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Posted by Craig Shepherd on 9/16/09 Overview: Wikipedia is an open-authoring encyclopedia. The purpose of the website is to provide information about any topic to the general public. Content is generated and reviewed for accuracy by the public. Although public documents can include inaccurate information--particularly on hot topics, much of the content is stable. Links to other pages generally function properly, and content is easy to understand. Content: Although maligned by many individuals as a site that promotes inaccurate information, Wikipedia has much educational merit. However, based on the Wiki style of web design, anyone can make changes to articles and can do so anonymously. This means the learned as well as the ignorant have equal access to contribute. Although references at the end of articles may support the credibility of a work, they do not guarantee it and require additional time to peruse. Because authors can post anonymously, it is difficult to tell whether the article is accurate, timely, relevant, authoritative, and so forth. Yet, recent news events highlight the work of this organization to increase credibility of their content. Additionally, one of the purposes of a wiki is to foster collaboration and group authorship. Although individual contributors may not be listed, inaccurate information can be quickly corrected--though it takes some understanding of wiki syntax which may be difficult for beginners to learn. Despite potential inaccuracies, Wikipedia is a good place to begin your research if you realize that contents may contain biases, inaccuracies, and unsupported claims. Design: The site is well designed. A common look and feel permeate web pages, ads and other distractions are not posted, graphics and other visual elements often highlight important points, and links to related articles are prevalent. Several languages are also supported. Modification and revision dates are clearly displayed and the wiki allows you to

Trevor Lenell The first website I am going to evaluate is Wikipedia.org. The educational site that we have been told to never use for a paper because it is editable by anyone. The intended audience for Wikipedia is someone who just wants a quick overview of the subject they are looking for. It does not cover in-depth content or have large amounts of research in the articles. Everything is available on Wikipedia. All you have to do is search anything in google and Wikipedia article will almost always be in the top three links to show up. The design of Wikipedia is actually fairly good. It loads quickly there's a table of contents for each page and it is easy to find the information you are looking for. The content of Wikipedia is where things get a little shaky when it comes to looking for quality information. Since anyone can edit any page aside from a few that have been locked the information of Wikipedia is not necessarily the best way to find information. We do not know who has edited the site or what their credentials are and we have no way of knowing whether it is a great set of information or a joke put on by someone with an internet connection. There is however a bright side. At the bottom of each Wikipedia article there is the references. These are a great tool to find what was used and what is available to use outside of Wikipedia with the same information. These references are a great way to find academic information from good quality sites and can be used when searching through Wikipedia to find actual research. The design of Wikipedia is pretty good. It works equally well on my internet explorer, Firefox, and google chrome. It loads easily, is easy to navigate, and easy to read. Each graphic and audio file on the site serves a purpose to support the material being read. Overall Wikipedia is a great site to navigate and its shortcomings stem from it being able to be edited by anyone. The next website I will evaluate is NationalGeographic.com. An ed

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.

The intended purpose of this site is to provide information on a variety of materials, like an encyclopedia. This specific page gives information on the Black Death. This website contains tons of information, and the audience once more must be literate to understand the material. Teenagers should have no problem. The website gives a good impression despite being open to editing by anyone.

This site is a great site to use in conjunction with another search engine like wikipedia. Although this site is art based, it's a great starting point when reviewing or researching an artist. This site guides you to museums, archives, artists, book, articles and more relating to whatever you'd like to research in the arts. It is like the beginning of a maze so to speak that will guide you on your way toward more legitimate sites with more resent and filtered information relating to the topic of your choice. The design is much like that of wikipedia, tool bars on the left give more specific places within this search engine to do some researching but after clicking an artist you are given many picture of there work which is of course aethetically pleasings. Although unlike wikipedia, not just anyone can change information on the site and there are verification dates in the upper right letting the viewer know that the page they are on isn't giving false information.

Laura Rice 2/5/12 Overview: The purpose of this website is to expand knowledge about artists and their work. This website provides a large number of artists, articles, art news, and images. This websites audience is anyone who is interested in art, teacher, student, or buyer. Over all this website allows people to search by artist, work title, or art museum. One really cool feature about this website is that it allows viewers to see the top 30 artist searched. This feature is really helpful to art students because sometimes you don't know what artist you want to research and so on so this is a great way to start into things. The art cyclopedia is an awesome research engine if you're looking for a certain piece of art as well. When you click on an artist it brings you to a page with a short history of the artist, which museum the art is in, what pieces are on the market, image archives, articles, multimedia, books, and their galleries. This is a great website for information and overall knowledge. Content: As mentioned before this website excels in area of imagery and information about individual piece of art. The art search engine provides visitors the opportunity to search by artist, title of the work, art museum it is located. If the viewer didn't know any of these aspects of the certain piece of art they could browse by the medium or time period. This website has an incredible amount of artist's material. For each artist there is a short history of his or her life, a list of museums there art is in, and any type of multimedia that has been published about the artist. There is also access to different articles about art as well as art news. Viewers can also order posters or prints of their favorite art which is another beneficial aspect to the site. This website provides viewers with the access to thousands of artists work. Design: Overall the design is good. The website is organized neatly and clear

Provides a good overview of the different productions of Hamlet that have been adapted for the screen.

The purpose of this website is to inform the reader about primary colors.  The intended audience of this website is probably middle school students and up.  It provides a summary of what the standard primary colors are and why.  It talks about the different standards and when they apply.  It seems like a good website because it is informative and easy to navigate with no advertisements. The user is able to quickly determine the basic content and intended audience of the site.  The names of the authors of this site are not provided.  It is open to editing to basically anyone.  The usernames of the authors can be found, along with the date that they updated the site.  The site does not provide a good way to contact the authors, either.  The last date that this site was edited was 4/10/15.  This is appropriate to the material, and the site is updated frequently.  There are links to many other sites related to the topic, and they work properly.  The quality of the information is very good.  There is no detectable bias, and the information makes sense.  It provides information that is different than what I learned in elementary school, but I believe it is still accurate.  There are many other sources that provide consistent information.  The grammar and spelling are correct.  

Tyler Knowles August 31, 2010 Review of World History Overview This site is a great way to learn about important people and popular events that happened in history. It gives links to various other related things in which you are searching as well as a brief Wikipedia definition. However it does not go into depth if you are looking for vast amounts of information on a topic it would most likely be used for quick facts. Content The content is quickly understandable and one simply has to search for what they are interested. Information is well cited, and links related topics. Site revision dates are not apparent and information is very limited. The content is well organized by timeline if that is how you wish to find it, or simply by searching. Design The Design is organized by timeline or by related topics which makes it very user friendly however many maps and graphics, while very informant seem to clutter the page. The links to related topics are very easy to find and stand out however while each is a brief definition it seems like all you would do is click from link to link and not get anywhere. Also certain graphics by links make it appealing however if there is say a person with no photo it simply has a blank head next to it taking away from this appeal.

Danie Thiel1-23-11 This web page is very organized and easy to fallow. The important information is in the center of the page with other related topics highlighted in blue at the bottom of the page. The page starts out with an introduction on how and why glaze is used in pottery. Then goes into composition, processes and, history of glaze.  From this page you will read about different types of glaze as well as glazing technique. This site gives a clear reasoning as to why glaze is so important in pottery. This page would be best directed towards high school students, because they would have a better understanding on how glaze works.  

Cold War- Wikipedia Site Evaluated October 13, 2014

The purpose of this Wiki site is to give a general overview of the Cold War. It is designed for educational and casual learners. This page goes into great depth on many aspects to the Cold War. Although I wouldn't rely on it for specific factual information to base research on, the page is well referenced and gives factual information as well as many other sources to further the readers' knowledge. The overview begins with what the Cold War is and moves into historical significance as well as a timeline of events. There are many aspects of the Cold War and many of the topics are covered including historical significance, social aspects and historical people, events and documents that were important to the Cold War. Because it is very engaging to the reader, it is a great place to gain interest in the subject and show how large the topic is. The design of the page follows standard Wiki format. It shows a brief overview of the Cold War and moves into more specifics. Because of the stigma that comes with how much you can "trust" a Wiki site, there nearly 300 supporting resources attached to the bottom of the Wiki. From personal research on the subject, I have read many of the documents that are used to support the information throughout.

Cold War- YouTube Documentary Evaluated October 13, 2014

The purpose of this site is to give a 45 minute video tutorial of the Cold War. It is designed for upper level students, presumably high school and college. Based on the information in the video, it is a great overview and or complementary source for learning about the Cold War. The documentary was published on Oct 11, 2014. This overview begins with the United States' entry into Vietnam and goes through the fall of the Berlin Wall. Using interviews with historical experts and leaders from this period of time, the author put together an informative and engaging piece. The design of the video is put together as a standard documentary. Because we are looking at historical events, it is best to do so in chronological order. The author of the video puts it together so the students will understand how the chronological events take place and affect each other.

Overview: This site holds a plethora of quizzes from a wide range of topics. It allows you to keep track of your lifetime score using a free username and password. This site could be used by teachers as extra credit. They could get 10 points EC for every 100,000 fun trivia points. The idea is that students learn on accident. Design: The website design seems lacking, with boring colors and somewhat haphazard organization of the different quizzes. It does label quizzes as easy, medium, hard and very difficult which would supply classes of different grade levels. Content: The content is great for its wide base that spans multiple disciplines. The major downfall of the site is its Wikipedia-like setup. The users of the site are also the authors of the thousands of quizzes. This makes quality control difficult, although using my own knowledge while taking numerous quizzes I saw no mistakes. The reliability issue makes this site inappropriate as an addition to a core curriculum but it does have a place as extra credit to pique a student's interest.