Lara Procaccini's ICT PLE - Websites evaluation

Unit of work: Environmental issues. No planet B!

Level: B1+ (Intermediate)

Age group: 15-16 years old.

Objectives: By the end of this unit, students will be able to...

-Express a probable condition and its possible outcomes by means of the predictive conditional (first)

-Name and define different environmental issues (e.g. pollution, deforestation, climate change)

-Explain possible ways of action to reduce environmental impact.

-Analyze the impact and influence of human being in the environment.

Below, there are some webs 1.0 and 2.0 that could be used along this unit to present, practice, recycle or evaluate the topic. Along with them, there is an evaluation of accuracy, currency, content and functionality, in compliance with the criteria proposed by Dudeney & Hockly's (2007) to evaluate websites.

National Geographic: Climate change

National Geographic is, in their own words "global non-profit that funds the best and brightest individuals around the world dedicated to our mission to use the power of science, exploration, education, and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world." (National Geographic, n.d.)

They offer articles on different topics, and for this lesson plan, the one about Climate Change can be used.

Accuracy: In this article, we readers cannot know about who the authors are, but we know that it comes from a well-known organization; National Geographic, so we could assume that the information is accurate.

Currency: The articles does not have a publication date, but we can see that the page is up-to-date (2025). Moreover, if we read the article and compare it with other reliable sources about climate change, we can check that the information is still true.

Content: The text consists of four paragraphs, which makes it short and easy for students to read, especially if the class is short. As the section to which the article belongs is "education," it was written considering that learners from grades 5-8 would read it. Lastly, the page also has a picture to illustrate how climate change affects our planet.

Functionality: The link to the article is currently working, and in the text there are words underlined with dotted lines, on which you can click and get information about that specific word.

British Council. Episode 5 Environmental issues

The British Council, the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities (British Council, n.d.), offers resources in English for ELT. For this unit of work, a listening about Environmental issue may be useful. The page also proposes activities as regards listening comprehension.

Accuracy: This resource was created by the British Council, specifically for EFL learners. We cannot find the name of any author, but we could assume that the content is accurate given that it comes from an entity with more than 100 years of career (it was founded in 1934) and which possess a long track record (British Council, n.d.)

Currency: This particular material does not have a publication nor update date, but given that the content of pollution is still true, it could be said that the situation portrayed in the listening is still relevant.

Content: The content is simple, consisting of a 3-minute listening, which also has a transcription below. The language level proposed by the British Council is B1.

Functionality: All the parts of this activity (audio, transcription, preparation task, and tasks 1-4) are currently working. The audio even has the possibility to change the speed so as to change it if needed.

Liveworksheets

Liveworksheets is a web-based and mobile-assisted educational platform that allows teachers to transform traditional printable worksheets such as .pdf or .jpg into interactive online with self-correction, which are called "interactive worksheets" (Ha Le, 2023). In this page, many activities related to environmental issues can be found. A screenshot of an example has been added on the left. There, students will have to drag and drop the correct verb in the slots to complete the sentences.

Accuracy: Liveworksheets is a web 2.0, because the content was not created by Liveworksheets, but by a user. This is why we should analyse the content comparing it to other reliable sources to check whether it is correct or not. As far as I have checked, it seems to be correct as regards content, spelling and collocations.

Currency: This particular activity was created in 2020, but the content seems to be still relevant.

Content: The content may be useful for teenage learners because it may equip them with useful vocabulary to use along the unit (verbs and nouns related to the environment) and the fact that the sentences are short contributes to an easy reading and interpretation of the content.

Functionality: The drag-and-drop items work correctly, and the function of "finish!" (to check the answers) works too. Correct answers are shown in green, whereas incorrect ones are shown in red, which makes it easier for students to monitor whether they got them right or wrong.

SlideShare

SlideShare is a social network that allows you to share your presentations, documents, and videos. These presentations can be used by the teacher or by the student. It is important to check and corroborate who wrote the presentation, though. On the right, you can see the beginning of a presentation on Environmental Issues, which could be used in this unit of work.

Accuracy: As with Liveworksheets, Slideshares is a 2.0 website in which different users publish material they create. In this case, the author of this 30-slides presentation is Mohammad Mohaiminul Islam, who according to the site is a data analyst. However, as we do not know whether this information has been verified, we should check whether all the information is accurate comparing it with other reliable sources.

Currency: According to the page, this presentation was created 5 years ago, so some information may not be fully updated.

Content: As it is a presentation, the texts are not excessively long, and they are easy to read given that many of them contain bullet points. The use of images is also very helpful for students because they have visual support. Lastly, as every slide has a title, it is easy to identify which topic is being dealt with.

Functionality: All the slides are visible, and if you register, the option to download works fine as well. The options for downloading it are PPTX or PDF. Besides, you get the possibility to download the whole presentation or individual slides.

Earth.com: Global Recycling Day: Creating a healthier planet for all

Earth.com is a page that provides articles, blogs, videos and images about our planet and environment that aim to inform, raise awareness and make a difference (Earth.com, n.d.)

For the proposed unit of work, this article may be a good input option when dealing with the subtopic of recycling, since it deals with the purpose ofrecycling, how we can do that, the benefits of it, and the global impact.

Accuracy: The article about the Global Recycling Day was written by a graduate from the university of Padua who focuses on the research of sciences (Earth.com n.d.) so we could assume that the information contained in the article is accurate.

Currency: This article was published on 18th March, 2024; it seems to be relatively up-to-date.

Content: As regards content, the article is rather long, but its titles and subtitles allow readers to focus on specific topics, such as origins and purpose, how to participate, global impact, etc.

Functionality: The text contains some key words which are hyperlinked to other articles from Earth.com (for instance, resources, plastic, pollution, e-waste, among others) all of which are working.

UN sustainable goals

The aim of the UN sustainable goals program is to provide substantive support and capacity-building for the goals and their related thematic issues, including water, energy, climate, oceans, urbanization, transport, science and technology. (Unied Nations, n.d.) For this to happen, it is paramount that communities, countries and the planet as a whole articulate this shared goals. (Costanza et al., 2014)

Among its 17 objectives, some related to environmental issues can be found, for instance Affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, an life on land. In each of this objectives, there are resources such as articles, infographics, and events.

Accuracy: None of the sections have the name of the authors, but we know from the "about" section of the United Nations, that behind every publication, there are members of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). (United Nations, n.d.)

Currency: All the infographics contained in the website are from 2023, and in every section, there are highly updated articles and publications (many of them from this year, for example). All of them have the year, making it easy for the reader to check whether they are up-to-date or not.

Content: Once you click on one of the goals, the screen will show an infographic. In the proposed unit of work these infographics may be very useful. As regards content, they are very complete in the sense that they contain summarized information about each of the goals, images, key words, statistics, and they are in a reader-friendly format.

Functionality: All the links in the page of the UN goals work fine, and the format of the index is very intuitive to use, since every goal is accompanied by a picture. Once you select a goal and click on it, the aforementioned infographics will welcome you. If you click on "High resolution image" the image will open, making it easier to read.

TedEd (youtube channel) Video "What Earth in 2050 could look like - Shannon Odell"

TED-Ed is a platform that offers educational animated videos for students and teachers, inspired by the TED Talks movement. (TEDEd, n.d). They have an online webpage as well as a youtube cannel, where videos about various areas (maths, psychology, art, science, technology, etc) can be foun. For a lesson plan under the unit of work of enviromental issues, the video "What Earth in 2050 could look like - Shannon Odell" can be a good resource.

Accuracy: The information of this video was created by Shannon Odell, Senior Editorial Producer at TED-Ed, and graduated from school of medical sciences. (Shannon Odell on LinkedIn, n.d.) Moreover, this lesson was directed by another person (Sofia Pashaei) and produced with help or a third member (Mark Maslin). Therefore, considering the people involved and the institution behind, we could conclude that this video is accurate.

Currency: This video was published on 28th March, 2024, so the information is still true and relevant.

Content: The content is very useful for the proposed unit of work, and the fact that it is a 5-minute video makes it a good option to work in class, since it is a short multimedia resource containing audio, animations and minimal text. Because of this, it may result interesting and engaging for students.

Functionality: The video is available to see from beginning to end without issues. There are subtitles available, making it a good options for students who may have weak listening skills. Furthermore, in the description box, there is a link in which a full lesson plan can be seen.

References

Dudeney, G. & Hockly, N. (2007) How to Teach English with Technology

National Geographic (n.d.) Our focus
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/society/our-focus/

National Geographic (n.d.) Our story
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/society/our-story/

British Council (n.d.) About us
https://www.britishcouncil.org/about-us

Ha Le, V. (2023) A Review of the Website Liveworksheets.com

https://old.callej.org/journal/24-1/Le-Prabjandee2023.pdf

Slidesahre (n.d.) About us
https://es.slideshare.net/about

Earth.com (n.d.) About us
https://www.earth.com/about/

Earth.com (n.d.) About the author
https://www.earth.com/author/aionescu/

United Nations (n.d) About
https://sdgs.un.org/about

Costanza, R., McGlade, J., Lovins, H., & Kubiszewski, I. (2014) An Overarching Goal for the UN Sustainable Development Goals

https://shorturl.at/Rp53n

TED-Ed (n.d.) About
https://ed.ted.com/about

Shannon Odell, Phd. (n.d.) On LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-odell/