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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

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

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

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

Lauren John 1/30/2011 Jumpstart.com Overview: This site was created to help children learn to read through online games set in a fantasy land. It is focusing on making reading enjoyable and imaginative for those students who may have shorter attention spans or read at lower levels than other students. It offers incentives for completing lessons and practice of more school skills than just reading. The audience not only includes those with attention deficits, but also very young children who would be drawn in by the cartoon images and colorful designs. Although cute, the web design was not the easiest to get around. They offered directions verbally on what each place had in store for the child and how to maneuver in each game, but I had to figure out for myself how to move the person and what the buttons meant. Overall it was well designed though and the content was related. The biggest difficulty I ran into was that the player must be a member to take part in almost every one of the games. Content: The content of this website was fairly desirable. It was clearly stated in an upfront manner who and what they site were intended for. Although there is no author information or way to reach them, the sponsors are clearly identified and they are jointed with several other reputable sites. There is no revision date, but the materials are copyrighted through 2010, and I have actually seen the children I babysit play this game, so I know it is trusted by teachers in my school system. This site has many ways to get around it, but I could see how students would have a difficult time at the beginning because there are not clear labels. The site claims to have many ways to learn math, science, and reading, but in the time I spent there, it seemed like only the members were able to access the games that involved those. That made it so I was stonewalled enough times that I got bored with the site and gave up. I would consider using it in my classroom if there weren't

Lacey Boyles April 15, 2015 This website is for parents and children, there is a section for each. There is also a section for teachers. The website is easy to navigate. It focuses on children from ages birth to elementary grades. It seems that you can access this website on computers and also smart phones, iOS and androids for example. From what I looked through this would be a good site to not only visit again but also show to my children. Again this was a very well set up web site. It was easy to get around and they have the parent, children, and teacher sections separate. There are a few things I do not like about this site. There is a lot of adds for games that could draw attention to students if they were to get on here. When clicking on games you have to sign up and possibly pay to play. There is an index which gives you an idea of where you are going. The purpose of this site I would say is not 100% clear as there is information for parents, teachers, and children. The content on this page is really good. It has lots of ideas on activities, which it separates in to categories such as topic subject, age, and grade. There is a contact us page that you could go to if you needed help. I didn't need help so I am not sure how well or quick it works. Over all I did like this site and would go back again for ideas.

Hannah Clucas October 10, 2012. Overview: neoK12 is an educational video website. The whole site is basically a giant database to help teachers with their lesson plans. The main purpose of the website is to offer educational videos that teachers can use in their class. But there are also quizzes on topics of choice, diagrams, pictures on topics of choice, and even an option to create a school presentation. The site is simple but useful, though it is probably more useful for science and history teachers rather than language arts or math teachers. Content: As I said above, neoK12 is a website that allows teachers to find videos to help with their lesson as well as quizzes, pictures, and diagrams. All of the videos are from Youtube and cover a wide variety of age groups. The content was amazing in some areas and not so great in other areas. In regards to the history and science sections for videos, they are amazing. Several of the science videos are from National Geographic and the history videos are well done and cover a wide variety of eras and cultures. Several of the language arts videos were not made very well. They would probably be more useful to teach with if a teacher cannot come to class. It is the same for the math videos. The quizzes are useful and relevant. The ability to create a school presentation is a great tool for students to write about what they have learned or for creating study guides. All of the videos and other functions of the website are relevant and useful. Design: The site is extremely easy to navigate and is well organized. The home page is the list of the main categories of videos and their subcategories. The design is very simple, nothing flashy or amazing. The site does not bombard you with ads or other websites, which is nice and helps insure that students will stay on the website.

This website shows many different links to science videos, games and lessons. This helps the teacher and the student in many ways. It gives the teacher a way to look at other lessons and other perspectives to help them teach the class in different ways. The students also get to look at other ways to learn something, and they get to play games and watch videos to learn content instead of reading. Content: The website has multiple different links that relate to sciences from earth and space science to physical science. Each link that is clicked then shows different activities for different grade levels.

This website shows many different links to science videos, games and lessons. This helps the teacher and the student in many ways. It gives the teacher a way to look at other lessons and other perspectives to help them teach the class in different ways. The students also get to look at other ways to learn something, and they get to play games and watch videos to learn content instead of reading. Content: The website has multiple different links that relate to sciences from earth and space science to physical science. Each link that is clicked then shows different activities for different grade levels.

Daniella Gonzales Late, September 29,2009 Content: This website, SOU: Guide to Writing History Papers, is a very good resource for both students and teachers. It shows different structures for papers, general recommendations for writing a fact document as well as encouraging words for those who might get discouraged. I think this would be an excellent resource for any student having difficulties with writing fact documents, as these are much different than creative writing pieces. Also it is a good resource for teachers to use, so they can teach their students how to write papers before any are even due. Another reason it could be good for teachers is it would be able to help teachers know what to look for when grading a paper for a history based class. Design: The design of the website is very clear and concise. It starts with saying that it is a guide for writing papers, followed by a list that the website provides of everything that this website helps with, including links to help navigate to a specific part easier. After this navigational list the website starts going in depth of everything that was found on the list. It is very simple and even the individual who is completely new at using the internet could follow it. Attribution: I think that this website is an excellent resource for both students and teachers alike. I want to become an IB history teacher and as one you must prepare your students to write history papers in less than two hours that cover all aspects of the question. This website would help me learn how to teach my students to write better papers so that they can succeed on the exams. Also I think any student from middle school through college could use it if they didn't understand how to write a paper. This website is very well written and I would definitely use it as a teacher.

Daniella Gonzales Late, September 29,2009 Content: This website, SOU: Guide to Writing History Papers, is a very good resource for both students and teachers. It shows different structures for papers, general recommendations for writing a fact document as well as encouraging words for those who might get discouraged. I think this would be an excellent resource for any student having difficulties with writing fact documents, as these are much different than creative writing pieces. Also it is a good resource for teachers to use, so they can teach their students how to write papers before any are even due. Another reason it could be good for teachers is it would be able to help teachers know what to look for when grading a paper for a history based class. Design: The design of the website is very clear and concise. It starts with saying that it is a guide for writing papers, followed by a list that the website provides of everything that this website helps with, including links to help navigate to a specific part easier. After this navigational list the website starts going in depth of everything that was found on the list. It is very simple and even the individual who is completely new at using the internet could follow it. Attribution: I think that this website is an excellent resource for both students and teachers alike. I want to become an IB history teacher and as one you must prepare your students to write history papers in less than two hours that cover all aspects of the question. This website would help me learn how to teach my students to write better papers so that they can succeed on the exams. Also I think any student from middle school through college could use it if they didn't understand how to write a paper. This website is very well written and I would definitely use it as a teacher.

Megan Ridings ITEC 2360 Website Evaluations January 24, 2010 Overview: On the website, Teachers.Net, the main purpose is to help elementary school teachers with lesson plans for all different subjects and in addition to help in all areas of the classroom. It is clear that this website is designed for an audience of elementary school teachers, student teachers and parents who are homeschooling their children. Overall I feel that the site is well made, however not very clearly organized. The site is easy to semi-easy to navigate, and helpful in some aspects, but not necessarily with lesson plans like I was looking for. This site is a little bland, and is not one that really caught my interest. Content Summary: I have found the content of this site to be "poorly designed and difficult to use." The site is up to date and current, and it is easy to tell that the purpose of the site is to be informational. The content of this site is well organized, however it is not easy to navigate, and a little difficult to understand. The site appears to be complete, and offers a sufficient amount of information for elementary school teachers, however is not intended for those interested in elementary school lesson plans. The information provided appears to be accurate, if you are able to find what you are looking for. Design Summary: On this site the design lacks much of what I think a site needs to be efficient. This site downloads efficiently, however it lacks the "eye-appeal," that I would hope for within a site based on elementary schools. The homepage over all lacks appeal, however it is easy to see who the authors are and see that the authors are qualified and reliable. As for navigation, the design of this site is hard to understand, and contains too much on each page. This site is definitely not one that I would recommend for elementary lesson plans and is not clearly labeled, however it uses the same basic format consistently within the site, which i

Posted by Riley Kallhoff on 1/25/2010 Overview: Funschool.kaboose.com is a site for teachers and students. It is a place where teachers can find educational games for students. This site has a lot of stuff going on in it. There are a lot of advertisements and just unneeded things in the website. The purpose of the site is to make life easier on teachers and help them in the classroom. The website is a little out of control and I would think this makes it hard to navigate. I had some problems figuring it out at first so I think students would struggle as well. Content: This is a website that is a little overwhelming when you first come in. There is a ton going on and you really don't know where to start. I would say it's a little hard to determine what exactly this website is used for at first. It's hard to tell if it's a teacher or a student website. The authors of the site are hard to find and the site is hard to navigate in its own right. You will click on one thing and it will take you on a little bit of a wild goose chase to find what you want if you ever do find what you are looking for. The links on the site work fine, but there are very few of them and most of them are distracting advertisements. I'm still not sure if this is supposed to be an educational site or if it is suppose to be for games. This site is hard to understand and I'm not sure this is a good site to send students to. Design: The website comes up very quickly, and is a fast site as far as downloading goes. However, when you get to the homepage you are confused from the start and you are overwhelmed with chaos. There is far too much on the homepage and it is like to much stimulus to know what to do next. I found it hard to navigate my way through the site. There are advertisements and it takes way too long to get to your desired destination. I think the graphics and animations are very hard to follow and take away from the site instead of enhancing it. The informa

David May 1/23/11 Fun site of games and entertainment. Educational to younger children. Overview: The website is filled with games and fun quizzes for younger children. The games look interesting, but they aren't filled with meaningful information for anyone with a mild understanding of history. The history information quiz is very basic such as who was the first president of the U.S. There are links to crafts and home activities. The website is for children and parents because the home activities and advertisements. Content: The audience is younger children which is clear by the bright colors and the fun game link pictures. Another hidden audience is the parents of the children that will be playing games on this website. This is shown through with the home craft projects and the advertisements for sandwich meats and other child oriented products. The website has a large copyrighted page and a large page of contact information with phone numbers as well as email addresses. Helping children learn is what the supposed site goal is with many advertisements of things that children would want. The clear owner of the site is Disney because the ads and the many links to other Disney sites and online stores on the links areas of the website. The site is very well put together to gain the attention of child and does a good job of entertaining them while hiding a bit of learning with it. Design: The site has wonderful appeal even older than grade school students get caught by this site. Everything is where it says it will be with wonderful smoothness and ease of use. Any type of additional information regarding the copyright, other links, and sponsor (which is Disney) is clearly identified with an entire page or more devoted to it. The site is very well put together and that is easily seen. The games and animations work very well and are quick to load. The games and animations will keep eyes locked on the screen for hours.

¬¬¬¬Mandy Toll 9/11/11 Overview: This website was very useful for finding information on the presidents of the United States. Within this website you choose a president To learn more information. By clicking on their name you learn more about what they did as a president, their election results, and other basic information about them. The audience of this website is directed Towards students and teachers looking for more information on the U.S. presidents. There are a lot of reliable resources on the website To allow you To get more information on presidents. My overall impression of the website was that it was easy To use and very useful for the information I was looking for. I think that students and teachers will easily be able To use the site and it is easy To find more information by asking the ipl2 librarian from the butTon shown on the website. Content: It was easy To find the content of the website and who the website is intended for. On this website there was a lot of information on the author of the site and the sponsor of the site. There is also a butTon you can click To ask questions To gain more information about the Topic you are researching. The information on the presidents from this website is updated To the most recent president. The links on the site also are up To date and working properly. There is a lot of information on this site To inform the user about the president they are researching. The content overall was organized and appears To be well done and the information is accurate. Design: This website was easy To use do To its design. The website looks attractive and you can easily tell what the website is trying To inform you about. This website is easy To navigate. All the links on the website are helpful and give you more information on the U.S. presidents. The only thing that this website did not have was graphics and videos which might have made it a little more exciting. All of the information on this site is easy To find and

Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: Lesson Planet is a search engine designed to save the effort of designing various lesson plans by providing over 150,000 teacher approved lesson plans and over 75,000 worksheets. This site provides material for all subjects in grades K-12 and also includes state standards. Content: This Education World sponsored site has an incredible amount of information that has been provided by many teachers in various fields. It has lesson plans for all grade levels and all subjects including math, science and technology, language arts, education, social studies, health, art and music, and it also includes research resources. Each lesson plan includes the author and date that the lesson plan was posted. Also every lesson plan is rated on a scale of 1-5 by other teachers so you don't waste your time searching through inadequate lessons. Another great feature about this site is that because teachers can post their own lesson plans, there are always new and relevant lesson plans. These plans are easy to access due to multiple links which are designated to different fields of education i.e. science or math. There is also a search bar at the top of the web page that allows the user to search specific lesson plans as well as narrow their search results to grade level and rating (1-5). Overall this is a well organized site that provides a wealth of knowledge. The only thing to keep in mind is that these plans are posted by individual teachers which could contribute to a partial bias in the lesson plan. Another thing to consider is that there is $40 dollar membership fee for this site which is an inconvenience, but this fee also discourages the submission of junk lesson plans and worksheets by other internet users. Design: This site is well designed and very easy to navigate. There are no advertisements or links to unrelated material. The sponsor of the site and contact information is clearly displayed at the bottom of the page as well as t

-Overview: Lesson Planet is an excellent resource for teachers to find ideas and lesson plans for specific topics and grade levels. They are able to type in exactly what they are looking for and it is just like a Google search engine just for lesson plans. There are other links to related articles and blogs for teachers, and there are places where teachers can access the standards. It is a very good place to create lessons from and gain ideas for teaching successfully in the classroom. -Content: The content is easily accessible from exactly what the teacher types in to find. There are specific tabs and easy instructions to help the teacher find what they are looking for. It is a very helpful resource tool that teachers can use to plan activities for specific subjects, for a specific standard and find worksheets and articles that relate to the topic they are teaching. There is a huge amount of content within the website that is easily accessible for anyone who would like to use it. On each page there are tabs to things that relate to the topic as well as a list of subtopics that are easily accessible as well. -Design: The creators are in the process of creating a new design that may be more visually appealing, but currently the design is very simple and professional. It has enough color and visual recognition tools to help you locate specific things quickly and find what you are looking for without creating distractions and taking away from the content. The search portion is big and centered on the top of the homepage so it is easy to type in and find exactly what you need right off the home page.

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Amanda Lamey January 23, 2010 Overview This website is designed for any individual who can drive a car. It's not meant for children. They don't need to know how to change a tire if they can't drive yet. They should focus on something they enjoy or want to learn more about. I choose this site because it was an ".edu". I figured it had been reviewed by more important individuals and was used for educational purposes. I knew I could trust the information located on this site more than a ".com" site where websites have not been reviewed or edited by someone else. It listed multiple sites that were related to this site and had personal information to contact the author of the website. It had the class involved and the copyright date listed. Overall this had all the required information needed to evaluate a website. Evaluation of Design The design of the website was simple. It was one page, but it had other sites listed that were available if this wasn't what you were looking for. All the information regarding the author contacting us, copyright information and location were all located towards the bottom. There were eight simple steps to changing a tire. There were photos involved, but most of all before it even began there was an insert of tools required for the job. That's something different that stuck out to me and I think it would make it easier for everyone if life was like an outline, this is what you need, here's how to do it. towards the end if you had and questions or comments you could leave them. The only other available resources were the related sites you could visit, but they worked well. You clicked them and you were able to navigate away from you current page to your new one in no time. There wasn't a "error" can't load page or refresh here. The purpose was clear, it was informative. Content The content off the page was designed by children and could be read and understood by anyone. I think that the photos and beg

This website is a great FREE resource for teachers, administrators, parents and students looking for ways to incorporate technology into their classrooms. The site not only provides lesson plans for teachers but ways to help students succeed and excel for administrators and parents as well as homework help, step by step math help and games for students! There are a lot of outside links to sites that are all easy to access and navigate which is great! The content of the site is great and has been very well organized. Discovery Education does offer upgrades to gain more access to resources, but the free resources available are enough to last any educator for weeks! All of the lessons are organized by grade and then content area as well which makes it really easy to find exactly what you are looking for. There are also tabs for contact information, privacy details and terms and use which are great resources for teachers to familiarize themselves with. I think older students, probably middle school aged or older could utilize this website a lot easier than younger students because of navigation design, but the site is still great for students. The step-by-step math helper is an awesome tool for students that are having difficulty with math homework and so is the homework helper because it allows students to meet virtually and help each other with their homework with the help of educators and tutors. The design of the site is geared more towards teachers or educators, but it is still highly interactive and is easy to navigate. There are a lot of links to outside sources and they are all current and easy to operate. It is also easy to read and understand all of the lesson plans presented as well as understand the overall goals of the Discovery Communications company. The entire purpose of the site is to acheive excellence in learning and that is obvious by the design of the site. I wouldn't let students just get on the site and try to find their own way aro

Shaya Wolf - 2/26/2013 Overview This site is intended for teachers who are looking for new ideas for lesson plans. It is meant to be used as a resource for teachers who simply need a good idea to get them going. The lesson plans can be used as is or tweaked to fit the teacher's specific needs or goals. This site, if I were to venture a guess, is probably for new teachers as it gives very specific ideas and makes everything accessible by grade and subject, tools that are nice for everyone, but are specifically for newbies in the field. My overall impression of this site is that it is definitely very useful, designed well, and worth your time to look at and use. Content This site is extremely user friendly. IT it obvious what the basic content is and that the intended audience is teachers. The author and sponsor information is provided in an organized manner, including contact information made accessible through a link at the bottom of the page. This site was last updated in 2008 and considering that these lesson plans won't be outdated for a while, especially considering a teacher's ability to tweak existing plans to fit their needs, I would say that this revision date is appropriate to the materials provided. The purpose of the site as a database of lesson plans is clear from the very beginning. The provided links achieve this purpose in the most effective manner possible. The content is complete, however may be added to, and easy to understand. All of the information is organized utilizing a navigation bar and allows teachers to find information related to a specific need. The information is obviously accurate and there are no spelling or grammar errors. The only downfall on this site is that there are no additional links for further needs or purposes. Design The homepage loads efficiently and quickly. The homepage serves as a main source of organization and contains all of the necessary contacts, as in the author and sponsor of the page. The website

Levi Jensen September 2, 2010 Website Review http://www.nclark.net/Biology Overview The Amazing Biology Teacher Resource website was created to provide science teachers a place to reference when teaching their classes. I assume that this site was created by a present or past science teacher. The main focus of this site is in assisting in making lesson plans for teachers and to give helpful ideas for science activities. This site covers both biology and chemistry subjects and also offers many links related to science education. Overall, I found this site to be rather elementary in design, and also had some difficulty using some of the drop-down menus. Content At first look it is quite easy to understand that the intended audience is for science teachers. One drawback that this site has is that information about the author is vaguely apparent. There are no sponsors given, and the only way to contact the author is through a management email to which there is no name given to write to. It seems as though content is updated quite often due to the links posted but there is no revision date provided. As far as information quality I believe that this site does a nice job and the content is readily available and easy to read. Design I had some problems using some of the dropdown menus on this site. Upon trying them a second time they worked just fine for me. The visual appeal to me looked as if a child had designed it. This is supposed to be a professional website that is used by professionals. Also the home page is just a list of topics that could be broken down into groups in order to create a more orderly page. Finally this site needs to have citations behind the information that they are providing so that the reader is able to look the information up to confer the information.

Morgan Kuchta September 1, 2010 Blackboard.com Overview Blackboard (Bb) is a company with a website (Blackboard.com) that is similar to eCompanion used here on the UW campus. It provides an online domain for teachers to post assignments, announcements, proctor tests, host chats and discussions, and post grades. It is an interactive site for teachers and students to communicate and use as a resource. Bb is obviously aimed at the education audience and has different tools for everything from kindergarten to college. I have used Bb in the past in high school and it was always a very effective tool. It was dependable and very user friendly. I would highly recommend this site to all educators wishing to use an online forum. Content Summary At first look, Blackboard is an extremely well organized website, it gives its purpose on the home page and all major pages for the site have tabs clearly labeled at the top. The author information is not available, however blackboard is a company that provides an online forum for teachers and schools to use as a means of communicating with their students and promoting online learning, so it more than likely has more than one author. There is an email address for any support that you need and they also have a frequently asked questions section, broken down by the type of client you might be, i.e. teacher, student, designer, or administrator so you are likely to get your question answered right then and there. The site is very up to date and claims to be adding new features about once every few months so it stays current. The Information quality of this site is great, it is obviously a business and their purpose is clearly stated and easy to understand. It has links to all their concurrent sites that have other tools you can use to make Blackboard more accessible to you and your students i.e. Bb Mobile. Design I had no trouble downloading the home page. Although it is not full of bright colors its appeal states its purpose: efficie

Sarah Skinner on January 22, 2010 Overview The purpose of this website is to start getting toddlers interested in books. There are many storybooks available to read to toddler aged children. There are also themed sections for special holidays where coloring page and educational games can be found. My overall impression of this site is that it would be great for toddlers to be able to start getting ready for school activities. Content It is easy to determine the basic content of this site. The site tells exactly who the webpage is for. The author is not clearly identified and I am not able to find a link to find information about the author. The sponsor is clearly identified in the top right hand corner. There is a contact link available to receive more information if needed. The latest revision date is not available and it is unclear if the content is updated frequently. However, this site really does not need information updated since it is reading material for toddlers. All links are working properly. The purpose of the site is clear that it is informational and entertainment. The website looks complete and professional and everything is organized very well. All material is easily understood and has a lot of useful information. The content is free of bias opinions. There are interactivities available for toddlers that make this site more valuable. All information appears to be accurate and correct grammar and spelling are used. There are sites available for teachers and parents as well on the page which would be helpful. Design The homepage downloaded efficiently and is very well put together. There are clear titles and descriptions to let you know where you are. There is an index with a variety of different links to click on. The sponsor is identified clearly and there is a contact link to get a hold of the sponsor. There is no copyright date that I can find. The site is easy to get around in and the directions for using the site are provided and are wri

Posted by Erika Jeffs on 1/24/2010 Overview: Math Apprentice is designed to show kids that math is used in the real world, and not just the obvious careers like an accountant, but other developing areas such as graphic design. The students get to pick from 8 different careers, and explore the features of the line of work they choose and do some hands on math related activities. These activities make the website very interactive. The site is designed to use in the classroom for middle school students, but could also be useful for high school students as well. Content: The website clearly states the purpose of the website and the audience, in fact, it has a tab specifically for this information. The "About" tab gives and overview of the entire website. Sponsor and contact information is easy to find, however the authors of the website are unclear. The site was copyrighted in 2009 and is fairly new, so it should be up to date. The links are relevant to math and are in working order. This site is very interactive and gives many examples of math in the real world that would come as surprise to many students. There is also a tab that gives teachers a detailed description on how to use the site in the classroom. Math Apprentice's sole purpose seems to be to educate and not to sell anything. The website is easy to navigate and well organized because there is only four tabs. Everything seems to be accurate, up to date, and correct as far as my knowledge. Design: Math Apprentice loads very quickly, especially considering all of the interactive features the site provides. The home page is attractive, easy to navigate, and the format is held constant throughout the entire site. Copyright and contact information are easy to find. Directions for using the site are easy to find and very helpful. All links are working properly and quick to load. The site specifically states that the site works best with Safari or Firefox, and that there may be some bugs th

Posted by Lyndsey Neelands on 9/18/2009 CELLS alive is an educational website that is designed for teachers and students. The purpose of the website is to use interactive technology to teach students about cell biology subjects. Content: This website has a lot of good content on it. The author of the website is clearly identified and his credentials are enough to author this site. The information seems actuate but a clear updated date is not displayed. The information on this sight would be very helpful for a struggling student and also as a resource for a science teacher looking for a visual way to represent this material. The Cell Cams are especially interesting, providing a real life representation for students to see. Design: This site is very well designed. It is colorful and very easy to understand. This would be able to be used by young students as well as older teachers. The content is well displayed and very easy to see. Navigation of this sight is self explanatory and does not seem confusing. The author's information is also very easy to get to. Contact information for questions and more information is also easy to get to.

Posted by Lyndsey Neelands on 9/19/2009 CELLS alive is an educational website that is designed for teachers and students. The purpose of the website is to use interactive technology to teach students about cell biology subjects. Content: This website has a lot of good content on it. The author of the website is clearly identified and his credentials are enough to author this site. The information seems actuate but a clear updated date is not displayed. The information on this sight would be very helpful for a struggling student and also as a resource for a science teacher looking for a visual way to represent this material. The Cell Cams are especially interesting, providing a real life representation for students to see. Design: This site is very well designed. It is colorful and very easy to understand. This would be able to be used by young students as well as older teachers. The content is well displayed and very easy to see. Navigation of this sight is self explanatory and does not seem confusing. The author's information is also very easy to get to. Contact information for questions and more information is also easy to get to.

Emily E. KrabbenhoftJanuary 22, 2011Overview: This website, created by Discovery Communications, is an excellent resource for parents, students, and teachers. For parents it provides ways to help motivate their children and ways to help with homework. For students it all gives homework help and other ways for students to further their knowledge or to practice what they already know. For teachers there is interactive projects, lesson plans, and puzzle makers. Content: The content of this website, the information providers, and the quality is well presented to users. While the information is provided by a company to further their products, it offers a lot of free resources for everyone. It also does not push its products on the user, for example no pop-ups or constant nagging to purchase things.Design: This website has a great design. You do not get lost when you are navigating the website because it has great descriptions and titles of the pages. All of the links work properly and direct you to the appropriate websites or links. 

Hannah Clucas. October 10, 2012. Overview: This website is a giant database for schools. It has something for administrators, teachers, students, and even parents. There are a lot of available resources. The website is amazing and helpful for all facets of learning. Content: For administrators, there are curriculum options, helpful assessments of resources schools are currently using, and a host of other useful things. For teachers there are lesson plans, puzzle makers, additional resources, and even information on student travel. For parents there is a section on ways they can motivate their students and give them help in homework. The student section has a homework help section as well as links to contests they can join and clipart. There are also videos that parents, teachers, and administrators can use. The website is probably more helpful to teachers and administrators. Lesson plans are divided into two grade level groups, k-8 and 9-12, making it easy to find lesson plans for intended grade levels. Some of the links on the website are not useful, such as the link to downloading Google Chrome. But none of the links are inappropriate. Design: The design of the website is logical and flows well. There is a section for administrators, teachers, parents, and students at the top and bottom of the home page. It is colorful and fun to get your attention, but not to the point that it is overwhelming. Its use of media is appropriate and helpful.

Lorena Garcia Evaluation date: 10/13/14 The site I chose to evaluate was Discovery Education located at www.dicoveryeducation.com. The purpose of this site is to provide free education resources. The intended audience of this site is teachers, students, and Parents. This site provides some downloadable lessons. It offers lessons plans for the various school grades. I feel this site could be a great resource for new and veteran educators. I found that this page is quickly to determine the content because there are links about who they are, what they offer, also they have links for students, parents, and Teachers who are the intended audience. In fact there is contact information for anybody who has questions or verify information about it. Anybody can contact them by phone, (1 800 ), Twetter, and Face book, and e-mail. It is clear that this page is to provide Educational information with the different options of downloadable lesson plans. It is worth visiting this page, specially Educators. They can find a lot information and great ideas for lessons. The information is clearly labeled and organized school year. These links are very well organized and easy to find. I did have some trouble finding my way back to the original page. However, overall I would most definitely recommend and use this website.

This site is probably not a site that I would use, by looking at the title this looks like a fantastic website to use to teach about the culture of the Grapes of Wrath. By looking a little closer the title may say read me, but the articles following say "I am off topic". There is no clearly identified audience, the website jumps around a lot. One link the class would be looking at Oklahoma culture and the next link you are the University of Oklahoma's home page. There is not an identified purpose for this url. I think this was a very mediocre site. I was not easily able to find identify the audience nor the purpose of this site. This was a reliable site, the author and copyright date were easily accessible, this was also a university site. This URL might have been made by a student. This website was last updated in 2007, therefore this would put up a red flag because the author hasn't made any changes to it for 7 years. It seems a little outdated. All of the links to other sites are working properly, although the only other link is to the university home page. This site is not accurate, it has no related topics to other sites that I went to. Nor does it have information related to my topic. The information in this site is not organized nor is it easy to understand. There are no spelling or grammar issues, although a bias opinion is easily detectable. The links are what kills this site. There is no need to have a link to your University search page on one of the main links on your webpage. The design in this website is one positive thing about this site, the home page downloads successfully and with no problems. The home page is aesthetically pleasing and draws the audience in. The title is very catchy and serves as a learning experience. The copyright date is easily accessible, although outdated. There is a table of contents although they all run together, all of the links seem to be the same. Navigation throughout this site does not go smoot