ITEC2360

This website is awesome! It has a bunch of fun science experiments for kids to do at home or in class. The science classes are organized by topic so they are easier to find. Great resource for parents and teachers alike.

This website is a lot better for kids than Google or other search engines because it is easy to navigate and easy to use! It also has a layout and design that is pleasing to kids.It has fun cartoon images instead of just bulleted lists. It has many great tools to help children succeed in their classes.

The name of this website is Fact Monster. It is a part of the Family Education Network and published by Pearson Education. The purpose of this website is to provide general information about common school subjects - such as math, science, and U.S. history - to children. The website is intended for use by elementary-aged children because the information given is commonly known by most students older than twelve years of age. If I were to approach this site from the viewpoint of a 2nd grader, I could find myself seeing this sight as informative but not extremely interactive. The content is very elementary, so a 7th grader could breeze through the entire sight in under half an hour. That being said, this site can be a great resource for students to use if they need a simple website to help them review certain concepts, such as converting measurements or learning about the presidents of the United States. I found the design of the website to be rather plain and unexciting. It hasn't been updated or changed since I last visited the sight when I was in 6th grade. The authors of the site are not clearly identified and the publisher of the site can be found at the bottom of the webpage in very fine print. All in all, I would not use this sight within my classroom, but merely inform my students that the website exists and can be used to review information that they all (hopefully) learned in previous grades.

Morgan Kuchta September 1, 2010 Blackboard.com Overview Blackboard (Bb) is a company with a website (Blackboard.com) that is similar to eCompanion used here on the UW campus. It provides an online domain for teachers to post assignments, announcements, proctor tests, host chats and discussions, and post grades. It is an interactive site for teachers and students to communicate and use as a resource. Bb is obviously aimed at the education audience and has different tools for everything from kindergarten to college. I have used Bb in the past in high school and it was always a very effective tool. It was dependable and very user friendly. I would highly recommend this site to all educators wishing to use an online forum. Content Summary At first look, Blackboard is an extremely well organized website, it gives its purpose on the home page and all major pages for the site have tabs clearly labeled at the top. The author information is not available, however blackboard is a company that provides an online forum for teachers and schools to use as a means of communicating with their students and promoting online learning, so it more than likely has more than one author. There is an email address for any support that you need and they also have a frequently asked questions section, broken down by the type of client you might be, i.e. teacher, student, designer, or administrator so you are likely to get your question answered right then and there. The site is very up to date and claims to be adding new features about once every few months so it stays current. The Information quality of this site is great, it is obviously a business and their purpose is clearly stated and easy to understand. It has links to all their concurrent sites that have other tools you can use to make Blackboard more accessible to you and your students i.e. Bb Mobile. Design I had no trouble downloading the home page. Although it is not full of bright colors its appeal states its purpose: efficie

Levi Jensen September 2, 2010 Website Review http://www.nclark.net/Biology Overview The Amazing Biology Teacher Resource website was created to provide science teachers a place to reference when teaching their classes. I assume that this site was created by a present or past science teacher. The main focus of this site is in assisting in making lesson plans for teachers and to give helpful ideas for science activities. This site covers both biology and chemistry subjects and also offers many links related to science education. Overall, I found this site to be rather elementary in design, and also had some difficulty using some of the drop-down menus. Content At first look it is quite easy to understand that the intended audience is for science teachers. One drawback that this site has is that information about the author is vaguely apparent. There are no sponsors given, and the only way to contact the author is through a management email to which there is no name given to write to. It seems as though content is updated quite often due to the links posted but there is no revision date provided. As far as information quality I believe that this site does a nice job and the content is readily available and easy to read. Design I had some problems using some of the dropdown menus on this site. Upon trying them a second time they worked just fine for me. The visual appeal to me looked as if a child had designed it. This is supposed to be a professional website that is used by professionals. Also the home page is just a list of topics that could be broken down into groups in order to create a more orderly page. Finally this site needs to have citations behind the information that they are providing so that the reader is able to look the information up to confer the information.

Website: http://science.discovery.com/ Content The science channel website has some good information in it. The audience of this website is obvious in the title and the material. It is for those people looking for science related material for basically any age. There are games for the kids and articles for the older crowd. There are a few N's on my evaluation, but there are no perfect websites. They keep the website current. Design The homepage is very appealing. There is very good contrast and images. The text is easy to read. The website cleary states what its intent is, is easily accessible and navigatable. The videos load and are connected to the websites material. I was able to open the website in safari, firefox and Internet explorer. There is a lot of material from articles to videos to games and even a tv manual to what is on the science channel. The website is logical and orderly. The website is current and there is no out dated material that I could find. There are links to other websites that are related to the science channel such as animal planet and military channel. Overview I found that the Science channel website was very resourceful. It is a science website so there is some bias because there are theories and not all material has been proven. I found that I was current and easy to use. The audience is very obvious and there are things to do for fun and learn at the same time. I really enjoyed looking at this website for its purpose and not just scanning over it not noticing how effect it really is. Joey Skalsky Itech 2360 Sec 4

Website: http://adprima.com/tipson.htm Content The adprima website is for teachers looking for educational advice. However the content is not broken up and gets hard to read. There are links but they take you to other pages that have the same design. It was fairly easy to pick the basic content because it tells you what the site is about and the audience is for teachers. There is good material here it is a bit bias at times. It is a website that is made as a guideline. There are spelling errors. It is current as of June 24, 2010. Design I did not find any multimedia. The material is try and blocky making it hard to read. Site is easily navigatable. The website is not appealing to the eye. There is no color or contrast to keep you involved. The speed is quick because there is just text to load. It is browser friendly. Material is ok but very hard to keep interested. Overview I did not enjoy this website. It was very bland and difficult to read. They do keep it updated however. The material is decent but is dry and formatted badly. The content was good but the design of the website took too much away from its content. Joey Skalsky Itech 2360 Sec 4

Kelsey Merrick ITEC 2360 Sept. 1, 2010 Good Website www.studyspanish.com Overview The basic purpose of this site is obvious. It is to help you learn Spanish. The intended audience is anyone who wants to learn to speak Spanish. My overall impression of this site is that it is very professionally made. The information appears to be very helpful. Content The content and audience of the site can be identified easily. The author is clearly identified and information about the author is available. The author is qualified on the topic. The last revision date is not provided. The purpose if the site is informational. The content is complete and well organized. The site offers sufficient information for learning Spanish. The content appears to be accurate and consistent with similar information on other sites. The grammar and spelling are correct. Design The homepage downloads efficiently. It is attractive and has strong eye appeal. The entire site looks very professional. The title of the site is clear and visible. The table of contents and the navigational tools are clear and understandable. The copy right date is easy to determine. The navigation of the site is very well constructed and the directions are easy to follow. All of the multimedia serves a purpose. The site is worth visiting. The information is organized and easy to find. The information appears to be current even though I could not find the revision date.

Content: The first look at the content of this website really gives the user a lot of information. It is very easy to determine the basic content of the website and the intended audience. There is a paragraph stating exactly what the website is about, providing science related resources, and who it is intended for, K-12 educators. The information providers are easy to find by simply clicking on the "About SNL" link. It states the staff members who work on the website; although there is no information presented about any of them which makes it difficult to determine their qualifications. There is contact information through e-mail to contact the staff if the user has questions or to verify information. The sponsors are displayed at the bottom of the page. They are the AAAS and the Verizon Thinkfinity Program. The information seems to be relatively current. It appears that it was last updated 7/10 and none of the information is older than 1999. Some of the older information might be out of date, but there is plenty of information that has been contributed over the last two or three years. Also the links are all working and lead the user to sites that are up and running. I believe the information provided on the website is very high quality. There is a large amount of information that is very well organized and easy to work with. There appears to be no bias and the information is accurate. It also provides information that meets my exact purpose. There are tons of places for find further information. There are links to other resources as well as the science benchmarks for grades K-12.

Content: The first look at the website does a great job of displaying the content of the article but it is more difficult to really pin down an audience. It seems like it is aimed at people who want a quick overview of the topic. The author of the article is not identified so it is hard to judge the qualifications of the author. The sponsor on the other hand is clearly identified. Idaho National Laboratory and Department of Energy sponsored the article. There are also two specific contact people identified. The user is given both a phone number and the ability to e-mail the two contact people. The site lacks any information about when it was last updated. This shows that the information may not be updated frequently and it is difficult to know if the user should use this information because there is potential that it is outdated. The only date I can find is actually on another page. Although there is no way to know how often the website is updated, the links all appear to be working appropriately. The information on this site seems to be of a pretty high quality. The purpose is very clear. It is an informational page and effectively achieves its purpose. The content is complete and well organized. The information is easy to understand for the most part. Some of the terms are a little confusing but otherwise it is very clear. I don't know very much about this topic, but from what I know this information seems accurate. The bias in this article is easy to identify because it is pro Xylanase. It really preaches the benefits of this substance. There are a lot of links to further information as well as links that take the user to other science related sites.

Haylee Bolinger Website Evaluation 2 9-2-10 Overview The website www.cremaster.net serves as a portfolio for Matthew Barney and as another medium through which people can view and discover his bizarre artwork. Content From the main menu you can pick from one of five Cremaster cycles, which are a combination sculpture, design, and performance. Once you have chosen one of these you can navigate through each cycle choosing from the following list: synopsis, characters, sculpture, trailer, screenings, cycle, menu. Once you have chosen from the list, new lists appear that are rather frustrating because they are not formatted in a western linear tradition. However, streaming videos can be seen of each cycle, which is far more interesting than viewing pictures of them. Design The home page of the web site is very minimal white on white with different style fonts for each of the five different crème cycles. Designs or visual descriptions are done using fine black lines. From main menue you can choose from a menu which often leads to more options. It is easy to navigate, however the icon for the main menu should be more prevalent.

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

Jamie Szallar Website Evaluation #2 9-1-2010 History of American Education Web Project www.nd.edu Overview I was not impressed by this website. The idea behind it is interesting and if presented in a better form might have been more accepted. Professor Robert N. Barger created the site in honor of a fellow educator of his. Students of Professor Barger are who added the content to the site, which made me question the authority of the information. It is clearly started that the professor did not change any of the student's work. Content The content of the site is interesting; however, I found it questionable seeing as how students, not professionals, created the site. A brief explanation is given as to how the site was created, but no credentials of the students. I did not find any contact information for Professor Barger. The site was established in 2004, and has not been updated since. Design I found the design of this site very poor. The biggest complaint I have is there is not a link to return the user to the home page after navigating to one of the subjects. There is no eye appeal whatsoever; the only color added to the site is one shade of blue. All pictures are in black and white, which is appropriate for the older history sections, but not attractive for all subjects. This website could use a large amount of improvement.

Overview: It is very obvious upon entering this webpage who it is designed for, as it states in bold at the top of the page within tabs: "For Clinicians, For Patients, For Institutions, For Educators". I'm not sure it could get clearer than that. Also very obvious is the purpose. The biggest words on the page are: "Tap into the world's largest clinical community". I think this is a very credible website because all of the articles and websites within the main website are edited and written by doctors (MD). The biggest downside to this website is that you must subscribe to the website to see all of the content and a subscription is very expensive. Design Summary: From my first look, this site appears simple, yet very easy to navigate. There aren't a lot of bright colors or images to distract from the information of the page, which is beneficial, because you can find what you are looking for immediately. At the bottom of the page, the site provides a list of sponsors or partners including; Society of General Medicine, The Endocrine Society, American Academy of Family Physicians, Wolters Kluwer, etc. I had no problem using the website in Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. The information is very up to date (as the name suggests!). Finding contact information is also simple (1-click) and they provide a phone number, fax number, many special purpose email addresses, and an address for an office in the United States, as well information for their international offices.

When looking for different techniques to use in a classroom setting, I came across a website called www.southernworlds2010.com. While viewing this web site, I first notice that there is not very much offered on the site and it has limited information. The target audience could be applied to as anyone that is involved in the Education system such as a student, parent, teacher etc. The basic concept behind this web page is to explain how virtual worlds can be used to reach children in their educational studies. Although this may sound like an interesting topic to read about, there is no Author given and therefore no information describing who wrote this. All that was provided was what the idea came form the Tasmanian Department of Education. There is also no sponsor given on this web page. This website was also only added a couple days prior to my finding.

Sarah Schepp September 1, 2010 Website Evaluation #2 Overall- This website was created to give high school students worksheets they could do that would let them still have fun like kids. The worksheets focused more on engaging the students so they don't always have to do book work or listen to a teacher give a lecture. The worksheets seemed very useful but I didn't care for the layout or design. I couldn't find the information I was looking for very easily. Content- The content of having the information that gives students worksheet that is fun to them is a wonderful idea. This will keep the students wanting to do the homework. I couldn't locate any information from this website other than the copy right date at the bottom of the page and sponsor who's name was in the lower left had corner. Other than that I couldn't get any of the information and it made this website not seem so good. Design- The design was very flashy and full of graphics, this livened up the website and made it seem like students might actually like the worksheets that it provided. It had a black background with white words which seemed to make the words explode from the page. The information seemed more interesting. Everything was labeled clear and seemed to be easy to locate, it even brought up worksheets for elementary students.

Overview: WebMD is a website designed to provide very general and basic information (not necessarily medical advice) for patients about health problems and healthy eating. As far as credibility goes, I do not doubt much of the information provided, but if you are looking for real answers to medical questions, this is not your website. Fortunately all content is free. It would be a good site to look at to find out what a certain disease is, what the symptoms are and how to go about dealing with it (drug names, etc.) and when to call a doctor. I think overall it is a good site for basic medical information but I would not rely on it to solve any medical problem, as its' purpose is not clinical based. Design Summary: From a first look, there is a lot going on in this webpage. Pictures are flashing back and forth, ads are flashing on the sides of the page and there is a lot of different colors and different sizes of texts. It is fairly organized however and is easy to find what you are looking for relatively quickly. I had trouble finding a list of sponsors and all I could find was a statement on the information tab which said, "We allow third parties to provide funding for WebMD to independently create information about certain topics within a specified health category". Also the ads on the site were mostly for drug companies, which cause some bias. The site worked the same in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Finding contact information was easy enough (at the very bottom of the page in small text) but I could not find any means of contacting them except for email.

Jamie Szallar Website Evaluation #1 9-1-2010 U.S. Department of Education www.ed.gov Overview The U.S. Department of Education website is extremely useful. I found the information to be current and correct. The site is easily explored and visually appealing. Overall I would highly recommend this site to anyone interested in education, teaching, or the United States public school systems. Content The content of this site is amazing. The information given covers a wide variety of topics related to the education field. Links to numerous educational sites, as well as other government sites, are easy to use and all beneficial to furthering the understanding of the site subject. The site is very well organized, subject headers make it easy to find what part of the site you are interested in exploring. Contact information is given for several government agencies, as well as other educational resources. Design The site has great eye appeal. A general theme follows the entire site, appropriate photos and emblems are add nicely. The home page does have a large amount of information on it, but is not cluttered to the point that it becomes difficult to navigate. This site is definitely worth visiting and would be valuable for a wide variety of visitors.

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

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