Educational Websites
From LIS 460 Summer 2007
Contents |
Introduction
The Internet provides educators with an almost limitless amount of up-to-date information. Access to these resources is gradually reshaping the classroom from a four-wall structure to a global environment. Ready access to millions of pages of data provide classrooms with rich resources for learning. One of the major benefits of the Internet is that it allows individuals to access up to date information. It is possible to access news reports hours or even minutes after an event occurs.But finding useful Internet sites that have a direct connection to the curriculum is a time-consuming task. Students and teachers can search for hours on the web without finding relevant information. Quality educational sites are abundant, but they are not always easy to find. No one has judged the quality or accuracy of the information found on the Internet, so you must evaluate the information you find.
Criteria for Evaluating a Website
Authorship /Authority:
• Is there an author?
• Who is the sponsor? Is there a link to the organization's home page so you can discover more about them?
Accuracy:
• Where does the information come from?
• Is the information supported by evidence? Compare the information on this site with that of other sites and other sources on the same subject.
Currency:
• Is the site dated?
• When was it last updated? Some sites will have the date, showing when the page was posted, and the date of the most recent update.
Relevance:
• Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?
• Who is the intended audience?
Purpose:
• Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
• Why was the site created?
Examples of High-Quality Educational Websites
Websites that meet the afore mentioned criteria have been included in this section. As an added note, the recommendations apply only to the primary sites that are listed, not to every site linked from the primary sites.
[Enchanted Learning] is an excellent source of information for not only students( preschool through 8th grade) but educators as well, providing diagrams, templates, coloring pages and research information on topics as diverse as animals and writing activities. In the Butterfly section you can learn about the butterfly's anatomy and behavior, do interactive puzzles or take quizzes, and make a butterfly life-cycle mobile. Check out the picture dictionaries entitled “little explorers” where children can learn the alphabet and practice their foreign language vocabulary.One section is entitled [CLOZE] which contains fill-in-the-blank activities to check students reading comprehension.Check out the picture dictionaries entitled [Little Explorers] where children can learn the alphabet and practice their foreign language vocabulary.The creators of this site welcome input from those who visit.The cost for a year’s membership is $20 which gives you access to a banner-ad-free version and printer-friendly pages.Enchanted Learning is certainly a site worth exploring.
[Edhead is one the students love to explore. Begin with the Simple Machine section and then proceed to Odd Machine . There is a recently included activity entitled Weather. This website has good suggestions for teachers and lesson planning.
[Factmonster] is an excellent source of information for students in Grade 4 and up.This site's home page contains an atlas, encyclopedia, homework helper, dictionary and timeline.Quizzes are built in to each subject area to check the reader's comprehension. There is a section called All about Books which contains links to award-winning titles,book genres,and even where children can go to get their own work published. A link for citing Factmonster giving detailed instructions to the user as to how to cite(a cite guide is included on the bottom of each page of information).
Another site is [Discovery School] which provides innovative teaching materials for educators in grades k-12. Kathy Schrock, an educator and author of material dealing with technology and education, information fluency, Web page design, and critical evaluation of Web information, has a link on this website.
Visit the [Albright-Knox Art Gallery] website where students will find interactive art activities that help them to learn about artists and the works of art in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery located in Buffalo, New York. *You will need to allow pop-ups for this site to work on most computers.
After reading an author’s work to a class, the students often desire to learn more about this particular artist’s background. To follow are the websites of a few of the more requested artists:
[Chris Van Allsburg] Children love this site. Fritz the dog is your guide through this gifted author/illustrator’s works.
[Roald Dahl] site includes a biography complete with animated characters from Dahl's work.
[David Wiesner] includes conversations with this award-winning author/illustrator
American Library Association has a list of [Great Websites for Children], although not all work well in the classroom.
References
American Library Association’s criteria http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsitesforkids/greatwebsites.htm
An Educators' Guide to Credibility and Web Evaluation http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/credibility/page3.html
Cornell University Library http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcrit.html
Kathy Schrock’s Evaluation of a Web Page Lesson Plan http://kathyschrock.net/eval/index.htm
