Website Evaluating

This past week I evaluated a site called Cells Alive which has multiple demonstrations, animations, and models representing various cellular structures and processes.  A few of my favorite interactive tools are the model of the prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell as well as the demonstration of mitosis and meiosis. I appreciate that you can watch the process as a whole or focus in on one particular step.  I can really see myself utilizing a site such as Cells Alive in the classroom.  It is so important for students to study the particular parts, steps, and functions of cellular processes through scientific resources such as textbooks, articles, and lectures.  However, allowing students to visually see these processes often helps incorporate all that information.

This activity taught me various practical ways to evaluate a website that can be used in the classroom.  I learned that it is important for there to be contact information on the site as well as an author.  Having the credentials of the author posted helps the reader to know that the information on the site is reliable.  Also, as technology is always changing, it is important that the site is consistently under revision so that information is portrayed in a current and applicable way.  Finally, I learned that the most successful sites are those that are user-friendly to various age levels.  I appreciate that the Cells Alive is not difficult to navigate with clearly identified links and headings on the side of the page. 

Overall, this activity was very beneficial for me as a future educator. In the "Internet Age" that we live in where information can be so instantly accessed, I must be able to decipher between valuable and invaluable sources.  This activity provided me with questions to ask concerning various websites which will be beneficial as I conduct my own online research and as I teach my students how to conduct theirs.