Debra Burkhalter October 15, 2012 Student News Daily Overview: Student News Daily is a fabulous current events site for high school students to become readers of the news. The founders set up the website with a goal to "to build students' knowledge of current events and strengthen their critical thinking skills…in a manageable format." Using the site gives great references and information to students in a very easy to navigate way. Teachers will also be impressed with the format and many links to other useful current events websites. Content: The user of this site is able to identify right away that the content is current events. The site is updated daily. The intended audience is stated clearly under the "About Us" tab: "StudentNewsDaily.com is a non-profit current events website for high school students." The directional tabs are organized and easy to navigate and teachers will also appreciate the easy and manageable format. Student News Daily has six main categories which would be quite useful and could easily be incorporated into weekly current event lesson planning: * Daily News Article * Daily Best of The Web * Tuesday's World Briefs * Wednesday's Biased Item * Thursday's Commentary * Friday's News Quiz In addition to main categories the site also provides other current events items including: editorial cartoons, quick takes and a quote of the week. Design: The homepage downloads efficiently, is easy to read, extremely navigable and updated daily. Directions for use are clear and easy to follow and the content areas are labeled and very well organized. The site incorporates the use of multimedia via weekly videos, daily cartoons and links which makes a huge contribution to the site as an up to date portal for global current events. The design and purpose of the site is to educate and the content presentation which is inclusive of questions and answers makes it very doable for students to learn

Debra Burkhalter October 15, 2012 Teens For Planet Earth Overview: Teens for Planet Earth is a Wildlife Conservation sponsored social networking group for teens, age thirteen years and older. This site was set up to provide outlets for group conservation projects which can be posted on this site. Very much like the Diigo groups, these Teens for Planet Earth (T4PE) groups are specifically formed by and for teens who want to protect the planet. Members from all over the globe can join to learn more about conservation, to join local projects, or even to apply for awards. This site is helpful to find information and many current events related to the environment. Content: The user of this site is able to identify right away that the basic content deals with conservation. The intended audience is stated on the home page, "Teens for Planet Earth is a Social Network by teens, for teens." The directional tabs are organized and easy to navigate. Although the site was developed for teens, there is also an Advisors portal for adults/teachers to: ■Establish regular, consistent contact with your team members. ■Engage team members in constant motivation, reflection, and feedback. ■Manage team dynamics and involve all teens equally in project. ■Know and oversee safety and health issues. Design: The homepage downloads efficiently and is simple but attractive and eye catching. Your eyes are visually drawn and move across silhouetted mountains, over the earth held up by stick figures then settle in a calm fixation on the owl in flight. Directions are clear and easy to follow and the content areas are labeled and organized. The site incorporates the use of multimedia extremely well which makes a huge contribution to the site. Design provides ample availability and links to other useful Web sites.

Debra Burkhalter October 15, 2012 Project Gutenberg Overview: Being the first producer of free eBooks, Project Gutenberg's purpose is to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. Michael Hart the founder of Project Gutenberg invented the eBook in 1971 and in his words, the Project Gutenberg site, "wants to provide as many eBooks in as many formats as possible for the entire world to read in as many languages as possible." Thus, the intended audience for this site is literally humankind, but to be more specific for the purpose of my particularities; students, teachers, readers, writers, poets, publishers, learners, seekers of knowledge…and the list go on. Content: The site itself contains over 40,000 free eBooks and over 100,000 free eBooks are also available through the partner links. At first look, the user is able to quickly determine the basic content of the site and the audience is clearly stated in the information provided about the author. Information currency is accurate and last updated on August 20, 2012. Beyond the available eBooks that Project Gutenberg offers, the site also has a Self Publishing Portal, News Room, Blog and discussion pages and a plethora of reviews and review links. Design: The homepage downloads efficiently and has a very basic and scholarly appeal. Index tags indicate the content areas and are clearly identifiable. The user is able to navigate with ease throughout the site as the directions are very clear and easy to follow and information is extremely easy to find. There is no use of multimedia, however links to many other useful Web sites are provided.