Each teacher will have his or her own specific needs based on the topics and grade levels taught. As a result, this sample is a fairly generic; your own review of the same site would be more specific to your unique class needs.
For this evaluation, we will be looking at NASA's "For Students" area.
While content is the most critical area for review, the usability issues are most evident when first visiting this site. The launch page for this area is eye-catching, with photos of the Space Station and students in headphones listening to podcasts. It is, however, a little intimidating at this level due to the wide range of content, photos, and links. Thankfully, links in the upper left of the site allow you to easily identify grade levels to hone in on the content appropriate for your students. Clicking the Grades K - 4 link opens a menu of several options, including Stories, Find It Fast, Play & Learn, Picture Dictionary, and Current Opportunities. These different links offer a variety of educational reinforcement opportunities, from the Find It Fast link that lets students quickly find links to specific topics and the Picture Dictionary that provide quick access to research tools to the Play & Learn area guaranteed to engage students in educational games. The Search for Spinoffs game, for example, lets students search for items like a cordless drill that has it's root development as a result of the space program.
Usability
This sites subdivision into age-group areas generally ensures materials are appropriate for different student groups and enhances the site's organization, some links in the K-4 area take the user to content beyond the abilities of most students at that grade level. Students comfortable at the higher level could continue their research, while others could return to the lower-level content with a single click of their browser's back button.
It also receives top ranking in reliability, but surprisingly is not as interlinked to Internet resources outside their own site as one might expect. Intense graphics and video could result in problems with bandwidth limitations, but were not an issue in our district. Since we repurpose our old workstations as terminal clients, there are some possible issues with the video cards in our oldest (1995) computers not being able to display the highest-end graphics.
Content
Given the "ownership" of the site, it is safe to assume quality content which is proven when visiting the site. Although at the K - 4 level most of the content is not attributed to specific a specific individual, authority can be assumed on this site due to the credibility of NASA itself. NASA is probably the ultimate authority in space exploration, it is also safe to assume the information it contains is current and unbiased.
Other Considerations
While the site offers a wealth of multimedia materials to reinforce student learning through engagement, this same consideration can make the site difficult or impossible to use for those students who require accessibility devices.
Overall, this site would be on the top ten list for almost all those researching space.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Detangling the web
An example of the power of the Internet comes from my own educational history. A two month sojourn in Japan during my "formative years" instilled a lifelong interest in Asia, which culminated (educationally) in pursuing graduate studies in East Asian Languages and Literatures at THE Ohio State University (you have to be an Ohioan or have attended OSU to appreciate the THE ). To reinforce that my study was out of a sheer love for the material and I had absolutely no career plans driving my efforts, I will further note that my concentration was in Classical Japanese Buddhist Literature.
Although not the focus of my studies, many of my "favorite reads" were works by the poet Saigyo (佐藤義清), who began writing in the 1100s. Although OSU has an incredibly impressive library, delving deep into Saigyo's writings often required the beneficience of other universities sharing materials via interlibrary loan. Now, a casual search of the Internet reveals over 7,500 reference to Saigyo sites. Absolutely amazing, but how do we find the appropriate trees in this extensive forest?
My last post lists some links to sites that offer ideas on how to evaluate sites, and from these I have distilled ideas to come up with my own set of evaluation criteria that seem particularly applicable to the K-12 environment. For ease of use, I have grouped them into content, usability, and other.
The Top Ten
Content - Five Suggested Review Criteria
The site provides accurate information, and what you find on the sites matches your own previous knowledge or those of other teachers who are specialists in the research area.
Sources are referenced, so you know what individuals or groups are providing the materials on the site.
The sources are authoritative, either known experts in the field or the site is owned by a credible group.
Information on the site is current, and updated appropriately for the content. A list of the kings of England may not need to be updated regularly, but it seems like celebrity incarceration news must be updated hourly to remain accurate.
The site provides unbiased information that is free from intentional or unintentional skewing of information based on personal or group beliefs. Often, a visit to a whois engine provides valuable information about who has registered (owns) the site, which can help uncover any hidden agendas.
Usability - An Additional Five Criteria
Is the site appropriate for your students' age and educational level? Does it use navigation techniques they will understand, and is the content appropriate and comprehensible for them?
Is the site reliable? Do the links and multimedia content work, and is the site rarely down?
Is the site well organized, and the relevant material easy to find?
Does the site offer links to other sites with valuable content related to the research topic? Will a student researcher find this site a good starting point in developing a web of information?
Is the site functional with your district's technology infrastructure? The best site in the world isn't helpful if it requires special software, computer equipment, or has excessive bandwith requirements for it's multimedia content that aren't available to you in your district.
Other Considerations
In addition to the Top Ten above, there are four other considerations that may be appropriate based on the specific research and needs of your students.
Does the site meet a unique need? For instance, if your school's media specialist has arranged an author visit, does that author have his or her own web site you would like your students to consult prior to the visit?
Does the site address your students that have specific needs? Do you teach a visually impaired student that needs a screen reader to access web sites and, if so, has the site been developed with accessibility in mind (does it use ALT tags for graphics, and so on). Teachers of students with special needs can use the "Bobby" software to proactively evaluate site accessibility by clicking this link.
Does the site engage the student researcher with multimedia and other "wow factor" content, or is it just an electronic presentation of what would have otherwise been available in print?
Does the site provide free use of it's content for student reports and presentations, or does using it's content in this manner represent a copyright infringement? Sometimes this can be difficult to determine, but is important if we are teaching our students ethical use in the digital age. Some sites are helping by making usage rights more evident. For instance, the Saigyo photo above was taken from Wikipedia. When I clicked the photo, the site explicitly stated that the image was from the Wikimedia Commons, which is a "freely licensed media file repository."
Next up: A site evaluation using the criteria above.
Although not the focus of my studies, many of my "favorite reads" were works by the poet Saigyo (佐藤義清), who began writing in the 1100s. Although OSU has an incredibly impressive library, delving deep into Saigyo's writings often required the beneficience of other universities sharing materials via interlibrary loan. Now, a casual search of the Internet reveals over 7,500 reference to Saigyo sites. Absolutely amazing, but how do we find the appropriate trees in this extensive forest?My last post lists some links to sites that offer ideas on how to evaluate sites, and from these I have distilled ideas to come up with my own set of evaluation criteria that seem particularly applicable to the K-12 environment. For ease of use, I have grouped them into content, usability, and other.
The Top Ten
Content - Five Suggested Review Criteria
The site provides accurate information, and what you find on the sites matches your own previous knowledge or those of other teachers who are specialists in the research area.
Sources are referenced, so you know what individuals or groups are providing the materials on the site.
The sources are authoritative, either known experts in the field or the site is owned by a credible group.
Information on the site is current, and updated appropriately for the content. A list of the kings of England may not need to be updated regularly, but it seems like celebrity incarceration news must be updated hourly to remain accurate.
The site provides unbiased information that is free from intentional or unintentional skewing of information based on personal or group beliefs. Often, a visit to a whois engine provides valuable information about who has registered (owns) the site, which can help uncover any hidden agendas.
Usability - An Additional Five Criteria
Is the site appropriate for your students' age and educational level? Does it use navigation techniques they will understand, and is the content appropriate and comprehensible for them?
Is the site reliable? Do the links and multimedia content work, and is the site rarely down?
Is the site well organized, and the relevant material easy to find?
Does the site offer links to other sites with valuable content related to the research topic? Will a student researcher find this site a good starting point in developing a web of information?
Is the site functional with your district's technology infrastructure? The best site in the world isn't helpful if it requires special software, computer equipment, or has excessive bandwith requirements for it's multimedia content that aren't available to you in your district.
Other Considerations
In addition to the Top Ten above, there are four other considerations that may be appropriate based on the specific research and needs of your students.
Does the site meet a unique need? For instance, if your school's media specialist has arranged an author visit, does that author have his or her own web site you would like your students to consult prior to the visit?
Does the site address your students that have specific needs? Do you teach a visually impaired student that needs a screen reader to access web sites and, if so, has the site been developed with accessibility in mind (does it use ALT tags for graphics, and so on). Teachers of students with special needs can use the "Bobby" software to proactively evaluate site accessibility by clicking this link.
Does the site engage the student researcher with multimedia and other "wow factor" content, or is it just an electronic presentation of what would have otherwise been available in print?
Does the site provide free use of it's content for student reports and presentations, or does using it's content in this manner represent a copyright infringement? Sometimes this can be difficult to determine, but is important if we are teaching our students ethical use in the digital age. Some sites are helping by making usage rights more evident. For instance, the Saigyo photo above was taken from Wikipedia. When I clicked the photo, the site explicitly stated that the image was from the Wikimedia Commons, which is a "freely licensed media file repository."
Next up: A site evaluation using the criteria above.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Oh, what a tangled web...
When you mention technology in schools, the first thing most people think about are computer networks used to access the Internet and students doing web research, so this is as good a place to start as any.
For educators, the availability of free, high quality multimedia resources for education obviously held a huge "wow factor" that helped technology establish a foothold in the K-12 environment. Students who had grown up with television, movies, computers, and video games were already more technology-literate than many educators who came from earlier generations, and were often more engaged in the learning experience when it was presented via this multimedia content.
While the value of the Internet to the K-12 student, their teachers, and the rest of the world's population with Internet access, is incontrovertible, it wasn't long until the reality set in that this valuable tool was not a panacea. Filters were put in place to help protect students from inadvertantly accessing inappropriate materials. Unreliable internet connections could ground a lesson plan centered on online research. Perhaps most challenging to always frugal schools is that technology is not inexpensive, and in an environment used to long-term purchases it was - and continues to be - an adjustment to deal with items that are "obsolete" in just a few years. Much ingenuity has been shown in schools to keep older equipment alive, and it is not unusual to find 12 year old (or older) computers that have been repurposed as terminal clients so they are still in production, delivering educational value to students.
It was also soon evident that students - and staff - needed to develop a critical eye when surfing the Internet. We had, perhaps, never fully appreciated the intrinsic preselection process in the materials found in the school media center. Printing books is expensive, so publishing companies were motivated to ensure the credibility and accuracy materials to ensure the book would be positively reviewed, academically accepted, purchased, and profitable. After surviving this first test, materials were further reviewed by school media specialists prior to purchase. As a result, materials students found in the school's media center were generally credible.
The great value of the Internet - it's extremely low "publication costs" that allow a much wider range of voices to be heard - makes it essential that we evaluate the materials found on the net with a critical eye. When doing research on the moon, you may find a very professional looking site done by an enthusiastic 8 year old. While that 8-year-old may be a "moon-savant," it is probably more important that we view the information it contains critically that information on NASA's web site.
Many tricks can be used to assist with web site evaluation, but all have unique drawbacks. For instance, you can limit your research to sites that have a .edu extension, as those are reserved for use by colleges and universities so may help confirm credibility. However, for elementary school students, the content level may be too high for comprehension, and many items of interest to them will not be covered at this academic level. Another trick is to do a whois search, which allows you to enter a web address and find information on the person or group to whom it is registered, which can give you an indication of the credibility of the site's content.
For guidance on how to evaluate web sites, please check out some of the sites below.
Cornell University's Olin & Uris Libraries
Cornell University's Olin & Uris Libraries' "Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages"
CyberBee, by a friend, Linda Joseph, an educator in the Columbus, Ohio area.
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
The Ohio State University's net.Tutor
UC Berkeley Library
Those with elementary level students may want to have them consult Eduplace's step-by-step tutorial on finding and selecting web sites.
This is just a sampling of hundreds of sites you can find with a simple Google search, where you are sure to find some to suit the needs of you and your students.
Good searching!
For educators, the availability of free, high quality multimedia resources for education obviously held a huge "wow factor" that helped technology establish a foothold in the K-12 environment. Students who had grown up with television, movies, computers, and video games were already more technology-literate than many educators who came from earlier generations, and were often more engaged in the learning experience when it was presented via this multimedia content.
While the value of the Internet to the K-12 student, their teachers, and the rest of the world's population with Internet access, is incontrovertible, it wasn't long until the reality set in that this valuable tool was not a panacea. Filters were put in place to help protect students from inadvertantly accessing inappropriate materials. Unreliable internet connections could ground a lesson plan centered on online research. Perhaps most challenging to always frugal schools is that technology is not inexpensive, and in an environment used to long-term purchases it was - and continues to be - an adjustment to deal with items that are "obsolete" in just a few years. Much ingenuity has been shown in schools to keep older equipment alive, and it is not unusual to find 12 year old (or older) computers that have been repurposed as terminal clients so they are still in production, delivering educational value to students.
It was also soon evident that students - and staff - needed to develop a critical eye when surfing the Internet. We had, perhaps, never fully appreciated the intrinsic preselection process in the materials found in the school media center. Printing books is expensive, so publishing companies were motivated to ensure the credibility and accuracy materials to ensure the book would be positively reviewed, academically accepted, purchased, and profitable. After surviving this first test, materials were further reviewed by school media specialists prior to purchase. As a result, materials students found in the school's media center were generally credible.
The great value of the Internet - it's extremely low "publication costs" that allow a much wider range of voices to be heard - makes it essential that we evaluate the materials found on the net with a critical eye. When doing research on the moon, you may find a very professional looking site done by an enthusiastic 8 year old. While that 8-year-old may be a "moon-savant," it is probably more important that we view the information it contains critically that information on NASA's web site.
Many tricks can be used to assist with web site evaluation, but all have unique drawbacks. For instance, you can limit your research to sites that have a .edu extension, as those are reserved for use by colleges and universities so may help confirm credibility. However, for elementary school students, the content level may be too high for comprehension, and many items of interest to them will not be covered at this academic level. Another trick is to do a whois search, which allows you to enter a web address and find information on the person or group to whom it is registered, which can give you an indication of the credibility of the site's content.
For guidance on how to evaluate web sites, please check out some of the sites below.
Cornell University's Olin & Uris Libraries
Cornell University's Olin & Uris Libraries' "Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages"
CyberBee, by a friend, Linda Joseph, an educator in the Columbus, Ohio area.
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
The Ohio State University's net.Tutor
UC Berkeley Library
Those with elementary level students may want to have them consult Eduplace's step-by-step tutorial on finding and selecting web sites.
This is just a sampling of hundreds of sites you can find with a simple Google search, where you are sure to find some to suit the needs of you and your students.
Good searching!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Welcome
Hello, and welcome to my blog. For those of you into older English literature, my title is an homage to Jerome K. Jerome's classic Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. If your sense of humor is a little off-kilter, like mine, you should check out his Three Men in a Boat for some good laughs.
OK, down to business. I am a technology director who, after working in private sector technology for years, decided to move into the world of K-12 technology where the rewards are more spiritual than financial but you get the pleasure of working with some really exceptional people and for the benefit of some very incredible students. Hopefully, this blog will be less of an ego massage than something that creates some interesting dialogue from the "idle thoughts."
OK, down to business. I am a technology director who, after working in private sector technology for years, decided to move into the world of K-12 technology where the rewards are more spiritual than financial but you get the pleasure of working with some really exceptional people and for the benefit of some very incredible students. Hopefully, this blog will be less of an ego massage than something that creates some interesting dialogue from the "idle thoughts."
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