for high school physics teachers. It contains links to sites containing lesson plans, activities, and labs searchable by topic and grade level. The site was very nicely organized and contained a lot useful information. CONTENT This site is made available by the American Association of Physics Teachers and is funded by the National Science Foundation. A list of contacts is provided. The site claims that the content is frequently reviewed and updated for accuracy. The bulk of the content on this page is links to other websites. However, the Physics Front is much more than a list of useful physics resources. All links are summarized in detail as to their subject matter, application, intended grade level, etc. Rather than having to fish through a never-ending list of links, the advanced search options make finding relevant material very easy. All links that I tested at random were functioning properly. DESIGN This site is very well designed. The layout and formatting is consistent on all pages. Navigation is simple with a menu bar accessible from all pages. There are no irrelevant graphics or advertisements. It is easy to scan the pages for pertinent information. The copyright date is clearly presented at the bottom of the all pages.

Shelley Limegrover January 22, 2011 OVERALL The third site I evaluated is the Physics 2000 site. The site explains general physics concepts in a dialog format using an imaginary cast of physics professors and students. One or more interactive simulations accompany all dialogs. The site is intended as a resource for high school and non-science college students that presents otherwise abstract material in a more comprehensible format. I found the presentation of material to be very creative, although the site itself seemed visually "busy" and awkward to navigate. CONTENT The authors of the site are clearly identified and include a physics professor, various science advisors as well as a high school physics advisor. The credentials of all authors and advisors are not provided, but the site claims to be funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, giving it some credibility. The dates of copyright and last revision are not readily apparent. However, the main page states that they are looking for sponsors to support continued operation. Recommendations for supported browsers are a few years out of date. The content itself does not seem adversely affected by lack of updates. All content links are functional as are all interactive applets that I tried at random. DESIGN Some pages of the site are designed better than others. The choice of colors and layout do not make information immediately visible. The navigation is not consistent across pages. The relevant content, however, is presented nicely once I get to it. This makes it worth a visit to the page. Interactive applets are provided wherever they are beneficial.

John Paul Evans May 18, 2011 Historyteacher.net is a content heavy page providing many teaching resources for history teachers. The website is usable but needs many improvements. Purpose: Historyteacher.net provides a large amount of content for history teachers. This includes, quizes, timelines, study guides and much more. It also devotes some of it's resources towards updating readers on current events in the field. Content: This website does not lack for content. Unfortunately not all the content is managed appropriately. A person can look at the page and reasonably grasp it's purpose, however they may have difficulty finding the content they are searching for. The site provides a great deal of information and is clearly unbiased when approaching history. However, much of the information reads as if it is pulled directly from a text book and often fails to provide citations or even authors. It does provide many links to credible and useful content providers when more information is required. Also all of the content it provides is free of charge. Design: The design of this site is atrocious. It loads up quickly but has so many links and information on a single page that a user does not know where to begin. It doesn't help that flash animations, gifs and unneeded icons and pictures litter the page almost randomly. The color scheme also seems random and makes your eyes begin to verbally cry out in pain. I would recommend an entire overhall on this website's design. It would also be helpful if news and articles would list an author or at the very least a date posted. As it is I have no idea how regularly the site is updated or if it is even currently active.

Brian Peterson9/6/11Overview The purpose of the site is to help anyone who doesn't know how to write a good resume. This is a very necessary thing to be able to do in modern culture. I am very impressed with this website as it is easy to navigate and has clear instructions.ContentOverall the content of resume-builder is very informative. With most material on the website easy to understand one can learn a lot about how to make a resume. Design The design of this website is also very nice. There are clear headers at the top of the main page that lead you into wherever you need to go. Also there are not to many pictures or random things that would make this page cluttered.

Nicole Sutton 9/5/11 Overview: The Mathematics Lessons that are fun website is a simple website that provides math lessons and activities. The age range the website is extremely unclear. The website is only for math and no other subject and I find the home page rather confusing. The author of the website is very clear however the website looks very jumbled and not professional. The website is unclear in many areas. Content: The Mathematics Lessons that are fun website contains a jumbled set of boxes that are links to games and lessons for math. The quality of the website is not very helpful. I find it hard to find the information reliable because there is an author but no title or reason she is an expert. There is not a list of people involved and there is no clear purpose of the website given. There does not seem to be a sponsor nor any way to contact the owner of the website. There are no other resources given on the website. My overall impression with the content of the site was that is it very poor and unreliable. Design: The Mathematics Lessons that are fun website has an attractive but simple lay out, however is over powered by the confusion of the confusing links. You are not sure where to go upon the arrival of the home page. The copy write is given at the bottom of the page however it is not current which gives the impression that the site has not been edited in a long time. The use of multimedia is confusing there are random graphics and almost annoying colors everywhere. The information including grade level is not clear and the website does not contain easy to navigate links. The website is not a very reliable one and not one I would use for my classroom.

Eileen Andrews 9/11/11 Overview: This site would be a good place to start when trying to decide on a topic or research a topic about the 20th Century. The site contains a lot of information about many topics. Content: This site provides videos, pictures, timelines etc. for historical information during the 20th Century. Some of the information is short and to the point but always gives a good overview of the topics. Design: For the most part this site is easily navigable. You can browse topics and there is a search bar for easy access to an y given topic. The first page seems a little scattered at first with random historical information.

Overview: This is a daily blog for all ages; it provides random facts about the world around us with simple illustrations. Content: The information found within this site will baffle you. This is not a source for research or subjects, but gives an opportunity to interact with things you would have no interest in. For example "Kissing causes Tooth Decay" to "George W. Bush was a school cheerleader". With humorous illustration this provides education that I believe would lighten the mood in classrooms and begin to engage students getting them ready to anticipate the random fact they may learn tomorrow. Design: This website is simple to access. The new fact appears daily on the homepage, and archived facts are easily accessible. The design of the site is using simple colors to make it easy to navigate, as well as the illustration are humors depictions of the fact displayed using better understand the information.

Overview: The site focused primarily on science information that focused on an elementary school audience. The site contained a lot of information on a large amount of different topics that would make it easy for a student to find information on just about any topic related to science. Different tabs included for the student are experiments, games, facts, quizzes, projects, videos and images. Students can use much of this information on their studies regarding science. Since there is a .nz at the end of the web address, the teacher can see the website was created in New Zealand. The site can also take you to other subjects like English and math although they seem to be done by same creator of this site. Content: There are a large amount of different topics that would make it easy for a student to find information. Topics include earth science, animals, chemistry, scientists, water, and weather. Each includes information on the topic and also in the site they can do activities and games. A lot of the information appears to be correct but the only problem is it is hard to tell where a lot of the information was retrieved from. It also shows that last updated date being January 9th, 2013 so all the information is fairly recent. Design: The main thing I noticed about the website's design was the color that popped out. The different sections of the site were listed with red, blue, orange, brown and other colors for the different topics. Many pictures were included on the site that makes it more interesting and entertaining for the students to look at while they are learning.

Content- This site covers just about every topic a child could think of from animals, to weather, volcanoes, to teeth. This site has everything. The home page of this site gives the different pages that information and activities can be found based on what sort of information is being looked for. There are pages for facts, science topics, experiments, lessons, videos, quizzes, pictures, and then other sorts of fun random science things. This site can be used for all age levels because there are so many different things to learn about and use on here. All the information is up to date and recent as well and the author is highly qualified to do so and updates the page frequently. The content is written in simplistic terms so that all ages can find and understand it. The site doesn't have any links to different websites but much of the information needed is all in one place. Design- When you come to the homepage of this site it is very well put together and students will know that this site will give them information about all sorts of science topics. The site is not too overwhelming because it does not have large words written across the screen, but words that students can easily read and know exactly what is being taught. The site is appealing to the eye and all pages are set up in the same manner. Pictures and videos are all relevant to the topics as are the games. The games and videos also add an interactive aspect which is important for small children to have because it helps them retain the information better Overview: Overall I really enjoyed this site. It is really easy to read and understand and students don't need a very high level of reading to do so. It is colorful which makes it appealing, especially for younger students. It also has a lot of interactive aspects such as the games, the quizzes, and the videos to help the students learn more about the topic. It is easy to get around and that will make it more enjoyable for the students as well. Also, I

Enjoy learning about science with a wide range of fun experiments, facts, games, activities, quizzes, videos and projects that are perfect for kids.

Abbey Robbins-Lilley 5 September 2010 Language Arts Sites Website Evaluation Overview This site is called Language Arts Sites. It has links for things such as children's literature. There are not any obvious resources or listed authors of the site. There is, however, a big button to click to buy books from Amazon.com. I don't think kids would be very interested in this site, as it is complicated to navigate after clicking on one of the provided links. Content There are several links to several aspects in language arts for children. It looks like a simple, easy-to-navigate site, but once you click on a link, you are brought to a chaotic mess of other information, plus you have to spend money to go further on to some sites you may want to go to. Design The site looks like it was either cheaply made, or made several years ago. It is definitely not as appealing as other sites designed for children. There are two random images that are not used for buttons, which are right next to a button used to go to Amazon.com. The rest of the site is boring to look at, and the links bring you to overwhelming sites filled with pages of writing in small font, things to buy to go to other links, and not very fun pictures here and there.

MathAids Waddie Love 10/13/2014 Overview: The website has over 80 different math topics. And over 980 unique worksheets that are randomly generated by their worksheet generators. They are completely free for classes across the board. These math worksheets are a great resource for Kindergarten through 12th grade. They come with prepared answer Keys. All resources are easily accessed. Content: It is primarily just a compilation of worksheets that are random. Goof resource for teachers to use so you don't have to spend time generating worksheets by hand and memory. If you need it more customable it is and option for you as the teacher and can create a sheet for your needs. Design: There are ads preset on the page but they are not distracting. It looks dense at first glance but it is quick to navigate to the section you need and the information.