Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Morgan Carlson 5/18/2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to discuss The Diary of Anne Frank and to look more closely at the events leading up to her capture. The website also intends to discuss why the diary of Anne Frank can help us put a face to the millions of Jews that were murdered. The intended audience is for students in junior high or high school that would be reading the book. It can also be a tool for teachers to create lesson plans based off of the different categories presented. Some of the resources provided are links to movies based off of The Diary of Anne Frank, and video, audio, and graphic clips that are related to the life of Anne Frank, and/or the Holocaust. Based on the content of the website, the information is presented in a basic manner, and does not provide enough details or examples. Also, the design is very minimal and not as appealing to the audience as it could be. Content: Based on the cyberguide ratings for content evaluation, this website does a good job of presenting information in a clear and concise way with a variety of different links that provide related information. However, there is no author or sponsor or organization listed, and there is not a date for last revisions made. In addition, there is no information about whether or not the author is qualified in the subject area, or no way to determine whether or not the information has been updated since its creation. Although the site is well-organized, the lack of accuracy and authenticity is difficult to assess, and may not be an adequate site for research. Design: When first visiting the website, the sponsor and author are not present. Information for contacting the sponsor or author also are not present, and you must go to the website's homepage to retrieve any contact information for the website. Although there is a table of contents that helps you navigate the page, the homepage is very minimal and could be updated. The graphics, audios, and videos

From the website: a new and developing online journal and resource site for teachers of Creative Writing and those who are in the process of training to become teachers of Creative Writing.

Ryan Magrum Sept 15th, 2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide information and updates in science in the form of news articles to the general educated public. There are links to scientific news magazines as well as links to other scientific web sites. My overall impression of this site is that it is easy to read and navigate and there is a plethora of knowledge available within the contents. It's great for students studying specific topics in science to read. Content: PhysOrg, at first glance, is not flashy and aimed at consumers. The main goal of the site is general knowledge and entertainment in the form of scientific reading. The articles, with topics ranging from nano-science to medicine, are written with very few technical terms making the content easy to comprehend by the average educated individual including high school students with background instruction in the topic of interest. The articles are news updates on the emergence of new things in science sometimes with a brief explanation of the mechanism behind the new discovery complete with figures. Such articles would be a great starting point for a research paper. The articles also include hyperlinked citations to the primary sources. There are many links to other scientific news sites. Design: This site is not aimed at attracting a passerby web surfer. The target audience is attracted to the content within and already has a general idea of what they want to get out of PhysOrg. Therefore, the site is made easy to navigate and less flashy with few advertisements and the ads on the site are related to the scientific topics and links on the site. For example: an ad for paper that is really white for printing off the articles to read as a hard copy while making the articles easier to read. The links to the articles are strait forward not to bias clicking on any specific article if in the "spotlight stories" area. All the articles are arranged for the navigator to find specific arti

Regene DePiero 9/5/2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide resources for math teachers.  It provides publications, teaching standards, and classroom resources.  It offers a long list of helpful tips for math teachers as well as project and lesson ideas. It is an easy to use site with a clean design layout and provides lots of relevant information. Content: The site offers complete, well organized, and easy to understand information.  Although lacking in any real interactive elements, it fulfills its intended purpose to serve as a comprehensive resource for math teachers.  The content seems to be updated frequently although no revision date could be seen aside from the copyright notice.  The sponsor of the site is clearly listed and links to other relevant sites and resources are provided.  Information appears to be accurate, although no specific author is credited. Design: The layout is simple and easy to navigate.  The table of contents is clearly listed to the left  and is accessible from any area on the site. A similar layout is used throughout the site and links are well organized.  Contact information is easy to find.  The site is lacking in multimedia elements but the links provided bring you to more interactive sites.  There is definitely enough information provided her that makes this site useful to any math teacher or future math teacher.

Ryan Magrum Sept 15th, 2011 Overview: This site is a tour through the exhibits of a natural history museum. The purpose is to experience the museum without actually going there in person. There are many menu options on the home page for kids and for educational purposes. I like this site personally because for students it's like a field trip without ever having to leave the class room (computer room). The site seems fairly main-stream and appropriate for all ages. Content: This is the basic museum home page on the internet. The site has all the information for the museum (contact info, research and curation, business…). There are many links to other similar sites as well as games for kids and to resources for teachers and to merchandising. There are many pictures to lure the user into the site. In terms of the galleries page, The site is a basic tour with captions for each of the interactive picture of real things in the museum that explain what you are seeing in the picture - what a tour guide will tell you. The pictures are mostly for highlights of the museum geared to getting you to visit in person. There is a plethora of information within that is very easy for students and the public to learn from. Design: The site is easy to navigate. All the pictures and colors make the user feel welcome. At first, getting into the specifics of the site and finding what exactly you are looking for is a little difficult but the ease of navigation allows the user to orient their self in the contents after a little exploring. There is a search box so the user can search the site for specifics contributing even more to the ease of navigation. All the advertisements in the site are relevant to education and/or the museum and appropriate for kids.

Elise Verley September 9, 2011 http://technologysource.org/ Overview: This is a basic site to review the articles from the peer-reviewed bimonthly periodical "The Technology Source". The purpose of this site is to allow educators to view the articles published, from 1997 - 2003. The periodical published articles to assist educators in integrating information technology tools into the classroom. Since the periodical stopped publishing in 2003 the sources may become out of date. Content: This site had many articles, but may be difficult for someone without a particular article they were searching for to use. Since this was a peer-reviewed periodical the articles can be reliable as sources. There are articles on a variety of topics. Design: There were two ways to search the sites articles. Users could either browse articles or search with a library like search tool. This is a very basic site with a white background, black text and blue accents, there are no pictures.

Overview: Knight Cite is a bibliography maker. You just plug in the information into the specified box and it creates a proper citation in MLA, APA or Chicago style for you. This site is intended for those needing guidance on how to cite their sources for any research project that requires one of the provided formats. I have been using this website since 5th grade and it has always been useful and correct. The sponsor updates the page on a regular basis, when the new handbooks come out. A very useful site for those needing help with their bibliography or teachers trying to instruct their classes on how to properly cite sources. Content: Overall Knight Cite is pretty skin and bones. It does not have many fancy features, but it serves its purpose well. The page is clear and easy to navigate. It allows you to cite practically any reference you can think of in the three major writing styles. Since the sponsor is a University, it is assumed that they are qualified to provide this information. The intended purpose for this cite is clear upon opening the page. They have links where you can contact the authors, and the information aligns with other bibliography websites. Design: Knight cite downloads nicely and is designed for streamline efficiency. Although there is no "welcome page" it is immediately obvious what the intended purpose of the site is. When you open it, it immediately gives you the blanks to fill out to create your bibliography. There are instructions incase you are still unsure how to use it, but it is not difficult. To move between styles, it is as easy as clicking a tab at the top of the page. Same for changing the type of resource you are using. The site is extremely helpful if you have many citations as it will save them as you go and then when you are don you merely have to copy and paste your completed bibliography.  

Agriculture.com is an extremely useful resource for an ag instructor. This sight combines the markets agricultural news and forums that we can use to build curriculum for our classrooms. We can use this sight for talking points or to allow the students to use to find research for their desired topics. This web page was used very often when I was in high school learning from my teachers. They were able to use this information to help mold me into the advocate for the industry I am today, also this allows ag teachers to instill a knowledge in their students so that they can educate the public in the importance of the industry.

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

Mike Wilson Site review September 18, 2009 Science Buddies Free Science Fair Project Ideas, Answers, & Tools for Serious Students Introduction This is a very detailed and comprehensive site to facilitate student science fair projects. It can be used by the casual science fair student though the stated target student is the serious science student. Detailed information is provided for students and teachers K-12. The site is supported by 30 major science and technology corporations and is run by a staff of 18 not including the Seagate IT people. Anything to do with a school science project, this is your stop. Google ranking is 6/10 with 321 backward links. Content Evaluation First Look The home page and site are by no means fancy. Simple and clear what the information is and where to go on the site. The depth of the site is extensive. As you start your information search you can easily select your target grade level. Information Providers The purpose of the site, sponsors and fact there are real scientists involved is clear. Information Currency Site is fully operational and current. No daily revision date is given but 2009 Copyright is in place. Extensive links to other sites from each specific science project page for additional information. Information Quality Content is extensive, selectable for grade level. Very well organized and effective science fair development and projects for students, teachers and parents. Massive resources on the site itself with additional links out as needed. Design Evaluation Speed Science Buddies is very well designed to be a quality information site. Fast loads. Very text oriented, limited and simple graphics with properly sized thumbnails to keep page loads quick. Home Page & Ease of Navigation 9 tabs across home page top or easily 9 home pages. Actual home page is 85% above the fold. Very easy and quick to move around the site. The 'Topic Selection Wizard' is very functional, grade, gender, subject

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.

See handout

Ebscohost is a massive search site that is similar to Jstor but contains more general and various sources of information. Does include pdf versions along with html and also a search option for peer review articles.