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Scott Chanthongthip January 25, 2009 Overview: The site offered interesting facts about sea turtles, but the majority of the organizational site purpose was to raise sea turtle awareness for conservation efforts. As a teacher, it may be useful to refer to the site for simple informational tidbits, but it is not a primary source for all turtle research. The site offers species only secluded to the Caribbean eco-system. Information on efforts to support the conservation of sea turtles helps website viewers get involved. People can volunteer, adopt a turtle, or donate money to sea turtle conservation. Content: Information offered on this site can be useful to teachers and their students. Easy to navigate the site has many interactive tools like the turtle tracking map, where one can pick a turtle and see where s/he has traveled. Tracking gives Information about the migration of the turtles often and updates site viewers about sea turtle behaviors. CCC is the longest .org website of its kind that lends its attention to turtle conservation. Dr. Archie Carr was the founder of the CCC and research efforts have accumulated almost 50 years of experience. Many of the people that edit this site and review it are turtle researchers giving it a credible source for information, but it also leans towards conservation efforts as its premise. Conservation may be the sites main priority, but lesson plans for teachers with available turtle modules for students to learn are helpful. I do not know if the website charges for the downloadable PDF files for teachers, but one must register to gain access to the teaching modules. The sites message is clear, so it provides multiple ways to contribute to the funds for seas turtle conservation. The site gave me the necessary tidbits that help me learn more about turtles, yet not a good place to start to teach about turtles. I would recommend this site more for making learning about turtles more interesting and possibly integrat

Jennifer Durn January 24, 2010 ArtsWork - The Kax Herberger Center for Children and the Arts - http://artswork.asu.edu/ OVERVIEW The ArtsWork site, part of the Kax Herberger Center for Children and the Arts at Arizona State University, provides a multitude of resources and art educational materials for K-12 students, their parents, and teachers. Lesson plans, teaching resources, and curriculum are available to teachers to view and utilize in their classrooms. The site offers interactive activities on various subjects for students and their parents to complete, links to arts-oriented websites for children of various age groups, and listings of activities for children in the Tucson and Phoenix areas. CONTENT When the user first accesses the ArtsWork site, the purpose and mission is readily apparent - to educate children and their parents about visual arts, dance, theater, and music, and to provide K-12 teachers with tools to best instruct their students. Sources and authors of material on the site are clearly identified and their contact information is provided. Information appears to be relatively current as the most recent update occurred in November 2009 but some out of date references were detected. DESIGN The ArtsWork site features a pleasant visual design with multimedia teaching resources such as Ben, the guide to political cartoons. The site is simple to navigate and links to other subject and age appropriate websites were plentiful and featured sites from around the world. Using Mozilla Firefox, I did not encounter difficulties with the content or links presented on the site. The primary sponsor and host of the site, Arizona State University, was mentioned and had logos displayed in a tasteful manner.

A website full of logic puzzles, math videos, word problems, and other math games

Ryan Pinkston January 22, 2011 1) Overview- The primary goals of Math Playground are to help students feel more confident about their math skills and to help them form more positive attitudes toward the subject of math. I try to accomplish these goals by providing engaging games and activities that students find meaningful and fun. 2) Content Credibility- It is easy to determine the basic content and intended audience for this site. The authors of the material are identified and information about the author is easy to find. The content achieves the intended purpose effectively, appears to be complete, and the information is easy to understand. It seems to be free of bias and provided interactivity that increases its vaule. 3) Design Evaluation- The homepage downloaded in a timely manner and is some-what attractive. There are clearly marked tabs and the information for contacting the sponsor is readily available. Directions are clear and easy to follow and the links within the site work efficiently as well. The information is clearly labeled and well organized. The same basic format is used consistently throughout the site. A working link to contact the person for further address is available. 4) I would use this website because it has a ton of different games for math and they are all fun in the own way. It is easy to use and navigate through.

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

Taylor Pilch 09/09/2011

Taylor Pilch 09/09/2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide an easy online educational website to help with learning and provide teaching games. The fun games use technology to teach kids. The intended audience is for Pre-K to 8th graders, but you have to sign up to use everything on the site, so it is primary for parents at the beginning. I did not find any resources on this website; it just contained things from the website that I could see. The overall impression of the website was that it could be really fun and helpful, but the fact that you have to sign up made me want to find somewhere else to go to that would be easier to start using. Content: As for the content, it was easy to tell what kind of content was in the site and who it was intended for. The information quality was good- the purpose was clear, it was organized and easy to use, and it seemed pretty reliable. On the other hand, I could not find an author of the site as well as information about the author. There was a place to contact them, but I did not see any names about who was in charge or anything like that. Also, I did not see any links to other websites or sources, which could be a bad thing. Design: Everything was clearly identified and you could find where you wanted to go without much difficulty. There was a copyright date and everything seemed to be in working order. It seemed current and the same format is used throughout the site.

Game Zone Overview This site has a variety of games available for a variety of ages. The games focus on different types of English grammar functions. There are many games to choose from which makes it easy to find what you are looking for. There isn't really much information in this site besides the games. It is the primary focus of this site. Content The content is very basic. There are many games to choose from that deal with a variety of different English concepts. The games are specified into elementary, intermediate, and advanced. This allows you to choose the content that is the best for your grade level. The games are where the all of the content is. Each game has a specific focus depending on what you are looking for. This site lacks any other information beside what is in the games. Design The design of the site is very simple and straightforward. There is a lot of white space. The nice part about the design is when you drag your cursor over the quiz names it gives you a short overview of the game and it also tells you what it's focus is and what grade level it pertains to. The site is easy to navigate and the games have specific directions. It's easy to play the games and they are very creative in their design also. The games are very animated and graphic.

Overview: The purpose of this site is to serve as a professional development aid for teachers as well as a classroom tool. It covers all grade levels and all subjects which makes it useful for the whole school or a whole school district. Design: The design is kind of all over the place. There doesn't seem to be any unifying theme or color scheme. The home page is boring to look at and has too much coming at the viewer all at once. It was also difficult to figure out what the primary purpose of the site was. Content: The content is actually pretty good but the site is really more of an educational catalog rather than a free aid for individual teachers. This site then only becomes truly useful if a school pays for it. The "interactive" history section was dreadfully disappointing as there was nothing interactive about it. Overall I would not use this site in the future but it still has uses for some school systems.

Overview: This site is mainly for teachers to help improve their skills and knowledge and by providing information that is useful for them to view for free or purchase. Although this site can be helpful, I think it needs some additional work. It provides videos and workshops for teachers which can be beneficial. Content: The content is clear and easy to navigate although I had a little trouble finding the lessons for students or teachers. One problem I noticed was I couldn't find other links to web sites. The authors weren't clearly identified and there was no information on them. This site is also for others to use. There are lessons that students can learn from on their own at home. It covers Arts, Foreign Language, Literature and Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and History. Teachers and students of all ages can find lessons or material to learn from. Design: The design of the web site is good. The homepage is organized. Other than the homepage, I didn't notice many graphics; however, there are videos of workshops that teachers can view from their own home. The other pages could use more interesting graphics and this site needs to provide other links to other sites.

Overview This site has a variety of different content that is geared toward elementary students. Overall the site is rather complete offering different options for students with a pleasing variety of games. It has different links for teachers to follow that allow them to choose games for students and monitor how they do. It has a variety of games and lets you pick first by subject and then by grade level. There are suggestion boxes that all people to post suggestions for games, which is something unique that I have seen to this site. I think that is a good site to use in the classroom and a wonderful tool to enhance children's learning. Content The content of this site is fantastic. They have wonderful games that are simple to use and a joy to play. The games are age appropriate and on a variety of subjects. The content is organized well and it is easy to find what one is looking for. There are suggestions for how to incorporate this into the classroom even mention smart boards and various other technology. Design The design of this page is childish with bright primary colors and fun cartoon characters. An added touch is the titles and headlines look like someone wrote them instead of just typing. It is a site that is very enjoyable as well as simple and has a nice look as well as in interesting.

Eileen Andrews: September 9/11/11 Overview: As the title suggests, this site helps students and teachers access history digitally. This site includes links to primary sources, lesson plans and other help tools for teachers, and interactive learning such as timelines. This site would be useful for both teachers and students. Content: This site covers a wide variety of topics in American History from the American Revolution to present day. The site seems to be well kept since the last revised date is 9/11/11. Although some links don't work, many others due, and the ones that don't work can be search in for in other resources. Design: The site is easily navigated and includes a site map and search option to make finding specific content easier. This site provides pictures, videos, and timelines. The site can seem boring at times, but the pictures do help liven it up. The site is organized very well in the sidebar and site map.

Amy Andreen 9-14-11 Overview: This site is based out of the UK but it has great historical content. The greater part of the emphasis is on European history which is very interesting to look into. It will obviously have a bias that leans toward the British, but I find that to be beneficial in researching topics and content for the classroom. It's a site that would be useful to both Social Studies teachers as well as High School Students. Content: A wide variety of the site focuses on the historical events that took place on European soil. However, it is not limited to this. There are primary accounts from both World Wars as well as other events throughout history. There are podcasts that allow students and teachers alike to have a more interactive experience on the site. The list of topics within the site is almost endless. As far as content goes, this site is a great resource. Design: The Historical Associations' site is beautiful when it comes to content; however, I found the site very boring to look at. It isn't hard to navigate which is great, but in my opinion it lacks in inviting colors that should add interest to the viewers. There are many different tabs that allow one to explore the site very easily and enjoy all of the content offered. Once the researcher or viewer makes it past the layout, this site has fabulous material that can be very useful to teachers and their students.

Randi McInerney September 15, 2011 Overview: The purpose of the BBC Learning School Beta website is to promote and provide educational materials for students, parents, and teachers. This website would be great for k-12 education and teachers and parents of those children. The site offers educational games and learning tools, resources for teachers, tips for parents to help improve their children's education, and education related news articles. The content and design are very visually attractive and extensive. Content: There is a lot of content available on this site, but it is easily accessible. There are interactive games, video clips, news articles, and other activities and information. The website has extensive information for all of the intended audiences. There does not seem to be any reliable contact information available besides a "feedback form" to send criticism or praise and "frequently asked questions" are also available. Design: The website downloads correctly and quickly and looks very interesting and organized. The site is easy to navigate, even without directions. The site could be used by a primary aged school child fairly effectively because of the clear labels and ease of navigation.

This is a great site! I'm definitely using it in my WebQuest.

Overview: GOOD originated as a magazine company and with advances in internet, GOOD has designed one of the most unique interfaces to gain information, current issues, and learn more about community ideas. Concept: The concept of GOOD is that of news organizations, but in a sense that breeds community. Some ideas shared can seem a little more one sided than others, but it brings good ideas, people, and news to the front page. This positive interface brings education aspects to social constructs and the newest in each subject. I especially like the Challenges they give the readers each month for August "The effects of going Vegan" or for September "Send someone a Post Card." We value getting mail, but never seem to be able to write to our dearest friends. I love the facts that back up this simple good idea to become more outgoing. This can be a resource for teachers to challenge students. Seek through news and actually find "good" stories to share to the class. The content in comprehendible and an awesome resource to get students away from main-stream media to understand community polls on political standings or engaged in dive into design, food, or education. Design: GOOD is a website that values its high design, easy access, and reader friendly qualities. I am also thoroughly impressed with Good's Infograph posted to tell stories of simple if "If Facebook users are more Trusting?" The design is so user friendly you can quickly glance over headlines while browsing each most viewed story. Students of post-primary education can access with without being drowned in adds or bias news articles.