Website Evaluation: It's more than just a cool site

For class today, we were asked to find a website pertaining to our subject areas from a suggested list of websites.  Of course, I did not pick one from the suggested list; one of them I already use in my classroom and have explored extensively.  I really wanted to go through another site in depth, and this website evaluation process really allowed for a full exploration of a great site!  I selected the Metropolitan Museum of Art, aka The MET, one of the more recognizable of museum acronyms.

Evaluating a website based on the rubric provided was a lot more challenging than I had anticipated.  Essentially, the website evaluation forces you to select websites that are clearly educational and functional in the classroom, not just something that has cool graphics.  This is a process that I have not formally done before, however, all websites that I use in my classroom I do review extensively for acceptable content, usability, interactive features, and more.  Now, my informal review process was put through the rigorous reliability and usability form.  By following the format of the form, it actually made me explore the website more in-depth in searching for the required information.  For example, I came across this great little sing-along activity for children ages 4-7 when figuring out how this site would best apply for K-12 students.  There were a few questions that I found challenging to answer, or find the answer for, such as an author for the site.  I think my prior knowledge of museum organizations overshadowed the answering of some of these questions.  I feel that if I had no prior knowledge of this site, the museum, and museum structure would have made this easier (maybe) because I wouldn't be fighting with my own knowledge base.

This activity was really helpful in learning how and what to evaluate when considering websites for student use in the classroom.  Do I think that I will use an extensive form for each website that I consider in the future? No.  However, I will definitely be taking into consideration a number of the questions, such as application for K-12 learning, accessibility, and accuracy, whenever I am looking at websites in the future.  This was a very helpful exercise.