Evaluation of websites

1) Caterpillar’s anatomy:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/activities/printouts/caterpillarprintout.shtml

1- Accuracy : Enchanted learning wrote this page. It’s a site in which you can become a subscriber and access to all its content.

2- Currency: this page is up-to-date. Its information coincides with other sources. This page was last updated in 2010.

3- Content: this site offers our learners all the information they need to complete the activities supplied by the teacher.

4- Functionality: there are four other links to which students can have access for more information. They work perfectly well.In these sites you can find a wide variety of pictures, diagrams and activities for children.

2) Facts on caterpillars

http://www.ehow.com/info_8088319_caterpillars.html

1- Accuracy: this article was written by Claire Louise who was a top contributor. Claire Louise started writing professionally in 2007. She has written for the "Newcastle Morning Herald" and had diet and fitness-related articles published in "Slimming and Health" magazine. Louise holds a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Newcastle.This page is called eHow – Discover the expert in you. The information about the life of the caterpillar coincides with other articles.The references used in this page are:Switcheroo Zoo: Caterpillar Butteryfly House: Frequently Asked Questions about CaterpillarsTrek Nature: Cinnabar caterpillarEncounter South Africa: South African Cuisine - A Melting PotUniversity of Florida: Stinging and Venomous Caterpillars; D.E. Short, D.H. Habeck and J.L. Castner

2- Currency: this site was last updated in 2012. Its content is really up-to-date and it is the same information as you can find in other web pages.

3- Content: its content is very easy to read so that students can understand it without much difficulty. It includes a lot of links to navigate and to find more information on the topic. Its images are from real natural life, activities for children, crafts and videos.

4- Functionality: all the content from the page works without any difficulties and quite fast.

3) More about caterpillars:

http://kids.sandiegozoo.org/animals/insects/butterfly

1- Accuracy: this page belongs to the San Diego Zoo. It’s an excellent page to look for information about insects and all the information it provides is written by experts on the subject.

2- Currency: this page was last updated in 2012. Its creators modify the information constantly.

3- Content: the first impression children will get while searching this page will be fantastic. As you open it it’s full of colors, images from all types of animals, it has real sound from these creatures all the time, real videos, real photographs, games, activities and all the information about the zoo. Children will be spending a lot of time in this page because its information is really easy to follow and it’s really interesting.

4- Functionality: this page is full of links which students can visit without stopping searching for information or playing games. Videos, photos and its real sound are of high quality.

4) The life-cycle of the butterfly – video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8sAHQYvVf0&feature=fvsr

1- Accuracy: this is a video uploaded in you tube. It was taken from the ‘Turtle diary’ page. You’ll find over 1,000 interactive educational games, kids' video resources, science and experiments. It was created by educators for parents and teachers.

2- Currency: It was last updated in 2012. Its information coincides with other pages.

3- Content: this site was created for children to enjoy learning by playing games using the internet and the computer. It also contains worksheets, jigsaw and couple games, arts and crafts and kids stories on any topic you want to work on.Teachers can also find lesson plans.

4- Functionality: this page is full of colors, videos and activities which work perfectly well. Students won’t find any problems when navigating this site.

5) The body of the butterfly:

http://www.english-online.at/biology/butterflies/butterflies-and-moths.htm

1- Accuracy: this page was created by Klaus Rosmanitz. He studied English and Geography at the University in Graz, where he received a Master’s Degree in 1981. He has had over 25 years of teaching experience at the Bundes-Oberstufengymnasium in Deutchlandsberg, Styria. In the past years, he has been working on special projects like English across the Curriculum.

2- Currency: this site was last updated on August 2012.

3- Content: This website is specially designed for learners of English. The articles are carefully chosen and rewritten, so that they can be more easily understood. Each article has a vocabulary list at the end. There are a few hundred topics and special news articles in various categories. It has many exercises for children to complete, videos, news articles and photos related to the topics searched.

4- Functionality: all these site’s features work well and every link being offered by this page does not present any difficulty to surf.

6) Butterflies’ anatomy:

http://teachers.greenville.k12.sc.us/sites/aproches/INSECT%20PROJECT/Forms/DispForm.aspx?ID=2

1- Accuracy: this is a blog created by a teacher for her students. She graduated from university with a Bachelor’s of arts degree in early childhood in 2007. The information found in this blog is taken from others and every piece of information agrees.

2- Currency: this site was last modified in 2009

3- Content: this blog offers great websites to surf about literacy, games for kids, animals’ activities, world’s pictures and videos, etc. All these links work well.

4- Functionality: this site offers projects students have made on insects and you can open each of them without any difficulties.

7) The life-cycle of the butterfly - Information and videos

http://www.thebutterflysite.com/life-cycle.shtml

1- Accuracy: this site is frequently visited for the most complete and current butterfly information on the internet. These butterfly pages contain articles written by Master of Science degreed Entomologist Randi Jones as well as butterfly links to sites all over the web for EVEN MORE information on butterflies.

2- Currency: All information is updated frequently. It does not say the last time it was updated.

3- Content: in this site you can explore 12 butterfly topics with over 125 pages packed full of butterfly information. You can also check out all the fun, butterfly activities and coloring pages. Read fun facts to amaze your friends or learn about butterfly biology. There is a butterfly activity page that you can explore for fun projects like rearing LIVE butterflies, coloring pages, pictures on butterflies, winter activities with butterflies and real videos about the life-cycle of the caterpillar. There are also some useful butterfly life cycle and monarch butterfly links suggested from other pages.

4- Functionality: the videos and its sounds work well. The quality of the images is of high-definition. All the links suggested by the page are not broken.

8) Longman Dictionary

http://www.ldoceonline.com/

1- Accuracy: this site was created by Pearson Longman

2- Currency: it was last updated on May 2012. All the information provided by this site coincides with the other pages.

3- Content: it provides: Dictionary Search - Fully searchable contents of the A-Z text of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishEnglish Pronunciation - Selected headwords pronounced in British and American English (Buy the full CD-ROM version for pronunciation of ALL headwords, including names of people and places)Example Sentences - Selected example sentences pronounced, to help improve the intonation.Reading and writing solutions - Words, phrases and meanings. Longman writing assistant. Word combinations. Collocation and word focus boxes.

4- Functionality: all its examples and links provided to the learners are very easy to follow and open.

9) The Wordsmyth Dictionary

http://www.wordsmyth.net/

1- Accuracy: In the early 1980s, while Robert Parks was on a Fulbright Fellowship in Japan, he did some consulting with a Japanese electronics company. They were interested in adding functionality for students to their computers. He eventually agreed to develop a dictionary for them. Our editing manual and procedures involved use of both primary and secondary sources. Dr. Parks' direction, a group full-time editors (whose number varied from two to four during the project) and a staff of writers, eventually numbering over twenty, worked in Ithaca for over five years producing an original American English Dictionary. This was a distinguished group of writers and editors, many of whom held advanced degrees.

2- Currency: it was last updated in 2012. All the information provided by this site coincides with the other English dictionary pages.

3- Content: you can create a multiple choice quiz using words or definitions as clues with fully customizable answer choices; take quizzes online- the process of creating a quiz is the same as always, but when you're done, you can choose to print it or to complete it online and get instant feedback; antonyms; real audio pronunciations; new images and animations; thousands of new example sentences; the Wordsmyth Beginner's Dictionary-Thesaurus has very easy-to-read entries written with a simple defining vocabulary of 2000 words.

4- Functionality: all its examples and links provided to the learners are very easy to follow and open.

10) The Hangman game

http://www.hangman.no/

1- Accuracy: the reference of the author is not mentioned (it’s a game).

2- Currency: the reference of the date is not mentioned

3- Content: in this application you can play existing games, play against a friend or make your own word lists for online distribution. This game uses Flash. You can click the on-screen keyboard or use your actual keyboard to input letters.

4- Functionality: this game does not present other links. The page works without any problems