For my website evaluation, I chose a website that many of the children at my work enjoy playing: Coolmath.com. I have never really looked the website over to see what all the website had to offer and simply have trusted their judgement in saying that the website was "good". After researching the site and digging deeper into what it was all about, I learned that the children were right. The website offers many educational games for them to practice math skills. While watching the children play these games, I would not have known that the games were truly educational (we want them to only play games on the computer that will benefit them).
I'm glad that I was able to evaluate Coolmath.com because now I feel better about what they are doing on the computer. The only downfall to the website was the confusing and cluttered layout. There are many, many links that I feel would take several hours to explore. I did however find many teacher resources and some educational standards were even included as a link! I enjoyed this activity because I found out that there is more to a website when you explore it a little more. I am guilty of clicking on and using information from the first page I come to when searching the web. Possibly now with more knowledge on how to determine if a site is reliable, I will find that information first. I will definitely want to use this tool before using any sites in my classroom in the future.
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