Evaluation of a website used for Education (English)
Website being Evaluated: https://ywp.nanowrimo.org/
This website is designed to be a virtual classroom that helps teachers keep track of students' writing. In a 30-day period, students will have completed their own novels with the help of their teachers.
Purpose - Very Clear
The purpose of this resource is to teach students in K-12, in our case, middle schoolers, how to become better writers.
This program does not show bias towards any particular group.
Relevance to English/Language Arts - Very Relevant
The intended audience would be students in an English/Language Arts Classroom.
The website is directly related to helping students become better writers. It teaches them how to write their own novels.
Accuracy - Very Accurate (and consistent)
The website is aligned with the core English standards taught in K-12.
The resource references personal accounts and uses current teachers as a way to improve the website and make it more accurate.
Credibility - Very Credible
This tool has been praised by newspapers such as The New York Times, TIME Magazine, NPR, Forbes, and the School Library Journal.
This tool relies on support from teachers around the country.
Technology - Accessible and Easy to Use
The website is easy to use and quick to load.
It also proves to be accessible since it is free for students and educators to use.
Informative - Very Informative
This tool is informative to teachers and helps them keep track of their students' writing.
It is also informative to the students using them, giving them the platform and the help needed to write their own stories.
Current - Very Current
The website is updated constantly and has been a resource since 1999.
The creators of this website post constant updates and news both on the website and other forms of social media.
Enjoyable
The website is visually appealing, especially to children and pre-teens. It is very easy to register and use, both for the student and the teacher.
Using the evaluation criteria outlined by the PRACTICE acronym, this resource seems to be a very useful tool in the classroom.
Overall, this site seems to pass all of the PRACTICE criteria. It fits the purpose of the classroom and is relevant to a lesson taught to 6th-8th grade students. The information provided is accurate and comes from credible sources. The technology is easy to use and informative to the audience. The tool is very current and seems to be enjoyable for its users. All in all, this site provides a very useful tool to be used in the English/Language Arts classroom setting.