ITEC2360

Ericka Chorniak October 9, 2012 Overview: This website is available for students as well as teachers interested in any type of science. Students could use this site to review the scientific method, gathering ideas for science projects, and getting help with their questions. Teachers can easily use this site because it provides them with a 'teacher resources' link that is equipped with handouts and worksheets. With all of the possibilities this site provides, it is easy to say that my overall impression of this site is that it is very well designed, easy to use, and very useful for my needs and purposes as a student and as a pre-service teacher. Content: The user is able to determine the basic content of this site at first glance, as well as the intended audience. The author of the material on the site is identified, information about them is available, and they appear credible. In addition to the author, the sponsor is clearly identified and they provide contact information. This site is current as it provides a latest revision date and that date is appropriate for the material. The links to other sites are current and work properly. The purpose of this site is clearly identifiable (informational) and the content effectively achieves this purpose. The content appears to be complete, is well organized, is easy to understand, is free of bias, appears to be accurate based on previous knowledge, was proofread (spelling and grammar are correct), and is consistent with similar sources. The links that are provided are related to the needs of students, my needs and my purposes, as well as the purpose of high school physics teachers and they are worthwhile and appropriate for these needs and purposes. Design: The site downloads efficiently. The homepage is attractive and it is easy to tell where the user is. There is a table of contents to navigate through the site with ease, making there no need for direction, but there are short explanations as to what the purposes o

Dane Xavier Servantez 10/11/12 Overview: This website is very useful for students, teachers and parents who want to learn about the basics of health and safety. Some of the topics include chemical safety around the house, to drug abuse and nutritional value. This website is great because it comes with worksheets and advice for teachers and parents. Teaching health and safety isn't the funnest thing to learn in the first place, this website makes that fun for the students happen. The overall site is easy to navigate and deals with kids from K-5 and teens from grade 6-8. Content: The content of the page is exceptional, it is powered by USA.gov and has services from the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies which is part of the U.S. General Services Administration. There is a contact information link followed by the policies and privacy of the website. I assure you the information given is professional and current.  Design: The design of the page is not the most appealing page, but it gets the job done. The organization is not the best, its kind of random and everywhere. The links are all labeled in correct subjects, as are the pictures that are presented and the overall color is somewhat appealing. This website wont catch your attention right away, but it also wont drive you away either.

10-11-12 Step up to Writing is a website designed to show students how to write a well-structured paragraph using the step up method.  The Step up method is simple and compares writing to an everyday concept. The intended audience is for all students but would be best used for students between 3rd and 5th grade. Other than the links to the different paragraph sections no other resources are presented. If you want a good website to teach writing methods this is one to use.  The content on this site is very well organized that you can maneuver is very easily. At first look it provides basic information, the method is simply put until further clicking on each link to further diverge in to the each section. The information is written in a way that children can understand the information.  The website design was good but not perfect. Everything downloads effectively. When looking for the developer you need to go to the link at the bottom; it isn't very easy to find but is still accessible. No other links are on this section of the webpage but on the main homepage many helpful links are presented.  Overall this website need to improve the design a little but presents good information worth investigating. 

Overview: The National Geographic website is informational and entertaining it is Is full of startling photography and mind-expanding writing on space, the environment, animals, and even world music. Its purpose is to inform people on interesting news and events along with many entertaining stories and topics. Its intended audience is for anyone and everyone even a link for children. Content: There is so much content and information on this site. On the homepage there are top stories, videos, photos, and polls. There are tabs to photography, environment, travel, adventure, National Geographic TV, kids, and shop. There are also links to the magazine, news, animals, science, video, education, maps, games, music, blogs, movies, in the field, and a site index. When you access the site is easy to determine the content and intended audience. There is available information about the authors and researches for the different articles. The information is always constantly being updated and revised so nothing is out of date. The links also are easy to use and work properly. The information and content presented is not biased and achieves the intended purpose of informing and entertaining Design: The design of the National geographic website is very organized and easy to navigate through its many links of information. It is full of eye-catching photos and colorful links and tabs. It is easy to read and very understandable and accessible. The website downloads efficiently and the site is appealing and grabs tor attention. There is a site index and search box. The sites also provide copyright informational the provider is clearly identified. The links are clear and helpful and all the information including the photos videos and articles serve a clear purpose to the site.

This website is highly recommended in the world of educators. National Geographic is a well-known magazine. The purpose of the site is to make their information more accessible. When looking for an article for a science report this is a good site to go to. The audience for National Geographic is from 5-100; they have articles designed for young children but also sophisticated articles for a more mature audience. Also on this website if you wanted a hard copy of the magazine you could subscribe. My overall impression was very good. The content of the website is easy to maneuver around and find. Because National Geographic is a well-known magazine you know that the information presented is reliable and accurate. The website has access to games and videos to further explore the concepts.  As for design, it scores just as high as content. The homepage is appealing to look at and easy to use. When searching for a topic many articles come up giving many different perspectives one could choose from. The site has many colorful pictures that make your research more appealing to conduct.  Overall this website is very well designed and easy to use. 

Samantha Cook 10/11/12 The Renaissance website on philosophy of that time is very useful for someone either looking for some background information on this topic or also for research for a paper. The Renaissance was a time period where there was a great movement into many of the ideas that we have today, like philosophy and the idea of not a large empire but smaller countries. This site gives a good overview of the philosophy side of that change, and how these thoughts started coming around. The information provided is good and accurate and gives a broad range that allows someone to either get a brief or go deeper. The purpose of the sight is to provide information. The intended audience for this sight is either high school students learning about the Renaissance or College students doing the same thing. They use this sight and the quality information provided as more of a summary then a full out research area, to give them brief ideas of the subject but there is so much deeper. The information provided is from all current sources nothing more than 1970s but that is not necessarily a bad thing. This is where academics at universities have gone through and interpreted the older writings into what is needed to know. There is also a large amount of sources which helps weed out the biased sources and ideas you can have by having different opinions added together. My overall opinion of this sight is it is a good sight for basic information, if you want to go deeper then you need to go elsewhere but it is a good sight to give a brief introduction into the idea of philosophy. It is pleasing to the eyes even without pictures and looks academic in that sense, I personally think pictures could make it better but it is fine without them. Overall it is a good trust worthy site.

Samantha Cook 10/11/12 The Crusade website is a very plain website. It contains essential information that is very useful to people doing research on the crusades. This information ranges from older texts from that era or new information from historians. The Crusades were many holy wars to obtain lands in the east that were religious areas. This information is represented well by many different scholars through this website in one easy place. The Crusade website is very useful to people in college mainly, some high level high school students could use the sight. The audience is high school students in college level courses, looking for information deeper than the basics provided by their teachers; also it is aimed at for college academics to be used for papers and background information that is found in one easy place. The available resources are from current historians interpreting things from archaeologists and from the writings of that time, and then also the writing from that time to be interpreted yourself. This is very useful information provided because it includes current sources and older sources that has less opinion in it. My overall impression of this sight is very high I used to for my webquest, and I did that to give the kids who would have done it a basic look at crusades which they could have easily done without much looking. This sight is also pleasing to the eye, it is not fancy in any way but it is organized well and looks very academic which helps its purpose. Overall I would use and trust the sight because it is not necessarily their opinion but actual writings for that subject through links of this website and I believe these are the best websites for historians.

Samantha Cook-10/11/2012 This site Materials for the study of Ancient Sparta is a very good sight. It is brief and to the point but also gives a range of information that is very useful in one place instead of looking at many different places. The information ranges from class notes to ancient texts like the Histories by Herodotus which is very high quality information. It gives good information for a scholarly student. For the site Materials for the study of Ancient Sparta it is very useful because it is more academic then a fun younger sight. The audience for this would then be upper level high school with more of an emphasis on college because of the use of sighting ancient texts. The resources available in this website range from ancient texts to basic known information to stories. MY overall impression of this right is it is very academic, not many pictures maybe one per page and not very colorful. It does not necessarily catch your eye what caught my eye was how for one organized it was; and two how much resourceful information was on there. This site gives you a very good brief overview of the Spartans without having to look a bunch of places. It would be very helpful to me

Overview - This site is great for somebody who is looking for information on dissection and its history. It is suitable for almost anybody in the science field or just looking to learn about it. Its article is very informational and very interesting to a reader interested in this topic.  Content - The content of the page that i bookmarked here is very useful and I believe very accurate. It has credits, related topics in working links, and a bibliography and the end of the article. To me it seems that this page is very credible and very helpful to a student, or really anybody looking to learn about biology and desertion. Design - As good as the content, I believe that this page as the best design of any of the 3 that I looked at. It has a related graphic at the top that drew me in and I'm sure would draw any other reader in. The related topics in links are very easy to find and the color schemes fit the topic and don't take away from the article.

Overview - This site gives pretty good information and i believe that it is suitable for probably upper middle school and high school to college students. It includes information on the histories of dissection and vivisection in regards to animals and educational purposes. Content - I do believe that this site has good content, but it wasn't exact what I was looking for when I searched dissections. This site talks about how animal dissections are used for educational purposes and not really the history of dissection or vivisection as stated in its title. Design - This site, i believe, had the worst design of the 3 that I evaluated. It is very boring all around the page and doesn't do anything to draw there reader into reading it. There is no helpful images or videos, just dull colors and the article.

Overview - This website is suited for all people of all ages who are interested in learning about the history of anatomy. It has articles on anything history, but the page I bookmarked is based on history if human anatomy and vivisection. A very helpful page to anyone interested in these topics. Content - The content of this site is pretty good for somebody like me who is wanting to learn a little more about where the technique of dissection came from and how it was brought into the fields that we use it in today. It has strong information and the writers seem to be very credited and know what they are talking about in this topic. Design - The design of this site is really easy to use and easy to find good information. I don't think that the background and borders really match the topic of anatomy, but that doesn't take from the article and the information in it. To me the design is fair and shouldn't strike a reader as something that shouldn't be there.

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.

Overview: This website is a time line. It is pretty easy to understand and should be fairly straight forward. There are not graphics to draw ones attention away from the subject matter, which is both a plus, and a bit of a draw back. Content: The content of this site is fairly straight forward. It is a timeline of the events of WW2. Each date is in bold font with a description underneath appropriate for middle school students. Design: The design of this website is very easy to use. There is not much to the site. It is a standard time line, there are no pictures. But all the relevant information is in chronological order.