Five Well-Designed Educational Web Pages
1. http://www.gadoe.org/Pages/Home.aspx: I started here because I didn't really know where else to start. However, once here I found the interface easier to use than expected, the images balanced, and the information pertinent without being overwhelming.
2. http://www.starfall.com/: My five children have all used this webpage in their younger days, and as I look back upon it, the content and presentation seems perfectly matched for the age group/demographic and their parents. It boarders upon clutter, but the lines and spacing are all neat and consistently balanced which help to make it easy to use.
3. http://turnitin.com/: Sort of a get what you want webpage, but the interface is easy to navigate, and the images pertinent without being too flamboyant. Also the balance of the columns on the bottom conforms to a sense of balance.
4. http://mseffie.com/AP/ap.html: This one doesn't have a lot of high end images, but the ease of access gets it a help rating. A sort of you get what you webpage without being punishing on the user.
5. http://www.newyorker.com/: as an ELA teacher, I have used the content for years. However, the web page is a work of art in itself, and this should come as no surprise from the American magazine with over 80 years of amazing covers and layouts. The visuals are engaging, the fonts sophisticated, and the ease of access is simply amazing.
Five Educational Web Pages the could be Improved (please note that this only refers to design, not quality of the content).
1. http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/home: this one might be a controversial choice, and I love nothing more than teaching AP English Literature. But I have always found the web-cite difficult to navigate, and a bit cluttered.
2. http://www.gutenberg.org/: Aesthetics might not be the point of this archive, and I understand that we get what we get and that thousands of free texts is nothing to scoff at. However, the interface is fairly bland, and some of the navigation features are not as intuitive as they appear.
3.https://www.desmet.org/: This is my former high school, and one of the best college preparatory high schools in the St. Louis area. However, the web page often ends up looking cluttered and in this case more like a car advertisement than a college prep school with almost 10 national merit scholars a year (I wasn't one).
4. http://www.ash1818.org/main/: Another school with a high quality education that ends up looking a bit on the cluttered side. Perhaps including links to the calendar and bulletins this sense of overwhelming information can be improved.
5. http://www.hermann.k12.mo.us/: My first teaching job; as I look at the web page, there seems to be too much information placed in a small space. Also there is a sense of unfinishedness about this web page.
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