Jaclyn Cordero

UIS 350-01
Web Site Name (image)
1

URL
http://www.doe.vir
ginia.gov/

Description of the Site (1-2 paragraphs)

The Virginia Department of Education website (VDOE) is a
government operating web site that lists state requirements for
teachers and students, Standards of Learning (SOLs),
statistics, resources for teachers to use, and much more. One
of the main features of the site is a link to the Virginia Board
of Educations (VBOE) vision, mission, list of duties, bylaws,
and goals. I like the VBOEs vision, which is as follows:
to create an excellent statewide system of public
education that derives strength from our diversity and
that ensures equality of opportunity for each student in
a safe and healthy learning environment that prepares
all students to be capable, responsible, and self-reliant
citizens in the global society
There are seven goals for Public Education in Virginia (20122017) that are listed on the same page, all of which are helpful
for teachers to look over, including (1) accountability for
student learning, (2) rigorous standards to promote college
and career readiness, (3) expanded opportunities to learn, (4)
nurturing young learners, (5) highly qualified and effective
teachers, (6) sound policies for student success, and (7) safe
and secure schools.
(http://www.doe.virginia.gov/boe/index.shtml)
However, perhaps the most useful resource for teachers on the
VDOE site pertains to SOLs. From a description of SOL
assessments, to SOL statistics, to the standards themselves,
this link has it all:

Jaclyn Cordero
UIS 350-01
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/index.shtml.The intended
audience of the site includes educators, parents, students, as
well as Virginian/U.S. citizens. This website is extremely
useful to teachers in my field/grade level who will be teaching
in Virginia, because it is the ultimate guide to the Standards of
Learning for all grade levels and subjects, and teachers in
Virginia must teach according to these standards.
2

http://www.pbslear PBS LearningMedia provides PreK-12th grade educators and

ningmedia.org/
parents free digital resources to use, including videos,
documents, webpages, lesson plans, and more. It is owned
and operated by PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), which is
an American nonprofit corporation that prides itself in being
America's largest classroom, the Nation's largest stage
and a trusted window to the world. The main feature of this
website is the ability to search for content. One can search as
broadly or specifically as he or she desires. There are options
to search by keyword or topic, grade-level, subject, and/or
type of source (video, document, lesson plan, etc.). For
example, a teacher could search through all 3rd grade math
resources (http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/search/?
q=&selected_facets=grades_exact
%3A3&selected_facets=supplemental_curriculum_hierarchy_
nodes%3A1184&selected_facets), or all 3rd grade
multiplication lesson plans and videos:
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/search/?
q=multiplication&order=&selected_facets=&selected_facets=
&selected_facets=grades_exact
%3A3&selected_facets=media_type_exact
%3AVideo&selected_facets=media_type_exact
%3ALesson+Plan There are drop-down menus and tools to

Jaclyn Cordero
UIS 350-01
help even the most technologically illiterate educators to
navigate the site.

http://edtechteache
r.org/

The intended audience of the website is most likely

resourceful educators, students (under adult supervision) and
parents. Some parents may homeschool their children and
want to use some of these free resources, while others may
just want to provide their children with more content than
they receive at school. It is understandable why educators
would use this source. It has plenty of lesson plan guides and
interactive learning tools for both teachers and students to use.
EdTechTeacher is a website made by educators for educators.
It consists of a core team of nineteen current teachers, former
teachers, and educational technological specialists. Their
mission is to support educators in their quest to enrich
student learning experiences through emerging technologies.
(http://edtechteacher.org/philosophy/) Thus, the intended
audience for this website is educators, specifically those who
desire to implement technology into their classroom.
One of the main features of the site is its Technology Tools
for Teachers webpage: http://edtechteacher.org/tools/. Tools
are listed by subject, by topic, and by learning activity. When
subjects, topic, or learning activities are clicked on, another
webpage opens with tools for students and teachers alike to
use. Under the Start Here subheading under How We
Help subheading, newcomers to the site can discover what
the website offers, including frameworks and models,
tutorials and helpful links, innovative projects and lessons,
tech tools by subjects and skill (as previously mentioned),
free live webinars and recordings, Google apps for education,

Jaclyn Cordero
UIS 350-01
app recommendations, and assessments and rubrics
(http://edtechteacher.org/start/) I can see myself using the
apps, the projects and lessons, and the tech tools resources. In
this age of technology that we are in, teachers like me can
truly benefit from a website like this.

http://tech.ed.gov/

This is the Department of Educations (DOE) Office of

Educational Technology (OET) website. The OET is run by a
team of diverse and highly qualified individuals, including
technology research specialists, pioneers, and educational
leaders such as former teachers and administrators
(http://tech.ed.gov/team/). The OETs goal is to provide
leadership for transforming education through the power of
technology. The OET develops educational technology
policies and establishes the vision for how technology can
be used to support learning. (http://tech.ed.gov/what-we-do/)
In order to achieve this vision, the OET promotes internet
access for all learners, support entrepreneurs and innovators,
and researches ways to improve learning.
One of the main features of this site include the Tech
Resources dropdown for students and families, teachers,
district and state leaders, and developers. As a future
elementary school teacher, I think that teacher collaboration is
so important. Elementary school teachers have to teach all
subjects, but working together and collaborating makes it
easier on everyone. Some of the tech resources for teachers

Jaclyn Cordero
UIS 350-01

http://www.washin
gton.edu/

include innovation ideas for the classroom, such as games for

students, and tools in which teachers can exchange innovation
ideas for the classroom. There is also a Future Ready
Schools: Professional Learning Toolkit. When this link is
clicked, a list of steps pops up, as well as a navigation tool on
the right for educators to download self-assessment tools,
quality checklists, and more.
(http://tech.ed.gov/futureready/professional-learning/) Further
resources that this website provides include the OETs
initiatives, publications, and blogs.
This website is the University of Washingtons official
website. UW is a prominent multi-campus university. Besides
the UW admissions information, UWs website includes
research galore, plenty of which is beneficial to both current
and future teachers. UWs Center for Teaching and Learning
webpage (http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teachingresources/) contains preparatory advice for future professors
that apply to any educator, as well as research on engaging
students in learning, inclusive teaching, teaching international
and multilingual students, assessing and improving teaching,
and on policies and professionalism.
The intended audience for UWs website is faculty,
administration, prospective and current students, and parents
of those students. While the intended audience for the Center
for Teaching and Learning webpage is mostly for professors
(faculty), there is some valuable information there for all
teachers, no matter what they teach (content) or who they
teach (grade level). When I click on the Engaging Students
in Leanring link, there are even more sub-links, such as
Flipping the Classroom, which leads to a whole webpage

Jaclyn Cordero
UIS 350-01
about it: http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teachingresources/engaging-students-in-learning/flipping-theclassroom/. Listed below the basic information on flipping the
classroom are start guides and tool kits, videos, blogs, more
websites, and articles all on flipping the classroom.
6

https://www.eduto
pia.org/

Edutopia is large part of filmmaker George Lucas

Educational Foundation. When he was a kid, Lucas struggled
with boredom in school, and he could not help but notice in
his sons school the untapped potential to truly engage
students and make lifelong learners out of them. Thus, he
created the Foundation to identify and spread innovative,
replicable and evidence-based approaches to helping K-12
students learn better. (https://www.edutopia.org/about)
Edutopia is one of the two ways in which Lucas is trying to
achieve his mission. It emphasizes core strategies, including
project-based learning, comprehensive assessment, integrated
studies, social and emotional learning, educational leadership
and teacher development, and technology integration.
One of the main features of the website is its topic index:
https://www.edutopia.org/topic-index. I was interested in
learning more about character education, so I clicked on that
under C in the index and came to this webpage:
https://www.edutopia.org/blogs/tag/character-education. The
webpage revealed articles, discussions (require an Edutopia
log-in), and videos all about character education. Edutopia
is also great for tech savvy or social media-loving teachers,
who can share webpages on Facebook or Twitter, or pin them
on their Pinterest boards.

Jaclyn Cordero
UIS 350-01
The intended audience of the website includes teachers,
parents, administrators, students, and any other interested
visitors. This website is extremely useful to dedicated
elementary educators (and others) who, like Lucas, want to
engage students in new ways.

http://www.educati Education World is daily-updated online resource by which

onworld.com/
educators and administrators can find high-quality and indepth original content. The site is full of news briefs on
educator-concerning topics, lesson plans, printables,
worksheets, educational technology tips, and professional
development articles.
(http://www.educationworld.com/help/about.shtml)
Education World is led by the Education World team,
including a group of skilled content providers. The
management and staff team includes Editor Richard Conklin,
Associate Contributing Editor Keith Lambert, and Senior
Contributor Nicole Gorman. The site is geared to teachers, of
course; however, it is also for administrators, and school staff.
It is designed for viewers to visit every day, as it is updated
with new and relevant content every day.
As previously mentioned, some main features of the site
include specialized tabs for teachers, administrators, lesson
plans, technology, and professional development tips. All
resources are also listed on the bottom of each webpage. This
site would be beneficial for educators like me, because it is
extremely easy to navigate, it can be easily shared via social
media (with colleagues), and it can be subscribed to through
email. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits to using this

Jaclyn Cordero
UIS 350-01
website is that teachers can stay on top of whats new. In
order to do so, one simply hovers over the desired topic and
clicks on the first subtopic, which should say Whats New.
8

https://www.schoo
lhousetech.com/

Schoolhouse Technologies (ST) is a Canadian-based company

with a mission to provide practical software solutions for
the extraordinary teaching challenges faced by educators
(https://www.schoolhousetech.com/company/default.aspx).
ST is an invaluable online resource for teachers to create
classroom sets of worksheets, activities, and tests. To make
resources more accessible and easy for teachers to take
advantage of, all of STs software tools are Windows based.
STs website includes a math resource studio, a vocabulary
worksheet factory, schoolhouse tests, and schoolhouse bingo.
Unfortunately, all of these resources are not free, but they are
not too expensive, either. The great thing about them is that
they can be installed on up to three computers.
The types of worksheets and activities that a teacher could
come up with through ST is unlimited. Teachers or schools
with a little money could easily implement ST into the
curricula. The main resources of the site are previously listed,
but again, the opportunities are endless. I would definitely
think about investing in this if my future school does not have
ST yet.

Jaclyn Cordero
UIS 350-01
9

http://nces.ed.gov/

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), located

within the United States DOE and Institute of Education
Sciences (IES), is the primary federal entity for collecting
and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other
nations (http://nces.ed.gov/about/). The NCES primarily
collects and reports statistics on American education.
The main features of this site include surveys and programs
(studies), data and tools, fast facts, news and events, and
publications and products. There are so many resources under
each section. Listed under Surveys and Programs is national
and international assessments, early childhood surveys and
studies, elementary and secondary surveys and studies,
information on the library statistics program, postsecondary
statistics and studies, and more resources. One of the many
useful tools on the NCES site is the school searching tool. I
was able to search for Regent Universitys demographics:
http://nces.ed.gov/globallocator/index.asp?
search=1&State=VA&city=Virginia+Beach&zipcode=23464
&miles=&itemname=regent&sortby=name&PrivSchool=1&
College=1&Status=Search+Finished&Records=13&CS=6AE
5D716. This is a great tool for teachers to use as they prepare
for position at a new school.
The intended audience for the site is most likely
administrators and teachers; however, some parents who are
looking for a good school may use this site, too.

Jaclyn Cordero
UIS 350-01
10

http://elearnmag.ac According to its About Us section, eLearn Magazine seeks

m.org/index.cfm
to be the place where practice informs research and research
informs practice (http://elearnmag.acm.org/about-us.cfm). It
publishes content that is geared towards a diverse audience
(mainly educators and administrators), including readers
interested in eLearning through higher education, k-12
educators, corporate, government, and non-profits. eLearns
goal is to be the go-to source for information on the uses of
online learning strategies.
eLearn Magazines team includes Dr. Alison A. Carr
Chellman (editor-in-chief), Denise Doig (senior editor), and
an editorial board of professors, deans, directors, and
instructional designers. The main features of this site are its
articles. eLearn Magazine has articles about various topics,
including emerging technologies, instructor development,
higher education, international online education, management,
design for learning, K-12 blended and online learning,
corporate learning, nonformal/informal learning, interviews,
and even an opinion section. There are also software,
literature, and event reviews.
In this time that we live in, it is of utmost importance for
teachers like me to be up-to-date on emerging technologies,
even more so than our future students. That is why the
Emerging Technologies section on this site is so great:
http://elearnmag.acm.org/emerging-technologies.cfm. Topics
such as online plagiarism checkers, Snapchat, the fairness of
online testing, and new apps are discussed.