ITEC2360

Megan Ridings ITEC 2360 Website Evaluations January 24, 2010 Overview: On the website, edHelper.com, the main purpose is to help elementary school teachers with lesson plans for all different subjects. It is clear that this website is designed for an audience of elementary school teachers. Overall I feel that the site is well made and organized, the site is easy to navigate, and extremely helpful and easy on the eyes. In addition, this site contains puzzles and activities for teachers in addition to the lesson plans. Content Summary: I have found the content of this site to be "very well designed and easy to use." The content of this site is well organized and easy to navigate and understand. The site appears to be complete, and offers a sufficient amount of information for those interested in elementary school lesson plans. The sites homepage is attractive and contains a table of contexts and is clear and easy to follow. In addition to all of these great things the site has information regarding the intended purpose and sufficient information related to my needs and purposes. Design Summary: On this site the design is very efficient and well done. This site downloads efficiently, and contains a sufficient amount of eye appeal which makes the site enjoyable. The site over all is strong and contains information for contacting the sponsors, as well as appropriate copyright date and other clear indicators of the contents of the site. As for navigation, the design of this site is efficient. . This site is definitely worth visiting and the content is clearly labeled and uses the same basic format consistently within the site. In addition the site is full of excitement, and offers additional languages in order to further its audience. Based on my evaluation I would say that the design of this site could be considered "very well designed and easy to use."

Overview Although this site does not look extremely professional, I like it because it has several links to other websites that provide useful teaching tools and it looks more realistic and common. One can plainly see that the purpose of this website is to inform teachers of tools that will help them to teach more efficiently in their classrooms. This site also gives teachers connections with other teachers so that they can exchange ideas, teaching techniques, and other valuable information. Content The purpose of this site is very obvious at first glance. It contains the names locations of various teachers and schools as well as links that enable you to view the information they have to offer. The authors are easy to find, however I was unable to locate a publication date, therefore I do not know how current this website is. There is contact information on the authors, but because of the lack of a publication date, I am not sure of the site's reliability. The links to other websites work quickly and efficiently, and spelling and grammar are good. The only other problem I seemed to encounter is the lack of information on the author's background, the publication information, and a site sponsor. Design The webpage and its link downloaded quickly and efficiently. However the homepage lacks graphics such as pictures, colors, and font variety. It is easy to move around the site because all it really contains is links to other teachers and some information on teaching tools. The website lacks a table of content as well as any other information on the production of the website. This site is worth visiting if you need many resources to locate other teachers, but not worth visiting if you are looking for a professional site with a lot of options.

Megan Ridings ITEC 2360 Website Evaluations January 24, 2010 Overview: On the website, Hotchalk Lessons Plans Teaching Page, is to have information and sources on all areas of teaching, including receiving a degree. It is clear that this website is designed for an audience of elementary school teachers, student teachers and parents who are homeschooling their children, and those hoping to obtain a teaching degree. Overall I feel that the site is well made, and clearly organized, and easy to understand. The site is easy to easy to navigate, and helpful in many aspects, but not necessarily made with the intention of helping with lesson plans like I was looking for. This site is a little bland, and is not one that really caught my interest. Content Summary: I have found the content of this site to be "worth bookmarking for future references." The site is up to date and current, and it is easy to tell that the purpose of the site is to be informational. The content of this site is well organized, easy to navigate and understand. In addition this site is full of information of all types. The site appears to be complete, and offers a sufficient amount of information for elementary school teachers, however is not solely intended for those interested in elementary school lesson plans, and therefore does not provide a large amount of lesson plans. The information provided appears to be accurate, and up to date. In addition it seems to have authors that are qualified and reliable. Design Summary: On this site the design doesn't lack much and is easy to appreciate. This site downloads efficiently, and is full of information that is colorful and designed to entice the audience. The site contains a large amount of multimedia, and graphics that serve a clear purpose. As for navigation, the design of this site is easy to follow and has a massive amount of information of all types that is well organized. Based on my evaluation I would say that the design of

Megan Ridings ITEC 2360 Website Evaluations January 24, 2010 Overview: On the website, Teachers.Net, the main purpose is to help elementary school teachers with lesson plans for all different subjects and in addition to help in all areas of the classroom. It is clear that this website is designed for an audience of elementary school teachers, student teachers and parents who are homeschooling their children. Overall I feel that the site is well made, however not very clearly organized. The site is easy to semi-easy to navigate, and helpful in some aspects, but not necessarily with lesson plans like I was looking for. This site is a little bland, and is not one that really caught my interest. Content Summary: I have found the content of this site to be "poorly designed and difficult to use." The site is up to date and current, and it is easy to tell that the purpose of the site is to be informational. The content of this site is well organized, however it is not easy to navigate, and a little difficult to understand. The site appears to be complete, and offers a sufficient amount of information for elementary school teachers, however is not intended for those interested in elementary school lesson plans. The information provided appears to be accurate, if you are able to find what you are looking for. Design Summary: On this site the design lacks much of what I think a site needs to be efficient. This site downloads efficiently, however it lacks the "eye-appeal," that I would hope for within a site based on elementary schools. The homepage over all lacks appeal, however it is easy to see who the authors are and see that the authors are qualified and reliable. As for navigation, the design of this site is hard to understand, and contains too much on each page. This site is definitely not one that I would recommend for elementary lesson plans and is not clearly labeled, however it uses the same basic format consistently within the site, which i

Megan Ridings ITEC 2360 Website Evaluations January 24, 2010 Overview: On the website, Elementary Lesson Plans.Net, the main purpose is to help elementary school teachers with lesson plans for all different subjects. It is clear that this website is designed for an audience of elementary school teachers, student teachers and parents who are homeschooling their children. Overall I feel that the site is well made and organized, the site is easy to navigate, and extremely helpful with online video tutorials and printable versions of lesson plans. In addition, this site is creative because aside from the creators of the site, new lesson plans are added daily by teachers in order to keep the site full of useful lesson plans. Content Summary: I have found the content of this site to be "worth bookmarking for future needs." The site is continuously being revised, as each day teachers are adding more lesson plans, in addition it is easy to tell what the purpose of the site is to be informational. The content of this site is well organized and easy to navigate and understand. The site appears to be complete, and offers a sufficient amount of information for those interested in elementary school lesson plans. The only flaws I find within the site are related to the information providers. Since the lesson plans are added by teachers and parents daily it is hard to track the authors, also it is impossible to determine whether or not the authors of pages are qualified and reliable resources. Design Summary: On this site the design is much weaker than that of the content. This site downloads efficiently, however it lacks the "eye-appeal," that I would hope for within a site based on elementary lessons. The homepage over all is strong and contains information for contacting the sponsors, as well as appropriate copyright date and other clear indicators of the contents of the site. As for navigation, the design of this site is efficient. Within the mult

Overview: This website provides the templates needed to recreate popular games such as The Price is Right, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and Wheel of Fortune, are only a few of the examples. This games are intended to be used in an educational setting to help students better understand a certain concpet. Content: The purpose of this site is to use games in the classroom to entertain and to teach the students. These games could be utilized at different times during the year to help students review concepts they have learned. With some of the games, the game show themes are included to add more to the game. There are also links for other games to be used to teach different subjects and also puzzles and other educational games. Design: The sponsor or the author(s) of this website are not listed, nor is the copyright shown. The page is displayed very plainly with not many graphics or colors. However, this is not a large site so extra ornamentations would make the page seem too busy and distracting.

Zach Ajour 1/25/10

New Horizons is an educational site that contains strategies for teachers to enhance and expand their educational curriculum. I chose the Arts in Education page for this review. Content: This website has been around since 1980 and although it is currently retired, it has been the launching platform of many new educational sites. In specific the Arts in Education page offers resources pertaining to art's beneficial attributes in brain stimulation and possible scientific processes that can be applied to art. Design: The design of the site is very easily understood and followed. There are no advertisements on any of the pages and links navigate within the newhorizons.org site only. Although it lacks the appearance of similar websites, this is a very simplistic and easily run learning tool. Attribution: This site's purpose is purposeful and educational. Its aims are primarily at benefiting the teacher and helping to incorporate pertinent tools to their educational programs. As a teacher I would very likely use this in constructing different approaches to learning, however I would be weary of how current and valid the information actually is due to the fact that it is retired.

Overview The purpose of this website is to inform people about the history of Native Americans. It is easily accessed by the public and it's a great resource for learning about Native American History. Content When you first log on to this website the title is clearly stated, and its very easy to understand the purpose of the website. The copyright date is current and it ends with a .org, it appears to be a credible site. The information on this website is clearly laid out it terms of dates in chronological order. This makes the information much easier to understand. The content on the website is clearly informative. It is not trying to sway you one way or another. Not only does this website contain great information it also has popular links on the side. These links take you to other sites which may be quite helpful. I think this website would be great for students and teachers. Design The creators of this website could have a done a little better with the design plan. The title isn't very catchy or colorful. In past experiences I have learned more people are apt to read things if they look appealing. The website itself is very efficient and easy to navigate. However multimedia is also lacking. More color and pictures could have been used to draw the reader in. The website is supposed to inform you and it does a great job of that.

Overview The purpose of this website is to inform the reader about Benjamin Franklins many inventions. It is very easy for the public to access through Google. The best part about the website is there are a ton of links on his different inventions. Content At a first glance you can definitely tell the website is dealing with Benjamin Franklins inventions. The site also appears to be helpful to people of all ages. Neither the author not the publishing date is stated, but there is a homepage that will take you to all of the contact information. This site is really well put together. It talks about all of his inventions but from the website you can further you knowledge. Each invention has a separate link, which will take you to pictures or more information about the invention. All the information is clear and accurate and can be used by people of all ages and backgrounds. I would definitely recommend this site to any student of any age who would like to learn more about Benjamin Franklins inventions. Design The design of this website is good but not great. It does have a picture right at the top which helped to grab my attention. There is a very large homepage button at the top which takes you to any contact or author information you might need. All the information is organized very nicely making it easy to navigate the site. I found the links to the other websites very useful!

Overview This is a great website for teachers! It does a great job informing the reader about Rosa Parks. It also Has likes to teaching resources and student activities. Those are two great tools for any teacher. Content When first entering the site the topic is clearly stated at the top. You can tell that it is geared more toward teachers because it has links just for them. Students can also use it because it is very informative and has follow along pages making it easy for younger students to understand. This website also has a home button allowing the reader to find all the copyright and author information they need. All the copyrights are up to date and clearly stated by clicking the home button. The purpose of this site is to strictly inform. It does a really great job at laying out the information so it is not confusing to the reader. All topics are labeled will easy follow along buttons. This is definitely a great site for teachers and students who are younger. Design This website has an excellent design. The front page is very colorful making the reader want to see what the site has to offer. It also has a table of contents so the reader can easily navigate the site. Everything in the site is working as it should be, all of the links take you to the correct pages. The way this website is laid out really works in their favor!