1. http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm
Design – The design is nice and arranged in a size and manner that is uncluttered, this makes its simple for the children. The Learn and Play sections are easily navigable for the children based on the same layout. The website pages that are further opened for the activities of the children load quickly and have a voice tool which is very clear to assist the child. For the parents and teachers, the explanations are available under a different tab. It has the option for 4 different languages to explain letters, vowels, shapes, words and colours. Help option is not very clearly indicated.
Navigability – The navigation is clear, though the website lacks a site map, but the absence is not perceived that much. The tabs are on the top and clear being in blue colour with good font, the active tab changes colour to yellow indicating your present location. There is a FAQ for basic enquiries and understanding. The website does not have a search facility.
Authority – There are no well known approved authors mentioned in the website and it is not hyper linked with any other major educational website except its principals, which is Baxter Publications of Toronto, Canada.
Bias – There is a single viewpoint provided and that is based on international pattern of phonemes. As such there is no question of bias in the website.
Citations – Sources are not required and there is not active bibliography. All the matter related to Literacy Centre.
Dates – There are not date statistics mentioned in the website
Content – Content is adequate for children that start to associate letters - uppercase, lowercase, vowels, shapes and colours. The data of the website of the website is good for this purpose and will the make the child engrossed in it for further leaning. Data quality is unquestioned, and quantity provides excellent coverage
Links – The website in linked to its principals and through it you can attain further information on activities of the publication and owners of the website.
Relevance – The website is sufficient for basic instructional objectives with a sufficient amount of information for parents and teachers on the objectives therein.
2. http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/wordfamily/
Design – It is a very basic design that is not attractive in layout and colours. It starts with asking your name and this is exciting, but for an early learner that is learning letters, typing in the name would be a feat itself. It is centred around vowels only and making rhyming words. It loads fast enough.
Navigability – There is no navigational requirements as such, it is a very simple website without any site map and help tabs. There are no search facilities.
Authority – There is no mention of the owners of the website or approvals and association. The website is also not linked to any other website at all.
Bias – There are no basis for ascertaining if there is any bias or not.
Citations – The website has no listed citations and bibliography.
Dates – The site contains information about its copyright and does not have any detailed information except for a mention of NCTE. What this represents can be anyone’s guess.
Content – Quality of data is based around learning or vowels and that is all. So it can be termed as an adequate learning tool for vowels only with association of words
Links – The website in not actively linked to any educational reference website for further reading and research. Active links to wide variety of excellent sites
Relevance – The website hardly satisfies early learning concepts with a very limited approach.
3.http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/student.cfm#grade1
Design – The website is nicely designed and covers a large number of grades, with each grade and its activities earmarked separately. Each of the activities is hyper linked and opens in a new window so that coming back to the main page is simple. Each activity page has sound to facilitate the learning as well as commending the child on a good work done. The pages are fast and simple to load, it is clear and colourful that makes learning a playful activity.
Navigability – The navigation is clear and simple. There are tabs that lead to the required field or area that is being sought. It has areas for students, teachers, family and contacts. The website has a site map that layouts the entire website’s plan. There is search engine with options to searching different fields within the website.
Authority – The website is owned by William H. Sadlier Inc., they are known to manage educational materials since 1832 in different fields. They are well recognised and known. As the website covers a lot of activities like educational fairs, social presentations and conferences, these are all hyper linked for further information on the related activities.
Bias – The learning and viewpoint is provided by the owner, it mentions serving the needs of private, public and Catholic schools with high quality, this leaves a thought in the mind of some surfers, as to what would religion have to do with early basic learning for children.
Citations – Sources are not mentioned as such there is an absence of a bibliography. However there are link to various articles that have do contain their own bibliography.
Dates – The site has its creation year listed at the bottom with owner’s information and copyright. There is no date on data creation and updates of any of the key information.
Content – The data quality is very good and it is delivered in a very simple and easy manner for the children, with additional information about each learning activity to the parents. It has managed to cover a lot of subjects and grades as well as activities that teachers, parents would be interested in.
Links – It is actively linked to current events relating to its trade and objective.
Relevance – The website has lived up to the expectation of the owners in managing and delivering good learning activities and as such can be said to have met all instructional objectives.
Design – The design is nice and arranged in a size and manner that is uncluttered, this makes its simple for the children. The Learn and Play sections are easily navigable for the children based on the same layout. The website pages that are further opened for the activities of the children load quickly and have a voice tool which is very clear to assist the child. For the parents and teachers, the explanations are available under a different tab. It has the option for 4 different languages to explain letters, vowels, shapes, words and colours. Help option is not very clearly indicated.
Navigability – The navigation is clear, though the website lacks a site map, but the absence is not perceived that much. The tabs are on the top and clear being in blue colour with good font, the active tab changes colour to yellow indicating your present location. There is a FAQ for basic enquiries and understanding. The website does not have a search facility.
Authority – There are no well known approved authors mentioned in the website and it is not hyper linked with any other major educational website except its principals, which is Baxter Publications of Toronto, Canada.
Bias – There is a single viewpoint provided and that is based on international pattern of phonemes. As such there is no question of bias in the website.
Citations – Sources are not required and there is not active bibliography. All the matter related to Literacy Centre.
Dates – There are not date statistics mentioned in the website
Content – Content is adequate for children that start to associate letters - uppercase, lowercase, vowels, shapes and colours. The data of the website of the website is good for this purpose and will the make the child engrossed in it for further leaning. Data quality is unquestioned, and quantity provides excellent coverage
Links – The website in linked to its principals and through it you can attain further information on activities of the publication and owners of the website.
Relevance – The website is sufficient for basic instructional objectives with a sufficient amount of information for parents and teachers on the objectives therein.
2. http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/wordfamily/
Design – It is a very basic design that is not attractive in layout and colours. It starts with asking your name and this is exciting, but for an early learner that is learning letters, typing in the name would be a feat itself. It is centred around vowels only and making rhyming words. It loads fast enough.
Navigability – There is no navigational requirements as such, it is a very simple website without any site map and help tabs. There are no search facilities.
Authority – There is no mention of the owners of the website or approvals and association. The website is also not linked to any other website at all.
Bias – There are no basis for ascertaining if there is any bias or not.
Citations – The website has no listed citations and bibliography.
Dates – The site contains information about its copyright and does not have any detailed information except for a mention of NCTE. What this represents can be anyone’s guess.
Content – Quality of data is based around learning or vowels and that is all. So it can be termed as an adequate learning tool for vowels only with association of words
Links – The website in not actively linked to any educational reference website for further reading and research. Active links to wide variety of excellent sites
Relevance – The website hardly satisfies early learning concepts with a very limited approach.
3.http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/student.cfm#grade1
Design – The website is nicely designed and covers a large number of grades, with each grade and its activities earmarked separately. Each of the activities is hyper linked and opens in a new window so that coming back to the main page is simple. Each activity page has sound to facilitate the learning as well as commending the child on a good work done. The pages are fast and simple to load, it is clear and colourful that makes learning a playful activity.
Navigability – The navigation is clear and simple. There are tabs that lead to the required field or area that is being sought. It has areas for students, teachers, family and contacts. The website has a site map that layouts the entire website’s plan. There is search engine with options to searching different fields within the website.
Authority – The website is owned by William H. Sadlier Inc., they are known to manage educational materials since 1832 in different fields. They are well recognised and known. As the website covers a lot of activities like educational fairs, social presentations and conferences, these are all hyper linked for further information on the related activities.
Bias – The learning and viewpoint is provided by the owner, it mentions serving the needs of private, public and Catholic schools with high quality, this leaves a thought in the mind of some surfers, as to what would religion have to do with early basic learning for children.
Citations – Sources are not mentioned as such there is an absence of a bibliography. However there are link to various articles that have do contain their own bibliography.
Dates – The site has its creation year listed at the bottom with owner’s information and copyright. There is no date on data creation and updates of any of the key information.
Content – The data quality is very good and it is delivered in a very simple and easy manner for the children, with additional information about each learning activity to the parents. It has managed to cover a lot of subjects and grades as well as activities that teachers, parents would be interested in.
Links – It is actively linked to current events relating to its trade and objective.
Relevance – The website has lived up to the expectation of the owners in managing and delivering good learning activities and as such can be said to have met all instructional objectives.
