IT 755 Evaluation of Web-Based Instructional Sites

1. URL: http://www.linguaweb.ndirect.co.uk/pages/mainwhat.htm

This is a site for learning foreign languages. They offer lessons on a variety of languages for learners all ages and levels, as well as materials, tests, and other resources for teachers and educators. They also have scheduled chat sessions to practice the language with others. This is a good feature because you learn languages best by speaking them.

The design of this web site is colorful, yet clear and concise.

http://www.linguaweb.ndirect.co.uk/ When you click on the main page, it downloads quickly. It does not take a long time for the graphics to appear. You can put your name in and it will greet you personally. The pages do not have a copyright on each one, but it goes give a copyright and the author also gives a note about the circumstances for a lack of update for the moment.

Design and Layout:

The navigation buttons are consistent on each page, linking to language centre, resources and materials for teachers, chat area and the news edition. Each section is set up the same way, with top links to the different centersand language areas. The navigation bar for the Main menu, News Room and more about LingaWeb are on the left side of the page. The site also has a link to get permission to add this site to you own page, which is an easy way to make sure you do not violate copyright laws with access to the owner of the site.

The structure of this site is very consistent and user-friendly. The User Guide link gives you information about each of the main links featured at the top of the page for each section (language, revision, café and resources). This site has links for contact, user guide, copyright info, and a search engine for the site. They even have Internet TV and Radio links.

User Interface- The main page (http://www.linguaweb.ndirect.co.uk/) has the title of each section you can visit when you mouse-over the symbol(s). When you go to each successive page, the symbols do not have an alternate text that tells each sections name, but when you click on it, it gives a page title for that page and gives a description of the links purpose. The layout for each page has a consistent navigation and left-alignment for the text blocks. Everything is designed with the related information grouped together.

You can see the page well in either the newest version of Netscape or Internet Explorer.

Educational Options: This site has interesting activities that can be done to learn another language. It also has the chat area which can be scheduled so that learners can practice their skills in conversation. The teacher resource area for contributing resources, lessons and materials that you have found useful to be shared with others as well as getting resources yourself. You have to pick a language and go to that site to be able to participate in the activities, share or get lessons, etc. You can even make your own lesson by customizing the activity. There is a search section to find other categories of subjects. The activities are set up for the categories of matching, concentration, flash cards (java or non-java) and word search. There is also a place to see the top shared activities which are credited by the person that designed and submitted them. One lesson is found here: http://www.linguaweb.ndirect.co.uk/pages/xtgerm1_quiaga_numbers.htm

Suggestions for its use in instructional settings: This site can be used by students to go over specific skills or lessons that can be set by the teacher. The TeacherZone

http://www.linguaweb.ndirect.co.uk/pages/xtgerm1_quiaga_numbers.htm link lets you set up a 30 day trial, subscribe or renew your subscription which last for a year. Teachers can set up lessons and activities that they want students to go through. These activities make learning fun in a visual format that can be repeated as needed, using flash or html versions. Teachers have access to many lessons and can also customize them to fit their needs. These lessons can be used to teach a skill, reinforce concepts and give extra help to those that are having trouble grasping a concept or skill. There are also many different categories from science, math, language, grammar, and more.

Overall Assessment:

Although this site did not have current updated information and had some areas that were still under construction due to the author's time schedule, I believe that what is available is still very useful, especially for teachers and students. I thought the activities and games made learning fun The link to the Teacher Zone to Quia Web is a great tool for teachers, students and parents at http://www.quia.com/servlets/quia.web.QuiaWebManager

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2. URL: http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/nemo/index.html

A seafloor observatory at an active underwater volcano

I found this site when going through some reviews by Education World at this link: http://www.education-world.com/awards/2005/r0205-09.shtml . This site goes into information that has been obtained through studies from an observatory established on the Axial Volcano in order to examine the relationships between volcanic events, the chemistry of seafloor hotsprings, and the biologic communities that depend on them.

It is more of a higher level informational site that is more on a middle school to high school level.

Design and Layout:

The navigation is pretty consistent except for the initial page that has left side vertical links along with the same links that can be accessed bottom of the page. The other pages have the same top and bottom links that the user can use. Each link gives scientific information that tells about the NeMO Project, expeditions, how the NeMO net system works, and educational lessons that can be done with this information using video and virtual reality. I really liked this site because of the technology that was utilized. There is probably more that can be done with this site, but I think that it is very interesting and interactive. There is Flash animation on the process of how the NeMO Net system works to monitor, record and send information through computer linkage. It gives information that might be used in a WebQuest fashion or a resource for one. There is more information that can be obtained from PDF reports about expeditions concerning the oceanic volcano activity and how it affects the environment around it. You can take virtual tours of the sites below with a panorama, fly-through, and video clips by site or content. You can go to the DIVE section and go through one of 3 dives with a video clip of actual footage of an actual dive, combined with a panoramic view of the video sites to choose from to view. There are 2 options for the speed of your computer. This is an interesting activity for those with computers that are faster than a 56k modem. It has a downloadable version that you can go through off-line.

Educational Options:

The education section is what can be used by the teachers to aid in instruction. The flash animation, VR and video clips give visual aid to learn more about NeMo and its mission. Lessons can be utilized which were created with funding from the National Science Foundation's GeoScience Education program The activities are in a form that might be seen in WebQuest activities. Although, this site has its limitations, especially with the speed of your computer to the Internet, it does utilize video, flash animation, and VR panoramic viewing of simulations and events that can give students the visual help they need to grasp concepts and work creatively on higher level synthesis and analysis of scientific events.

Overall Assessment:

I thought that this was a good site as far as the use of technology goes. It has some useful features for those in the science area in the middle school and secondary levels. There are some problems with using some of the VR technology when it comes to bandwidth and use of dial-up modems. I would have loved to have had access to this site when I taught in the primary and middle school levels.

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3. URL: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

This site is about learning languages. The site is a flash animation project which contains animated libraries of phonetic sounds for English, German, and Spanish. It has a diagram, step-by-step description, and video-audio of the sound in spoken context. It is intended for students of phonetics, linguistics, and foreign language.

 Design and Layout:

This site downloads very quickly. The site is identified by the copyright owner and has the origin date as well as the current status. It gives a email address for questions related to the site content. The graphics are appropriate for the content of the site and the design in not cluttered and is easy to understand for navigational purposes. The links to each page are consistent regardless of the language. Color coding is used for topic titles consistently on all the language pages. There is an adequate description of the meaning of related terms for each section. Information is given in written format, as well as utilizing technologies of audio and video to demonstrate how the letter or group of letters sound and are pronounced.

It does require Flash 7 or higher, but gives a link to download if needed. This might be an issue for those with computers that don’t support the use of Flash. It is compatible for different browser such as Netscape and Explorer.

Educational Options

This site is very useful for teachers that might need to show a student how phonetics can be utilized as an instructional aid. It can be used in a variety of ways for teachers helping those with speech problems or even for use with ESL students.

Overall Assessment:

I thought this was a very interesting site, especially with the use of the Flash animation diagram of how our body reproduces the sound of the letters and words. I also thought that the visual aid of seeing a person form the letters and speak would really help to learn these basics phonetics involved in speaking a language.

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