ITEC2360

Cole Baumann January 24, 2010 This website helps teachers build their lesson plans and assists them to help the students. I could see this being a really good website for new teachers due to all of the lesson plan designs for any category of learning such as history, or mathematics, English, and literature. All subjects have different sections in the website showing how to make a lesson plan. For example, there is a lesson plan for a Kinesthetic, visual, and auditory method to teach students about the U.S. Constitution. I find this site to be very helpful for teachers that do not know how to teach a visual learner or a Kinesthetic or auditory learner. The website is very easy to navigate with a lot of fun little bits everywhere. There is a search bar in this website so that teachers can type in whatever they are looking for and find anything from how the Roman Empire fell to the book The Epic. There is also a whole section in this website devoted to video so if you are not much of a reader you can watch these videos and find new ways to teach in the classroom. This all helps teachers grow and become more successful in the classroom for the students. This website is good for any new teacher to learn how to finally develop lesson plans and be effective to all three ways of learning. Also, it could be good for teachers who want to teach the same thing, but they want to do it in new ways each year which keeps it fun and exciting for the students and the teacher. This website has many educational videos which is also very good for teachers to demonstrate other techniques of teaching.

Sara Hindman January 24, 2010 Overview I evaluated the Discovery Kids website because of my interest of the Discovery channel. The purpose of this website is to advertise the channel and I know this because of all the emphasis on their characters. Although the website's main purpose is to advertise, another purpose is educational. Most of their games have no educational value whatsoever, but I was did manage to find some that were extremely beneficial. One was the Build a Volcano game in which the student controls the viscosity and gas of a volcano and watches to see what happens when different variables are increased or decreased. Another game was Make a Mummy, which the student learns about the different procedures the body must go through in order to become a mummy. I learned many things I did not know before. The intended audience for this website is ages seven through twelve. I did not find any links to other websites. I find this website to be a waste except for the few games I found to be educational. Content The Discovery Kids website clearly stated its purpose of advertising and the intended audience by pasting most of their television characters on the home page. Like the nobelprize.org, kids.discovery.com failed to state who the author of the website is, although I was able to find when the last revision was (2010.) The information quality is great, there is nothing "under construction" or inaccurate. There is no further information for this website. Overall I would say the content is ok, nothing spectacular. Design The design of this website is good because of its eye-catching pages. I completely understand why children would find this website appealing because it has everything to offer children; their favorite characters and fun games. The speed of this website is fast and it is easy to navigate. All of the multimedia is loaded fast and provided perfect quality. I am not sure if this website is compatible was different browser bec

Posted by Amber Rittenhouse on 1/24/10 Overview: This site is intended for anyone who wants to get better at multiplication, primarily students in elementary school. The site offers many different strategies and a lot of help to learn the multiplication tables. The site offers many games to apply their knowledge of multiplication to win the games. This site accomplishes its purpose of teaching. There are many links available through this site to go further and learn more. Content: This site contains many games, as well as techniques, tips, and secrets, that deal with multiplication. There is a way to contact someone in the case of questions or a problem of some sort. The purpose of the site is to help kids with their multiplication problems. The site does this through games, so the kids are entertained. Through the entertainment they are learning. The content is well organized. All of the games you get to choose your level of difficulty, so kids of a variety of ages can use this site. There are further links provided for more practice. There are only a few ads spread around the outside of the web page, so they are not very distracting. Design: This site is well designed. The homepage downloads quickly, and all of the links do so as well. It is very easy to get to the lessons and the games. Strategies to help someone better learn their multiplication tables is also easily found. The whole site is very colorful, and it catches the eye very easily.

Whitney Mills; Website Reviewed: January 24th 2010 Overview: Kidgen.net is a helpful website for teachers who are looking to help their students learn to read, write, count, etc. It is suitable for all ages and can also be used in different languages. The only downfall is that there are different levels of membership, when it would be much more helpful if it were free. Content: It is very easy to understand what the purpose of this website is as soon as a person clicks on the link. The intended audience is anyone at any different ages, which is stated right away. The author is listed at the bottom of the page. The links to the other sites do work properly and the site is current. The purpose of the site is clear; it is intended to teach students words, spelling, counting, etc. Overall the site is well made, organized, and looks professional. Design: I feel that this website is ok in the design. It could be a bit more worked on to be a little more exciting or appealing to children. However, the site design is common throughout all the links, and isn't confusing to look at. The site has very current information and looks as if it is visited often and revised often. I would recommend this to anyone who'd be willing to pay for the memberships but not to anyone who is looking for a free website to help teach their students.

Whitney Mills; Website Reviewed: January 24th 2010 Overview: Songsforteaching.com is a website that uses songs to help teach students. It seems as if it'd be very helpful in the classroom because younger age children love to learn through songs!! Content: There are many different aspects on this website that include singing songs in different languages, singing for different holidays, different ages, different subjects, and even for special education students!!! The purpose of the website is clearly defined, and that purpose is to teach through music. The site offers thousands of songs, clips, etc. The links to the other sites work properly and effectively. The grammar and spelling are correct throughout the whole site and the overall content is very well done. I would definitely use this site in my future classroom. The author is stated clearly and it is updated often. Design: The design is very organized. The theme is the same throughout the whole site and it is very easy to follow. The graphics are very well suited to the site. The homepage has strong eye appeal and makes a person want to find out more about the site. I think this is one of the more professional sites I have looked at throughout all the sites I have looked at to review.

Whitney Mills; Website Reviewed: January 24th 2010 Overview: Funlessonplans.com is my favorite site that I have looked at to review simply because it involves lesson plans. I feel that becoming a new teacher, lesson plans would be the hardest thing to try to come up with. This website involves lesson plans for many different subjects which could be a huge help for future teachers. Content: The purpose of this website is to help future teachers with lesson plans. The author is clearly identified and the website is revised often. It is very organized and provides a user with tabs to help navigate throughout the site. There is a contact address to ask questions if needed. The links to the other sites are current and they do work properly. The website is very well made and looks professional. I would use this website in my future often if I was having difficulties with lesson plans. The intended audience of this website is meant for teachers. Design: The design of this website is very clear and easy to follow. The website has the same them throughout the whole site. The homepage downloads efficiently and has a strong eye appeal. I was able to move around the site easily and was overall very happy with the design of this website.

Jennifer Durn January 24, 2010 Purdue Online Writing Lab - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ OVERVIEW The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a site designed to provide online writing resources for writers of all ages; from middle school through college and into adulthood. This site provides a variety of writing resources ranging from assistance with APA and MLA formatting, to tips for avoiding plagiarism and resume assistance. Overall, I found the site to be particularly user friendly and have utilized it when completing assignments in past courses. CONTENT The purpose and function of the Purdue OWL site is readily identifiable when the home page is accessed. Sources and authors are listed clearly and the content of the website is current and up-to-date. Resources are also available which highlight recent updates to the site and provide navigational tips for accessing information quickly and easily. Information presented in each section is relevant and easy to select what is important for the particular writing project. DESIGN Using Mozilla Firefox, I did not have any issues with navigating the Purdue OWL site. Recent updates and upgrades to the website have improved the visual appeal. Multimedia resources are not available on the site but given the subject matter, this is not surprising. One area where this site could use additional work is the lack of links to other websites outside of Purdue University's English Department.

Stetson Fancher Reviewed Aug. 31, 2010 Purpose The purpose of the Purdue Online Writing Lab is to help give information and references towards writing documents for school related projects. It is there to educate Purdue students and others about all kinds of references and sources to help make the writing process easier. They have everything from avoiding plagiarism and APA formatting style guide to exercises that might help you with your writing. This site is a great site to use for students as young as junior high, up on through graduate school. It does a great job of making difficult information accessible. Content This site has a full arsenal of information that it has to offer writers with many different kinds of goals. It also does a great job of organizing the information so that it is easily accessible to those who need it. It also keeps the references us up to date as possible. It keeps the most current style guides and even frequently produces podcasts to those who subscribe. It does not always show all of its references on the home page, but as you dig into information, then it becomes more available. The content that this site provides is one that can be applicable for many different writers.

Adam Matson 9-14-2011 Website Evaluations: 1) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ - Purdue Online Writing Lab Overview- This site is intended for the use by students (grades 7-12+) and teachers alike in regards to English writing styles, citations, etc. The site is developed by Purdue University and even allows students to turn written works in to be reviewed by university students and teachers to help correct and guide the writing process. It has a very complete overview of how to write well-rounded essays, letters, etc. and is easy to read and navigate. It covers areas such as MLA and APA formats along with how to cite sources both in-text and bibliographical forms. I would recommend it for anyone who has a question about a writing assignment. Content- The content of this site is extraordinarily helpful and easy to navigate. From the homepage you can easily discern that the main focus is education in English writing. All areas are labeled clearly and cover many sides of whatever subject you are on. It explains clearly every aspect, such as citing sources, and shows many examples, reviewing almost all instances the writer might run in to. Design- The design is fairly basic, as many educational sites are. It is not very interactive (meaning videos, sounds, games, etc.), but it very easy to navigate. Tabs and links are obvious and lead to such places as Contact Information. Links to other parts of the site are always colored differently and easy to discern. All links are easy to read and very specific, letting the user narrow down their intended search quickly and efficiently.

Posted by Amber Rittenhouse on 1/24/10 Overview: This site is used primarily for educational reasons. It is intended for high school students and beyond. The site offers help in many areas of math in order to help with the understanding. Links are provided to get more help beyond what is provided in the site. This site accomplishes its purpose of teaching very well through the example problems given and the lessons provided. Content: This site offers help in order to learn many math concepts, including algebra, trigonometry, calculus, differential equations, complex variables, and matrix algebra. Once you select one of these categories, you can then pick a certain area within the subject. It then offers you an example problem and solution. It is very easy to navigate around the web page. The site offers a lot of information and a lot of help to better learn many math concepts. It does list the date that it was last revised, so the viewer can tell how accurate the information is. Links to other sites are provided to get more help. There are very few ads, so you are not distracted from the learning. Design: The site is very well designed. It is not hard at all to get to a certain subject area that you would like further help in. The site is not incredibly colorful, but this does not distract the viewer from their learning. There is a lot of useful information in this site, so it is definitely worth visiting if you need help in math.

Overview SOS Mathematics is a site for high school students and higher for extra practice and review of materials they are learning in class. It is easy to use and has easy access to where students should go for certain subjects. There is easy access to the other links on the website that allow the website to be complete. Content The content of this website is mainly informational about giving review in higher level math classes for at least high school students. The content of the website is complete because there are no broken links or part of the website does not have any incomplete content. The links are all up to date so there are no problems with the other sites it is linked to. The website is well organized and easy to understand. It is worth bookmarking and given to students to use as review. Design The design of this website is appealing to the eye because it is not too crowded or overwhelming because of the content. All the links are working properly and easy to follow. The website is available on all internet browsers. Due to its easy access students can use it not just only at school but as home as well for extra practice and review so it is easy for students to do better in the class material and subject matter. The website is well designed and easy to use.

Emily Hastings Reviewed: 2/5/12 Kbears.com Purpose: The purpose of this website is to provide students with a fun educational environment. Intended Audience: This site is intended for Kindergarten through fifth grade. Available Resources: This site has its information on it with no need for links to other sites, but it does offer a link for a KBparent site. Overall Review: This website would be fun for students to use during their free time or as a reward for achieving a goal or some other assignment. It is a fun site for students, and could also be used in a classroom as a class or at home. It isn't very broad of a site, it only has a limited number of things to do, which may be hard to use at times and also could get boring. It is hard to navigate around unless you have sound and are able to listen to what each of the avatars are saying. Overall I think this site is more for fun and education at home, or on students own time, but is a fun site for them. Overview: This site offers information in many subjects. It has a lot of reading, so students need to be able to read. It is animated with many characters that talk and videos that are fun for students. It consists of many different things to do and learn about. Content: The content of this website is informative for students and fun. It has unusual ideas and activities, rather than your normal site. After a while on this site you might run out of things to do though, which may become a problem. Design: The design of this website is eye catching, but not very welcoming. It definitely interests you with the characters on the homepage, but is set up as if you were on a ship or something. Unless you're able to use sound this site is going to be quite useless for you, which could be a problem. It is harder to navigate around and the homepage isn't set up very simply so it could be a waste of time until you got the hang of it. Overall the design area is "cute" but unorgan

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.

Emily Scoles 1/24/2010 Content Summary: This is a Russian language learning site. This site has some audio but is more in depth with writing, grammar, and sentence structure. There are links to other Russian language learning sites as well. Overview: The website clearly states it's purpose to teach the Russian language to anyone who wants to learn it. The layout is descriptive and organized. The site is geared toward older age groups. The site is basic in it's look with no pictures or graphics. Design Summary: The sponsor is shown on the website and a link for questions is given. There isn't information about the author on the site. Overview:This site fulfills it's purpose to explain and help teach the Russian language and writing. The site and links are working properly. The information is mostly unbiased, but some of the introduction paragraphs have opinion. The grammar and spelling is correct in the site.

Overview: The purpose of this website is to provide Spanish language teachers with a resource for learning tools and lesson planning. The links are helpful and the content is easy to understand. It's not an elaborate website, but is simple and to the point in design. I feel there could be better information in this website. Content: When arriving at this website, you immediately know it is designed with teachers in mind. The authors have a link at the bottom of the screen and look to have won a number of awards for their information on this website. Some of the links don't work which leads me to believe the site isn't that up to date. The Lesson Planning section really isn't that helpful because the links take you to other sites that either don't work or require you to buy products for your classroom. Design: The homepage isn't that appealing to me. There are a number of advertisements that make the site feel it isn't real. It is easy to navigate using the toolbars even though some don't work. There are links to other languages. There aren't many graphics on this website, but I don't believe they are necessary in this instance.

Rebecca Gardner Jan. 24, 2010 The content of this website offers a lot of different sources and links. It is a little hard to determine what this website is offering, because there is so much going on. It also is intended for a wide audience. There are links at the top of the page that will take you to the different sources, but then navigating though them can be a little tricky. Information about the author of the website is available and so is there contact information. The latest revision date was not provided, but the sites copy right dates were current, and the links were up to date. The purpose of this site is informational. They did however have some entertainment under the kids area tab. The links to other sites were related and appropriate to my needs The design of the website is to give you information on education, study abroad programs, and international jobs. It also offers information on career training and learning different languages. The tabs at the top of the page are easy to navigate though. The links to other pages were useful and appropriate. I didn't run into in dead ends when using the links. There was little to no multimedia except for ads. The website was very effective with a variety of browsers. There is a lot of sufficient information if you are researching topics that they have high lighted. The same basic format is used though out the website and it is fairly easy to find other links. My overview of this website is that I would highly recommend it to students that are learning another language or teachers who teach different languages, and also if you are interested in teaching or studying abroad. There is a lot of information and that to me was over whelming. But the over all content and design was helpful and appropriate.

Posted by Erika Jeffs on 1/24/2010 Overview: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is website that provides updates on assessment, curriculum, and instruction for educators. The organization also has an impact on the policymakers of education. The NCTM provides updates for teachers on new research that is being conducted related to teaching mathematics. The site also provides scholarly journals and essays that teachers can purchase. Also, for an annual fee, individuals can become members of the NCTM. Content: It is evident that this site specifically for teachers and math professionals, but to fully understand the content of the website, you must read the mission statement. The authors and creators credentials are available as well as contact information. The content is updated frequently and dates are provided for each individual section that has been changed. The site has a lot of useful available material, but there's a lot of options each page making it difficult to find specific information. For teachers looking for the latest updates, this site is useful, but not appropriate for students. The links are all in working order and the advertisements are all from the NCTM. Design: The NCTM homepage is cluttered and difficult to navigate. There are clearly labeled tabs for navigation, but there is a lot of information on each page. Because of all the information, there seems to be no room for graphics or interactive tools. This site appears to have some importance in the math community, but it was very difficult to use.

Overview: The purpose of this website is for teachers to join the community of teachers that teach Spanish or Portuguese. There are a number of important links for all people to see that are not members of the AATSP. The overall layout and design of this site is Professional and has a sense of prestige. Content: The content of this site is up to date. The contact information and date of copyright is listed at the bottom of the page. Content is organized, helpful, and accurate. The calendar shows upcoming events and there is a link to the monthly Journal. Design: The layout is professional and makes it seem that if a teacher joins, they will be part of an important group of people that will provide great resources. The table of contents is in alphabetical order and the scrolling photos make the website seem relevant to the information it provides. All links work properly and provide very useful information. Due to the amount of links, there seems to be a great resource of information available to people with the AATSP.

Overview This website is my favorite, even though it does not look very professional. It has links to other sites that are easy to navigate through and it has different classroom activities that are described and are to be used in kindergarten classrooms which is the age group that I intend to teach. I am able to find an author and author information as well as a recent "last updated" date and current links on the homepage to lead me to further information. The site lacks color and graphics, but the content and information makes up for it. Content I am able to clearly see that the purpose of this website is to inform teachers of many different classroom activities that can be used as well as a description of each. The author of the site seems qualified to be giving out this information and there is further information given so that you can find out more about the author and her credibility. The site was last revised in December 2009 so the information is very recent. The content of the site achieves the purpose which is to inform. The site appears to be unbiased, organized, accurate, and consistent. Design The homepage downloaded quickly and efficiently as well as its links and contact information. The home page is not attractive however because it lacks graphics or even color. I can clearly tell where I am once I get to this page and can easily find the table of contents and its links. The author, sponsor, and copyright information are easy to find at the bottom of the homepage. It was easy to move through the site and navigate each of its links and the site is reliable and current.

Katie Hertel 1-22-09 Overview: This website provides various educational materials to its primary users of students, teachers and parents. The purpose of this website is to educate about numerous subjects and provide preparatory material for standardized testing. It is set up so you can click on links such as Weekly News, Info Central, Global Warming, Elections in the US and Games and more. It also has Student and Teacher Resources containing lesson plans and study guides and practice tests for the standardized testing. Overall I found it to be okay but definitely has room for improvement. Content: When navigating through the links I found that there was quite a range of information that you can click on to learn about your desired topic that was accurate, according to my viewpoint at least. Although it had that, I also found that the Weekly News and the Elections in the US did not work. It supports decent educational value and has stated authors for certain articles and even a link to read about the author giving it credit that is reliable. This website has a twice monthly publication so the web page has authority and accurate information is being placed on the site. Design: Its design was easy to understand and eye catching along with very few to no advertisements that distract from many other sites. It had various links to other pages that relate to the site and shows how to use the site. Because of its structure, it may be hard to access the information you want unless you know what you are doing.

Rebecca Gardner Jan. 24, 2010 The content of this website is based on lesson plans for grades kindergarten to 12th grade. This was easy to determine. It was also easy to determine that this website was intended for teachers. The authors and sponsors were easy to identify and they seemed qualified to present information on the topics. I could not find when the website was last revised, but the ads were current. The links to other websites were current and working properly. The purpose of this website was clear and informative. The content was well organized and offers sufficient information for my needs. I didn't see any bias, but I believe that there could be, because the website is presented by Discovery. The website provides interactivity that increases its value. The links provided are worthwhile and appropriate. The design of this website is effective and it down loaded efficiently. The homepage is attractive, but did have a lot of ads. You can tell where you are immediately and the title, description and image captions are clear. The sites sponsors and copyright date were established and easy to determine. The user is able to navigate around the website with ease. The directions are clear and easy to follow. The internal and external links were working properly and there were no dead ends. Each of the graphics, video files, audio files ect.. serve a clear purpose and make a significant contribution to the site. There is sufficient information that makes this website worth visiting. The information is clearly labeled and easy to find. The contact information is provided and easy to find and the links to other websites are provide and some are useful while others are ads. My over view of this website is that it can be useful for grade levels. They provide free lesson plans that could come in handy. This website is associated with the Discovery channel so you may run into a lot of ads and maybe even some biases. I would recommend this

Overview: The purpose of this website is to be a resource for Teachers and Students alike in English as a Second Language (ESL). There are links to lesson plans, quizzes, and more. It's a very simple website but the links are helpful and up to date. Content: The content of this site is relatively up to date. Towards the bottom it tells the viewer when the last revision was made. There is a lot of information in this site that can take a while to go through, but all of it is helpful. The information is well organized with headings and titles. You can register for free and gain access to even more information. Design: The layout is simple and there aren't a lot of advertisements. The information is divided into sections and has main links listed, but when one selects the main heading another page comes up with a ton more information. This design is easy for anyone to use.

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.