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Chaun Ary Teaching with Technology Professor Yeshi 1 September 2010 Website Review for "The Learning Network" Content 1. The website was great at first look because it is sponsored by the New York Times which is a reliable source. The site was clearly meant to give teachers more interacting teaching tools. The authors were provided but their contact information wasn't. The site didn't mention their credibility but it did give all their past publications which in a way is credibility. The information was all current and updated to the current date. The content of the site was complete and well organized with links to specific areas such as civics, global history, and American history. The information is good however the reader must understand that they do have links to NY Times editorial links which are always biased. The site also has interactive maps and teaching tools which is invaluable in teaching. Overall the site was definitely worth while.

Charlie Florom 09/01/2010 ITEC 2360 Good Review/Web Evaluation on Tools Used in Education When looking for websites on Elementary Education Activities, I came across the website: www.makeuseofus.com. The author, Salkat Basu, has displayed the content in a way that is easy for the viewer to identify with. This Website is describing the benefits of "Google Docs Drawing Tool Makes Collaborative Drawing Easier." I t was clear the web site was aimed towards Educators, who were looking to teach with Technology in a classroom setting. This site shows a clear reference that the sponsor was Apple, although it was not clear the significance to the Author and provide background on Salkat Basu. Fortunately there was contact information of this subject and therefore they could easily be contacted to find out more information if needed. This website was last revised 24 hours prior to my viewing, which shows me that it is current and up to date. Makeusofus.com also appears to have links that work correctly and all the information is very up to date and frequent.

Aggregates several Web 2.0 tools for further exploration

Overview: In this Mathplayground.com there are many different types are math problems for students K-8. Some of the problems come in an educational game form. Some of the games that this website has to offer are word problems, percentage, and multiplication, finding different angles and even math videos for students to watch. Content: The content of the website MathPlayground.com is very clear to understand. The different types of tools that this website has to offer are all given on the side of the website making it very easy to find the different problems that the students or teachers are looking for. This website even offers logic puzzles that are fun for students to play and not know that they are actually using math in the mean time. This website also offers a teachers section that offers many different tools like flash cards, math worksheets and even math manipulatives. Design: This website is a little more difficult and it would be geared to the older students and not the younger students. And yet again this would be a great tool to use as a reward in the classroom. The website does have a few ads that can distract the eye to look at the ads instead of looking at what the website has to offer. Also this website is kind of boring looking and the students could get lost and not know where to look when asked to find something. Overall this website can be a great tool to use in the future at home or in the classroom.

Chelsea Brunski 10-08-12 Overview The purpose of this website is to allow students to play games that will help them with math. The intended audience for this website would be for children in grades first through sixth. There aren't any outside resources but I think that it is okay for this website. This website has so many interactive games and videos that it doesn't need any other resources. My overall impression of this website is that it is a pretty good website. It is kind of confusing to decide what games teach what concepts but it is very interactive. I think when you are dealing with younger students and a subject like math you need something to keep them intrigued. Content The content on this website is all interactive. Every page that you go to you can find different games to play. All of these games have to deal with different type of math problem. They range from fractions to proportions. You can also practice word problems and watch videos for extra help. All of the games that are provided have a video game feel to them which draws children in. All of the games do serve an educational purpose and are reliable. The author of this website is a math teacher as well so she is a reliable source. Design When you first open this site you are taken to a webpage that is full of color. It has very strong eye appeal which attracts you to stay on this site. Since this site is for younger users I think that the vibrant colors work well for it. There is only a small amount of ads at the top of the page that blend in with how the homepage looks. This is something that could be confusing to a child. It is easy to navigate to all of the different games. Since it is for younger children I think that it is okay that the games are all put together instead of broken up into different subjects. There are also tabs at the top which help organize the site into different content area.

Charlene Asay: 1/23/2010 Overview: Kids Video maker is a site where students can learn how to make their own video. This site takes them step by step on how to write their own script, how to make their video, how to edit it, and how to show your video on the web or put it on a CD rom. This site is can be used for a teaching tool. This could be a easy way to get your students interesting in creating something of their own. Content: This site does have just a few different links and advertisements for booking trips, and different film schools to look at. This site looks like a great educational tool for students. A teacher could use this site to easily teach their students how to create their own video and post it wherever they would like to. They could share their work with the world. Design: The site is well designed. There are a few different advertisements that could be clicked on, but this site doesn't over whelm a person with so many advertisements they ant focus on the purpose of the site. This site does have a copyright date and who published this site, so this is a pretty creditable site it you ask me.

WebQuest website

Chelsea Brunski 10-08-12 Overview The purpose of this site is to provide help to students with math. The website allows student or teachers to create worksheets. They also have an interactive game section and flashcards to help with math subjects. There is also a homework helper section. It is intended for students' k-12. There is a resource that is very helpful which breaks down the entire grade levels. My impression of this website is that it is an okay website but not the best. It has some very useful and neat components to it which I would use often. It doesn't look like much effort was put into making this site. Content This website says that it is intended for k-12 but there isn't ever different sections on this particular site that distinguishes that. The link that is provided is the only site that actually has different levels of content. I do think that the homework helper is a very useful tool for younger age kids. It can only help with basic math skills. If you need help with upper division math then this tool would not be useful to you. The worksheet section is one of the best things that this site has on it. This tool isn't just for students but can be used by teachers. It allows you to create your own worksheet dealing with different subjects in math. The only problem is that this is also for more basic level math. The game section is very small and limited. It only gives you games concerning addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This wouldn't be for any of the upper grades only for lower grades. Design The website doesn't draw you in at all. You have to read the homepage to really understand what the website is even about. It doesn't look like much effort was put into designing this website. There are different tabs on the left hand side that allow you to navigate the site. These are easy to navigate to. It looks like the website really just wants you to go to the other link that is provided. This link is much more

Jessica Lee 10/21/2013 Overview: The purpose of this site is to help students (elementary and middle school aged) improve their math skills by offering flashcards, online games, a homework helper, and worksheets. However, the overuse of internal links within the introduction makes navigating through the website confusing and distracting. In addition, because it requires Java (which I don't have), it is useless and inoperable. The only decent thing about this website is that it provides an external link to Mathway.com - a website that answers basic math problems. Content: They have decent material as far as helping students improve their math skills; however, because the website is inoperable without the Java, the content is basically nonexistent. Their ideas include having the students work on flashcards, playing content-rich games, providing worksheets, and a basic homework helper that answers their problems. Design: The design of this website is so displeasing, that I knew that I would never use it after first glance. The color scheme is distracting and the layout is unorganized. Some positive points about this site, however, is that the table of contents on the side is useful and tells the viewer what to expect. In my opinion, they should have concealed the internal links in the introduction so that it does not take away from everything else. It's very choppy to the eye rather than being smooth and connected.

Ryan Mikesell ITEC Web Review 1/23/10 Overview: Ageducate.org is a website funded by the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture and is dedicated to educating agricultural educators. It provides information and resources for Ag Ed teachers everywhere to help them in the classroom. From lesson plans to activities the site helps teachers to better educate their students in agriculture. The site is mainly intended for Ag teachers but also has a link to careers available in agriculture. Content: The website is very basic and easily maneuverable. The information presented is clear and understandable as well as very useful to an educator in need of classroom activities and information. All the links are effective and useable, and all copyright information and site revision dates are provided. The website has many useful educational tools including useful book references, downloadable lesson plans and nation wide statistics about agriculture education. It also has a link that provides websites and games intended for the education of younger children and to help get them involved in agriculture. Design: The website is designed mainly as an educational tool. Its links are easily followed and it provides necessary links to other websites. Pictures are used to illustrate and promote agriculture. All provided information is referenced and revision dates provided.

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.

Nathan Hissong 1/23/10 Content: An important part of any government class is debating current issues in America. In fact POLS2000 is a class devoted to just debating the issues. Opposing Viewpoints is an excellent resource to research issues. When you search of click on an issue you get a list of articles from repeatable authors who either agree or disagree with an issue. A new addition to the site is that you can debate over message boards (which requires you to sign up). Now like message boards one cannot put a rating on the experience. In high school a student and either be censored or be understanding that some language is inappropriate. Being that the site I a beta site it is put up with the help of advertising. Personally, I find this annoying but it is a necessary evil in this instance. Design: Opposing viewpoints is a very eye-appealing site. I has a variety of issues you can look up. However, in the top tabs they are organized into menus that make it easy to fine a recent topic. This site is made for the ipod generation. It feels like social networking site with purpose. It is one of my favorites Overview: This site is a good research tool. It can also be used to implement the CRAAP test because it does have some questionable content. It is a good teaching tool telling students to fin a current issue to present and then debate it in class. Again a site I use quite a bit.

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

Nathan Hissong 1/23/10 Content: The Worlds Smallest Political Quiz provides five questions concerning personal political issues and five questions about economic issues. Each question is followed my a matrix which includes whether you agree, are not sure, or disagree with the question. When you are finished with the quiz which literally take two minutes you are presented with a chart that shows where you lie on the "political map." Below the chart the site tells you where you are. For instance, mine is Liberal. Under that heading it explains what that political ideology means. The site also out lines the other political ideologies below yours Design: The design is rather modest in aesthetic appeal. However, in my opinion is appealing in the content it provides. The site that provides the quiz also has quotes from The Washington Post and USA Today hailing its legitimacy as a tool to understand the political system. In conclusion its content makes up for bland visuals. Overview: In my opinion, this site is very educational. I plan to use in my classroom. American High School students often have no idea where they stand on the political map. This quiz not only gives you questions to decide where you lie it shows you the other sides and shows you why you lie where you do. It is a good exercise to show how different the ideologies are and how extreme they are in nature. It is a valid teaching tool and is simple enough for complete naves to understand.

Overview- This site is another great find. Overall it is a great research tool for both teachers and students in a closed encyclopedia format. It is a credible source and allows you to see the credentials of all contributors to the site. When you look up content it shows you the information and links to other credible sites with similar content. The only draw back about the content is the fact that it provides little information on mathematics and science. Other than that, it is a great tool for researching information. Content- This site is a great research tool. Every search made brings up relevant information. When you do find what you are looking for, the information is clearly organized, and easy to get main topics. Also, all information is usually backed up by some source, and even gives links to those sites that help contribute information. The site even has a dictionary link that can be used right on the spot. It is an amazing research tool for any teacher and/or student looking for information related to the social sciences. Design- This is a site that has put a lot of work into making searching for information easy. Everything is easy to find, and clearly labeled. It is pretty eye catching. They put a lot of effort in this site and it really does show in its easy to use, functional design.

Regene DePiero 9/5/2011 Overview: This site is geared toward students in math courses.  It provides a number of online calculators to help solve anything from equations to derivatives.  Its layout is a little confusing after in depth exploration.  Some links do not work or content listed is not what is actually provided.  Also calculators do not offer step by step explanation which only helps students get an answer, and not learn anything about the process.  From a teacher's perspective, not an ideal tool for actually learning math. Content: There is no clear author or sponsor listed.  Information appears to be correct but many of the calculators do not return answers for many problems attempted.  There are almost no actual math explanations provided, only tables and answers.   There is no revision date listed, merely a copyright date at the bottom of the page.  There are links to other pages on the site but most are actually ads and not specifically sponsored but the site itself.  Several links are broken, however there is a link to contact for more information.   Design: This site is confusing to navigate.  What appear to be links to other pages on the site are actually ads.  Several links either do not work or bring you back to the page you were on.  The calculators seem like helpful interactive tools until put into use.  They are difficult to use and there is not a good explanation as to how to input the problem so that they are solved properly.  Also several calculators don't even return an appropriate answer.  Links to "courses" and "lessons" actually only bring you to pages with tables of equations.

Interactive tools are used for literacy learning. Many grade levels available and many different types of reading and writing skills.

Overview This site has so many useful tools for both students and teachers. Current teachers are the authors of this site which is very unique and useful. Teachers that are currently in the classroom know from experience what works and what doesn't and this site helps them share useful resources for other teachers. Not only is this site great for teachers and students but also for parents who want to get my involved in their student's education. Content This site is phenomenal in the amount of useful tools it provides. It has a tab for classroom resources which has lesson plans, student interactive, calendar activities, and printouts. The student interactivities section has a lot of resources for students who need assistance in writing. All grades are available on this site which is useful for all teachers. There is also a search bar along the left side that helps to narrow done the content and grade level for fast and easy findings. The parent section also has many great things that parent's can use to help their students. It's great to have a site that allows the parents to get involved even with their high school students. Design The design of this site is very organized and neat. It's really easy to find what you are looking for especially with the help of the search bar. The grade levels are categorized for easy use also. The interactive section is really easy to use. The directions are very clear and use to understand which is great for younger children. It's just a very user-friendly site and it's very professional looking.

Solve basic probability problems.

Aylin Márquez 14 September 2011 Overview: Stattrek.com provides a variety of statistics tools designed for mainly middle and high school students. One of the most useful tools is the probability calculator. It can only calculate the three basic rules of probability. However, this online calculator can still be a very useful tool for students who do not own a scientific calculator. The site also provides the explanation of probability notations that are used to calculate the probability of one event. Content: The basic content of the site can be determined easily. The purpose of this site is to be able to help students calculate their basic probability problems. The online calculator is easy to operate. The site provides an explanation of the rules of probability under the summary report title. The site also includes links to other sites that are designed to improve students' learning. There is no revision date on the site. However, the information seems current, and the calculator works properly. Design: The homepage downloads efficiently and is appealing. The user can navigate around the site easily. The directions on how to use the calculator are clear. If the user puts wrong data on the calculator and clicks on the calculate button, the site has an explanation to guide the user on how to correct his/her data input. The site has advertisements that appear to be appropriate and related to students' needs.

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.

Kathryn Slothower September 11, 2011 Overview: The purpose of this website is to provide the knowledge and practice to students in math. The website breaks the skills into different sections which is very helpful however the information that they provide within each topic is not very detailed. The website is more designed for a brush up on the skill rather than learning the math skill. The website has numerous topics in math that students can use. The website has also broke the math subjects into the grade levels for students to explore the website through the grade that they choose. My overall impression of the website was okay. Content: At first look of this website the purpose and content are very obvious. There is information right away that tells what the viewer will find within this website. There was no information on the authors so although the information seems correct from my pervious knowledge I do not know if the author is credited. The content on the website is organized fairly well. The content is easy to find. The topics in math are separated however the website also separated the topics by grade level. It felt like this website was very helpful however it would be a website that was used for a brush up of knowledge because the information on the topics does not explain it very well. One of the better parts of the website is the practice that is available to use on each topic. Design: The design of this website is very interesting. On the homepage there is a paragraph about the purpose of the website and instructions on how to navigate through the website. Although this information is very useful it is the first thing that the viewer sees so the website is not very attractive. There are not a lot of other things on the homepage, which makes the homepage not very busy. There is an index on the left hand side of the page along with the top of the page. Even though there are aspects of the design that I do not like, I think that overall the

AAA Math features a comprehensive set of interactive arithmetic lessons. Unlimited practice is available on each topic which allows thorough mastery of the concepts.

This site is intended for Kindergarten through eighth grade, but is useful for both students and teachers. There is unlimited amounts of practice for various content for the students, but there is also lessons for the teachers. This website is very well designed. It's appealing to the eye and very easy to navigate for yourself. There is also a clear table of contents on the side which makes it easy to switch back and forth from different grade level or curriculum. This website offers a variety of tools for example games, practice problems, quizzes etc. There was also a clear author and sponsor for the site. The only thing I wasn't able to find was a revision date, but the type of math that was covered shouldn't have to be constantly revised. I think this website is very useful and if I end up teaching at the middle school level I will definitely introduce this website to my students and have them use it for practice.

Overview: Spanish Dict is a great reference for any Spanish student. It serves as a translator, dictionary, and learning tool for aspiring Spanish students. It has tabs that help you learn Spanish, create your own flash cards, make direct translations, and use a dictionary. It also has a conjugation tool that allows you to conjugate verbs in any tense. This site is also available in Spanish using a button in the upper right hand corner. Content: When you arrive at SpanishDict.com, it is pretty obvious what the site is for. It loads ready to be used. The author information is readily available at the bottom of the page and can be easily accessed. They are credible sources and seem to be qualified to create this site. Since this site mostly deals with word translation, it is not, nor should it ever be out of date. The purpose for the site is clear, it offers relevant information, it is easy to understand, and there is more than a sufficient amount of information for my purposes. Design: Although Spanish Dict does not have the most appealing website, it is extremely well laid out. It is easy to move around the site and directions are provided where applicable. One of my favorite design features for this site is the ability to have it translated into Spanish. This could be used as an ESL tool for that reason. It works on almost any browser, and provides enough information to make it worth visiting on a daily basis

Mark Hyde www.howtostudy.org Overview: In this site you can find useful study tools for college and high school students. It is simple looking and easy to use. It has plenty of information on how to set up a paper and how to write a good paper. Content: When you open the page, you will find different in site links to go to anywhere you want to go. From study tips to English terms you will be able to find much to learn from. It will teach you how to cope with test anxiety and also how to study without getting bored so quickly. It has many tools to prepare for that big paper or test. Design: Simple design that does not add eye appeal. Easy to use and is set up the same throughout the whole site. The lists that are in it are nice to use and easy. Not much eye appeal and is more for teachers than students even though it is called studentsfriend.com.

Allison Lindgren September 21, 2009 Website Review http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ This is a frequently updated site on current health and medicine issues. The fact that it is a '.gov' website gives it extra credibility. It is a comprehensive site on medicine with information on everything from caffeine to swine flu. It also gives links to other medical sources. The website is not geared towards children or even young adults, but more towards parents looking for current health issues and students doing medical research. Content Summary: The content this site provides is stated clearly, but there is so much information that specific topics can be hard to find. The search tool is useful. Citations are clearly stated for every topic, and the site is updated very frequently. The links are very general due to the large amount of information contained in the site. Some of the news articles could be biased due to the fact that the government sponsors the site. Design Summary: The home page does not have a strong eye appeal. It looks cluttered due to the large amount of information on the homepage. There is a search tool, which helps to navigate the site more efficiently. All the links work well and are linked to useful information. There is an enormous amount of medical information, which makes this site very worthwhile to visit and the same basic design is used throughout most of the site. The site is updated frequently.