Rebekah Menk's List: ITC340-536

Purpose: To give information about individual countries and the children who inhabit them.
Bias: This website seems to be factual in nature, however the chance that their is bias is possible since this website is run by an organization with specific beliefs.
Credibility: National Peace Corps promotes this website as an educational means to show students what life is like for other children in developing countries.
Currency: unknown
Author: Kids Around the World:National Peace Corps
Readability: This website is best suited for students who are on a 3rd grade reading level or beyond.
Advertising: There is no advertising on this website.
Summary: On this website, students can visit children in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe to find out what it is like as a child living there. Students can explore interviews with children, examine photographs of the child's town, and learn more about the specific country that child is from. The website is very kid friendly with bright colors, and minimal distractions.

Purpose: To give information about individual countries.
Bias: none
Credibility: CIA is a government agency.
Currency: 2009
Author: U.S. CIA
Readability: The readability on this website would be better suited for middle to upper grade readers.
Advertising: none.
Summary:This is another website with information about all the countries of the world from the CIA. Students can click to just examine the flag of a certain country or to find out more information about the country.

Purpose: To give information about individual US states.
Bias: none
Credibility: Pearson Education
Currency: 2011
Author: Pearson Education
Readability: The readability on this website would be better suited for middle grade readers.
Advertising: There are some sidebar advertisements that are slightly distracting.
Summary:This interactive map of the United States allows students to click on any state to find out more information. Each state has information about their capital, population, famous natives, and points of interest to name a few items. Some of the advertisements are a bit distracting, however the information on this website is still good.

Purpose: To allow learners to practice their map skills.
Bias: none
Credibility: National Geographic
Currency: 2011
Author: National Geographic
Readability: The readability on this website would be better suited grades 3+.
Advertising: None
Summary/ How I would use this in my classroom:This is yet another great online tool from the folks at National Geographic. Students can practice their map skills by playing a series of six different interactive games.

Purpose: To give students information about different parts of the world.
Bias: none
Credibility: Scholastic has been a trusted source of information for teachers for years.
Currency: 2011
Author: Scholastic
Readability: The readability on this website would be better suited grades 2-6.
Advertising: No advertisements
Summary/ How I would use this in my classroom: This is another hit from Scholastic. This is a really neat, interactive website. Students can select a destination to go to all around the world! While on their "journey", students can read about what life is like there. They even have interviews with students from each specific destination. They are able to keep an online journal of their adventure where they can take notes, draw pictures, and select photos to "remember" their journey. Students are able to do this with by having their own username and password. The journals are kept active for a year. There is a print option, so students could turn in their work.

Purpose: To give information about individual countries
Bias: none
Credibility: Google
Currency: 2010
Author: Google
Readability: The readability on this website would be better suited for the teacher and/or higher learners. Some of the language, charts, and data presented on the website would be hard for primary grade students to comprehend.
Advertising: There is no advertising on this website
Summary/ How I would use this in my classroom: This website has a wealth of information. Click on a specific country's flag to find out more information about that specific country. A map of the country, pictures of the country, and facts are included for each.

Purpose: This webpage was designed to foster online learning about a wide variety of landforms.
Bias: N/A It is the intention of the authors to provide a place for learning about many different topics rather than to promote any underlying issues.
Credibility: Although I cannot find a bibliography on this website, I know this website is widely used by educators. The material is informational in nature.
Currency: copyright 2000-2010
Author: Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector of Enchanted Learning, LLC. The authors of this website have been designing educational web games for children since 1993.
Readability: It is the intention of the authors to make this a student-friendly learning environment. Because of this, the text is broken up into shorter sentences and into smaller bit of information for each topic. This makes it very easy for students to navigate. This website even has a spot on the top of each page which gives the estimated grade-level based on a subscriber grading scale.
Advertising: The advertising is minimal on this website. Most of the advertising is located at the very top so the students would need to be prompted to scroll down to find the information. The advertisements are primarily for subscribing to the website.
Summary: Enchanted Learning is a great resource for teachers and students alike because it provides background information on many topics, for my project specifically, on geography landforms.
How would I use this in my classroom: For my lesson on landforms, I could use this website as a resource for my students. They would be able to view and interact with the glossary to find out more information on different types of landforms.

Purpose: To give general geography information to young social studies learners.
Bias: This website appears to have a rather neutral stance. The author seems to truly want to promote various topics in geography.
Credibility: The author of this website is an educator who has a background in history and journalism. He has authored many books geared toward students. Because of that, I think that this website holds some credibility.
Currency: copyright 2002-2011
Author: David White
Readability: The readability on this website would be better suited for the teacher and/or higher learners. Some of the language may be confusing for struggling readers, especially those in the primary grades.
Advertising: There is a large amount of advertising on this website. About 2/3 of it is advertising for different things like Halloween costumes, Chevy trucks, and books you can purchase online related to geography. I would be sure to warn students of said advertisements and caution them to not click on them.
Summary: This website is a directory website that leads the learner to other links based on specific topics in geography.
How I would use this website in my classroom: I would use this website for background information for me as the teacher. I would also have it linked to my website so that parents could access information from home. I could use this website with my advanced learners for basic research.

Purpose: The purpose of this website is to inform students about map keys and map scales.
Bias: N/A
Credibility: This website not only has information on map keys and scales, but it also has a variety of other links to related topics in geography, and other educational topics.
Currency: copyright 1998-2011
Author: The KidsKnowIt Network: Network of Children’s Learning Websites
Readability: This website would provide clear information for higher reading second grade learners and older. Certain vocabulary such as: attractions, represents, necessity, etc. may prove difficult for younger learners. With teacher support, this information can be used across the grades.
Advertising: There is a moderate amount of advertising on this website. Many of the advertisements link to other websites which claim to be educational. Again, I would show my students which areas to avoid when navigating this website.
Summary: This website informs students that understanding map keys and map scales is essential to being able to read and understand maps.
How I would use this website in my classroom: I would use this information in my classroom to help introduce the topic of map keys and map scales. I think the example about trying to make a map as big as the world would prove an interesting point about the purpose of scales with students.

Purpose: The purpose of this website is to give students the opportunity to play interactive geography themed games. This particular section of the website has an interactive map with information about different landforms.
Bias: N/A Mr. Nussbaum’s intentions for the website seem purely educational.
Credibility: Mr. Nussbaum created this website for students and teachers. He wanted to create a space where students could have access to a wide range of topics that are taught in school. Mr. Nussbaum gives an extensive background on how the website came to be at: http://www.mrnussbaum.com/about.htm
Currency: copyright 2009
Author: Greg Nussbaum, 6th grade teacher
Readability: This website is colorful and eye catching. It would be very appealing to all learners. The directions for the games seem fairly straight forward.
Advertising: There is only advertising on the right side of the screen. Most of the screen contains links to age appropriate games and activities. According to the website, the advertisements help to defer the costs of maintaining the bandwidth needed for the page.
Summary: This website allows learners to “play” with geography through the wide variety of games and tools. The interactive map is particularly engaging.
How I would use this website in my classroom: When discussing landforms, I would display the interactive map on my SMARTboard. Students would be able to choose which landform we explored and in the order they preferred. They would be able to discover both the definitions and a real life example of each landform. I would also use this website during my weekly centers rotations. Students would have the choice as to which activity they completed from the website. Students would also have access to this site from home via my classroom web page.

Purpose: The purpose of this webpage is to provide learners practice with cardinal directions through game play and problem solving.
Bias: N/A
Credibility: This website is affiliated with PBS which has been a source of credible educational information for many years. The webpage links to the main NOVA website which provides educational videos and information about a variety of topics.
Currency: NOVA game copyright November 2000, main NOVA/PBS page copyright 1996-2011
Author: NOVA, affiliated with PBS
Readability: This particular online game has clear directions. It also has attractive colors and pictures.
Advertising: There is no distracting advertising or extraneous links for students to accidentally click on. Students will be able to focus on the game rather than the distracting advertisements that often surround an online game!
Summary: Students can navigate their way through the Arctic by using their interactive compass rose and their knowledge of cardinal directions. This would be an appropriate website for learners from first grade on up.
How would I use this in my classroom: I would use this game during centers time. Students would be able to independently navigate this game and practice their cardinal directions skills.

Purpose: To teach about landforms through song.
Bias: N/A
Credibility: The author of the website is a musician and music producer. His wife is a teacher who complained to him that many educational music CDs are boring for the students. After some convincing, and with her help on content, he caved and decided to write songs for education. Because he gets help from his wife who is an educator, makes the songs more credible.
Currency: copyright 2005
Author: Power Arts Company, Inc.
Readability: The song is easy to read and the lyrics are catchy because they rhyme. Students of all ages would be able to read this song and bop along to the fun beat!
Advertising: The only advertising on the website is to purchase the songs.
Summary: This website offers a variety of content based songs that aren't your typical cheesy educational songs. These are fun songs with fun voices and rock beats. There are many different topics you can find songs for!
How would I use this in my classroom: I would use this as a form of possibly introducing or reinforcing geography landform terms. My students always love singing. Many of the songs on this website have great content and a fun beat, so students would enjoy "jamming out" to what they are learning about.

Purpose: To use maps to view real world places.
Bias: Since this website is more of an interactive tool rather than written information, there is no real bias.
Credibility: National Geographic has been producing educational, scientific, and history related material since 1888. The fact that they have been a distinguished publication for this long adds to their credibility.
Currency: copyright 2011
Author: National Geographic, Editor-in-Chief: Mr. Chris Johns
Readability: Anyone could use this website. Students would just need to be able to type in addresses into the search bar.
Advertising: There is minimal advertising on this website. Most of the advertisements are for National Geographic products. The only non-National Geographic ad is an rotating ad for Disney and travel to Japan. These are not distracting at all.
Summary: This National Geographic Map Machine is very similar to GoogleEarth. Students have the opportunity to type in places or addresses and see them from a map, a satellite, a bird’s eye, or a 3D view.
How would I use this in my classroom: I would use this website in my classroom as an exploration activity. Students would be given different places in the world to “visit”. I could tie in the study of continents, bodies of water, and landforms through this kind of exploration.

Purpose: To create maps from different parts of the world.
Bias: This website is sponsored by Thinkfinity/Verizon Foundation which provides opportunities for teachers, parents, and students to enrich educational experiences. Because it is funded by an outside source, there is always room for some bias. However, since this is an interactive tool, the possibility for bias is much smaller than if it were purely text based.
Credibility: Again, because this is a National Geographic website, this is a credible website because of the research behind their work.
Currency: copyright 2009, National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
Author: National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
Readability: Since this is an interactive tool, students will be able to easily navigate by simply “playing” around with the features. I could see a variety of age ranges using this tool.
Advertising: There is no advertising on this webpage. There are links to other parts of the National Geographic website. These links are not distracting though, as the mapmaker takes up most of the page.
Summary: This website allows the user to look at the world from a different perspective, with that of a mapmaker! The user can select the region and country that they would like to map. They can also draw borders, color code, use symbols, just to name a few. This website is a beta version, so some of the capabilities are limited. I would imagine that future versions will be more detailed.
How would I use this in my classroom: I would have students select a part of the world from which to label, map out, and color code. This would help them apply the knowledge they have learned in other parts of the unit. Students could work in pairs for this activity.

Purpose: To practice using latitude and longitude in game format.
Bias: N/A
Credibility: This website was designed by an educator, and it has been mentioned in magazines and national news broadcasts. It is also listed as a recommended website by many libraries and schools.
Currency: Copyright 1998-2011 The KidsKnowIt Network
Author: Mr. Bertoch, owner and president of The KidsKnowIt Network which was designed by him in 1998 because he was frustrated with the lack of quality educational websites.
Readability: The directions are clear and concise. One disadvantage is the small font they used for what the little girl is saying which includes the latitude and longitude numbers. This may be hard to read for students with vision problems. Overall, this website could be used with any grade level that teaches latitude and longitude, however it is definitely more elementary based.
Advertising: There is minimal advertising for this free website. There are links to other geography games that the students could use when they are finished playing this game.
Summary: This website is a cute way for students to practice using longitude and latitude. Students are given a latitude and a longitude of a “lost little girl” named Hannah. They have to find her location on the map using those skills. There is even a timer to see how fast the students are able to find her.
How would I use this in my classroom: I would use this game to help teach longitude and latitude as a whole group. It could easily be displayed on the SMARTboard. Students could show they understand the concept by finding the game character, Hannah’s location. I would then also have it on my website to be used at home or during centers for practice with this skill.

Purpose: To scaffold students learning about the continents and oceans of the world.
Bias: There is no bias as this is a game rather than text.
Credibility: Mr. Sheppard has been designing educational computer software since 1982. He has a team of people behind him including an educational consultant. They design software to make learning more fun and to challenge students at varying levels.
Currency: Copyright 2007 Sheppard Software
Author: Brad Sheppard, Jr. is the founder of Sheppard Software.
Readability: Students of all ages can use this website because in the tutorial level, the continents and oceans are read aloud to the learner when they are clicked. Students in primary grades may need help initially with the overall directions of each level. There is also information on the side about each continent and ocean which may be more suitable for 3rd-5th grade.
Advertising: There is minimal advertising on this website, however there is a lot going on! There are so many links for students to click on. Even though these links are to other educational games, this may prove to be distracting.
Summary: This interactive online tutorial and game allows students to work their way through four levels of difficulty about continents and oceans.
How would I use this in my classroom: This tool could be used in many ways. I could use the tutorial level to introduce this particular lesson, or it could be used later on with students who are struggling. The later levels could be worked through independently during centers. I think the ability to differentiate with this tool is great!