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Overview: The purpose for exploring this website is to obtain resources to help students look at U.S. history more objectively. The audience that this website is aiming at is teachers of middle/high school U.S. history courses. The available resources of this website are various historical subjects ranging from colonization to the 21st century; and a vast library of U.S. historical themes (e.g. slavery, civil rights movements, etc...). This website does a great job of supplying sufficient information while presenting itself in an appealing way. There numerous links and PDF documents that relate to the specific content area being looked at. Its design is very appealing and is also well organized. It is easy and quick to find information on the website as well. Content: One of the best things that this website accomplishes is its coverage of topics from colonization to the 21st century. Each section has numerous PDF's and/or websites that teachers can use to help teach that content area. Information about the authors/sponsors are readily available under the "About" section. The thing that this website lacks, however, is the revision history; there is only a copyright year. Overall, the website achieves its purpose of giving teachers the tools to help students learn about U.S. history more objectively. Design: This website has a very appealing design to it. Not only does it look nice, but visitors know exactly where they are once the home page loads. The site has an effective layout; the audience only has to click a couple times to get to the information that they need. The downside to the design of the website is the use of multimedia. There is little to no use of graphics, audio, and/or video. The overall design, though, makes this website worth visiting again in the future.

Visual Examples of Organic and Geometric shapes

This website provides examples to students of visual instruction to organic and geometric shapes. This webpage links other students work from outside the classroom and provides inspiration to my students for pieces of their own art. Grades 2-4 would benefit from this page. Content: This page was rated average in content because of how specific a topic it had. I couldn't find things like last revision date. I didn't like how the content was presented since it was mainly pictures with captions. I did like the difference in art between each student and I feel like it would be beneficial to show when on the topic of Shapes in art. This page also links to other artistic topics of drawing, like the 'Great Wave' in Asian art and Egyptian Symbols. Design: Since this is a single blog entry post, I do not favor the site design. I feel it lacks in off-site information and thus is insufficient. I would use it as a supplement tool but not the bases for a whole lesson. The reference page for the teach is quite informational and would provide a good source for any questions. ~A.Rodriquez

Melanie Lenhardt ITEC 2360 2/2/2012 Publications and More The purpose of this site is to teach people about special education and the things that go along with it. It has all of the basic information that you need to know about dealing with it as a parent or someone in their life and useful intervention strategies. This site also has different links to satisfy a variety of needs. I would say the intended audience is parents, but is also informative for anyone. I think that overall, this website is very well designed, easy to use, and very useful for my information needs. Content: I would say that most of this website was very well put together, but there were a few things that they could do to make the site a little better. The site didn't really have a specific author/authours to the site that was clearly identified. We don't really know who they are or any information on them, but we do know how to contact the people about the site. Design: The design of this site is also very well, but could also use a little changes to make it better. I didn't find any directions on how to navigate the site. It seemed self-explanatory though, so I'm not sure that it is necessary to have one or not. I also think that the website could use more videos and images to present information on special education and the things that go along with it. There is not a last revised portion that I saw on the website, the only thing I saw was the copyright date. Last revised is important, and could definitely use that on the site.

Samantha Snethen- Feb. 5, 2012 Overview: OER Commons is website designed to allow educators from all over the worlds to share educational resources for primary, secondary, and post-secondary school. The website is free to view and has tens of thousands of lesson plans, classroom activities, assessments, video and audio lectures, games and much, much more. The site also has a bookmarking feature, in which users can bookmark new online educational resources to share. This website is a great tool for educators of any grade level to find and share wonderful classroom and teaching resources. Content: At first glance the site doesn't seem to give a clear idea of what it contains. However after reading some of the smaller print and doing some navigating it becomes clear. It provides a clear link to the creator and sponsor of the website, ISKME, so finding information about the organization is easy. One downfall about it is there is no last revision date provided, so it is hard to determine how old some of the resources available are. There is also little interactivity with the site. The majority of the content however, is easy to navigate, well organized and achieves the purpose it was created for. Design: The site is not designed to be very eye-catching and seems confusing at first glance. There were no directions for users available and again there was not last revision date provided. However, there was more than enough information and resources for almost any subject for almost every grade level. The information was also presented in well organized manner, which makes it easy for the user to narrow down the types of resources they are searching for.

Locate open education and creative commons resources for teachers and students of all grade levels

Stephanie Mecca 2/5/12 Overview: The purpose of this site is to help students learn about the Renaissance in a fun and interactive way. The graphics and navigation tools are fun and interesting. The intro to the site is very fun and intriguing. The site includes a lot of information about the people, places, and art of the time. The interactive questionnaires are fun and keep the viewers interested. There are two working links to different websites that serve as other resources, one of which is the Allentown Art Museum which created the website. The intended audience is both students and teachers. Though the site is mostly for students to interact with, there is a tab for teachers which helps with lesson plans. Content: Although the content is easily determined and the quality is good, there is a problem with some links. Mostly the links about the authors of the site and the contact information are not working and one pop-up says "under construction". There isn't any place that lets the viewer know when the site was last updated either. The site is very interactive though and keeps the viewers interest and the interactive traits keeps increases the value of the site. The one good thing about the information about the authors is that the link to the Allentown Art Museum is working, so you can look about background information about the website there is needed. Design: The biggest problem with the websites design is the broken pop-ups that contain all of the information about the website authors and the contact information. There aren't any direction to using the site but those are not need very much, since the site is pretty user -friendly. The graphics and animations are what make the site interesting. The reanimated artwork that talks and makes sounds helps make the site more interactive and entertaining. The currency information is not working but the external link to the Allentown Art Museum is working. The overall presentation of the site is

Katherine Kerpchar ITEC2360 I found this site to be very easy to navigate and easy to understand. This site also had a lot of good information about the elements and principles of art. This site was not very visually appealing though and did not have very easily found contact information. I couldn't find any information on the last update or the author of the information. It was also impossible to find any contact information to the site with no "about us" page  or anything else of that sort. 

Bradley Sharpski 2/6/12 Overview: This site is very interesting to look at since it has so many links to what parents can do, teachers and even students. It has a statement upfront to why they have lesson plans and how they will be helpful and who wrote them. This site offers plans for all subjects and all grade levels which is very helpful. Looking through the lesson plans, it's easy to see that there easy to follow and gives you everything a teacher could need. Content: This site contains information on every subject and very easy to follow. The website has the information of who created it and providers. If there is any question it gives you links to follow and can ask questions there if needed. The quality of the information is good. This is a Discovery site and from what I know, they always keep their sites up to date and have correct information. The site is very well organized and consistent. I found there to be no grammar errors or really any mistakes. The site also provides links to other sites which could be helpful for more lesson plans. Design: The homepage of this site is easy to locate and navigate in. The multimedia of this page is very good and has interesting videos. The content of this site is presented very well and gave me no troubles at all. This site seems to be up to date and revised thoroughly. It even gives links to other sites that may have similar lesson plans that could be helpful.

David D Castle 2/7/12 Overview: The site provides access to worksheets, lesson ideas, and other classroom activities, but requires yearly subscription. There are links to other educational websites (some free), Facebook, and Twitter. School subject pictures immediately grab your attention and provide links to worksheets, but without being a member it always brings up a "join now" page. Content: The content presented on TeachFuzz would be very useful for elementary teachers because it provides not just worksheets but lesson ideas, calendars, themes, and other miscellaneous activities. The links to other sites work well, but none of the links within the site are available without subscription. There is both a toolbar of subjects near the top of the page and a set of large graphics depicting the subjects. Design: The site seems well-designed and easy to navigate. The icons are large and clear, leaving little room for confusion. The site isn't cluttered with advertisements and links to tons of other sites which is nice. This site also has a custom search box in the middle of the screen provided by Google, which would be very convenient when looking for a specific worksheet or assignment.

Jessica Lee 10/21/2013 Overview: The purpose of this site is to address some common core standards for mathematics in a different, fun way with the use of animations and online games. This website is intended for middle school aged students. There are not any external links for additional resources included. I am very impressed with this website due to its overall design and organization as well as the content-rich materials that they promote. It also provides a learner guide for the teacher to use in the classroom which makes it very convenient. Content: The content of this website is very easy to read and understand for the intended audience. It not only provides fun activities for the kids to enjoy, but also an explanation for each one for what it addresses. It presents math concepts in a new way that will attract "math-haters." Design: The design of this website is aesthetically appealing and easy to navigate. Everything runs smoothly and quickly and all of the internal links work well. The pictures representing the animations and games are significant and attention-grabbing. The only negative thing about this website is the lack of a revision date; therefore, there is no way to know, immediately, that it has been kept up-to-date.

Paige Hanewald 10/21/13 Overall: This site would be a great activity to high school students as an introduction of Shakespeare as it takes them in a "time machine" back to Elizabethan time period. It is very current and includes interesting language that is intended for the current high school audience. It gives links to Elizabethan-knowledgeable resources, assisting them through each step. If the activity could align with standards of your English curriculum, it would be a new, fun introduction of William Shakespeare. Content: Although the author of the site isn't clearly identified, it is assumed that he is a teacher. Assuming that, the teacher appears to be qualified to present this information and it seems to be accurate; all of the links work and provide thorough insight into the activity. The activity definitely goes in depth to the Elizabethan time period and lifestyle. Design: The design is similar to that of a Webquest activity. It is aesthetically impressive and flawless! It gains interest with its creative layout and features that Wix.com provides, including directions on little things that could be confusing. It is very easy to navigate from step-to-step of the activity and could be easily interpretable by the intended audience. However, there is neither a works cited page, nor a teacher's page like that of well-done Webquest pages.

Paige Hanewald 10/21/13 Overall: The purpose of this specific branch of the HippoCampus website is a resource that can be utilized by both teachers in explaining lessons and high school students in interactively researching reading and writing strategies that concern evaluating text, forming a thesis, writing fundamentals, characteristics of specific types of essays, and more. Overall, I believe that this is a simple resource that could provide a lot of insight to students having trouble in reading and writing content areas. Content: The content provides lessons as well as some interactive activities. It explains certain aspects in writing that teachers seem to assume students already know such as passive and active voice, punctuation, grammar, forming a well-thought out thesis statement and other fundamentals of writing. Unfortunately, because of the features presented on this website, you must have good Internet and either Adobe Flash Player or Quicktime. Design: This site looks boring. While it is very informative, so much information with such a lack of "oomph!" can bore a middle or high school student and put him or her to sleep. While it is very easy to navigate, compared to other websites, the interactive components such as videos and activities don't seem as engaging to kids above the 6th grade.

Caleb Huber 10/12/14 The article provides a summary of research done on the occurrence of cyber bullying. I chose this site as a reference for known data about cyber bullying and the frequency of its occurrence. The webpage contains data on the last seven years of cyber bullying research. The website itself is intended for educators, students, and teachers. Its purpose is to spread cyber bullying awareness and teach prevention. I would rate the content of the webpage as somewhat helpful and the content of the website as extremely helpful. I would rate the design of this webpage as good and the design of the overall website as exceptional. The web page was last updated on April 9, 2014. A link to contact the site can easily be found on the top of the page. At first look, the content of the individual summary page is a bit bare, but it compensates by having links of detailed, related posts in the center of the page. Several of the posts are helpful to my purpose. One example is the link titled "Cyber bullying: Neither an Epidemic nor a Rarity". No official author of the articles is posted. This link also shows the website's lack of bias. Cyber bullying is either portrayed as not a big deal or an epidemic depending on who is making the case. Because this site is ran by a research center, it focuses on finding and presenting real data. Often a weakness of research is that it only uses one method to perform research. The website makes sure to use multiple methods including convenient and stratified samples. A large label at the top of the page shows that the website is funded and ran by the Cyber Bullying Research Center. The webpage is clearly labeled and easy to navigate. The pages follow a consistent format and all the links load quickly. The homepage can easily be found. The purpose of the website can be easily seen through a welcome index. The site index is clearly designed as well. Every page is loaded with helpful links.

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.

Jennifer Durn January 24, 2010 ReadWriteThink - http://www.readwritethink.org/ OVERVIEW The ReadWriteThink site is a partnership between the International Reading Association, National Council for Teachers of English, and the Verizon Foundation. The site contains several sections such as classroom resources, professional development, and parent/afterschool resources. The purpose of the site is to provide a collaborative tool to share free resources in reading and language arts instruction. This site would be a great resource for both the prospective and experienced educator. CONTENT Information on the site is up-to-date and clearly attributed to each author. Each of the sections is organized logically and contains links to various educational and reading websites. Cutting edge teaching methods are featured on the site and include teaching with podcasts and online safety for students. I was impressed with the relevance of the information on the site to today's student and current issues in education. DESIGN The ReadWriteThink site is of high quality with many pictures and multimedia graphics. The site also contains interactive exercises for students from K-12, lesson plans available for download, projects, and games. These various tools present information in ways which are useful for a variety of learning styles. This site is also well organized with logical placement of links and toolbars.

Overview: Read Write Think is a website designed for teachers to assist them with lesson plans, classroom resources and overall classroom ideas. The website is unique in that you can search a subject, and it will give you several different lesson plan ideas for grades K-12. Beyond that, the lesson plan ideas tell you the required materials such as internet or textbook resources, and they also tell you the state standards the lesson will meet. This website is great for generating ideas about different subjects, and creating lessons you might never have thought of on your own. Content: The overall content of the site is very reliable; it was created by the International Reading Association and the National Council for Teachers of English. The ideas, standards, and recommended resources are also highly reliable. All the links on the site also bring you to highly relevant information to the topic you have searched. Design: The design of the site is very professional and easy to navigate. The content is all easy to access, and displayed in a way where you automatically know the intended, professional purpose of the site. All the links to other websites are relevant and fully functioning. There aren't many advertisements to distract you; however, there is hardly any use of multimedia. There are occasional pictures, but in general it is a strictly traditional, informational site.

Meghan Frank The purpose of this website is to help teachers not only be able to teach how to read, write, and think but to also provide resources and help to be able to teach these subjects effectively to their students. This is definitely a website that is more centered on teachers and maybe even parents. This website provides lesson plans, different student interactions and activities, professional development, and videos to help teachers in their classroom. When looking over the content evaluation this website proves to be very useful. It is easy to identify the content of these site as well the intended audience, which is teachers. You can easily locate who the author is, their information, that they are creditable, and they provide information to contact them if you need too. It lists that the latest date that it was revised was in 2014, and that it is updated frequently. All links are also working properly. This website also has high quality information. It achieves its intended purpose for the audience, and it is very well organized and easy to understand. The information appears to be accurate and up to date, and the information is consistent around the site and with the other links. This website also has an efficient design, according to cyberguide ratings. The homepage opens fast and you immediately know where you are and what information this website will give you. There is a table of contents, and you can identify the sponsor of the website and how to contact them. The copyright date is also listed. This site is easy to navigate and has pretty straight forward directions on how to navigate through it. All the links are working and relevant to the content of the site. All the multimedia aspects of the website have a purpose and contribute to the site. The information on this website is very relevant to teachers and would make it worth visiting. It is easy to navigate and is formatted the same throughout the site. Over all this would be a resourceful

Content: This website contains lots and lots of stuff. It is set up like a classroom and has a reading link, a math link, a playground link, and an arcade link. I think this is more of a game site than an educational one. There are also lots of links to other help sites, but the majority of the links are for advertiser's webpage's, distracting visitors. Design: After looking at it for awhile, I started to feel lost and uninterested because of all the advertisements and the lack of visuals. There are thousands of links for kids to go to, and the actual site doesn't really support a good learning environment. As said above, it's mostly games with reading sections that really looks fun, but if you have to look through the games to get to that section, students will probably never get there on their own. The visual part of this website is interesting. The homepage is pretty boring and filled with links, but the reading and games tabs are designed for younger students. Attribution: The purpose of this site is probably intended to promote learning is fun, but becomes easily more of a distraction with all of the advertisements. I don't think I would promote this site in my classroom without adult supervision because students could so easily be distracted by toys and games.

Overview The purpose of this website is to help kids interact with math and reading. The intended audience is K-8. My overall impression of the website is that is very beneficial and a good free website for students to practice math and reading, whereas with other websites you have to pay to use the website. Content The only thing that I would critique on this website is having other links that would be appropriate and have to do with reading and math. But other than that, I would highly recommend this website. Design I think that everything is up to date but there is no for sure way to tell on the website, there is the copy right that does say 2013 but there is no one hundred percent way to tell if it has all been updated. So this is one thing that I would change on the design for the website.

Trevor Montgomery For this resource, we see another website that in a way, tricks students into thinking they are just playing games by giving them subject related activities. With the subjects of math and reading, students having interactive games, books and comics and even more fun links, without thinking they are doing much work. Through the "Funbrain" arcade, students can also complete activities and must pass obstacles to get through an interactive game board. If they do not successfully complete an activity, they will not be able to get past their current location, but will feel challenged to get through each activity and will most likely attempt multiple times until mastery of the activity. The great thing about this website is that students can also use codes to pick up where they left off on the game board so that they do not have to start over each time they log on (with their parents' permission of course). From grades 1st through 8th, there is a great variability from subjects, and students who are feeling extra brave might even try a level of difficulty higher than their current grade level. As someone who used this website in school when he was in elementary school, I can say that this resource is extremely effective and I think that students will come back to it time and time again. Navigating the website is easy enough. If you type in www.funbrain.com in the url box, you will be directed to the site. From here, you can choose to use the math arcade, reading, fun arcade, playground, and all games tabs, as well as books & comics and more fun activities. This website is specifically directed towards the audience of students in grades 1st through 8th, so as a teacher you can trust it to be safe and student-friendly.

This website, found at education.nationalgeographic.com, is geared at teachers, families, and student audiences. The encyclopedia resources on the site can be altered to better fit each of these audiences depending on the user's selected audience. In addition to encyclopedia resources, videos, photographs, lessons, and educational activities can also be found on the website. The website developer, National Geographic Society, does a wonderful job of providing external links and updated information on a variety of scientific and social topics which could be helpful in elementary classroom research activities. National Geographic's website content is relevant and correct, since it's most recent update took place in 2015. Although the site identifies its sponsor as the Verizon Foundation, no biases in the texts can be detected. On every educational page, whether it is an encyclopedia entry for K-2nd grade audiences or a suggested lesson plan for teachers, National Geographic provides a multitude of working links to back up the site's information and facts. At the bottom of every page, the website provides contact information in the forms of email addresses, mailing addresses, and telephone numbers for users to use in case of any questions or concerns. Clearly, the National Geographic Education website's content is accurate and very useful for science and social studies education. The design of this site is compatible with all web browsers and downloads efficiently. The Education home page offers an attractive, organized display of the website's resources and choice of audiences. This easy-to-follow format also flows onto every page on the website for easy navigation, and all links are integrated into the website's text for convenient learning and fact-checking. Over all, the presentation of National Geographic's content is attractive, organized, and current.

Molly Nations The second website that I found is www.onlinefreespanish.com, a website that contains many different categories of activities and means of learning, from learning songs and watching videos to reading books and playing interactive games, there are many different means of learning Spanish on this site. The website was quick to load on two different web browsers and upon clicking on each learning activity they were also very quick to load. It is very easy to tell what the purpose of the site is as it has a clear titles, but this site could be for any age group and intended audience as there are several different levels of learning on this site, from beginner to advanced. Overall, I think the site is very engaging as well as informative and would be fun and effective way for students to learn Spanish. The page contains a lot of useful information including daily updates such as words of the days. At the very bottom of the page, you can find the copyright information (copyrighted in 2015) and terms of use. You can also find helpful links, as well as who the website was designed by (FreeCSSTemplates.org), information about them, and how to contact them. Upon searching for this organization, it seemed to me as though it was a credible source and an organization that would only upload accurate and informative information. It is very easy to find this information and the links to each category of this information take you to a page that is well put together and presents the information in a good way. The site is colorful, very easy to navigate, and organized in a sensible and appealing manner. The page is white with black writing making it easy to read. It also contains colorful pictures for categories giving students visual help as to understanding what each category is. The page is very easy to navigate and each category is clearly separated and well organized

This website takes a look at some ideological approaches towards childhood obesity. The article on the website is intended for adults who work with children in any aspect. The author, James Hamblin notes that individual poor decisions are an extreme reductionist approach. The idea is that we can come up with programs in our schools that encourage healthy active lifestyles and that these programs, if effective, will help reduce childhood obesity and promote general overall healthy outcomes for children. One of the ideas expressed and refuted is that obesity is a loosing battle. The epidemic of childhood obesity has grown, this is true. The website and article are showing that our education and government society are concerned and want to help. No one situation is to blame, as suggested by the article. Sugar and soda pops are mentioned but abolition of any of these things clearly is not targeted as a solution. While no particular solution or method is presented, the idea is to keep thinking and not to dismiss this subject. I thought this was a good read and had helpful information for me. Knowing that others still take this problem seriously helps myself and those I can influence to remain aware and able to contribute in some way. This site is good for any person that wants to stay informed of efforts being made among multiple communities.