http://pbskids.org/wayback/goldrush/features.html

 This site is separated in to three specific topics related to the Gold Rush.  These topics, the Californios, the Journey of the Forty-Niners, and the Gold Fever were each accentuated as you arrived at the website. Each heading is then given a brief description that highlights what each feature article will discuss.  This part of the design is one reason that I enjoy the setup and interactive nature of the material.  The information is also specific to children, which is different than other sites that I have found.  In addition to these feature articles, additional links entitled Buzz, Joke Space, and People to Know are located at the top of the page and are synonymous with the WayBack pages for PBS Kids website.  The website facilitates learning through the discovery of different facts about the Gold Rush in an enticing and engaging manner. It also focuses the learning to three specific areas so that students can choose what they would most like to learn about without being inundated with countless options.  The site is pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate through material as links are active and connect each of the other feature articles as options to link are given at the top and bottom of each feature article. In addition, the depth of the content is manageable for students at the upper-elementary or middles school level. I believe that the amount of material could have been reduced to hammer home what is most important on the Californios and Gold Fever articles.  The Journey of the Forty-Niners feature article bullets the most important facts about the different routes to California and shows the length of each journey in miles and duration of time with a globe showing a visual of the route of each trail.  Additional information is then available to learn more about each journey.  Another positive with regard to the content of the site is that difficult or new vocabulary is explained to assist with comprehension.  Finally, no sources are identified, but links are given for suggested readings about the Gold Rush.       

 

http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/home.html

 This site is more information based and lacks the interactive flair that would make the content engaging to students.  One fault that I find with the site is that it chooses to reach out to such a large audience as the pieces are written for both adults and children.  This home page offers four sections of content All about the Gold Rush, Fun Facts, The PBS Program, and Teacher Facts.  The All about the Gold Rush page is the primary content page and has links to ten areas of concentration where individuals can learn all they need to know about the Gold Rush.  The content is well-written and incorporates quotes from individuals who lived and experienced the Gold Rush.  However, the site offers too much information in my mind and fails to narrow down the information enough to adequately facilitate learning about the specifics of the Gold Rush.  While the links are active, each specific site fails to link to other pages, so users are forced to press back to return to the additional concept options. The Fun Facts section is designed for children but fails to incorporate all of the necessary content to give a full picture of the Gold Rush. Rather, this portion of the site identifies interesting anecdotes about the event.  Since the overall web page varies so greatly in target audience, it fails to provide information that meets the ability levels of each group.  An alternative option to this site would have been to design a page solely for school age children or adults where it would be more evident how the site is designed to facilitate learning for a specific group.  No sources are identified for the content given. 

 

http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/westward.html

 This page focuses on the Westward Expansion of the United States.  This site provides a list of links to additional pages available on the variety of topics that are encompassed in Westward Expansion. The links to the pages are titled, but no summary is given as to what information you can gather on each page.  The home page serves as a list serve of Westward Expansion sites and divides the links under headings titled research informational, online lesson plans, and online activities. It provides a database for content links that are different than other sites reviewed.  This site facilitates learning about Westward Expansion by providing links to a variety of sites that represent the range of events that occurred during this time in American History.  Students can use this sight to narrow down the content area they would like to learn about in Westward Expansion such as the Oregon Trail, Lewis and Clark, Native American Tribes, women during Westward Expansion, or of course, the Gold Rush.  The site utilizes clipart of covered wagons as the visual for the site and design is somewhat primitive. No navigation of the site is necessary as it only serves as a database for active external links.  Since no audience is specified, the content of the links is likely to cover a variety of learning abilities thus serving more as a resource for adults.  Two specific improvements to the site that I would like to see are an organization of the sites into categories and a brief description of each link that would inform the reader a bit about the content.  No information was given about the process completed to select the sites, but contact information was given for the author of the page. 

 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/

 In viewing this website for the first time, I thought that it was solely an advertisement or review of a PBS program on the Gold Rush. Conversely, I was pleased to discover a variety of interesting content on the Gold Rush that was both different than other pages that I visited and relevant to the process of learning about the event. For example, this page provides a timeline of the events that led up to and occurred during the Gold Rush. In addition, a list of people and events is given that offers further background into both individuals and groups of people (African-Americans, Mexicans, and Chinese) and their roles in the Gold Rush.  While no specific references are cited, it is important to note the provider of the content as PBS which is known as a reputable source with great depth of reporting.  An interactive map is also included so that individuals can learn more about each specific mining location.  This adult-oriented website matches its target audience with content for those interested in history both from traditional and alternative perspectives.  It also targets educators with a section on teacher resources and ideas for active learning.  Overall the site facilitates learning for all who may be interested in making sure that they have the entire picture of an event which includes allowing individuals’ voices to be heard that are often ignored when discussing the Gold Rush. The design of the site is easy to navigate and visually pleasing with appropriately labeled headings that helped focus the search for content.         

 

 

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/westwardmovement.htm

 This Westward Expansion site serves as a place where elementary or middle school students can connect to links where they can learn about the variety of events that occurred during this time period. I had hoped that this site would provide quality age-appropriate content with regard to the overall topic of Westward Expansion.  The links provide a brief description of the content available but are not adequately organized. This prevents a student from being able to gather all of the information on their topic in one location.  In addition, a large number of the links are not active or do not fit the explanation given.  Of the content that I was able to locate, only some of which appeared to be age appropriate for K-8 students.  Thus it appears that an overhaul of the links is necessary to remedy both the content and availability issues.  With all of this in mind, I fail to see how the site had the process of facilitating learning in mind when designing the site.  Overall, the design is simplistic with two pages of links. It does not appear that an extensive amount of time went into creating an aesthetically pleasing site as only one clipart of a cowboy is used on each page.  No information was given about the process undergone to select the sites. In fact the design of site makes me question the reliability of the information that is presented in the various links.