ITEC2360

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.

Talks about why and how distant education is used 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.

Talks about why and how distant education is used

On math playground there are a variety of different math ideas and concept that students can practice through online math games. This website includes games for students from kindergarten through seventh grade as well as topics like algebra, geometry, and precalculus. The website is designed very well and looks welcoming when you log on. There are pictures of some of the different games offered by the site that look fun and can draw attention to students using the site. One strength from the website is that it covers a vast majority of mathematical skills that are taught and practiced throughout elementary school. Although a weakness this site has is that they group different mathematical ideas together by grade, when even though we like to think that every fourth grader across the country are learning the same concepts, the likelihood of that being true is very low.

Emily Nielsen: April 15, 2015 This website is intended to educate children about farm animals. The intended audience is young children, probably preschool through early elementary years. The vocabulary used on the website is basic and the information is at a general enough level that it should be easy for children to understand. I like that there are many pictures of the animals on the site so that children can understand the material through the pictures instead of the words if they cannot yet read. Overall, I think that it is a fun website that could be navigated and understood easily by children. The content of website is clear and appropriately written for young children. In the site, correct grammar and spelling are used. The site is well organized and makes it easy to navigate from one animal to another. The content appears to be correct and could easily be verified. Although there is not a date for when it was last updated, there is contact information provided if he viewer has further questions. The design of website is easy for users to navigate. On the home page, there is a display of all the different animals on the site. To find out more about an animal, all the viewer has to do is click on the animal. There is a table of contents and KIDS FARM is the sponsor of the site. There are many pictures included that add to the written information. The homepage downloads quickly and all of the content shows up.

Jade Line April 14, 2015 This article is about different ways to have children finger paint. It provides ideas on how to stay away from the mess of painting and different projects students can do with painting. The attended audience for this article is early childhood/ elementary teachers. This website has all of the information needed for an easy set up and easy clean up. I enjoy this website because it is giving fast and effective ways to get the job done, which saves time. This website is credible and the author is known and is a credible education professor at a university in Pennsylvania. Although, the last time it was revised was in 2008. The content in this site is a little jumbled and it gets confusing to read at times. The purpose is clear and well stated. The author talks about how important setting up this messy project is for an easy take down and clean up. She also highlights in this article different "mess-free" activities you can do with painting. The design of this website is not very appealing. It isn't very colorful and doesn't attract the readers eye at first. There are no pictures to catch the attention of someone either. It is just a bunch of different paragraphs with a few bold headings. There are links provided to other areas on the website, but doesn't directly relate to finger painting. Overall I think the layout of this article isn't very neat and put together. There were no ads on this website to distract the reader.

The aim of the website www.poets.org is to provide resources for teachers, from elementary to university level, that wish to teach poetry in their classes. The website's mainpage contains man clickable lesson plans and resources that link to various poetry books that can all be used in a classroom or modified for whatever level the teacher wants to teach. Each lesson plan is clearly labeled with an author as well, which could help a teacher locate lesson plans by the same person if they really liked another one they wrote. The point of the webpage is evident in their opening paragraph at the top. The design of the page is lacking in a few respects; for example, the address, credits, and contact links are at the bottom of a white page in white colored font - I only found it because I highlighted them.  The website's goal is obvious from the first look at their introduction paragraph, which contains a little history about the website and what their main goals are where poetry in the classroom is concerned. There is no place on the main page that indicates when the site was last updated, but the page is currently advocating for teachers to participate in National Poetry Month, which is April, so either this site is very up to date or is years behind in some other poetry month. 

Lacey Boyles April 15, 2015 This website ran very smoothly. I was able to find what I was looking for and also browse other articles easily. The intended audience is anyone who is interested in early childhood development. The purpose of this site is to give advice to parents/teachers, and also ideas on games/activities/art. Over all this is a very well set up website. This site is set up very well. Things are easy to locate as they have blogs set up in different categories. From what I read through the authors grammar and spelling is all correct. They try and set up two blogs a week, I would say they stay pretty current. I did not have any problem clicking on different blogs/articles, I was able to access all that I clicked on. The only thing I think they could add is links to other websites that relate to what they are talking about in a specific blog/article. When first clicking on this website it is very clear as to where you are. The site is nothing fancy so it does not take away from the content. On the homepage there is not too much going on and is easy to read. There is a variety of different information that would help with many different questions. From what I read through articles seem to be up to date and there is not a lot of very old material. This is a website that I will be returning to in the future.

The intended purpose of this page is to educate people on the self-esteem changes that occur in middle school students, through a study done with different ethnic groups. The indented audience is for anyone I would say middle school and older interested in this study and the information. The full article and study, the publication date, publication type, authors, and editors are available through this site. I think this site is very informative and credible based on the information given, and the site is set up for easy access. This study takes a look at middle school students grades 6-8 of different gender and ethnic groups. These ethnic groups include European American, African American, and Hispanic. This study was done on the same students for the consecutive three years comparing the self-esteem of ethnic groups and of gender. The content of this page is relatively old, dating in 2006, but the rest of the article is credible, peer reviewed, and the authors and editor are educated on the subject. This web page does not have a strong eye appeal, and does not bring a lot of attention. The page is easy to navigate. The title and the authors are clear, and all the information regarding the study is listed for easy reference. A summary is posted on the actual web page, and the full text is available through a link. The design is very simple, and is only one page that summarizes all the information.

Emily Nielsen: April 15, 2015 This website is intended to educate viewers about rainforests. There is information available about where specific rainforests are, what animals and animals live in them, and how to persevere them. I think it would be a great resource to upper elementary school aged children. Overall, I really like this website because there is a lot of information presented in a format that is easy to navigate. The content of this site appears accurate and easily verifiable. The information is provided by MK and PK Productions and it is material that is copyrighted but can be used for educational purposes. There is contact information provided on the site. I cannot find a date about when the site was last updated but it seems current. The content is well organized into several different categories. The purpose of the page is clearly to be an educational resource about rainforests. Grammar and spelling are correct. The design of the website provides a format that is easy for viewers to use. The homepage catches the viewer's eye with lots of colorful pictures. There is information for contacting the maker of the site to find out more information. There is a wide variety of information on a variety of rainforest topics. The multitude of pictures adds to a viewer's understandings of the topics. The different topic pages on the site are easy to transfer from one to another and are all filled with information and pictures.

The purpose of this website is to inform the reader about how the human eye works.  The intended audience of this website is probably middle school students and up.  It is more for the general public than for scientists.  It provides information on the different parts of the eye and what they do.  It also discusses some of the problems that can occur in the eye.  The information presented in the website seems good, but there are some ads that can be distracting. The user is able to quickly determine the basic content and intended audience of the site.  The author's name is provided, but it does not give the reader any way to contact them or any of their credentials.  The sponsors of the site are clearly identified, as well.  The site was published on 2/10/10, which is appropriate to the topic because the human eye has not changed much since then.  The site is not frequently updated, but there are several links to other resources that work properly.  Comments are open on this site, and they provide other resources, as well as extra information and opinions about the topic.  The site is well organized and easy to understand.  There is not any bias on the site, and it provides most of the information necessary.  It is not at all interactive.  The information seems to be accurate, based on my previous knowledge, as well as other resources on the topic.  Its grammar and spelling are correct.

The purpose of this website is to inform the reader about primary colors.  The intended audience of this website is probably middle school students and up.  It provides a summary of what the standard primary colors are and why.  It talks about the different standards and when they apply.  It seems like a good website because it is informative and easy to navigate with no advertisements. The user is able to quickly determine the basic content and intended audience of the site.  The names of the authors of this site are not provided.  It is open to editing to basically anyone.  The usernames of the authors can be found, along with the date that they updated the site.  The site does not provide a good way to contact the authors, either.  The last date that this site was edited was 4/10/15.  This is appropriate to the material, and the site is updated frequently.  There are links to many other sites related to the topic, and they work properly.  The quality of the information is very good.  There is no detectable bias, and the information makes sense.  It provides information that is different than what I learned in elementary school, but I believe it is still accurate.  There are many other sources that provide consistent information.  The grammar and spelling are correct.