Group items tagged

Samantha Cook-10/11/2012 This site Materials for the study of Ancient Sparta is a very good sight. It is brief and to the point but also gives a range of information that is very useful in one place instead of looking at many different places. The information ranges from class notes to ancient texts like the Histories by Herodotus which is very high quality information. It gives good information for a scholarly student. For the site Materials for the study of Ancient Sparta it is very useful because it is more academic then a fun younger sight. The audience for this would then be upper level high school with more of an emphasis on college because of the use of sighting ancient texts. The resources available in this website range from ancient texts to basic known information to stories. MY overall impression of this right is it is very academic, not many pictures maybe one per page and not very colorful. It does not necessarily catch your eye what caught my eye was how for one organized it was; and two how much resourceful information was on there. This site gives you a very good brief overview of the Spartans without having to look a bunch of places. It would be very helpful to me

Lyle Wiley September 10, 2011 Overview: Shakespeare Online is an informative site focusing on Shakespeare's work, life, plays, and scholarship. The site seems most geared towards students of Shakespeare of all ages and Shakespearian scholars but contains a good many resources for the educator as well. This frequently updated site has a girth of articles to fill the Shakespeare friendly palate, including play summaries, current Shakespeare headlines, study questions, quizzes, and tips for studying Shakespeare. Shakespeare Online is a useful informative website that could benefit from more interactive media influence and external links, but the site exists as a useful educational resource nonetheless. Content: The content of Shakespeare Online is outstanding. It is easy to determine the purpose and organization of the site and the authorship of the site and contact information are readily available. The author seems qualified to present the information and, by all accounts, produces an ambitious amount of Shakespearian material which is updated frequently. While there are few external links, the information on the website is well organized and grand in scope. Design: While the general design of the website appears rather plain and primarily text based, the fast downloading homepage is well organized and indexed with numerous links (if a little crowded with text). It is very easy to find the website content and the authorship information as well. The frequently updated information on the website is excellent, yet the design could certainly be improved. There are few external links or media resources, both of which would help the interactivity of the site and its general appearance as well.

Tessa Kaufman Shakespeare Online Overview Shakespeare Online is a super useful website. Any teacher teaching Shakespeare should take the time to look at this site. It has useful everyday information such as the word of the week and quote of the week, which pertains to something from the Shakespearian age. There is also a proverb of the day which shows that the author updates the site daily. It has useful information for both students and teachers. I feel teachers can get ideas on how to teach the plays in a better way and also to teach students useful vocabulary. Students could utilize this site to get a better feel for Shakespeare. They can look over study guides and reading the plays online has explanatory notes at the bottom for better understanding. Content The amount of information within this site is amazing. The home page has many things that can be accessed that are useful. Every play and sonnet is in on this site with study guides available for some. There is a place for famous quotes. It explains the sources of the plays and where they originated. There is a biography, glossary, and even quizzes. Teachers could utilize the quizzes in class and maybe use them for a supplementary tool along with the in class paper quizzes. Design When the page first popped up I thought it was a little too cluttered with text. The text on the home page is organized and very easy to understand with the purple lines separating the text. The side clearly gives links to other pages that are useful. There is also a search bar for easy access of information. You can easily find the author and contact information. Besides the overload of text at first it is clearly easy to understand and navigate.

Derek Peil 10/7/2012 Overview The Purpose of the website Six Minutes Speaking and Presentation Skills is to provide definitions and historical background to Aristotle's three main argument types: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. Targeting students and public speaking enthusiasts, this website gives first-hand knowledge from award winning public speaker Andrew Dlugan, as well as a wide range of informational book resources. Overall, my content and design guides convince me that this source is authentic, appealing, and applicable for an educational setting. Content This site contains accurate and well organized information. All of the links work properly and load just as efficiently as the home page itself. Upon arriving at the site, the purpose of the site is clearly noted by the titles, headings, and sub-headings. The author visibly identifies himself immediately at the top of the page. The author's credentials and contact information are also given. External sources granted by this site appear sound. One of the only weaknesses to this site is that is last update was January 24th, 2010. Given the didactic mission of this website however, such a disparity in revision is acceptable as the knowledge of Aristotle's argument types is common and highly referenced. Design Appealing to the eye, this website strongly reflects the positive aspects of the design evaluation form. The site loads quickly with no glitches in displaying graphics or text. All of the sites webpages are outlined along the top of the homepage, allowing for easy navigation throughout. Appropriate pictures are used to convey meaning and bring the site to life. For example, on the Delivery Techniques page, the website shows a picture of a speaker covering his face with a mask to convey that section's topic of conquering the emotional fear of public speaking. Throughout the site, links are helpfully placed within the text to further benefit the user in navigating to other useful sites and

Derek Peil 10/7/2012 Overview Purdue University Press is a substantial source of poetry and literature for educated audiences. The website's purpose is to offer intellectual texts for educators and students to incorporate into their curriculum. Carrying a simple, pleasant tone this website lists suggested poems and literature. Although the website lacks clearly stated dates of revision, it still scores high on the evaluation guides; and I recommend this site to those who are looking for some rich pieces of literary work. Content The University of Purdue's sound reputation of information precision is exemplified throughout the course of the website. This site contains sound organization and easy navigation. With genre listings and a friendly search engine, users can find what they need quickly. This allows for Educators and Students to spend less time searching for the material and more time studying it. In contrast to these strengths, the website is weak in terms of its currency. The site fails to display a revision date. But since the site is always uploaded with new inventories and sales, one can assume the site is fairly current. Design This site's display style is definitely suitable for an educational setting. The modest, yet contrasting colors make the site enjoyable to navigate. Also, the pictures of the book covers are very useful in helping to identify one from the others. Waiting for links to load is nonexistent, and this site is multi-browser friendly. Yet, this website lacks external sources from which users can broaden their findings. All of the links are internal. Do to the fact that this site is both education and profit oriented, this weakness is easily overlooked by the benefits of a deep library of texts that this site easily lays out for the user.

Overview: This site is useful for an overview analysis of The Great Gatsby. The audience is not clearly stated, but the reading level is at about a high school level, so it is applicable to a number of grade levels. The resources available are clearly stated at the bottom of the page. Overall, this site is a beneficial site to use because the content is significant and could inspire strong discussion. Content: The content of this site is very important, especially when it comes to giving students the necessary background knowledge for The Great Gatsby. Additionally, it provides new ideas for discussion, such as the proposed "good driver/bad driver" metaphor that is supported through the text. The author and associations are easily identified. This page also gives a significant list of works cited and resources to further aid learning on the subject. Design: This site is poorly designed. It is bland, the font is standard, and the text is in large chunks. It could have easily been broken into separate pages or more paragraphs and broken up with images. Beyond that, though, the site is still very useful because of the content that it focuses on.

Bria Frame Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide an in-depth analysis of The Great Gatsby using ideas that were not commonly discussed. The audience is intended for a college reading level, although advanced English classes could handle the reading. No resources are available on this site because it is an uploaded PDF document and no works cited page is given, although it may have been available in the original journal. Overall, the site is useful, but could be improved. Content: The content of this page is where the value really lies. Although the document hasn't been updated since the 1950s, this does not make the site any less valuable because it is a scholarly essay on a novel. The author is clearly identified and is qualified. The information is clear and well-discussed, although no further reading is given by the author. Design: The site is designed in the same manner that other JSTOR pages are. The PDF is uploaded and put against a simple background. This would have been more useful if solely the text had been uploaded. That said, the text is easily navigated with arrow buttons that advance the PDF. The content is well-displayed, as it is the purpose of the site, and that makes the site worthwhile.

The main purpose of this site is to inform people on the life, works, and style of Chaucer. As the visuals, or lack there of, suggest, this sight is intended for secondary education level students. The overall content is good but a bit overwhelming, ultimately making this a decent source for high school level students. The content of the sight appears to be accurate and there are references provided. However, the author of the site is unknown and there is no easily accessible way of contacting him or her. The text is well organized and informative. The content, while lacking a specific author and contact information, is accurate and relevant. The design of the text is very simplistic, but clean. Graphics are limited to a single picture. There is no indication of when the article was last updated, but when talking about a dead poet from centuries ago, there isn't much to keep up to date with on his biography. The design could have used some work, but it was by all means functional.

Overview: WebMD is a website designed to provide very general and basic information (not necessarily medical advice) for patients about health problems and healthy eating. As far as credibility goes, I do not doubt much of the information provided, but if you are looking for real answers to medical questions, this is not your website. Fortunately all content is free. It would be a good site to look at to find out what a certain disease is, what the symptoms are and how to go about dealing with it (drug names, etc.) and when to call a doctor. I think overall it is a good site for basic medical information but I would not rely on it to solve any medical problem, as its' purpose is not clinical based. Design Summary: From a first look, there is a lot going on in this webpage. Pictures are flashing back and forth, ads are flashing on the sides of the page and there is a lot of different colors and different sizes of texts. It is fairly organized however and is easy to find what you are looking for relatively quickly. I had trouble finding a list of sponsors and all I could find was a statement on the information tab which said, "We allow third parties to provide funding for WebMD to independently create information about certain topics within a specified health category". Also the ads on the site were mostly for drug companies, which cause some bias. The site worked the same in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Finding contact information was easy enough (at the very bottom of the page in small text) but I could not find any means of contacting them except for email.

Overview
The second website that I evaluated was bartleby.com. This website is a resource to hundreds of different texts that are all available for free online. You can read these texts online, purchase them, or download them as ebooks from amazon.com. This is a great resource for all ages. Overall I thought the website was a decent website. It's not very catchy and doesn't offer much information about the site, but it is a good resource to have.
Content
This website isn't an eye catcher. I think it would be hard to get students interested in the site because it looks very dry. It offers lots of content for free which is great, but it doesn't do it in a catchy way. The site is easy to navigate and has great resources. It seems like there is something for everyone on this site as long as you stay long enough to look for it.
Design
The site is set up very basically. It's easy to find your way around and search for something that you're interested in. It doesn't offer information about the website though. There is information on how you can advertise on their site but now about where the site gets its content and how they put it up for free. The site really looks like a reference library, which is appropriate for a website of this type.

Good apps for IPhone for texting.

Danie Thiel1-23-11 This site is kind of plain and not very appealing to the eye but it is a good teaching tool. It has all the steps of making a basic coil pot from start to finish. The information is clear and easy to fallow. The site offers clear images of each step along with text so the viewer knows exactly where they are in process of making a coil pot. The text is easy to fallow and gives helpful hints to make a harder step easier. Over all the information is clear and easy for students to fallow.This site correctly shows how to construct a coil pot and would best be suited for junior high students or beginner ceramicists. I recommend this site to beginners because the information is so clear. This makes the site kid friendly.      

An online text book for teachers

Billie Slyman, 9/11/11 Purpose The purpose of this site is to give students a resource to learn about weather and how it affects people. There is enough information to be useful, but it's not overwhelming. There aren't any links to outside sites, which is a drawback. However, I still think this is a valuable site because it has good information, interactive content, and is well designed for students to navigate. Content This site does a good job of achieving its purpose of providing information for students. While there is a good amount of information, it is put in simple language and organized in a way to make it easy for students to understand. Many of the sections have interactive multiple choice questions, where students can click on a button and a text box will pop up and tell them if they are correct. The content seems accurate to me, and the developers (the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, for example) seem qualified to present this information. Design This website has a very nice design. Everything looks interesting for students but is still well organized and not cluttered. It is easy to find the information you want and navigate around the site. Also, the information on each page is split up into sections and has lots of pictures interspersed, so it isn't a huge block of text that could be intimidating to students. The pictures and charts are all relevant and aid in understanding the information given.

Mike Wilson Site review September 18, 2009 Dr. Saul's Biology in Motion Introduction Biology In Motion is a relatively simple website designed to provide engaging animations for basic biology concepts. The site is designed for both teachers and students. Student level is Junior High School but could be easily used for entry level 10th grade Biology. Teachers can use the site for in class presentation. Teacher tips for in class use are provided. There are 9 animated self guided lessons and/or games. These lessons are information correct and convey the material to be learned very well. This is an excellent site targeted at specific biology topics. Google ranking of 6/10 - Excellent with 61 backward links. Content Evaluation First Look The home page clearly in both text and graphics conveys the purpose of the site. All the key information is above the fold. Information Providers Biology In Motion is a creation of Dr. Saul, a university Biology Professor and Web game / site developer. Links to Dr. Saul's credentials and additional websites are top left on the home page Information Currency While the site has not been updated for 4 years, there is not a need to do so. The science content is fundamental concepts that will not change. The graphics are age appropriate and play quickly. Information Quality Site is fully functional. Each interactive lesson through the use of text and animations teaches the subject concisely. There are Google link ads on each page which I do not like from a pure educational standpoint. On the other side, the ads are not obtrusive and what are a few extra bucks in a teacher's pocket. Design Evaluation Speed All pages and graphics load very quickly. Animations are well designed but are not speed bulky. Home Page Very appealing and all critical information to keep you on the site is above the fold Ease of Navigation All lessons are linked from the home page and need to know information is top lef

Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: HippoCampus is an interactive homework site that provides homework help in math, science, psychology, history and religion. Content: HippoCampus is a simple but very effective homework help site sponsored by the Monterey Institute of Technology and Education. This site uses a combination of resources to help students understand the basics of nearly any level of math, science, psychology, history or religion class that they might encounter during high school or college. The lessons on this site use images, audio and user interaction to help with the comprehension of the material at hand. In addition to this there are also Spanish options for subjects such as calculus and algebra. There are also links to actual text books, but they are deceiving. It turns out that instead of being able to view the text, the user is presented with a video interview of the textbook's author about a certain subject. This can display a certain bias if the interview is conducted poorly. Another potential problem with this site is that it was last updated in 2007. Now for some subjects such as math or language arts this is irrelevant but for subjects such as science and psychology this could result in the absence of new and important information. Aside from the "textbook" links, this site is so well organized that the user can easily find the exact chapter or concept that they wish to review with just a few clicks of the mouse. Design: This site is well designed and very easy to navigate. There are four advertisements but they are organized neatly on the right side of the screen and are nothing more than links to scholarship information and additional resource sites. The sponsor of the site is clearly stated at the bottom of the page and there is a link to their contact information. The site is mainly composed of two sections, the first being a list of general subjects that the user might be interested in, i.e. math and the second section is where

Morgan Kuchta September 1, 2010 Sparknotes.com Overview This site is a great resource for students who struggle with reading in school. The website provides book and chapter summaries and plot overviews along with character analysis for all main characters in each book reviewed. The books that Spark Notes provides information on are those that have deep and complex plot lines and character development that are often found in classrooms of all grade levels. Perhaps one of the most useful tools on this website is called "No Fear Shakespeare", which translates the old English of Shakespeare into modern English so that students might have an easier time remembering information and comprehending it. Although the site organization is poor and it throws too much information onto one page, I believe this website could be an extremely valuable resource to teachers who assign reading to their classes. Content At first look it is easy to tell where you are and what is provided, in general, on the site. The audience is pretty clearly defined as students but it is difficult to tell exactly who will benefit most from this sitel There were no listed authors for the site although there were authors listed for each of the book summaries done on each separate page with an email address attached. The revision dates are included on every book review and the links to related sites are all functioning. The information quality was incredible. Although it was not well organized, it is by far the most comprehensive literacy site that I have used in the last few years. The other links posted were pretty good, although most of them were just for the interest of the users rather than usefulness for help with English homework. Design The homepage download was no problem, while it was attractive to the eye, it was a little information heavy and a it was kind of hard to tell exactly where I needed to navigate. There were a LOT of advertisements in the margins and even in other areas of th

Randi McInerney September 15, 2011 Overview: The website "Sparknotes" is an educational and entertainment website with various study resources available. The information is most relevant to high school aged students, but late middle school and college students, as well as teachers, could also benefit from this site. College video tours, book summaries, analysis, and quizzes, and ACT/SAT/AP/GRE test preparation material, and news articles are also available. The content and design are effective and organized, but the advertisements can be distracting and seem overwhelming. This site can be abused by students wishing to plagiarize or to avoid reading a book, but has so many great things to offer if it is used appropriately. Content: There is a lot of educational material available on this site. Video clips, interactive tours, blogs, cartoons, and more can all be found on this site. There are various links in order to contact them, but no direct contact information like an address is provided. Besides educational material, there is lifestyle, entertainment, and dating information. I think that this may be distracting from the educational aspects of the site, but it makes sense because of the audience the website is intended for. Design: The site downloads efficiently and is visually interesting, especially for the intended audience of young adults. The site is easy to navigate, especially if you know what you are looking for from the start. In this case, the search bar will help you easily locate what you are looking for if it is indeed on the site.

Sparknotes is a resource aimed at high school and college students. It offers summaries of literary works as well as test prep. The main purpose of the site is to simplify in-depth texts down to a modern English level. Unfortunately, these summaries are not all that is available. The site largely consist of entertainment news. This aspect dominates the site, making it hard to find the reviews and study resources. Because of this my overall impression is that the site includes a good about of information for those looking for it, but is also a place where one can very easily get side tracked, rendering its information useless. It is worth a bookmark, but is not the most useful thing. The content of this site is very diverse. As for the literary summaries, there are over 100 on some of the best known works in many different subject areas. The site is up to date and loads easily. Most of the summaries are based off of the most recent publications of texts. The site is confused about its purpose. The summaries and text prep sections are hard to find while entertainment news is profusely advertised and easy to find. The educational sections are labeled in small black index style links, while the entertainment section has large magazine like spreads. Although the site has relevant information that is consistent and helpful, it is congested with much needless gossip that has potential for abuse. The websites speed is quite good. It loads very fast comparatively. The homepage is attractive, but is attractive for the wrong reasons. It is hard to find relevant information on the site (although there is a lot of it). This makes navigation of the site difficult and can easily suck the user into a "twilight zone." The site is strong on most platforms, even having apps available. Content presentation is mores streamlined on the app, but is congested on a web version. An administrator is available to answer any questions and provide further information.

Overview: This article is written by Dr. Michael Morales. He goes over the themes of Shakespeare's "King Lear," and effectively summarizes the play. The blog is updated, and uses current language to describe an old piece of text. This article would be intended for students of High School age. Content: The article is very descriptive with the summary of the play. He is also descriptive with the themes, and cites examples of all of his claims. The information is accurate to the plotline, and the language is correct and meaningful. Design: The website is pleasing to the eye, and has many links to different articles. All of the links work, and it is very community-based. It is scholarly without ads and all information.

Overview: This article is written by Dr. Michael Morales. He goes over the themes of Shakespeare's "King Lear," and effectively summarizes the play. The blog is updated, and uses current language to describe an old piece of text. This article would be intended for students of High School age. Content: The article is very descriptive with the summary of the play. He is also descriptive with the themes, and cites examples of all of his claims. The information is accurate to the plotline, and the language is correct and meaningful. Design: The website is pleasing to the eye, and has many links to different articles. All of the links work, and it is very community-based. It is scholarly without ads and all information.

Brie Scott October 13, 2014 Harvard Chaucer Interlinear Translation The intended purpose of this website is to provide a line by line translation of The Canterbury Tales. The website is geared toward upper level students in late high school or college English classes. The information on this site is excessively adequate. While the design of the website is somewhat lacking, quality of the translation is superb, making this an excellent resource of translation. Overall the content of this website is good. The name of the author and an email address for him are provided but the information on the particular author is otherwise slim. While the website has not been edited in several years, this is appropriate considering The Canterbury Tales is an ancient text. As stated in the previous paragraph, the translation provided on the site is excellent. The design of the site is not particularly eye catching. In fact, overall the homepage of the site is a little bland. However, there is an easy to navigate table of contents. Thus, navigation is simple and to the point. Graphics are subpar, but for a site meant to translate Chaucer, visual aids are not particularly essential.

Brie Scott October 13, 2014 Harvard Chaucer Interlinear Translation The intended purpose of this website is to provide a line by line translation of The Canterbury Tales. The website is geared toward upper level students in late high school or college English classes. The information on this site is excessively adequate. While the design of the website is somewhat lacking, quality of the translation is superb, making this an excellent resource of translation. Overall the content of this website is good. The name of the author and an email address for him are provided but the information on the particular author is otherwise slim. While the website has not been edited in several years, this is appropriate considering The Canterbury Tales is an ancient text. As stated in the previous paragraph, the translation provided on the site is excellent. The design of the site is not particularly eye catching. In fact, overall the homepage of the site is a little bland. However, there is an easy to navigate table of contents. Thus, navigation is simple and to the point. Graphics are subpar, but for a site meant to translate Chaucer, visual aids are not particularly essential.

Deneé Chintala October 7, 2012 Overview The purpose of cellsalive.com is for the instructor of a biology class to provide their students with interactive activities online regarding the parts of the cell, phases of mitosis and meiosis as well as more background information of microbiolgoy. The audience includes biology teacher as well as their students. The site is free with many different activities to do including quizzes and puzzles with content about cells.  Content All of the information on the site is incredibly accurate due to the author, Jim Sullivan. The site provides information in at least two ways for each link (interactive video and a summarization of the video below). Interactivity is huge on this website because the student not only gets to interact during the lesson but a review can be given to gage the student's progress at the end of the lesson. The fact that there are simple cartoon graphics which can allow students to depict different organelles help, but there are also real pictures of microorganisms throughout the site.  Design This site has flare to it with the black background and neon text. It's appealing to a middle school age group but I could see high school students finding it alluring as well. It is also easily maneuverable due to the hyperlinks on the left side as the title of the lesson. If I were to give a class of the links to click on to get to the lesson it would be a very simple task with little to no questions.

Online United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States (orginal text)