Website Evaluation

I really enjoyed evaluating the website econedlink.org because it gave me an opportunity to understand the importance of deep thought about instructional materials. I had never realized how much thought goes into planning and deciding whether to use materials or not, especially from the internet. I love the rubric we were given that specifies the purpose, reliability, accuracy, biases, and accessibility of the sites we want to use in our classroom.

One of the points I found especially surprising was "The site can be seen on screen without horizontal scrolling". I had never considered that as an aspect of a good website, but after thinking about it I came to the conclusion that it would be annoying and distracting to have two way scrolling on a website.

One thing I found confusing was "All graphics found at the site have alternative text (alt tags) to assist special learners with screen readers." I did not know what alt tags were or even what screen readers were. I was happy to learn about a different aspect of learning that I had never heard about, much less considered when looking at a web page.

Lastly, I think one of the most important aspects of evaluating a website is to make sure the information is reliable and up to date. I wouldn't want to be half way through a lesson only to realize the information on the board is incorrect. That would be confusing to correct and distracting to the students. I love that my website had an easy navigation bar that showed the last revision, a link to the authors credentials, and a link to the state standards which match the current lesson. Because that is the most important aspect of the information, I think it is helpful to have it easily accessible.