This document evaluates three literacy-based websites: Starfall (for early childhood education), EducationWorld (for teachers), and Duke University's English for International Students program. It summarizes each site's purpose, target audience, design, features, and credibility. Starfall focuses on phonemic awareness and reading for pre-K to 2nd grade. EducationWorld provides lesson plans and teaching resources but has disorganized navigation. Duke's EIS site supports international students' academic English with tools for writing and oral skills.

1. Website Evaluation
Assignment
EDP 601
Fall 2012
Katie Burkhart, Cong Cong, Su Jin, & Lauren
Smallwood

2. Websites
 All literacy-based websites
 Ranging from Early Childhood, to
Young Adult, to
Multicultural/Multilingual College
Students
 www.starfall.com (Early Childhood)
 http://www.educationworld.com/
(Young Adult)
 http://www.duke.edu/web/eis/ Internati
onal students

3. www.starfall.com
 Early Childhood based (free to public)
◦ Preschool-2nd Grade
◦ ELLs
◦ Special Education
◦ Home Schooled
 Content Area (Phonemic Awareness)
◦ Letter Identification & Knowledge
◦ Emergent Reading

4. Audience
 Preschool
 Kindergarten
 1st grade
 2nd grade
 English Language developing
 Home schooled

5. Creditability
 Developed by a husband and wife
◦ Husband struggled with literacy as a child
 Wife has professional educational
experience
 Husband has a PhD in Physics
 Joined with a group of educators to
create website
 Lacks biographies of educators

6. Accuracy
 Written in proper English, following all
grammatical, conventional English
language rules
 Pronunciation is also correct
◦ In young child‟s voice
 Aligned with current expectations of
students

7. Coverage
 Content is aligned with state
standards for the intended age groups
 Starting with phonemic awareness to
emergent reading

8. Currency
 Developed in 2002
 Added Kindergarten Reading and
Language Arts Curriculum in 2009
 Compatible with various internet
services

9. Aesthetic/Visual Appeal
 Kid friendly
 Free of ads
 Primary colors
◦ Aides in comprehension
 Home page is rather basic

10. Navigation
 Home page clearly states intended
content areas
 „Home Page‟ button present on all
links within website
◦ Rather small
 Possibly a good thing?

11. Accessibility
 Various internet services
 Able to bookmark page
 Able to create shortcut to desktop

12. http://www.educationworld.com/
Includes:
- original content
- lesson plans, practical information for educators
- information on how to integrate technology in the
classroom
- articles written by education experts
- Web site reviews
- special features and columns
- employment listings.
Is a Free resource for Educators

13. Audience
 Teachers of all genre,
 No specific grade level listed
 Has nifty ideas for lessons
 It‟s more the teacher perusing the
internet for interesting things to do in
their classrooms.
 Able to look at the specific courses but
not grade level.
 It‟s written by teachers for teachers.

14. Accuracy
 The information is only as accurate as
the educator that posts the
information.
 The information is completely the
opinion of the author.

15. Coverage
 it is implied as to what the is
“teacher‟s best friend.” the website
covers a little bit of everything there
are some really good topics and there
are some duds but to find the good
ones you have sift through all the
other stuff. The website has links to
other websites that could be helpful.

16. Aesthetics Appeal
 The website is a aesthetically pleasing
purple.
 They use a sliding bar to draw your
attention to specific topics.
 Use of clip art to enhance the pages.

17. Navigation
 The navigation is meandering.
 Have to look around and explore the
website when you click on something
you don‟t know exactly what you‟re
going to get.
 I clicked on a link and was presented
with a hodgepodge of articles.
 Frequently you‟re more than three
clicks away, sometimes more like 6-8

18. http://www.duke.edu/web/eis/
 Shared by duke University
 Rank top in Google
 Useful tools for second language
learners

19. Audience
international students

20. Coverage
 support the academic life of
international students
 oral communication and academic
writing both are basic and useful skills

21. Aesthetic Appeal
 dark blue background, the whole
website looks clearly and identifiable
 three major link set using different
color

22. Accuracy
 professional introduction about the
online tests and courses
 links about authorized documents and
basic requirement
 updated in a timely manner

23. Navigation
 link of three major programs
 a list of users‟ original nationalities;
occupy spaces.
 access about graduate schools;
not available for users who outside
Duke.
 no website map