Educationworld.com downloads quickly and efficiently with no problems. Upon visiting the homepage, things are laid out in an attractive, easy to navigate form with no question as to whom the sponsors are, where contact information is, and date of copyright is clear. Navigation of educationworld.com is simple and effective. Links displayed on the site are both relevant as well as functioning properly. A site guide and a help link are useful if additional help is needed in navigation. Graphics on this site are used appropriately and add to the content of the site. The content is easily found on this site due to organization; consistency from page to page on this site also adds to the effectiveness. Information provided seems to be useful for educators. It is evident that information is kept current. Overall, this site is legitimate. Ease of navigation and good information that can provide help to teachers are the highlights of educationworld.com.
This website is for Kindergarten and earlier teachers for art class. It provides lesson plans for teachers to teach art. This website does not look professional. It has a lot of popups that come up when I am trying to navigate through the website. It was copyrighted in 1997-2014.
This website is kind of useful. I found that the lesson plans were kind of confusing. They weren't actual lesson plans. They were more of suggestions that you could do for a lesson plan but they said that they were lesson plans. This website would be helpful for ideas not actual lesson plans.
The overall design of the website was easy to use and navigate. However, it was not professional. At first this website does not look reliable, but when you keep looking they have some really cool idea. I would probably not use this website in the future for lesson plans.
Morgan Jenkins
October 13, 2014
The author of this website wanted to help teachers find resources and lesson plans more easily. This website provides many different resources for preschool and kindergarten planning. It has lesson plans, activities, worksheets, math, and crafts. I personally feel that this site is helpful in many ways because it has a large variety of ideas and lessons. You can find specific lessons for holidays or seasons, but it still has generic lesson plans that can be modified for a specific class.
The author of this website, Elaine Engerdahl, is a credible author because she taught Kindergarten for 31 years, therefore an expert by experience. The last copyright was in 2013. I would consider the materials up to date because the lessons all follow common core standards and include up to date technology and methods. There was a contact section that included the email and mailing address of the author along with a phone number. The content is clear and effective because the purpose was to help provide teachers with resources and the site effectively does that. My overall impression of this website was professional and helpful.
This website was easy to navigate and had a clean design. There were buttons for lesson plans, activities, crafts and more. When you would click on the links to other websites they seemed to all work. The design of the simple but fun. There were graphics but not too many. The text was easy to read, and the font was not too big or small. Clearly the website was set up well and is easy to use.
This website is for Early Childhood teachers and of them to get free lesson plans, units, and materials. Overall, this is a really cool website. I would use this website for lesson plan ideas and it is current information. It was last copyrighted in 2013-2014.
They have a ton of different websites that teachers can go to and get different ideas. Also, there are blogs that you can follow to get more ideas. This website also includes the different degrees that you can get in different states. All the information is current and relevant for early childhood education.
This website is very plain. However, I think that it is appropriate for the audience that it is for. It is professional in a way that you know it is reliable. This website is very nice and full of a ton of good information.
One resource I chose to evaluate is No Fear Shakespeare. The URL for this website is http://nfs.sparknotes.com/. The purpose of this website is for students to understand Shakespearian plays. Understanding older English can be very difficult, and the purpose of this website is to use language that is more relatable to today.
The author of the plays is obviously Shakespeare, and the site shows other information about the contributors at the bottom of the page. Copyright information and contact information is provided for those who need it. This website is current, and seems reliable. The website effectively fulfills its purpose. I used this as a source while studying Shakespeare, and I would use it for teaching it as well.
The design of this website is very functional. This was easy to use as well as aesthetically pleasing. The website is easily navigated and presents information well. The design is very modern, so it is fun to be on this website.
This website is for both students and teachers. Grade levels from K-8 were posted with activities and lesson plans for each grade. There are games for students to play as well as lesson plans and activities for teachers. The purpose of the website is to make math more fun. I feel like this site is awesome because both teachers and students can benefit from the materials posted. There are worksheets for free on this site so it is a good resource for new teachers.
The owner of this site is Jumpstart. They have been in business for over 20 years. This website had a current 2014 copyright date. Therefore I would consider this site to be up to date in all aspects. The games and lesson plans are based off of the Common Core standards and they try to push the students to learn the next step.
This website was harder to navigate around. There were way too many links and buttons. This also is good because there is a lot of information, but it can get a little tricky to navigate. The design is very appealing to kids. They have a lot of cartoon characters and bright colors. The section for kids is easy to navigate so I would recommend it as a good resource for students. The teacher's section is the most challenging to navigate because there is so much going on. Overall there are parts that are better set up than others, but as a majority there is just way too much going on as far as the design goes.
Overview: This intended for all readers, but specifically a grade school audience. The purpose of the sight is to provide free tall tales to the public. It contains an array of folk tall tales. The content of the site is excellent, and the design is adequate.
Content: At first glance, the site is clearly full of tall tales. The site presents itself as a resource for all readers. At the bottom of the site, there is a link to email a contributor to the website, as well as a link that gives information about the founder and main author of the site. The founder has extensive knowledge and formal training in the areas of writing and story telling. The website is updated frequently, last in late September of 2012 and all links function appropriately. It serves its purpose effectively, by being complete, organized, easy to understand, and free of bias. Information on tall tales is accurate and extensive, likely comprehensive site about tall tales I have found. It is well written, and encourages user input. The site contains many links to tall tales and stories, which are relevant to its purpose.
Design: The homepage is visually appealing and downloads quickly. Navigation is simple and content is clear. The site sponsor information visible at the bottom of the page with contact information and copyright and last edited date. There is a link to email the webmaster. The site is easy to navigate, includes an index, and all links are active. There is little use of multimedia and what is used is not visually excellent. The website is available on a variety of browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. The content of the site is extensive. The content is organized, easy to use, and design is consistent throughout the site. There is not outdated content.
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.
This webside is the virtual museum located in Hiroshima with many specail exhibits online.
Overview: This website is for people of all ages who are studying the effects of the Atomic Bombing on Hiroshima. It includes several special exhibits, including an exhibit on Sadako Sasaki, a famous young girl who died of leukemia from the bombing several years after. This is pretty much a virtual tour of the museum that is in Hiroshima, and is up to date.
Content: The content of the site is not really defined. At the top is a welcome banner that says "Let's Look at the Special Exhibits". From here the students will have to brows the different exhibits to use the one that I want them using. There are no authors listed, or a copyright date. Finding the Sadako Exhibit is fairly easy. The links to the exhibits are all working and easy for students to use. There is a link to a list of contributors for this exhibit which is easy to find.
Design: The color scheme of the website is a little dull. Once you get into the exhibit there are a lot of good photographs, the text is in bold and easy to read. Links to the displays are very clearly marked. The photographs are all clear.
Audience: Parents, but the information could also be useful for a teacher or counselor intending to provide advice or support for parents with anxious children.
Overview: The purpose of this website was to explain how and why young children feel anxious, and ways in which parents or loved ones can help calm the anxious child's nerves, and the purpose is served very well. The webpage talking about specifically about school stress in young children provides multiple links and subpages that relate to management of and living with an anxiety disorder, how to recognize it is symptoms and what it looks like in both children and adults, support and resources that families could use to properly live with the disorder, and other related articles on various disorders and mental illnesses. This website is very impressive and I intended to use it for future use in the classroom.
Content: This particular website provides multiple pages related to the topic of school anxiety rather than one half of one full page of information! The only thing that was not provided on this webpage was contact information. Revision and copyright dates are available, but the last revision date was in 2007… It was not very long ago, but I feel as though this information should have been looked at recently and updated with new studies that might have been found. The website states clearly that it is a medical related site with professional medical information. Overall, the given information is very well laid out and very professionally written. I am very, very impressed.
Design: This website is very appealing to the eye given the amount of pictures and use of color coordination. The amount of pictures gives it just enough appeal without looking like it is too much or overbearing. Information is clearly given and easy to find, navigation is not hard to do, links seem to work properly, as the same format is followed throughout the website.
Courtney Lovell
February 2, 2012
Overview:
The purpose of this site is for teachers to have free lesson plan templates. The intended audience is educators teaching grades K-6. Available resources are multiple lesson plans for general subjects in elementary school. I think that this site will be very useful. As a future educator I will use this site to my benefit.
Content:
The content to this site is great. I am quick to determine the general information of the site and know who the intended audience is. The authors and sponsor are clearly identifiable. There is a contact us tab that is easy to access. The links on this site are working properly and beneficial to the audience. The information quality is fantastic. The site is lacking the revision date information.
Design:
The website design is also good. The homepage downloads efficiently and is attractive. You can tell where you are immediately while you are on the site. The copyright date is clearly labeled and the table of contents. The site is easy to navigate although there are not directions available for the user. The multimedia use is working properly. This site is definitely worth visiting if you are a elementary teacher.
Cassie Nelson
February 3, 2012
Overview
The purpose of this site is to help Agriculture Educators teach in their classroom. The intended audience is Ag teachers. This site has multiple website links to different Ag based sites. Overall, I really like this site and will use it in my future teaching. I especially like how it has activities to build awareness for agriculture.
Content
At first glance the user is able to determine the content and audience of this site. The site has all of the information about the authors and who to contact for questions. The material is clearly identified. The site seems to be updated frequently but there was no revision date on the site. The information is accurate and organized. The site itself worked properly. The links are also related to my needs.
Design
This site has an attractive eye appeal. You can tell where you are in the site. A downfall is that the site doesn't have a copyright date or date site was established. This site is very easy to navigate. There is sufficient information that is worth visiting.
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.
Courtney Lovell
February 2, 2012
Overview:
The purpose of this site is to provide lesson plans to elementary educators. It covers all of the basic subjects in elementary school and could be useful to future elementary teachers.
Content:
This site is lacking some important qualities, such as there is no information about the author on the site. Also the site does not have revision dates. The information quality of this site is superb. The site is well organized and easy to get around. The information appears to be accurate on this site and similar to information on other sites. This could be good tool to use as a future elementary educator.
Design:
The homepage of this site has a strong eye appeal. As the audience you can easily tell where you are and there is a table of contents available on the homepage. The homepage is lacking information about the provider and the copyright date. This site is easy to navigate and downloads efficiently. It also has useful information that can help elementary educators.
Stephanie Mecca 2/5/12
Overview:
The purpose of this site is to provide information on different types of art and the artists that work with art. The site includes the Art 21 episodes and short videos that can be seen on the PBS TV channel and includes written blogs about the Art 21 artists that are featured in the episodes. The intended audience is not just for education uses but anybody can enter the site to learn about art. Teachers could use this site to teach students about different artists and about the types of art. There are some links to the PBS site that provides other resources but there are not many other resources.
Content:
From the main page the viewer can see that the site includes information about artists and includes videos and episodes. The intended audience can be seen as art-seeking individuals by just looking at the overall art theme. The site douse include a whole section about the site and the people who work on the site and on the Art 21 episodes. You can read about the sites policies and terms of use, you can also easily email any of the board of trustees. The content of the whole site serves a general art purpose including current and past art. The site is well organized but doesn't clarify the currency of the information, meaning it doesn't include revision dates or updates information.
Design:
The overall design of the site is appealing, with the bright pink color and clear pictures. There is an easy-to-read top menu that you can click on and the copyright is at the bottom of each page. The site is easy to navigate though there are no directions on how to use the site. There some links to the PBS web site but not many other external links. The video files load easily and are clearly seen and heard. There is a lot of information to make it a sufficient site devoted to artists and art. The site uses the same basic format throughout and provides contact information for further information.
Bradley Sharpski 2/6/12
Overview: This particular website is for teachers to look at and get ideas for lesson plans on science and biology. This website contains tons of helps lesson plans and activities that all grade levels would enjoy. This website would is very fun to look at already and would be perfect for an incoming teacher that is just starting out and needs some good ideas. This site has interesting lesson plans and gives you activities and other helpful plans even for what to do on the bus. Overall this site is worth going to and looking at these great plans.
Content: This website is very is to locate and very easy to find where to go for teachers to find lesson plans and other activities. This site doesn't have its author's right up front for you to look at but if there is any trouble, there is a contact tab that will take you to some one that will help you. All there is not an exact date as in month and day; it does tell us that it is updated in 2012. So I believe that would work. The quality of the information given is appropriate for school age children and helps provide teachers with great ideas. This site is very organized, easy to understand and the information I found to be sufficient related to the needs at hand.
Design: This site is very is to use and uploads very fast. The lesson plans that need to be downloaded are fast and I didn't seem to have any problems with them. The homepage attracts you and the sponsors are provided and copyright is given at the bottom of the screen. This site is very is to navigate and gives you no trouble when looking around. This site works on macs as well and multimedia is awesome. This site contains tons of videos about animals and other great things. This site has it information located at the bottom of the page is easily located and up to date. There are links to other sites about animals but not helpful things a teacher could use.
Stephanie Mecca 2/5/12
Overview:
The purpose of this site it to provide art students from the ages of 4 to 12 years of age with a fun, interactive game site to both play and learn through art. There are a variety of games ranging from drawing different types of pictures to game shows to help students determine different types of sculptures and what they are made of. As students play games they are able to learn some art history and are quizzed and art basics which are helpful resources to the viewer. Overall this is a very interactive site where students can learn as they play.
Content:
After clicking on the little figure to enter the site the viewer is able to read about the site, what its purpose is and who created the site. If the viewer has all ready read this information they have the option to "skip the intro". Although there aren't any links that allow the viewer to read about the sites authors there is a basic link on the main page so that the viewer can redirect the main Abright-Know Gallery website which provides information about the Gallery, copyright information, and contact information. The quality of the Artgames site is great; the site is well organized and understandable for young viewers to follow.
Design:
On the main page of the Artgames site the viewer can see that the developer of the site is the Normal Force which used Macromedia flash technology to create the website. Once the viewer enters the interactive site they are greeted by a page that has numerous pictures that are links to different games. These links are easy to follow and are usually pictures of the different games. There are helpful directions to read through before playing the games and the same format is used throughout the site. Although there isn't any place in the site that the viewer can find out when the site was last updated and there are no outside links.
David D Castle
2/7/12
Overview: The site provides access to worksheets for K-12 teachers but requires a subscription to access the majority of the content. There are links to other sites for free worksheets, but access is limited without a subscription. Though at a cost, the site appears to be worthwhile. You can generate your own worksheets within the site, as well as upload pictures, submit artwork, and play brain-training games.
Content: The site covers almost every subject and provides worksheets for all of them. The purpose is clear, and a subscription can be purchased directly from the homepage. The site looks professional but isn't clearly organized. It has copyright information and a 'contact us' button, but doesn't say exactly who the site creator is.
Design: Without subscribing, the site doesn't provide sufficient information to make it worth visiting. It does provide links to free sites and gives you a pretty clear idea about what the site contains, but it overly organized. The directions to subscribing are clear, it appears professional, and it offers multiple resources.
Aylin Márquez
13 September 2011
Overview:
Math-Play.com provides a variety of games designed for mainly elementary and middle grades. The games are categorized based on the grade level, subject and type of games. The site has a list of games for teachers and students that is designed to improve students learning skills while they have fun.
Content:
Math-Play.com offers easy-to-play games. The site includes classroom games that teachers can add to their lesson plans to make learning interactive and fun. The site also shares links to other math games. Even though the date of the last revision is not clearly labeled, the copyright is 2010 dated, and the sponsor of the site is under Doina Popovici name.
Design:
The homepage downloads efficiently, and the games are readily available. However, elementary or middle grade students may not find this website appealing based on the design of the homepage. The top of the homepage has only one image and lots of text until the user scrolls down on the page. The games are labeled, organized, and ready to use with ease. The graphics, animations, sounds clips serve a clear purpose, and they are appropriate.
Meghan Frank
The purpose of this website is to provide math games of different skill levels and different grades to students. The intended audience are students in almost any grade level. This website is intended for students to use to not only get more math practice but to also have fun learning math. My overall impression of this website is that it would be a good website to use to practice math. It meets almost all the criteria of the cyber guide ratings and would be a good resource for students to use in and out of the classroom.
This website meets most of the content criteria of the cyber guide ratings. At first glance you are able to determine what the content and the intended audience is of this website. The author of the site is identified, we do not know any other information about the author or whether or not they are qualified to present information on this topic. The sponsor and revision date is also not provided. However, the website seems up to date and all the links work to the different games. The content of the website is clear and it achieves its intended purpose. It is also well organized and easy to understand.
The website does better with the web design criteria. The homepage loads fast and is eye catching. You know where you are immediately and there is an index of all the games on the website and age groups. The site is easy to navigate and directions are provided and easy to follow. The links to other pages work and are appropriate to the webpage. Use of multimedia serves its correct purpose and relate to the math on the website. There is plenty of information and games that make this site worth visiting and using. All the information is clear and organized and consistent throughout the site. There is no revision date but all the information looks up to date. Over all it seems like a good website to use even though not all the criteria are met.