Jeremy Daino EDU 647

March 19, 2006 Website Review and Analysis

The purpose of this website review and analysis is to investigate a credible children’s social studies website with the intent of evaluating the websites accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage. The criteria used to evaluate this website was taken from the Cornell University Library website, www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webcrit.html. The website I chose to evaluate is http://teacher.scholastic.com/thanksgiving/. This website corresponds with the social studies standard #1 in which the State of New York describes student learning expectations in social studies. The state requires students to learn the history of the United States and New York through “the study of New York State and United States history requires an analysis of the development of American culture, its diversity and multicultural context, and the ways people are unified by many values, practices, and traditions.” (http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/socstands/soc11.html)

Accuracy of the Web Documents

The authors of the web pages are writer Kate Waters and photographer Russ Kendall. These are qualified professionals. Mrs. Waters has studied and researched the Plimoth Plantation and Native Americans (Wampanoag) of the 1620s. Her research also includes the journey of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. She was a librarian for ten years and is also a published author of various children’s books. The photographer for the images on the website is Russ Kendall. He is the author of a numerous books and currently is the director of photography for the Bangor Daily News. You can contact each author by sending a letter to:
c/o Scholastic Inc.
557 Broadway
New York, NY 10012-3999

The purpose of the web document is to inform children of the journey of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, the development of Plimoth Plantation during the early 17^th century, and the First Thanksgiving. The site is very extensive and includes perspective of both the Native Americans and the Pilgrims. Further, this website not only highlights the journey taken by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, but also the daily life of the Pilgrims and Natives, including interviews with expert historians of the specified time period, and additional research sites are provided for students to research this historical time period.

Authority of Web Documents

This web page is published by the Scholastic company and is directly linked to its homepage http://www.scholastic.com. The Scholastic Company is a reputable educational book distributor that is used throughout the country by teachers to purchase books for their classrooms and student interests. They also are responsible for book fairs in school districts across the United States. Their website is an educational based website that provides lessons for different topics throughout its site. The website is secure, according to their privacy statement, and states their site has a secure socket layer (SSL). There are links that educate parents and educators on how to make their computer safe, in order to protect themselves from security problems. They provide a link for a company called http://www.getnetwise.com. That specialize in providing parents with helpful hints for safeguarding their computers. This link allows parents to make sure their computer and children are safe. Also, the Scholastic website has an “about us” link that describes all of their accomplishments as a company, including being the largest distributor of children’s books in the United States. Further, the website provides contact information for customer service. This information includes their customer service center e-mail, phone numbers and address to write to.

Objectivity of Web Documents

This website’s objective is providing information about the Mayflower, Pilgrims, Wampanoag, Plimoth Plantation, and the First Thanksgiving of 1621. The website meets these objectives through educational tools that include a timeline, an interactive journey of the Mayflower’s journey to North America, daily life on Plimoth Planatation that includes daily life of the Native Americans and the Pilgrims, a quiz challenge based on important information given throughout the website, many additional prepared worksheets for activities for students that are separated according to grade level, including KWL and Venn Diagrams, window frames, and informational pages based on the authors and frequently asked questions by children, posed to the authors, in regards to this time period. This site also provides lesson plans for educators to use with their students, that are detailed and provides links to various additional resources. The information provided on the website is objective. Perspective of both the Native Americans and the Pilgrims is evident on the site, thus providing the reader with an objective viewpoint of history. Opinions of the experience of the 1620s is fairly expressed by both sides and allows students to make their own conclusions of this time period. Mock interviews of the time period are provided by the website. These interviews were conducted in 2001 with expert historians of the Plimoth Plantation. These interviews include seven Pilgrims and one Wampanoag. The information given throughout the website is historically accurate and is at an intermediate reading level. There are no pop-up advertisements on this website or flash advertisements but links for purchasing books and teacher resources are scattered throughout the different web pages. These links are all educational resources and there is no worry about inappropriate advertisements. Overall, this is an educational page but it does provide ample opportunity to purchase products by the Scholastic Company.

Currency of Web Documents

This website was created in December of 1998 and was recently updated in December 2004. Most links are updated, but I did find one dead link from the link http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/plymouth/index.htm, which is http://www.night.net/thanksgiving/first.html-ssi. Many of the links the site provides for additional resources are from the website http://www.plimoth.org/index.htm. This site an excellent resource for teachers, parents and students. It was recently updated June 1, 2003, however, a few of the links that lead to this site are outdated. At this site the user needs to click an update link to get to the new updated site. Most all links are current and updated from the Scholastic page and are appropriate for the topic. The website does have a disclaimer for clicking links that lead outside of Scholastic. It tells the reader that though the link they have provided has been reviewed by the Scholastic company and is an appropriate link, other links on the sites may not be appropriate for children. They recommend each user review the website before allowing children to access. Also, they warn the user that websites are under constant construction and do change, so a review of the site is necessary.

Coverage of the Web Documents

As stated above, the links connected to the site are updated and appropriate for the content of the topic, except for a few broken links. They compliment the website nicely and provide an abundant amount of information on the topic. Also, as mentioned earlier, a disclaimer pops up before you click any link that will direct the user to another resource. They also use a researcher starter, created by Grolier Online, for additional information on the topics discussed on the website. Many of the links for teacher resources do lead directly to teacher updates.

The website also provides links to free Adobe Reader and a Micro Flash Player for certain links. The entire website is free of charge.

The website also is designed for elementary kids for research and provides a nice balance of pictures and literature. The images are all very well displayed and each goes along with the text.

Overall, all information and technology needed to view the page is free of charge. However, additional materials such as books and teacher guides are at an additional costs.