ITEC2360

Jared Mohr-Leiva October 13, 2014 Grammar is an area of Language Arts that is almost unanimously hated. We are taught grammar in primary school, and the rules become greater in number and difficulty as we progress. Thankfully, websites such as "www.grammarbook.com" exist only to help. From basics (nouns and verbs, where to use a comma) to more complex areas (who vs. whom, prepositions, semicolons), this website has rules galore. Additionally, all the information is taken directly from Jane Straus's "The Blue Book of Grammar and Pronunciation," a published and legitimate work. On the website's home page is a list of twenty-five subjects, each linking to a page which details what each of the words mean, what they are, how to find them, et cetera. Sections are clearly labeled, examples are given, and rules are clearly outlined. Overall, the website is very user-friendly; It is very easy to find what is needed, and quickly. Aesthetically, I have seen much worse. Grammarbook.com is very blue, to say the least. However, many of the text boxes are a light orange color, blue's compliment, which is rather easy on the eyes. Labels are large and bold, making everything easy to locate. All in all, a very helpful and convenient resource.

Alyssa Maurer The website Teaching Channel is designed to connect teachers to one another across the world. The site also provides video demonstrations of in class techniques that can be used for video reflection and coaching. The audience is for teachers across the country that can influence and assist one another. The entire website is based on connectivity between all teachers who visit the website. The website also acts as a social networking site by allowing visitors who register with the site create profiles. My impression of the website is that it could be a very useful tool for teachers to continue to improve their lesson plans and to be able to retrieve constructive criticism. The Teaching Channel as a website seems to be very useful as a teaching resource for teachers. It was created specifically for teachers to connect with one another and share their experiences in expectation that the audience can gain knowledge from others practices. As a visitor of the website you can also select grade level and topics to further a specific search of videos. Along with the videos which is the main portion of the website they also have a blog, newsletter, and questions and answers page. The website is created by a non-profit organization that clearly defines their mission, contact information, terms and conditions of the website, discussion guidelines, video guidelines, media coverage, and frequently asked questions. The site seems to be quite user friendly with a modern look to the setup of the website. A critique of the website would be the visual aspect of the website. It also only allows teachers to interact with one another and forgets to include students and parents. The site does seem to be modern and created in our generation for easy access and navigation. The videos are filtered by subject so that each teacher can easily navigate through the website to reach the desired subject area.

Morganne Harper The site http://specialed.about.com/ contains a lot of materials that could be useful when teaching or handling a child with special needs. There are many articles talking about behavior and how to handle certain types. There are also links to sheets that help with fundamental skills such as counting. Towards the bottom on the left, there are more detailed sections that you could navigate to, which would give you more specific information on a certain area. At a quick glance, it is not easy to see that it is about special education. There is small gray font near the top that says special education, but not much else. The authors and resources of their information is relatively easy to find. It is at the top of any article or link that you click on. I had trouble finding the date that anything was published or updated. Some areas that should be put together aren't and some things are put in what seems like random places. Information contained on the site is of good quality. It is meant to be a helpful source to utilize, and does a decent job at giving content to allow this to happen. The homepage opened quickly and lead me to what I was looking for. Near the bottom of the page there are multiple colors in links that draw your eyes to them, but on the top and in the middle there was a lack of appeal. It looked like something about "boring" education. You have to scroll for a little bit to get to the links that you might want, until then there are just articles that seem to be in random order. Some of the graphics that are used as clip art for articles are repeated, losing the effect and interest.

This website is for Early Childhood teachers and of them to get free lesson plans, units, and materials. Overall, this is a really cool website. I would use this website for lesson plan ideas and it is current information. It was last copyrighted in 2013-2014. They have a ton of different websites that teachers can go to and get different ideas. Also, there are blogs that you can follow to get more ideas. This website also includes the different degrees that you can get in different states. All the information is current and relevant for early childhood education. This website is very plain. However, I think that it is appropriate for the audience that it is for. It is professional in a way that you know it is reliable. This website is very nice and full of a ton of good information.

This site is probably not a site that I would use, by looking at the title this looks like a fantastic website to use to teach about the culture of the Grapes of Wrath. By looking a little closer the title may say read me, but the articles following say "I am off topic". There is no clearly identified audience, the website jumps around a lot. One link the class would be looking at Oklahoma culture and the next link you are the University of Oklahoma's home page. There is not an identified purpose for this url. I think this was a very mediocre site. I was not easily able to find identify the audience nor the purpose of this site. This was a reliable site, the author and copyright date were easily accessible, this was also a university site. This URL might have been made by a student. This website was last updated in 2007, therefore this would put up a red flag because the author hasn't made any changes to it for 7 years. It seems a little outdated. All of the links to other sites are working properly, although the only other link is to the university home page. This site is not accurate, it has no related topics to other sites that I went to. Nor does it have information related to my topic. The information in this site is not organized nor is it easy to understand. There are no spelling or grammar issues, although a bias opinion is easily detectable. The links are what kills this site. There is no need to have a link to your University search page on one of the main links on your webpage. The design in this website is one positive thing about this site, the home page downloads successfully and with no problems. The home page is aesthetically pleasing and draws the audience in. The title is very catchy and serves as a learning experience. The copyright date is easily accessible, although outdated. There is a table of contents although they all run together, all of the links seem to be the same. Navigation throughout this site does not go smoot

This website is for Kindergarten and earlier teachers for art class. It provides lesson plans for teachers to teach art. This website does not look professional. It has a lot of popups that come up when I am trying to navigate through the website. It was copyrighted in 1997-2014. This website is kind of useful. I found that the lesson plans were kind of confusing. They weren't actual lesson plans. They were more of suggestions that you could do for a lesson plan but they said that they were lesson plans. This website would be helpful for ideas not actual lesson plans. The overall design of the website was easy to use and navigate. However, it was not professional. At first this website does not look reliable, but when you keep looking they have some really cool idea. I would probably not use this website in the future for lesson plans.

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.