ITEC2360

Overview: The purpose of this site is unclear at first, though this could be due to the fact that the site is UK based. The site is a "national grid learning" that gives various learning sites for various age groups. Because it is not US based, it does not follow the same dialect which makes it more difficult to navigate through. The home page is clearly indented for parents/teachers/adults. It lacks any sort of eye appeal and seems fairly boring. There is an abundant amount of resources for different age groups including many different languages. But again, these are difficult to follow. Content: Overall, I assume the site works well for its intended purpose. There are many different options for people, but the information is difficult to follow. For my specific purposes, the site is usable but I would not refer to this site again in the future. Design: The design of this site bores me. Even as a parent or teacher, the site doesn't give much of a reason to continue browsing when starting at the home page. The games themselves seen to be entertaining enough but could still use work on gaining the interest of a child.

This is a rally last week regarding the teaching bills going through Idaho right now. Senate passed them today, word needs to get out about what is going on! Please watch minute 1:10-9, I know it's long but PLEASE.

From their Website: "NBC Learn is the education arm of NBC News. We are making the global resources of NBC News and the historic film and video archive available to teachers, students, schools and universities."

resources for Special Needs, many resources are from Apple Computers

Jamie Henry 19 May 2011 Overview: The website Learn.Genetics is a very useful site for teachers and students alike in the science field, especially when it comes to genetics. The intended audience is teachers, but it is also designed for easy student use if teachers wanted to use it as a resource. Based on both the content and design reviews, I found this website highly helpful and effective. It would be an amazing practice tool to use when teaching students about gene transcription and translation. Content: Using the Content Evaluation sheet from Cyberguide, Learn.Genetics proved to be a useful site. In nearly all the criteria I marked "Yes" for Learn.Genetics. The information was easy to use and served clear purposes. There were many interactive games and pages that would make it useful and easy to use for students and teachers. The only thing this website could do would be to give links to other useful sites and one to a person who could be contacted for more information. Design: The design of the Learn.Genetics website was also very good. Not only was the site appealing and easy to navigate, it was recent and each part had a clear purpose. There were no directions for using this website, which may have been helpful to some, but since it is such an easy site to use, directions are not really necessary.

Jamie Henry 19 May 2011 Overview: Biology Lessons is a website designed to give biology teachers a source for lesson plans and worksheets for students. The audience is very clearly teachers, as it offers only resources that teachers would want or need. My impression was that it was an organized site that would be helpful for teachers to build lesson plan ideas off of. Content: The Content Evaluation for Biology Lessons showed that this was not a strong website, or one that should be used at all. Almost every link from the homepage was broken or would lead to nothing. Because of this, the site fails to serve any purpose and so the value declines immensely. This site has good intentions, but with so many broken links, it cannot be used to its potential. Design: The design of this website was also fairly bad. It really did not draw any eyes, as it is just a gray screen with green writing on it. It was very organized, but the information was not available because of broken links. There are no graphic or audio links, nor are there any links to other sites that may be helpful for either teachers or students. This is definitely not a website any educator should try to use in their classroom.

John Paul Evans May 18, 2011 Historyteacher.net is a content heavy page providing many teaching resources for history teachers. The website is usable but needs many improvements. Purpose: Historyteacher.net provides a large amount of content for history teachers. This includes, quizes, timelines, study guides and much more. It also devotes some of it's resources towards updating readers on current events in the field. Content: This website does not lack for content. Unfortunately not all the content is managed appropriately. A person can look at the page and reasonably grasp it's purpose, however they may have difficulty finding the content they are searching for. The site provides a great deal of information and is clearly unbiased when approaching history. However, much of the information reads as if it is pulled directly from a text book and often fails to provide citations or even authors. It does provide many links to credible and useful content providers when more information is required. Also all of the content it provides is free of charge. Design: The design of this site is atrocious. It loads up quickly but has so many links and information on a single page that a user does not know where to begin. It doesn't help that flash animations, gifs and unneeded icons and pictures litter the page almost randomly. The color scheme also seems random and makes your eyes begin to verbally cry out in pain. I would recommend an entire overhall on this website's design. It would also be helpful if news and articles would list an author or at the very least a date posted. As it is I have no idea how regularly the site is updated or if it is even currently active.

John Paul Evans May 18, 2011 shmoop.com is a wonderful and professionally designed website with many resources for educators. This review focuses on the US history portion of this website. Purpose: The websites purpose is to provide a planning aid to U.S. history teachers. It provides timelines, videos, guides and more for every year of American history. Most of it's resources are free but advanced resources such as quizes and advanced student work sheets to require a premium membership which is fairly affordable a $7 a year. Content: The best part of this site is it has a very large amount of unbiased, free content. It's content provides authors, citations, and dates, even for it's photos and video clips. Further, it provides great links for more in depth study on any given subject. The only downside is that a small portion of the website does require a membership. The membership content is always clearly defined and always for a specific and consistent purpose such as student worksheets. Design: The website provides a clear purpose and is designed professionally. It makes great use of photos, and videos while allowing access to them in a way that does not clutter the individual pages. It provides great search and sort features and most importantly everything is organized in a way that the content is found without hassle.

Morgan Carlson 5/18/2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to discuss The Diary of Anne Frank and to look more closely at the events leading up to her capture. The website also intends to discuss why the diary of Anne Frank can help us put a face to the millions of Jews that were murdered. The intended audience is for students in junior high or high school that would be reading the book. It can also be a tool for teachers to create lesson plans based off of the different categories presented. Some of the resources provided are links to movies based off of The Diary of Anne Frank, and video, audio, and graphic clips that are related to the life of Anne Frank, and/or the Holocaust. Based on the content of the website, the information is presented in a basic manner, and does not provide enough details or examples. Also, the design is very minimal and not as appealing to the audience as it could be. Content: Based on the cyberguide ratings for content evaluation, this website does a good job of presenting information in a clear and concise way with a variety of different links that provide related information. However, there is no author or sponsor or organization listed, and there is not a date for last revisions made. In addition, there is no information about whether or not the author is qualified in the subject area, or no way to determine whether or not the information has been updated since its creation. Although the site is well-organized, the lack of accuracy and authenticity is difficult to assess, and may not be an adequate site for research. Design: When first visiting the website, the sponsor and author are not present. Information for contacting the sponsor or author also are not present, and you must go to the website's homepage to retrieve any contact information for the website. Although there is a table of contents that helps you navigate the page, the homepage is very minimal and could be updated. The graphics, audios, and videos

Morgan Carlson 5-18-2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to help teachers create positive lessons about the Holocaust. The website is intended for teachers, and for students from kindergarten through college. Some of the resources available on this website are learning about the founding organization of the website, personal stories from Holocaust survivors, book reviews on the issue, and causes such as the Global Relief fund and Darfur. The content of this site is useful to my needs, and explains in detail the purpose of its postings, and also of the related links on the website. There are several other useful links from this page, and the design of the website is easy to use, and is appealing to the audience. Content: In the opening paragraph of the website, the purpose and intended audiences are clearly listed, along with information about the founder of the site and contact information. The purpose of the site is informational/educational, and the founder of the site is qualified. There are a variety of links, videos, reviews, etc. pertaining to the purpose of the website, and information is cohesive with one another. The website provides a link to the corporate sponsors, and it appears to be free of biased attitudes. However, there are one or two broken links on the page, and the date of last revisions is not stated. It is then difficult to assess how frequently the material is updated. The website's main purpose of providing a variety of instructional tools to help students and teachers is fulfilled, and easy to find using search tools. Design: The homepage is fast to load, and you can easily see the title, name of the sponsor, and contact information upon first viewing the website. There is a table of contents and a search bar that makes it easy to navigate the website. Graphics and videos are placed accordingly, and are relevant to the material being discussed. There are directions that explain how to click on certain links, and a dis

One of the most famous paintings by Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas [French, 1834-1917. It captures dancing, a contemporary art, and exhibits dancers so vividly as if she is actually dancing. Edgar Degas began an increasing number of paintings on different poses of ballet dancers. And they were an immediate success.

Caitlin Pilch 8/31/11 Content: At first look, I was unable to identify what the content is on this site. The author of this site is not clearly identified, and there is no obvious sponsor. The revision for the content on this site is not relevant. The information on this site is organized by grade level and also activity subject. There are games and activities for the different grade levels. There is not a large amount of resources/games/activities on this site. The content on this site is adequate but compared to other sites is lacking. The links on this site are unrelated to what the site's content is. Design: The design of the site is lacking. The site downloads quickly but there is no appeal to any of the pages. It is hard to tell what page you are on. There are two separate indexes-one for different grade levels, one for different activities which is confusing and it doesn't clearly indicate where you should navigate to. The content presentation is not sufficient compared to other children's websites. Overview: The purpose of this site is for entertainment and education. The recommended target audience is kindergarten to fifth grade. This site offers different games and activities like number games, word games and interesting facts. I am not impressed with this site. It does not offer very many activities and the ones it does offer do not seem to suffice for the target population. This site is not visually stimulating and I don't think a child would find this site entertaining.

Katrina Knapic9/4/11 Overview Autism Speaks is a website that is meant to educate and help raise awareness about autism. Its intended audience is parents whose children have autism, as well as teachers who have autistic students. There are multiple links to other areas of the website with pertinent information.  It's overall design is not too complicated, but is does take some navigation to get to more information. Content The content that is presented on this website ranges from basic to more in depth. There are recent articles regarding autism and science, family services, and autism in the news. There are links to how to donate to Autism Speaks and where the next Walk for Autism will be located. The articles are up to date, and there are ways to contact the Board of Directors.  Design The overall design of the website is meant to be inviting and is laid out in an easy tab system.  The home page indicates that this is a website meant to be informative and to give out support. The color scheme is very easy on the eye and compliments the tab system that is used for the table of contents and links. The photos on the website relate back to content and add an air of hope and inspiration. 

Lauren McDaniel, 9/4/11 Overview:  This website is an interactive website for teachers and future teachers hoping to have guidance as to which educational philosophy they hope to implement in their classroom.  Based on each person's answers to the questions provided, you are navigated to which philosophy best fits you.  The information is scattered and not put together very well, making this website one I would choose not to return to.   Content:  Each educational philosophy is present on this website, but all that is given is a general overview.  There is no history behind the philosophies mentioned and each tidbit of information lacks examples that help to create more understanding.  The information seems to be accurate, but more in depth information would make the website that much better.  There is no copyright date, revision date, or author anywhere on the page, making it questionable as to how reliable the information on the site actually is.  There are some links provided at the bottom of the page and all are working properly.  For a person hoping only to gain the basics, this site would work, but in regards to thoroughly understanding the topics, a better website could be found.   Design:  This site does not have a strong eye appeal, making it one that could be easily bypassed.  Again the author, copyright date, etc. are not present anywhere on the page.  The website's information is also very broken.  When scrolling from different sections of information there are large blank spaces, making the website appear informal and unreliable.  The blankness of this website fits the lack of information provided.  Because it has such a small amount of useful information, this site is not worth revisiting.

Nicole Sutton 9/5/11 Overview: The e learning for kids website is a nonprofit foundation that provides free and fun learning activities on the Internet. The website is for ages 5-12 but can also be used by people in the education department, parents who want to connect and learn what their kids are learning, as well as game developers who want to contribute. e-learning for kid's hopes to be a better source for children 's learning through being available through the Internet so it can be accessed from anywhere. It's free and offers course content in math, science reading and keyboarding. The website helps children master these important basics so they can be successful in their future lives. e-learning has many partners and supporters; there are also helpful resources such as a media link that connects you to new, case studies and other important information. Content: The e learning for kids website is very easy to navigate, and is very high quality. There is a very nicely laid out home page where you can click on the grade level you need. Below the grade level there is a list of subjects you can choose from. There is also a choice of languages to choose from at the very top of the page. Once you click on a grade or subject it gives you a list of fun and helpful activities as well as what grade it would be best for. The content of the site is very helpful and well laid out. The website seems reliable as well because it gives you a list of board members, executive team and advisory board so you know exactly who is involved in the website and what they do for the site. Overall I got a very good impression from the content of this well laid out website. Design: The e-learning website is very easy to navigate and very pleasing to the eye. It is colorful and lays out all the links that you need on the home page. There is a clear area to contact the creators of the site and sponsors or partners were very easy to determine. The copy writes date is clear and the

Nicole Sutton 9/5/11 Overview: The Mathematics Lessons that are fun website is a simple website that provides math lessons and activities. The age range the website is extremely unclear. The website is only for math and no other subject and I find the home page rather confusing. The author of the website is very clear however the website looks very jumbled and not professional. The website is unclear in many areas. Content: The Mathematics Lessons that are fun website contains a jumbled set of boxes that are links to games and lessons for math. The quality of the website is not very helpful. I find it hard to find the information reliable because there is an author but no title or reason she is an expert. There is not a list of people involved and there is no clear purpose of the website given. There does not seem to be a sponsor nor any way to contact the owner of the website. There are no other resources given on the website. My overall impression with the content of the site was that is it very poor and unreliable. Design: The Mathematics Lessons that are fun website has an attractive but simple lay out, however is over powered by the confusion of the confusing links. You are not sure where to go upon the arrival of the home page. The copy write is given at the bottom of the page however it is not current which gives the impression that the site has not been edited in a long time. The use of multimedia is confusing there are random graphics and almost annoying colors everywhere. The information including grade level is not clear and the website does not contain easy to navigate links. The website is not a very reliable one and not one I would use for my classroom.