Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Bailey Stanfield Reviewed 10/12/2014       This is a very informational source. The audience it is directed towards is very clear. There are specific tabs for each different audience including teachers, parents, kids, administrators and librarians. Pertinent information for each different audience is found easily under each of the tabs. Scholastics is a book company so they are obviously pushing for the literature aspect of education. The website is very appealing and works well for the target audiences.  The content is very easy to see and is very well provided. Scholastic is a very well-known company, and they are sure to keep the information on their website up to date with quality information. They had a new post on the new books for October so that their audience can always be aware of new, upcoming books that may be of interest to them. The content of the website is very solid and easy to find.  The design of the website is also very well done. On the home page they grab the audience's attention by having a video playing. The theme of the video is "open a world of possibilities". This plays into their company as whole seeing as they sell books, but also plays into the emotional aspects that captivate their audience. The design allows for easy navigation through the website and clearly presents the content. 

Kaci Philpot Overview: The intended purpose of this website is to provide elementary level students with fun and engaging games that build different skills and knowledge. Teachers can use some of the games for supplementing lessons such as; "volcano explorer", "chill the spill", and many more. Even games that don't seem like they would be educational are full of facts about various subjects and environmental awareness. Content Summary: For "First Look" I could not highlight the information because it was not in a text format, but the audience and basic content of the site are very clear. There were no specific authors listed for the games or information. The credibility of the authors is evident though because at the bottom near the copyright statement, it states that the company/sponsor is #1 in non-fiction media. It also has a very clear link for any questions about the site that works properly. I found it hard to find the latest revision date, most likely because the website mostly has games, but the content must be updated frequently because it has games that are up-to-date with the environmental issues today. All links to other sites work properly. In the "Information Quality" section of the evaluation, the website received all yeses. There are biases. However, they are clear when glancing through the content of the games. There was not any further information related to my purposes, but I did not really need any because I was only looking for games and activities to supplement lessons. Total yeses: 18 Total no's: 2 Total N/A: 1 Design Summary: The homepage uploaded very quickly and received all yeses. It has very strong eye appeal, it's clear what website you are visiting, and the copyright date is clearly stated at the bottom of the homepage along with the sponsor/provider. The navigation is easy and instructions for games and such are very clear and easy to follow. All internal and external links work properly. And internal links a

Kylie Marchant August 31, 2010 Overview This website is designed for students and others who want to test their language proficiency on 25 different languages using vocabulary tests and crossword puzzles. A German company called Goethe Verlag operates this website for language learners. Based on content and design evaluations, I think this site is worthwhile for using with my eventual students and even in my own studies. It is well organized, simple to use, and seems accountable and accurate. My impression is that it is a valuable resource to have in my repertoire. Content From the first look, the user can discern that the website is for students and others wanting to test their language skills offered in a variety of languages. The website is governed by the Goethe Verlag but it is a little difficult to identify their actual credentials. There is an area where the company can be contacted though. I could find nothing identifying the currency of the information presented on the site. From my proficiency in German, I took a look at the German exercises and they seem to be interesting and interactive as well as accurate and interesting for students. Further, there are no linked sites for more exploration. All in all, in response to the content of this site, I believe it is worth keeping mind for further usage and reference. Design The home page is the launching site for all of the information on the website indicating the title, contents, overseeing organization, and clear instructions for navigating the website. It is rather simple in design but still aesthetically pleasing. The speed seemed to be reasonable for the pages I visited including the home page. There is minimal usage of multimedia but when present it serves a purpose. The content is worthwhile, clearly organized on the website, and easy to use. Again, there are no distinct dates clarifying currency of the information, although I do not believe the information could ever be outdated.

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

Ryan Mikesell ITEC Web Review 1/23/10 Overview: Lincolnelectric.com or the Lincoln Electric homepage is a promotional website for the Lincoln Electric company but also contains information about Lincoln welding products and links to information regarding welding technology. The site is directed towards people in the welding profession, in regards to potential customers, or anyone in need of products or looking into joining the welding profession. Overall this is a good website to search products and gain information about the welding profession. Content: Lincoln Electrics main page contains a lot of advertisements and product reviews but that's because this is the nature of the website, to sell Lincoln products. However this is not the only available resource this page offers it also contains some very viable information. Within this website there are links to informational sites, career opportunity pages, educational and informational articles as well as educational products such as welding instruction videos and handbooks. Each article included on the website has authors and references. Lincoln electric also provides all copyright information on each page. There are links to talk to professionals and how to contact the company itself. A very useful site to someone in need of Lincoln products or information about becoming a welder and the necessary equipment needed, as well as the opportunities in the welding profession. Design: The design of this webpage is very typical for a corporate, product selling website; it's obvious its intentions are to sell Lincoln products and to persuade people to join the welding profession. Its links and toolbars are easily navigated and clearly defined. All revision dates and references are provided. The page also includes an abundance of images and links to other sites.

Content: This website's purpose is easily determined. As I am interested in being a science teacher, it is a great and valuable educational website for the teaching of photosyntesis. The author is actually an educational company titled Andrew Rader Studios. It is a company that displays alot of different scientific information, and there are various emails that are availalble to ask questions regarding content and or program use. The last time this website was revised was this past year 2009, the content diplays current knowledge regarding many different science topics. There are links to several other websites that all open and are available to further education if needed. It is a strictley educational website for the use of teaching science topics and providing visuals to assist in learning. There is previous knowledge form multiple sources and it is a great website for teachers to utilize as it is grade appropriate for several kids. This website is very valuable for me as a science teacher! It has so many interactive qualitites and if I had a smart board this website would be a great interactive learning tool. Design: The web page was easily accessible and it downloaded very quickly. The homepage displays all of the content in the other tabs, it is very clear and directive for the user as well as efficient in locating the science subject that one would like to teach.It is up to date and compatable on interenet explorere mozilla firefox and safri. All of the multimedia qualities are appropriate and not obnocious, and there are web links that help with the relativity to the age group. There is lots of visual descriptions, which in teaching science is a great way to teach the content. Attribution: My overall impression of this website is a positive one. The audience is for studetns, and also teachers. it is very clear as far as what links lead you where and so forth. It would be a valuable website for any teachers that are in science because the media is both inte

This website is designed for the use of teachers for grade levels 2nd and above, but could be used for gifted children in 1st grade or kindergarten. The site provides a step by step process to create games, quizzes, or crosswords. This could be a fun way to integrate spelling, history, or any subject into a lesson. I personally am a big fan of finding a fun or creative way to teach a subject and would use this site, and suggest others check it out as well. The website is set up in a manner that expresses its purpose to users right away. The site is created by the company Kubbu and was last copy righted in 2012 by a company called Soft Glow. Although there has been a couple years since it has been updated, the purpose of the site being a creator and the user (teacher) being the provider of the information, makes it a good source to use still. The design, while not fun or very inviting is simple and leads users through the site with ease. They not only have words to get you to the area of the site you might want but provide pictures as well. While the color scheme is dull, and it doesn't feel very inviting, the design is effective enough for users to be able to successfully navigate their way through.

The purpose of this website is for teachers to come in and buy items that might not be in everyday stores. These items are things specifically for different subjects and different grades. This website looks appealing and easy to use, however the items look very pricy. The audience is mostly for teachers however; anyone could go on here and purchase these items. The website has almost anything you can think of that a teacher would need for there classroom and objects that would help them teach a specific topic. Right as you open the page there are pictures of what you can buy, which makes this website look very appealing. There are different tabs you can click on to find different things, and one of the tabs shows you how to pay and order online. Hal Kaplan is the CEO of this company, and on the about us tab, it has a whole page talking about how this company came about. This website seems very up to date and very credible. The design of the website is very colorful and easy to use. Additionally the way in navigating this website is very pleasing to the users. It looks almost just like a different form of Amazon. You search what you want to buy, and it will see if this website has what you need.

Sean Wilde January 2011 kids.yahoo.com Content At first look you defiantly can see this site if for kids, and that it is for entertainment. But as you explore the site you also learn that it is educational, and also can help the authors(which seems to be merely a company) make money. There seems to be many sponsors since it appears that multiple companies pop up at different and the same pages of the site. There is no readily available revision date, they must update frequently seeing as how well the site is ran. The desired affect is achieved in this site because even as an adult I found myself thoroughly entertained searching this site, with games and educational items throughout the site. All links and graphics worked and were smooth. Design For the amount of information that is on the homepage it loads very quickly. And with all the moving features and things that are jumping around it is attractive and really grabs your attention. You always know where you are in the site as links show you are switching and they correlate with the website. Its easy to move around and get to twhere youwant to go. The graphics and extra tidbits that are put on that come from different companies all coexist very well. Really the only downfall for this site would be, that it is very hard to get in contact with someone from the website that runs it where it isn't just a quick response email. Overview This site is a good everything a kid needs site. It has games and videos from kids shows and games that correlate to thos shows as well. It has research information for kids to learn educationally. This site is just very well rounded for kids that could really search for anything they want or need. That includes entertainment and educational.

Murphy Muirhead9-8-2011 OVERVIEW:  This Yahoo! Kids site is a great site for children to explore learning games, music jokes etc. and its all kid friendly! The intended audience of this site is kids age six through thirteen. Through this website kids have a variety of resources that are educational, fun and introduce them to great things to do on the internet, such as e-cards.   CONTENT: The content of this site is great for kids. It provides many educational learning opportunities for them. However, the author of this site, and the last revised date is not apparent.  DESIGN: The design of this site is very eye-catching and grabs the attention of the users. It is very organized and easy to use. In a way, all the content on the homepage could get a little overwhelming but for users who are familiar with the internet, this site should be easy for them to navigate through. 

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

Gil Lowrey- 10/7/12 Overview: This website is for teachers, students and parents. You can look at several different subjects and there are links to activities for each. Teachers will get ideas for lesson plans, while students will get activities to help them. A company sponsors this website and if your books are from that same company there are special interactive activities. Content: This website covers several different subjects for several different grades and age groups. There are links to different activities for students to practice skills and different ideas for teachers to make lesson plans. Design: The design is appealing and makes it very easy to navigate. You pick whether you are a teacher, student, or family member and from there you select the state you are in, and then the subject and then finally the grade you are in. From here you can see several standards and look at activities related to them.

This website allows children in grades 1st on up to choose given words to create and complete a sentence. This game is a fun one to play but it does require audio so children can follow along.

Overview: This website is designed mostly for teachers, but can definitely extend out to parents. There is information ranging from developmental scales all the way to curriculum ideas. Content: The content of this site is good. The site is created by scholastic, which is a reliable company/sponsor of many things academic. The purpose of the site is very clear and all the links work well and take you to pages of strong/helpful information. Design: The design of the website is great. The homepage is attractive and the sidebar links are easy to navigate. Everything is well organized and each tab is full of relevant information.

Ivey Barnes 10/13/2014 OVERVIEW This website is an interactive math help website. It provides sample problems for many different topics from Pre-K skills all the way up to High School level materials. If a student enters in an incorrect answer, then the site provides a brief explanation on why the answer is wrong and how to fix it. Overall, I think that the website is a good resource to help students master math concepts either in the classroom or at home.   CONTENT The copy right is up to date by the current year and it is even stated that new topics are constantly being added. The source of all the information on the site is from a technology company whose goal is to create products to solve problems in education. This site is actually one of the products to help teachers and students. The only disadvantage to this website it that to get unlimited practice you have to pay and register to the site. The good part about registering is that they have different payment options for both parents and teachers.  DESIGN The IXL site is easy to navigate; it is broken up by tabs for each grade level and then the links are organized by subject from there. Each of the tabs are color coded and a preview of the content in each of the links is given before you click on the link. 

http://play.lego.com/en-US/default.aspx Reviewed by Angela Eiden 8/31/2010 Overview This site was created by the famous Lego Company. This site is loaded with fun and interesting games, comics, movies and downloads. Furthermore, this site has tons of content to entertain for hours. However, the drawback is that most of this stuff is not set up into a traditional educational way. Therefore, this site may be entertaining and loaded with fun stuff, but it will not be the perfect educational experience. The games are all Lego related and are quite engaging. However, they do have games for all ages, including preschoolers. Content This site is filled with content, including a copyright listed at the bottom of every page. However, there are no additional sites listed, with the exception of other sites that were created by Lego itself. There is also a copyright for all of the logos listed on the site. Design This site is extremely engaging due to the colors and themes used throughout the site. However, adult supervision may be required for younger kids. The site can be a little misleading on the easiness of getting to where you want to be. You may have to click through several pages to get to the one you are looking for. This may be quite difficult for younger ones to handle.

Peggy Hall\nAugust 31, 2010\nWebsite Evaluation\nOverview:\nI reviewed the website, Reach Every Child which is a website that helps teachers establish lesson plans. I believe the point of this website is to link the viewer to other websites that have information (i.e. lesson plans, facts, and data) about certain subjects. It is mostly a resource for teachers and students looking for information in whatever subject they need to discover more information in. I feel like this website could use some more content in explaining its overall use, but it does have a lot of great links for the viewer. This website needs to be enhanced, but the meaning behind it is good. I did also find some lack in labeling each section effectively. It took me a little while to completely understand how this website works and the author's credibility and contact information is lacking. \nContent:\nAs I previously mentioned it was not easy for me to decipher the overall objective of this site, I knew it dealt with lesson plans, but how those lessons plans were presented and used on the site was a little confusing at first. It is known on the webpage that Horace Mann developed it and that it is founded by educators for educators, but it does not have a bibliography page or link describing who Horace Mann Company is. It addresses in its disclaimer that if there are any questions to email them, but there is not an email address. This website does have over 5,000 resources and different links which I do find beneficial. However, it does also mention that you could hit a dead end and to not be discouraged. It is not apparent how current the information is that is being displayed on the webpage. This site does have some organization, but as I previously mentioned there is not exactly a clear homepage or labeled content links etc… There are a lot of links which do not clearly explain where they will be taking you next. \nDesign:\nThe design is lacking. It does not catch my eye appeal when I first l

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

Jennifer Durn January 24, 2010 Pioneer Drama Service, Inc. - http://www.pioneerdrama.com/ OVERVIEW While this site was more of a commercial nature than the others that I reviewed for this assignment, the Pioneer Drama Service website appears to be a valuable resource for the director of a children's theater program or a school drama advisor. The company provides a useful search feature to locate the appropriate play or musical and utilizes a shopping cart, as do many other e-commerce sites. I plan to bookmark this site and use it in my career when I have the opportunity to be a drama or theater advisor in a school setting. CONTENT The intended audience is readily apparent when one first navigates to the Pioneer Drama Service site - the "educational and amateur market." The site is well organized and information is logically presented. The site is updated regularly with the most recent update having occurred on the day I viewed the site. Given the abundance of copyrighted material on the website, playwrights and authors are cited consistently. DESIGN The "Ask the Playwright" feature and blogs are two tools that I had not expected to see on the site. The "Ask the Playwright" button allows the user to send a message through the Pioneer Drama Service to inquire about the particular work. The blog section provides postings from staff as well as news feeds from other relevant websites. Many of the plays and musicals featured on the site also contain production photos and production notes, a useful tool when deciding which theatrical works will be featured in the upcoming season. The site performed without incident using Mozilla Firefox and presented information in a simple and user friendly fashion - search features at the top of the site and a toolbar with drop down menus on the left.

Amanda Lamey January 23, 2010 Overview I chose this site because RosettaStone has seemed to help lots of individuals learn a second or third language. I was impressed when I came to this site. You can choose from a variety of languages, you can purchase packages or just one at a time. With each package it listed the price and a button for you to add it to your cart. They have a toll free number to call. There are videos of people who have used it and learned from it. I think this is a beneficial part in helping someone purchase this item. I know it would help me. I would want to know from experience whether a product is good enough to spend hundreds of dollars on. This website is designed for anyone, but limited to people with credit/debit cards. Any one person can learn a language with assistance and it has been proven that younger children learn quicker and faster than adults. They had a contact button for further information. It also had other available resources like case studies from a classroom, stories of individuals who had used it, videos of people who had purchased and used RosettaStone. It had different options to chose from like; Home school, Schools, Organizations and Personal. The purpose of this site is to let you explore multiple options and not limit you to one thing and one language, its open ended. I think it's a wonderful site and easy to use. I also think RosettaStone's product is expensive which is a downfall because as a college student I have enough bills and money concerns to worry about to where I can't just go spend three hundred dollars to learn a language on my own time. Evaluation of Design The overall evaluation of the design was accurate. It had useful information and sites to attend to gather further information. Instead of reading the material you would have to purchase it, but it showed what levels were for sale and for how much. It even had it available for different schools and organizations. It had a contact us box

John Pokallus 31 January 2011 Overview: The purpose of the site "Catch me if you can" seems to be a talent agency for aspiring individuals involved in the performing arts. The available resources of this site were literally non-existent and I had much difficulty navigating and finding any useful information whatsoever. This site was so poorly designed that I am still not entirely sure what content it actually provides. Content: Upon first look I was so inundated with visual stimulus that I was dumb-founded for a moment and had absolutely no idea what the purpose of the site was. After randomly searching the site I discovered that the intended audience was for individuals involved in the performing arts, and it seemed that this site was that of a talent agency. As far as information: providers, currency, and quality were all non-existent. The only actually readable text was the "about us" page that advertised their company named "Catch me if you can." There were links to other pages, but the links did not work so I could not tell if they were relevant to performing artists. The only positive thing about this site is that the grammar and spelling seemed to be correct. Design: The homepage took longer to download than it should have. Upon downloading, there were so many visually distracting animations and colors that I could not tell what the site was about. I did find an index to other pages within the site, but each page was equally confusing and distracting. There use of multimedia served no purpose other than to confuse, distract, and cause seizures to individuals susceptible to epilepsy. There were broken links, both internally and externally to the site. I could not find contact information on the site creators, and there was no indication of a discernible date or copyright notice.