Website Evaluation

Searching for a website that could address my personal area of technology weakness was not as easy as I thought it would be. One really has to comb through lots of sites in order to find one that really appears to be reliable and a valid source of information. One such site I found was www.internet4classrooms.com . It's a website created by two educators with over 60 years of teaching experience between them. Both have also been involved with staff development and training specifically in the field of technology.

Internet4Classrooms is dedicated to helping teachers use the internet effectively. The easily navigable site map includes Links for K-12 Teachers, On-line Practice Modules,Assessment Assistance, Daily Dose of the Web, and In-School Integration Support. There are hundreds of links to internet resources full of fun and practical assessments in various formats and step-by-step practice modules used for self-paced learning in areas such as Word, EXCEL, Power Point, and Web Quest. The Daily Dose of the Web has lots of websites which change content on a daily or weekly basis making it a super resource for warmups, bell ringers, or quick reviews. This site is strong in content, easy to maneuver through, and the links are continuously checked and pages edited, taking out old, dead links and adding new resources.

I only see a few drawbacks to this site. The first is that I had to search a bit for content that challenges student reflection. The other drawback is just minor, but certainly plays a part in the overall appeal of any site and that's it's visual appeal. There is way too much white space and not much in the way of visually appealing graphics. A lot could be done to visually pump this site up.

In closing, this website has great value to 21st century, information-age education. It's easy to work through, contains good content, the information is updated often, and is maintained by people currently active in the education field who are dedicated to helping teachers make effective use of technology in their classrooms. I would strongly recommend marking this site as a favorite. Internet4Classrooms is a fabulous resource to go back to over and over again.