A link to each web site and their evaluation is provided below:
Using a form with set criteria to evaluate a web site for educational purposes was a new experience for me. Having designed web sites, I'm use to evaluating them from a slightly different perspective. As a designer, I'm more concerned with composition and layout, navigation, and "tidy" validated Xhtml and CSS code. Of course, all of those criteria can be applied to education web sites as well. Especially when determining factors that affect usability such as site appeal, information architecture, and unity of purpose in design. I guess having tinkered with creating web sites for almost twenty years these thing have become almost second nature.
Yet, what makes a web site good for educational purposes can be very different than what makes a site good for commercial purposes. Using the form developed by Kathy Schrock provided a different perspective from which to evaluate web sites that I would recommend to other teachers. At first, I questioned the usefulness of the form itself. After all I've looked at lots of web sites with a critical eye for a long time. And I think I'm a pretty good judge of the quality of information. However, once I started to use the forms to evaluate the sites I began to see the benefits of using a systematic criterion-based checklist. Not only did it make the process faster, but I wouldn't have remembered all the criteria if I were just looking at a site. The form also provided a chance to reflect on the suitability (she uses valid(ity)) of a site specifically for educational purposes. As a result, I found myself paying attention to details that might have been easily overlooked and also developing a better "feel" for what is important when evaluating web sites for educational purposes.
Beyond usability features, which though important are not the main determining factors for determines a good educational web site, the focus is primarily on the content. And rightly so. As a consumer of information, and graduate student, I'm aware of this. Evaluating the web sites, however, made me take a closer look at multiple ways to determine the authenticity, authority, and validity of information for use in teaching and learning. As the say goes, "the devil is in the details". Details such as using the "link:: command" to check and see who is linking to a web site, i.e. who else considers this information to be valid, accurate, and relevant to the particular topic. Whether or not there are external links to professional organizations, a biography of the author, citations with links to primary resources, dates on information or the website. Does the information adhere to research-based principles of teaching and current pedagogy, and is the information enhanced with appropriate use of multi-media. Theses are all important considerations when evaluating web based information for use in the classroom.
Overall, I think the exercise of using a form to evaluate web sites was worthwhile. It certainly increased my awareness of the issues related to determining good web resources for teaching and learning. Also, I plan to hang onto this evaluation form and use it in my future role as an instructional/educational technologist. I think it's a good tool that more teachers should be made aware of.
No comments:
Post a Comment