Ann Erickson
Class 4 ~ Teacher Resources
After completing this assignment, I was amazed by all of the information that is out there
for educators to utilize. There are so many wonderful ideas that teachers could
incorporate into their own lesson plans. New ideas are always appearing with new
excitement. I have updated my PortaPortal so that all of the links below will be listed on
it for future use when I finally reach my goal of becoming an educator.
Apple Learning Exchange
This web site had a lot of hot news, hardware, software, educational information
support, lesson ideas, and articles available to the user. I utilize this site a lot to get
help when using a particular program. This site has a large variety of lessons to be
used with students, very helpful!
There is some cost involved depending on the request made, such as, purchasing
programs. For the most part the cost is limited.
There are a lot of advertisements regarding computer merchandise. You even have the
opportunity to purchase a camera on this particular site.
This site is the property of Apple Computer, Inc. There were no problems or drawbacks
that I noticed pertaining to this site. There is so much information that is available at the
users fingertips. This is a great site!
Educators’ Reference Desk
This web site has over 3000 resources regarding a variety of educational issues within
their collection. There are a lot of lesson plans available to the users that are submitted
from teachers all over the world. The user can also view over 200 responses to popular
questions on practice, theory, and research of education. ERIC Database, the world’s
largest source of education information which contains more than one million abstracts
of documents and journal articles on education research and practice are available for
the user to utilize. There is so much information available to use.
There is no cost involved with site and I did not notice outside advertisements posted.
The site did have one request posted from the Education Reference Desk seeking
volunteers to help build the on-line collection of information.
The Educator’s Reference Desk is a project of the Information Institute of Syracuse. All
resources, question archive responses, and lesson plans on this site were cataloged
using GEM metadata.
This site is very friendly to use and is full of valuable information. I did not notice and
problems or drawbacks associated with this site.
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Awesome Library
The Awesome Library organizes the Web with 24,000 carefully reviewed resources.
There is information regarding a variety of subjects along with topics to be covered
within the given area. Under the technology link there were many topics regarding email services, current events, web-page design and lesson plans just to name a few.
There was a lot of information to be shared and knowledge to be gained by using this
web site.
This site has no cost involved to the user. No advertisements were associated with this
site.
The only drawback that I experienced was the design of the site itself. Maybe it was the
color, design layout or the set-up that I did not care for. I am not sure exactly what it
was….
In May of 1997, the Evaluation and Development Institute (EDI) began offering the
database through the Web portal "Awesome Library." EDI, co-owner of the database,
has also issued licenses to other organizations to utilize it. The sponsor of the site is
Concord.
-Copyright © 1996-2004 EDI and Dr. R. Jerry Adams-
Blue Web’n
The Blue Web’n online library has 1800+ outstanding Internet sites. There are so many
links connected to a multitude of content areas, which cover tools, references, lesson
plans, hot lists, information resources, tutorials, activities, and projects that would be
helpful to the user. This web site would be helpful when conducting research about a
given subject area.
There is no cost involved with this use of this site and no advertisements were posted
all over the site.
SBC Knowledge Ventures, L.P sponsors this site.
I did not experience any problems or drawbacks related to this particular site. There
was a lot of information that was readily available.
Discovery School
The Discovery School has a large amount of resources for parents, teachers, and
students. This web site has fresh ideas to enhance the learning process. The user has
access to clip art, teaching tools, lesson plans, and on TV “Geographic Perspectives
Theme Week.” The lesson plans available are free and a video could be purchased for
a small fee to go with the lesson.
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There were a few advertisements posted on this site regarding merchandise, which
became distracting to me as I followed the links suggested regarding the subject I was
researching. I also kept on receiving pop-ups while I was on this site. This was a
drawback for me.
Discovery School.com is a wholly owned subsidiary of Discovery Communications, Inc.
Partners include: Mentura Inspiring Learning, Zoobooks, AOL@School, and
NFIE~Grants for Teachers.
Education World
This site had a lot of information on it, but when I opened up the web site, it was too
busy for me. The icons on the right side of the site were always changing and were
very distracting to me. I was trying to read something and would be distracted by a
color changing of words flashing.
Under the Professional Development section, I did find valuable articles that I enjoyed
reviewing. Also, it is always helpful to read information regarding lesson planning.
Many, many resources were available on this site for everyone to use.
There were no cost involved with the information that was accessible to the user, but
there were a lot of advertisements on the site.
Corporate sponsors and advertisers fund education World, but there was no specific list
available. Some of the advertisements were as follows: Grand Canyon University,
University of Phoenix, Reader’s Digest, Walden University, American Fidelity Assurance
Co. and Boston School Pro.
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)
There were many hypertext links to many different subjects that could be utilized by the
user. By following the links, I found many in-depth articles regarding constructivism,
cooperative learning and learning without walls just to name a few. There was valuable
information to share with other educators.
This site had no cost associated with itself or the hypertext links that the user had to be
aware of. I did not notice any advertisements as I was searching through the hypertext
links.
I was unable to locate the names of the actual sponsors of this site, all that it said was
that their were many organizations sponsoring the sites. Under each of the hypertext
links they did list who the link was supported by, such as: Library of Congress,
Department of Education, National Institutes of Health, National Endowment for the
Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Archives and Records
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Administration, Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Bureau of Land
Management, Department of the Interior,
I did not experience any problems or drawbacks associated with this site.
Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM)
This site was the key to one-stop, any-stop access to lesson plans, instructional units,
and other educational resources on the Internet. It allowed the user to select the
educational level when looking for specific information regarding a specific subject, such
as, Educational Technology-technology planning. There was a lot of information that
could be utilized in a classroom.
The links that I followed did not have a cost associated with the site. There were no
advertisements listed all over the site.
The only drawback was that as I was searching a specific subject, I tried to follow a link
and it revealed ~ File Not Found. This was discouraging to me.
The Gateway to Educational Materials Project is sponsored by U.S. Department of
Education. Copyright 1996-2003 GEM.
Internet Public Library
This site was friendly to use and the appearance was inviting. The user could follow the
hypertext links to review full versions of articles pertaining to a specific subject.
Following the links I found useful links to other sites that provided informative guides
relating to web site development and maintenance.
There was no cost associated to the site in order to retrieve information. As the user
follows the links there are a few advertisements and cost associated.
I did not have any problems searching this web site; it was very easy to search for
specific information.
Sponsored by Intel Sun Microsystems
Knowledge Loom
This site was very helpful to me. I found a wonderful article pertaining to Leadership
Principles in Technology (vision, planning, access, integration, assessment and
evaluation, support, professional development, community relationships and ethical and
legal issues). I was able to view stories, research and resources to a specific topic.
The user also has the opportunity to register to participate in on-line discussions and to
receive periodic e-mail up dates.
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There is no cost involved in using this site and you do not have to join The Knowledge
Loom to use its contents. But as a member the user would have more access and
benefits available to them.
This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown
University. Seed funding during 1998-2000 was provided by the United States
Department of Education. However, the Northeast & Islands Regional Educational
Laboratory (LAB) at Brown University partners with organizations to work collaboratively
to disseminate their specialty content through The Knowledge Loom as a value-added
education resource. Partners are listed below:
Appalachia Educational Laboratory
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ArtsLiteracy Project
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Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)
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Center for Resource Management (CRM)
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Center for Youth Development and Policy Research (CYDPR)
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Children's Software Press (CSP)
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Co-nect, Inc.
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Council of Chief State School Officers
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Eisenhower National Clearinghouse
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Fenway High School
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Jobs for the Future
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Lightspan®, Inc.
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Massachusetts College of Art
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National Association of Elementary School Principals
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National Association of Secondary School Principals
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National Awards Program for Model Professional Development
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National Institute for Literacy
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National Partnership for Excellence & Accountability in Teaching
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National Staff Development Council
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NEIRTEC, Northeast & Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium
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New England Equity Assistance Center
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North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)
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Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University
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Northwest Educational Technology Consortium (NETC)
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Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL)
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Regional Educational Laboratory at SERVE
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RMC Research Corporation
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Southern Regional Education Board (SREB )
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Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
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Teaching for Artistic Behavior Partnership
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The Education Alliance at Brown University
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The Mitchell Institute
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University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning
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University of Vermont
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University Park Campus School
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There were no advertisements listed on this site. I did not have any problems or
drawbacks while searching for information that could be of use to me.
Learn NC (example of a State Teachers Network)
This site has a lot of valuable information for a new teacher, as well as, the seasoned
teacher. There are articles, lesson plans, Web Quests and field trip ideas to be shared
between everyone.
There is no cost involved in using this site. Anyone can join the North Carolina
Teachers’ Network and receive the following information:
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Members receive a "file cabinet" that allows them to create and store
instructional plans for personal use, make personal copies of published plans,
and bookmark resources in our Instructional Resources Collection.
Members have the opportunity to publish their best lesson plans and WebQuests
on LEARN NC.
Many of our articles provide a place for online discussion, and registration is
required for participation.
To receive continuing email updates about our services.
To share expertise and interests with other educators across the state.
LEARN NORTH CAROLINA, a program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill School of Education, is a statewide network of educators using the power of the
Internet to improve K-12 education in North Carolina. As I followed some of the links, I
did notice two advertisements to web sites (Blue Web’n Site, and Exploratorium).
As I explored this site, I did not notice any problems or drawbacks attached with it. This
site was very easy to use and explore new ideas and concepts pertaining to education.
MarcoPolo
This site has a large amount of Teacher Resources, Professional Development, and
State Network connections available to the user. I was particularly interested in learning
about MarcoPolo in our state and content alignment to state standards. By following the
links, I was lead to the ACTEM website which is the state agreement organization. This
site had 300 MarcoPolo lesson plans aligned to one or more state standards. I also
found a Listserv on this website so I took advantage of the opportunity and joined.
I did not see any costs that were associated with the use of the materials available. The
one cost that I did notice was particularly pertaining to ordering training materials.
The partners listed for this website are as follows:
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The Kennedy Center Arts Edge
Econ Ed Link
National Endowment for the Humanities/ED Sitement
NCTM Illuminations
International Reading Association/Read-Write-Think
Science NetLinks
National Geographic
MCI Foundation
Copyright 2004 MCI Foundation
I did not notice advertisements listed on this web site. There were no problems or
drawbacks regarding this site. I found this site to have a lot of important information for
educators to utilize.
Modern Surf
I liked the advice regarding this web site. I did need to get away from the computer for
a moment---GREAT ADVICE!!!!!!!!!!!!
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