The website I chose to evaluate was http://www.space-explorers.com/index.html. I am very curious about space and space exploration so I wanted to find something that I could use in the classroom. This site seemed to be a good site, so I decided to test it.
To initially test it's credibility, I evaluated it using Kathy Schrock's guide. The website seemed to answer all the questions she asked pretty well. The website had photographs that looked real. You could easily navigate back to the home page and the spelling all looked correct. I could also find when the website was last updated and when it was created. The only thing that I was uncertain about was finding information about the author. I was able to find ways to contact the company that created the website, but it was a little strange that they warned that you may have someone answer who represents another company.
Next, I decided to check the accessibility of the website using WAVE. It was a huge shock to me that I found that this website had 35 accessibility errors!
After evaluating this website through these two evaluating websites and devices, I decided that this website would not be a great choice for me as a teacher, or my students to use. While this website looks like it would be very beneficial and fun for students to use, it came up short in the evaluations.
I like your idea of creating a list for the students to choose from.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is important as teachers and parents to check these websites thoroughly. We sort of lose control of what is being taught once they get on the internet so we need to make sure the data is correct and easy to use.
ReplyDeleteI thought that your idea about evaluating the websites your students use before you give them to them is great idea. Good use of monitoring the info that they get for research papers and projects. Although it could mean a lot of work on your part.
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