ITEC2360

Ivey Barnes 10/13/2014 OVERVIEW This website is an interactive math help website. It provides sample problems for many different topics from Pre-K skills all the way up to High School level materials. If a student enters in an incorrect answer, then the site provides a brief explanation on why the answer is wrong and how to fix it. Overall, I think that the website is a good resource to help students master math concepts either in the classroom or at home.   CONTENT The copy right is up to date by the current year and it is even stated that new topics are constantly being added. The source of all the information on the site is from a technology company whose goal is to create products to solve problems in education. This site is actually one of the products to help teachers and students. The only disadvantage to this website it that to get unlimited practice you have to pay and register to the site. The good part about registering is that they have different payment options for both parents and teachers.  DESIGN The IXL site is easy to navigate; it is broken up by tabs for each grade level and then the links are organized by subject from there. Each of the tabs are color coded and a preview of the content in each of the links is given before you click on the link. 

Ivey Barnes 10/13/2014 OVERVIEW This website provides a series of videos describing different concepts in mathematics to help high school students with difficulties that they are having with different math concepts. These videos can allow students to watch step by step directions on the concepts that they are having difficulties with at home. The site also provides practice worksheets about the concepts and a key for those worksheets.  CONTENT The website has been kept up to date, so far, from 2008 to 2013.  The site was put up by Charles McKeague, who has his B.A. in Mathematics, and six of his students. Each of the lessons can be taught by some of the students or Mr. McKeague, so that the students can pick who they want to watch. A helpful factor is that a Spanish version of most of the videos is available. DESIGN The websites videos are organized in different menus and submenus, and then by the problem that is being explained. This is an okay way to organize the videos, but I feel like it could be improved because if too many of the menus are open then the column becomes crowded. A nice design factor is that you can see an image of the instructor that is in the videos. All of the videos are easily and quickly assessable from the websites different menus without redirection to a different website and are also available in a full screen view. 

Jared Mohr-Leiva October 13, 2014 Sometimes, planning for class gets difficult, even for "easy" classes like English. Thankfully, there are resources for that. "Tes.co.uk" has a page chock full of them. However, since it is a U.K. site, they are not by grade, but by age (11-14, 14-16, and 16+). Regardless, that allows a pretty close estimate (within a year) of which grades correspond to which age group. The category list includes a large array of sub-subjects in English. These include Drama, non-fiction, Prose, and Writing. These are front and center on the page and vary depending on which age group the reader is teaching. Clicking on any of these subjects will open a new page filled with worksheets, activities, and PowerPoints. For example, clicking on "Drama" will bring up "8 Minute Madness - Creative starter activities" and "Romeo & Juliet: Powerpoint Synopsis," just to name a couple. Tes.co.uk is very blue-oriented, as well. The age-group category box is a deep, bold blue, front and center on the first page. Categories are bold and easy to find. The "sub-subject" pages are displayed as a list, again using large, bold letters. There is also a sidebar allowing the reader to narrow their search by sub-topic, type, format, or event. There are also categories at the very bottom to specify whether it is a special needs course or is applicable to the entire school. "Newest" and "Recently recommended" appear at the top of the screen alongside the number of results.

Jared Mohr-Leiva October 13, 2014 Sometimes, planning for class gets difficult, even for "easy" classes like English. Thankfully, there are resources for that. "Tes.co.uk" has a page chock full of them. However, since it is a U.K. site, they are not by grade, but by age (11-14, 14-16, and 16+). Regardless, that allows a pretty close estimate (within a year) of which grades correspond to which age group. The category list includes a large array of sub-subjects in English. These include Drama, non-fiction, Prose, and Writing. These are front and center on the page and vary depending on which age group the reader is teaching. Clicking on any of these subjects will open a new page filled with worksheets, activities, and PowerPoints. For example, clicking on "Drama" will bring up "8 Minute Madness - Creative starter activities" and "Romeo & Juliet: Powerpoint Synopsis," just to name a couple. Tes.co.uk is very blue-oriented, as well. The age-group category box is a deep, bold blue, front and center on the first page. Categories are bold and easy to find. The "sub-subject" pages are displayed as a list, again using large, bold letters. There is also a sidebar allowing the reader to narrow their search by sub-topic, type, format, or event. There are also categories at the very bottom to specify whether it is a special needs course or is applicable to the entire school. "Newest" and "Recently recommended" appear at the top of the screen alongside the number of results. 

This website is designed for teacher at any grade level. The site provides links to games, apps, videos, etc. that would be beneficial for teachers to include in lessons for their students. These links are provided for a wide array of categories including but not limited to writing tools, presentation tools, quiz and poll tools, and organizing tools. I would recommend using the tools this website provides, they would be an excellent addition to a lesson plan. It is clear from just a quick glance at the site what its purpose is. The author of the site is clearly stated on the sites homepage, and other contributions that were made to the site are licensed through a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Non-Commercial 3.0 License. All the information on the site is up to date, and of excellent quality. The design is effective at leading users through the site quickly and easily. They had pictures that allowed you to see what link you were clicking to as well as a small summary of the site, in a well-organized table for each section. The site is current and set up in an effective manner.

This website is designed for the use of teachers for grade levels 2nd and above, but could be used for gifted children in 1st grade or kindergarten. The site provides a step by step process to create games, quizzes, or crosswords. This could be a fun way to integrate spelling, history, or any subject into a lesson. I personally am a big fan of finding a fun or creative way to teach a subject and would use this site, and suggest others check it out as well. The website is set up in a manner that expresses its purpose to users right away. The site is created by the company Kubbu and was last copy righted in 2012 by a company called Soft Glow. Although there has been a couple years since it has been updated, the purpose of the site being a creator and the user (teacher) being the provider of the information, makes it a good source to use still. The design, while not fun or very inviting is simple and leads users through the site with ease. They not only have words to get you to the area of the site you might want but provide pictures as well. While the color scheme is dull, and it doesn't feel very inviting, the design is effective enough for users to be able to successfully navigate their way through.

This website is for both students and teachers. Grade levels from K-8 were posted with activities and lesson plans for each grade. There are games for students to play as well as lesson plans and activities for teachers. The purpose of the website is to make math more fun. I feel like this site is awesome because both teachers and students can benefit from the materials posted. There are worksheets for free on this site so it is a good resource for new teachers. The owner of this site is Jumpstart. They have been in business for over 20 years. This website had a current 2014 copyright date. Therefore I would consider this site to be up to date in all aspects. The games and lesson plans are based off of the Common Core standards and they try to push the students to learn the next step. This website was harder to navigate around. There were way too many links and buttons. This also is good because there is a lot of information, but it can get a little tricky to navigate. The design is very appealing to kids. They have a lot of cartoon characters and bright colors. The section for kids is easy to navigate so I would recommend it as a good resource for students. The teacher's section is the most challenging to navigate because there is so much going on. Overall there are parts that are better set up than others, but as a majority there is just way too much going on as far as the design goes.

The purpose of this website is for teachers to come in and buy items that might not be in everyday stores. These items are things specifically for different subjects and different grades. This website looks appealing and easy to use, however the items look very pricy. The audience is mostly for teachers however; anyone could go on here and purchase these items. The website has almost anything you can think of that a teacher would need for there classroom and objects that would help them teach a specific topic. Right as you open the page there are pictures of what you can buy, which makes this website look very appealing. There are different tabs you can click on to find different things, and one of the tabs shows you how to pay and order online. Hal Kaplan is the CEO of this company, and on the about us tab, it has a whole page talking about how this company came about. This website seems very up to date and very credible. The design of the website is very colorful and easy to use. Additionally the way in navigating this website is very pleasing to the users. It looks almost just like a different form of Amazon. You search what you want to buy, and it will see if this website has what you need.

The main purpose of this site is to inform people on the life, works, and style of Chaucer. As the visuals, or lack there of, suggest, this sight is intended for secondary education level students. The overall content is good but a bit overwhelming, ultimately making this a decent source for high school level students. The content of the sight appears to be accurate and there are references provided. However, the author of the site is unknown and there is no easily accessible way of contacting him or her. The text is well organized and informative. The content, while lacking a specific author and contact information, is accurate and relevant. The design of the text is very simplistic, but clean. Graphics are limited to a single picture. There is no indication of when the article was last updated, but when talking about a dead poet from centuries ago, there isn't much to keep up to date with on his biography. The design could have used some work, but it was by all means functional.

Lorena Garcia Web resource Evaluation 10/13/14 The second site that I evaluate was Inside Brue Crew Life, it is about Healthy Food wwwinsidebruecrewlife.com . The purpose of this site is to offer advise and making healthy food for the entire family. Although intended audience is housewives, anybody who wants to eat healthy could enjoy this website. Something that this page got my attention was the bright colors and the used of family pictures. I enjoyed the website. However, I felt it had too many advertisements. It is supper easy to determine the content of this page. The first thing you see is a food dish. it was also easy to determine audience of this site because of the introduction end the pictures of the author and the author's family with a big smile. The author has all her information available for the audience to contact her and share recipes. The content of this page meets its intended purpose. It provides great recipes, which I feel kids would love to eat even though they are healthy foods. The pages color scheme and pictures are very attractive. They gain a web browsers attention. The recipe index is great to quickly choose breakfast,, dinner, and, my favorite, dessert. I was able to navigate easily through different links in the page, as well as other recipe pages. The advertisements, however, distracted a little from the main reason for visiting the page, finding healthy recipes. I would also recommend this page to anyone who likes to eat tasty food.

Brie Scott October 13, 2014 Harvard Chaucer Interlinear Translation The intended purpose of this website is to provide a line by line translation of The Canterbury Tales. The website is geared toward upper level students in late high school or college English classes. The information on this site is excessively adequate. While the design of the website is somewhat lacking, quality of the translation is superb, making this an excellent resource of translation. Overall the content of this website is good. The name of the author and an email address for him are provided but the information on the particular author is otherwise slim. While the website has not been edited in several years, this is appropriate considering The Canterbury Tales is an ancient text. As stated in the previous paragraph, the translation provided on the site is excellent. The design of the site is not particularly eye catching. In fact, overall the homepage of the site is a little bland. However, there is an easy to navigate table of contents. Thus, navigation is simple and to the point. Graphics are subpar, but for a site meant to translate Chaucer, visual aids are not particularly essential.

Brie Scott October 13, 2014 Harvard Chaucer Interlinear Translation The intended purpose of this website is to provide a line by line translation of The Canterbury Tales. The website is geared toward upper level students in late high school or college English classes. The information on this site is excessively adequate. While the design of the website is somewhat lacking, quality of the translation is superb, making this an excellent resource of translation. Overall the content of this website is good. The name of the author and an email address for him are provided but the information on the particular author is otherwise slim. While the website has not been edited in several years, this is appropriate considering The Canterbury Tales is an ancient text. As stated in the previous paragraph, the translation provided on the site is excellent. The design of the site is not particularly eye catching. In fact, overall the homepage of the site is a little bland. However, there is an easy to navigate table of contents. Thus, navigation is simple and to the point. Graphics are subpar, but for a site meant to translate Chaucer, visual aids are not particularly essential.

In the first article that I found, there was a study done on cyberbullying in Greece. They looked at all things that could impact the bully and the victim from things such as parenting to online impulsiveness. I believe the intended audience is for the general public especially parents and school staff personnel. As I read through this article I find that it is a very good study with relevant information and a good purpose. The introduction did a great job on explaining what cyberbully is and who are the bullies and victims. They also did a great job on explaining why people bully other online such as gaining a sense of empowerment or simply out of boredom. The article gave plenty of statistics that made the article easier to follow and understand. The results were very easy to understand which was nice when trying to apply this study to something else. I also think that they did a good job on correlating parent to child bonding and how that could make an impact. Something I did not particularly like about this study is that it was done in one place, on an island. I think that it is hard to truly measure how much adolescents get cyberbullied with the study if over a single group of kids. This study really focuses on the fact that cyberbullying is a big problem in the world of adolescents.

In the first article that I found, there was a study done on cyberbullying in Greece. They looked at all things that could impact the bully and the victim from things such as parenting to online impulsiveness. I believe the intended audience is for the general public especially parents and school staff personnel. As I read through this article I find that it is a very good study with relevant information and a good purpose. The introduction did a great job on explaining what cyberbully is and who are the bullies and victims. They also did a great job on explaining why people bully other online such as gaining a sense of empowerment or simply out of boredom. The article gave plenty of statistics that made the article easier to follow and understand. The results were very easy to understand which was nice when trying to apply this study to something else. I also think that they did a good job on correlating parent to child bonding and how that could make an impact. Something I did not particularly like about this study is that it was done in one place, on an island. I think that it is hard to truly measure how much adolescents get cyberbullied with the study if over a single group of kids. This study really focuses on the fact that cyberbullying is a big problem in the world of adolescents.

The second article I had found was based out of California and was explaining what high school and administration does to protect themselves and their students without pushing any legal limits or freedom of speech. I think that this article was also meant for the general public and other school administrators as it was posted in a school magazine. I enjoyed this article because it wasn't a study, instead it spoke more about what the schools did to take action about this dilemma. This article game a wide variety of things that the administrators did to stop the bullying. As well as giving examples on things that they couldn't change or stop. Such as some of the students were able to outsmart the firewalls blocking them from specific websites or freedom of speech. This article also did a good job on giving a great example of how a principle of a prestigious high school that focused on arts got involved with a cyberbullying incident. It showed how administration in many other schools can struggle with managing their students in a lawful manner without crossing a line.

The second article I had found was based out of California and was explaining what high school and administration does to protect themselves and their students without pushing any legal limits or freedom of speech. I think that this article was also meant for the general public and other school administrators as it was posted in a school magazine. I enjoyed this article because it wasn't a study, instead it spoke more about what the schools did to take action about this dilemma. This article game a wide variety of things that the administrators did to stop the bullying. As well as giving examples on things that they couldn't change or stop. Such as some of the students were able to outsmart the firewalls blocking them from specific websites or freedom of speech. This article also did a good job on giving a great example of how a principle of a prestigious high school that focused on arts got involved with a cyberbullying incident. It showed how administration in many other schools can struggle with managing their students in a lawful manner without crossing a line.

This webpage gives an immense amount of information on various different subjects. These subjects are Agriculture, Environment, Family, Food, Lawn, and Garden. Each subsection under each subject includes extra links that lead to publications, news, and external websites that deal with that topic. This website is intended for college student's research but I could see it being used by a teacher to find information to include in a lesson. One page linked under Teacher Resources has lesson plans for high school students in various scientific fields that include physics, chemistry, biology, and many more. Physics is what I might use since it is a science that uses a large amount of math. The content is very quickly determined. The main page has tabs for all the subjects and also a link bar that leads to various other resources such as the teacher lesson plans. The page is closely tied with the University of Georgia and most of the information is found in links to publications, news, and external websites created by reliable sources. The lesson plans that I went through were provided by direct links to PDF files and the lessons themselves were very easy to understand. The webpage copyright is dated 2011-2012 which may not be as up to date as possible, however I think that it is definitely current enough to still be relevant.

Khan Academy is an excellent resource for parents, students, and teachers. It is basically a free online classroom with video lessons and the opportunity to try and solve problems in short online quizzes. It has resources for math, science, economics, and more. The resources are intended for a diverse audience with resources that vary from kindergarten all the way to high school and beyond. Teachers and parents can use it to help their students or children to get extra instruction and practice. Students can use it to help them develop a better understanding and to help them practice or study for tests. The site is well made and the information is credible which makes it an excellent resource. The content is obvious as Khan Academy has a drop down tab that allows you to navigate to all the different subjects and the audience is also obvious as each subject is broken down by which grade you are in. The content specialists are all experienced experts in all sorts of different fields and so the information can be verifiably accurate. Everything is well organized and the information is explained mostly through videos which tend to thoroughly explain the information. The website downloads very quickly and is aesthetically appealing. You can tell that it was professionally made. All of the links work and directions for using the website are fairly straightforward. All the videos and graphics serve a clear purpose which is typically to explain and illustrate different subjects. For example in the Trigonometry section a video is shown which illustrates a right triangle and the different ratios that can be used to solve the sides or angles of the triangle. The website is also extremely current as the copyright date is 2015.

Trevor Montgomery Khan Academy is a resource that students, teachers and parents can all use to encourage and promote positive attitudes and confidence for students in math by using activities that seem like games that actually help students practice and hone their math skills in a seemingly fun learning vessel. Khan Academy is also an extremely great resource for parents and teachers because they can not only track their child or students' progress, but also create activities and lessons for students to do outside of class and have their own online tracking guide. As far as content goes, the activities are based on grade level and category for the students, so as teachers, you have a lot of control as to what the material is. Additionally, you can add students to the class at any point and when necessary, look at the lessons from a "student view", where essentially you are logged in as a student and can take a crack at the lesson yourself to see if there are any errors or misconceptions. This is actually a great tool as a way to, in a sort, "proofread" your lesson or online homework activity assigned. You can also track skill progress specific to each of the students and when a child is done mastering a certain activity, you can keep track of that and maybe quiz them in class as a way of ensuring mastery of the concepts. The intended audience is parents, students and teachers alike. As a personal user and someone who knows they will use this resource as a future teacher, I have to say I give this resource a big thumbs up. So as far as easiness and fluidity of the website goes, it couldn't be easier to navigate. Especially for students, you couldn't ask for a better layout of a resource like this that clearly identifies goals and activities for you. As a teacher, everything is neatly organized in one place for you to navigate back and forth through students and activities.

This website, found at education.nationalgeographic.com, is geared at teachers, families, and student audiences. The encyclopedia resources on the site can be altered to better fit each of these audiences depending on the user's selected audience. In addition to encyclopedia resources, videos, photographs, lessons, and educational activities can also be found on the website. The website developer, National Geographic Society, does a wonderful job of providing external links and updated information on a variety of scientific and social topics which could be helpful in elementary classroom research activities. National Geographic's website content is relevant and correct, since it's most recent update took place in 2015. Although the site identifies its sponsor as the Verizon Foundation, no biases in the texts can be detected. On every educational page, whether it is an encyclopedia entry for K-2nd grade audiences or a suggested lesson plan for teachers, National Geographic provides a multitude of working links to back up the site's information and facts. At the bottom of every page, the website provides contact information in the forms of email addresses, mailing addresses, and telephone numbers for users to use in case of any questions or concerns. Clearly, the National Geographic Education website's content is accurate and very useful for science and social studies education. The design of this site is compatible with all web browsers and downloads efficiently. The Education home page offers an attractive, organized display of the website's resources and choice of audiences. This easy-to-follow format also flows onto every page on the website for easy navigation, and all links are integrated into the website's text for convenient learning and fact-checking. Over all, the presentation of National Geographic's content is attractive, organized, and current.

TeacherTube is an educational resource found at teachertube.com. It is a filtered, child-safe video website based off of the popular video site called YouTube. The site, geared towards teachers and students, was initiated by a superintendent from Texas named Jason Smith and is maintained through uploaded user content. TeacherTube is a fantastic source of videos to supplement lessons of all subjects in an elementary classroom. All content on this educational website is current, and its copyright has been updated as of 2015. All video links are informational and relevant, and some information about the people who uploaded each of the videos is available; however, no contact information is provided for the website. Also, the audience and subject matter of the videos are easily determined. The site's credibility is improved by its associations with the American Institute for History Education, Glogster EDU, NASA Ares, and other highly esteemed educational online resources. Over all, TeacherTube provides reliable, audience-appropriate, educational content to students and teachers alike, making it an excellent tool to use in a flipped-design classroom or to supplement any lesson in an elementary classroom. The website's design allows users to easily navigate TeacherTube's videos. The homepage displays a sample of educational videos and organizes them into rows by audience and then by subject matter: teachers, parents, students, and then math, science, and history. Each video shows appropriate content according to the subject and audience it is labeled. Additionally, users can search video channels or specific usernames of people who upload videos. This simplistic format of the homepage is consistent with all other pages, making navigation easy for users of many ages and ensuring efficient loading on any web browser. Clearly, TeacherTube is a well-designed, user-friendly, educational resource for teachers, parents, and students to find credible and informational

A free community for sharing instructional videos and content for teachers and students. We are an education focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners.

This is a resource for kindergarten teachers to learn new ways to make kindergarten more fun than the worksheets that they have been giving kindergarteners today. I think this is a great way to get ideas on how to make a lesson more fun, or this is a different approach to some lesson plans. I am not sure that all are entirely possible, but they can always be modified and made into my own. The colors are also fun, and I think the overall home page itself gets the idea of what they want the website to be about across to the audience. I love the idea of trying to make kindergarten more fun, and I think this is a great example for teachers to use. The content displayed in this is clearly identified by viewing the homepage and touring the different tabs that are available on either side of the picture. The author is very present in who he is and what he stands for. He makes all the sponsors of him and his curriculum present as you scroll throughout the website. If the current date of when it was updated is on there, it has not been updated for 7 years, which could make the information irrelevant now, since it may not keep up with the standards. The only complaint about the content is the grammatical errors. Some of the website was cut off a little bit, as you scroll down the homepage, so some of the wording and pictures have been cut off. Otherwise, the purpose is clear and you can contact the author with any further questions to the website, hoping that he is still around. The website has no glitches and can be easily accessed by anyone and everyone. The design and navigation are organized in a way that the person can pick what they want to know more about. All of the links open easily and don't seem to buffer or take long. The site has some useful information, but it is not updated and probably won't fit to the content standards any more; however, this is a great website for teachers to get ideas and then adapt to the content standards that now stand. The overal

Jade Line April 14, 2015
This article is about how finger painting benefits children in all different ways. This resource is intended for mothers of toddlers and preschool teachers. It talks about the different motor skills that finger painting can help the young children develop. I think this website is well put together and easy to follow. It gives me great ideas for my lesson in class. This site is credible and the author is known, although she is a demand media, and isn't a credible teacher. In this article she talks about how fine motor development is the number one component of finger painting with children. She compares finger painting to having child zip up their jacket, they are using hand eye coordination which is helping them develop fine motor skills. Finger painting also opens children up to creativity and literacy/vocabulary. For example, the child could describe how the paint feels: squishy, slimy, or sticky. This website helps the teachers and parents to understand the importance of finger painting. It also helps them realize that it isn't just a mess, its fun and productive. The resource gives them ideas on what to do with the children and shows them different content areas they can take the finger painting with. The overall design of the website is appealing to the eye and very easy to navigate around. There are links provided with different content of finger painting as well, that work as well. There were no ads on this website that distracted the eye.

Problems with Distant education My first web page is an online newspaper with different stories that the newspaper covers. The purpose for the online newspaper is for anyone to look up the stories that they have. The audience is intended for people who are interested in the news and want to catch up on what is happening The web resources its self is nice and easy to fallow, it shows many different stories about any topic and subject of the views choice. In this news article, there isn't an author, which I find to be very odd because usually news articles provide the author. It does show when the article was published and where it was publish. There was a contact provided, but I do not know if this was to the person who wrote the article, or to the person who knows more on the subject at hand. The home page was eye appalling and it was easy to navigate though because the different stories were clear and easy to get to. The date was not clear which is surprising because it is a news article and I would think that it would have been identified. The news sites it self has current information and stories that are reported all around the world.

Problems with Distant education

On math blasters there are similar characteristics as math playground. Although on math blasters the games are geared more towards beat the clock and racing games. Math blasters has organized the games into different grade levels. Math blasters also gives different resources that help to incorporate math games into a child's everyday life. The website also has the resources that provide teachers with fun interesting ways to teach math and get children more involved. A strength this website has it that is it very organized and looks like a lot of fun when you first log on. Although after trying to use the website it is hard to navigate through different tabs to find the games for students or resources for teachers. Although at the bottom of every page in the website their is a navigation bar that has everything organized by games, resource,worksheets, and lesson plans.