URL: http://www.enteract.com/~peregrin/add/

Summary: The website in which I have evaluated will be a great resource for teachers who will encounter students with ADD in their classroom. The website contains archives that relate to several areas of ADD. The areas include legal issues, medical issues, school issues, references, and new files all of which pertain to ADD. The website could benefit a teacher who has a student with ADD in his or her classroom. For example, if a teacher would like to learn more about legal issues concerning his or her student with ADD, she could visit this website and pull up Public Law 94-142, which specifies the student's rights under this law. The teacher could also look at IDEA which stands for Americans with Disabilities Education Act.

Evaluation:The website is extremely deep in that it provides a lot of information concerning many aspects of ADD. The website contains many laws, court cases, diagnoses, newspaper articles, reference materials for ADD, which include books, videos, cassettes, and computer aided instruction as well as many other issues involving ADD. The website can be unclear when trying to read law, research studies, articles by doctors, and diagnoses of children. There are also many areas that are easily read and understood. These areas include, desriptions of characteristics of children with ADD, newspaper articles, descriptions of having ADD as a teenager as well as several other areas that are easy to comprehend. This website is also extremely useful in relation to the field of education. As I mentioned earlier, a teacher could look up this website to read important legal information concerning the rights of individuals who have ADD as well as other impairments. A teacher as well as parents can review the IEP process from this website. There is also information concerning ADD in the classroom and what a teacher can do with a student with ADD. The website defines what "free and appropriate" means, the referral process, the evaluation process, as well as background information on Special Education concerning ADD. Another great piece of information for parents and teachers is a series of handouts for families and teachers of ADD children, which includes sections on motor activity, impulsivity, and sustaining attentiion and motivation. Other useful information for teachers and parents include a draft of a book by Barbara Stein entitled "ADD Made Easy," which deals with strategies to assist the parent and teacher with children who have ADD. In conclusion, the website can be a great resource, especially for teachers and parents of children with ADD.

Other: There are several other topics that are addressed on this website. There is a lot information concerning Ritalin. There is official documented information on Ritalin which includes warnings, side effects, recommended usage, and other precautions. There is also an article concerning the best way to take Ritalin as well as a fact sheet about Ritalin. There is also information concerning Learning Disabilities and provides resources to address the issue. There is also a study that attempted to find out if ADD individuals were more succeptible to allergies, and sensitivity to light and noise. Also, there are facts about the Americans With Disabilities Act as well as the Americans With Disabilities Act and the workplace. Other interesting information that is addressed on this website includes a court case where the Supreme Court made a decision that the school did not provide appropriate education under IDEA. There is also a study that was done about the effects of stimulant medication on children with attention deficit disorder which is definitely worth reading. In conclusion, the website addresses many other issues that can be tied into the topic of Attention Deficit Disorder, therfore these issues should be read and studied closely.

Summary: This website gives an alternative method of treating ADD and ADHD rather than Ritalin. This website states that Ritalin only covers up the symptoms, rather than changing them. The alternative that they are suggesting is the idea of implementing handwriting more prevalently in schools to increase self-control. The author of this site and concept is Jeanette Farmer, C.G. Her biography states that she has "deep insight into the deeper implications of the handwriting process and its inherent capacity to train the moldable young brain." One topic discussed on this site is Why is Attention Deficit Disorder So Prevalent in the US? There are also Testimonials of educators and doctors that have tried this approach to helping children with ADD/ADHD. Scores and results form the research done on this method are also listed. To help those with questions, there is a FAQ's section.

Evaluation:This website is poor in explaining how this concept of handwriting will actually help children with ADD/ADHD. The site barely taps into the how and why this method works. The testimonials are good but without instructions for the reader to follow, the believability is poor. A teacher would not know where to begin. The information about ADD/ADHD in the United States is very helpful and insightful. There is also a great deal of information on the relationship between the left brain and its influence on each child's behavior. This information is clear and easily understood. However, the information given is more insightful than useful. This site could be a source for teachers looking for other options (that are out there) in educating a child with ADD/ADHD.

Other: Other topics addressed by this site and links to, are "Regulating the emotional Flow-Impulse Control and ADHD." Another link is to "The Remarkable Power of Therapeutic Music to calm the Brain." This website also lists the six major physiological reasons to give children the gift of good handwriting, which could be new information for many educators today.

Summary: As I was exploring the World Wide Web I noted that there is a lot of information about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I found a really interesting and informative website about this topic that was developed by the National Institute of Mental Health. This site provides a lot of interesting information because it helps you learn about ADHD among many other things. The introduction of the website is very appealing because it starts asking you to imagine living like an ADHD person does, therefore capturing the reader’s interest. This site talks about the symptoms and causes of ADHD and it also mention other conditions that can produce these symptoms. Furthermore, it talks about other disorders that can accompany ADHD. In addition, this site provides ways that you can get help if you or someone you know has ADHD. For example, they tell you which professionals can diagnose ADHD, who can prescribe medication, and who can provide counseling. What's more, it even informs you about the treatments that are available. This site also provides information about research that is being conducted in order to see which combinations of ADHD treatment work best for different types of people and what are the long term outcomes of ADHD among others. On top, they also provide name of books that children, teens, and adults can read about ADHD. They also provide a list of resources that teachers and specialist can use. Furthermore, they provide addresses and numbers of various support groups and organizations that offer help, support, and many other things to people that have ADHD. In conclusion, this site is very helpful for anyone that wants to know about ADHD or that has ADHD because it can answer most of your questions and concerns.

Evaluation:This website is very useful because it covers this topic in depth. Everything that it mentions is very clear and understandable. For example, when I read what ADHD meant I was able to understand exactly what they meant. I was also able to understand different behaviors that are displayed in ADHD like inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. They do not make use of words that people are not able to read or understand, instead they use words that most of the people are able to read. Therefore, this site makes it easy for people to learn about ADHD without having too much trouble. Another thing that I liked about this website is that they use real life stories about children that have ADHD and how they and their families have learned to deal with it. Furthermore, they provide useful information that ADHD people and their families can use. For example, they provide a list of resources, support groups, and organizations that can help ADHD people. Additionally, they provide treatments that can help people with ADHD and their families learn to cope with this disorder. They mention several intervention approaches like psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, support groups, and parenting skills training among others. In addition, they guide you over what kind of professionals can diagnose ADHD, who can prescribe medicine, and who can counsel you. On top, they also discuss different types of medicine that is used for ADHD and it side effects. As you can see this website covered all its information clearly and in depth. Additionally, it provides a lot of useful information people of ADHD or their family can use.

Other: There were other topics that were addressed in this website. For example, they talked about educational options. They mentioned that children with ADHD have a variety of needs and that they need special accommodations to help them learn. They provide a lot of strategies that a teacher might use in order to get that ADHD child the opportunity to learn. In addition, this site also talks about the right of ADHD children to attain a free public education. They mention that special education teachers must develop an Individualized Educational Program that outlines skills that the child needs to develop, as well as learning activities that will build on the child’s abilities. Furthermore, this site states that ADHD children under one law or another can receive most of the services they need in order to get appropriate services and a public education.

Summary: Add.about.com is an extensive website dedicated to the topic of Attention deficit disorder. It offers useful information on dealing with the disorder, and offers behavior modification techniques to help combat the difficulties encountered by both children and adults. Varied information is offered on characteristics of ADD in students, adults, men, women, children, and how each party can deal and adjust to the disorder. Behavior modification is described as a system that rewards desired behavior in order to produce the desired behavior more frequently. A section is offered on how the implement behavior modification with children, gives effective instructions, and reduces relationship tensions. Parents and teachers are encouraged to choose rewards and consequences and stick to them. In addition to a "frequently asked question" list, the sight also offers a further reading list on behavior modification. There is also a list of questions dealing with ADD coaching for adults and whether or not it would be valuable to them. Frustration is also a topic that is covered by the website. Parents are encouraged on how to deal with bad behavior and lack of self-control.

Evaluation:This website is quite extensive, offering a wealth of information on ADD and a large section on Behavior modification techniques and their usefulness in dealing with the disorder. The website offers many links and aspects on the option of implementing behavior modification techniques. In depth inspection of behavior modification is made, providing several articles on many aspects of how this theory can be put to use. Information is offered from each perspective, pending on who is suffering from the disorder, or someone coping with the disorder in a loved one or student. All information provided has to potential to be very useful. One drawback however, is that the website is very large, so at times it is difficult to keep track of where one is in the website. At times there may be trouble getting back to an article once you’ve left a certain spot.

Other: The website is dedicated to ADD, and offers a variety of information in addition to behavior modification techniques. A basic explanation of ADD is offered, along with information about diagnosis and assessment of ADD. There is a section compiled by students for teachers of information that they feel is important for them o know. This is very important to teachers and educators in general, as it is a disorder that seriously affects several students, and affects their work and habits. Medication such as Ritalin and Adderall is discussed, as well as career tips and college prep tips.

Summary: Whether you call it ADD or ADHD it all means the same thing. ADHD is broken into several subtypes. These are: Combined Type, Predominantly Inattentive Type, and Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type. The majority of people use the term ADD for referring to all types of ADHD. Children that have been diagnosed as ADD have had the following core features before the age of 7 and have continued for at least 6 months; distractibility, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. A major consideration when a doctor will diagnose a person with ADHD is that the behaviors must cause a problem in at least two areas of a person’s life. The patient must have the three previous symptoms along with problems in school, home, work, or social settings. It seems that today everybody is getting labeled as being ADD, however, only 4% to 6% of the US population is actually labeled as ADD. Two-thirds of the children that have been diagnosed with ADD will continue to have symptoms of this disorder throughout their adult lives. “According to the DSM-IV some common symptoms of ADHD include: often fails to give close attention to detail or makes careless mistakes; often has difficulty sustaining attentions to tasks; often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly; often fails to follow instructions carefully and completely; losing or forgetting important things; feeling restless, often fidgeting with hands or feet, or squirming; running or climbing excessively; often talks excessively; often blurts out answers before hearing the whole question; often has difficulty awaiting turn.” The causes of ADHD are still being explored but the research does show that ADHD is not caused by poor parenting, poor schools, excess sugar or food allergies; however, it is very likely that it is caused by biological factors which affect different parts of the brain. There is also evidence that ADHD runs in families, which suggests that it is genetic. Appropriate accommodations are sometimes made at school or at work for the person that has ADHD to help them work and concentrate better.

Evaluation:After reading the information on this Website, I have found that the information is very helpful when looking into the symptoms of ADHD. The information I read was presented in a way that it was easy for anyone who is interested on the subject to understand. This Website can be very useful to a parent that has a child that has been diagnosed with ADHD or even an adult that has this disorder. I think that the information that was shown in this Website could expand on the topics a little more, but for a quick overview of the disorder it is good.

Other: There were no other topics addressed in this site.

Summary: This website states that no one therapy i.e. drug or behavioral program based on classical conditioning will alleviate ADHD. This site lists tools and positive interventions that can be applied in order to redirect the child’s energy rather than restrict them. It talks about environmental supports for ADHD children. In the classroom there must be a clearly defined structure, ADHD child should be seated by children who are good behavioral influences, there should most importantly be lots of high energy, hands-on projects to keep the child stimulated. It also covers instructional strategies such as making directions very clear, make the child feel comfortable asking questions, make sure the child is developmentally capable of understanding how to complete the assighnment, and for tests the ADHD child may need more time to complete it. It also covers positive behavioral support and how it can help a child’s self efficacy. Also it mentions movement therapies and how they can help with the physical coordination the children with ADHD may be lacking. Lastly was mentioned Sensory integration therapy and activities. These are to help the child channel and control their attention.

Evaluation:I believe that this website’s information is very helpful in dealing not only with ADHD children but with all types of children. My 11 year old cousin said the most brilliant thing to me the other day regarding ADHD, she said, ”If no one had some kind of ADHD we would all be the same.” This is true in the way that all of us focus our attention and energy in certain areas and there are other areas we are not so sharp in. this applies to all human beings. This is why the advice in this website would be useful for all students.

Other: This website also covered Treatments of ADHD and an overview of what it is.

Summary: The website I evaluated is useful for teachers and parents because it gives an overview of exactly what attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is and lists the problems that are associated with it. This website also explains that children might not necessarily have ADD/ADHD, that there is currently no medical test available to diagnose the condition. The website explains that other factors that should be considered include general health, sleeping habits, home environment, culture, mood and emotions, and school performance. The website contains details on understanding girls with ADD/ADHD as well as giving managing strategies and tips. Lastly, the website contains an article on what parents need to know about ADD/ADHD and medication, giving advice from a medical doctor.

Evaluation: This website is very useful because it offers a great deal of information on ADD/ADHD for both teachers and parents. The target audience is for the parents of children with ADD/ADHD, but teachers will also find it useful. The website contains other links and resources to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities, and the National Institute of Mental Health. The website also contains references to books that are useful in reading about ADD/ADHD. The setup of the web page is very easy to read and understand. It contains an overview of what the site offers at the very top and offers a numerical outline that guides the viewer throughout the site. The site does not contain much graphics, it is very simple but still attractive to the viewer. The site also contains information to the left-hand side of the site that is useful for people seeking information on ADD/ADHD. It contains quizzes, articles, parent information, and newsletters all dealing with the subject area. The site is user friendly because anyone can log on to it and easily understand the content. Parents and teachers are able to understand and use the information the site offers. This website is extremely useful because it explains exactly what ADD/ADHD is and how it is diagnosed. It also lists a few symptoms of the disorder and services that are available. The website is useful for parents because it helps them anticipate problems, establishes clear rules, limits, and expectations, explains positive reinforcements, discusses the specifics of a child’s ADD/ADHD using books and websites, and discusses childcare providers and leaders of groups and programs outside of school that focus on management strategies. The site is useful for teachers because it helps them provide individual accommodations, follow a consistent behavior management plan, reinforce appropriate behavior, find opportunities for students to use their strengths and talents at school, and helps teachers work collaboratively and communicate regularly with parents. The website goes into great detail explaining that a child might not necessarily have ADD/ADHD, explaining many other factors that might have the same traits associated with ADD/ADHD. The site explains that parents and teachers need to make sure that their child eats healthy foods, knows the side effects of medications their child might be taking, sleeps soundly, follows a regular routine at home, and has a quiet, organized space at home for doing homework. The site also states that the child should be free from stress, and that teachers should make sure that the classroom set up accommodates the child so that they can hear and see clearly. The website also contains several general tips for use at home and school in dealing with children who have the disorder. This website serves the purpose of explaining what ADD/ADHD is and what teachers and parents can do to help children with the disorder. It also serves the purpose of questioning whether the child actually has ADD/ADHD or if they child just displays symptoms similar to the disorder.

Other: This website contains other useful information all relevant to the subject of ADD/ADHD. Teachers and parents can sign up for free newsletters and emails regarding the disorder as well as take quizzes on controversial therapies. The site also contains survival tips for parents raising children who struggle in school and have a learning disability. The site contains numerous articles from authors writing about learning and child development, assessment, and compliance issues. The site also contains an archive that has hundreds of expert answers to parents’ questions.

Summary: As I was exploring the internet looking at websites that have information on Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder I came across a very interesting site that has a wealth of information on learning based vision problems and AD/HD. This website offers many articles discussing the vision problems that are often seen in children with AD/HD and also some learning related vision problems that are misdiagnosed as AD/HD. These sections would be very useful for a teacher or parent who has a child that has been diagnosed with AD/HD and they are dealing with vision problems also. There are several sections on this page that allow parents to search for professionals who can assist in the diagnosis of AD/HD and also eye doctors in your area who can help to determine if there is a vision problem. This website also offers a section for parents which describes what AD/HD is, what causes the disorder, how AD/HD is diagnosed and what signs to look for in children that may have AD/HD. Along with this section there is a checklist that explains briefly the symptoms of AD/HD and gives parents a clear and definite note that AD/HD can only be diagnosed by professionals and that the checklist is to act as only a guide. Also included on this site are a glossary that gives very clear definitions for many of the terms seen on the site and a resource section of books that are useful for individuals who would like even more information on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Evaluation: This website would be very useful for parents or educators who are dealing with a child who has already been diagnosed with AD/HD and are now considering the possibility of a vision problem. This would not be a good resource for someone who is looking for basic information on AD/HD only. The website is very clear and precise on the vision related problems. It explains what each of the problems are and then will give further information and resources on where to go to talk to a professional about the problem. It gives parents and educators a very broad resource for looking at vision problems of children with AD/HD.

Other: This site also has many other areas addressed besides just those already mentioned. Also on this site are links to CHADD (a website for Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and also to many websites that discourage the use of Ritalin and explain how this drug is over prescribed and over promoted. This website covers all of the vision problems related to AD/HD and gives links to many other sites that would assist parents and educators in learning about AD/HD.

Summary: This website belongs to The Behavioral Neurotherapy Clinic in Australia. It provides psychological, psychophysiological and psychometric assessment of individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This website offers information and links to updated clinical and research information along with books, papers, and resources for ADHD.

Evaluation: There is an increase in diagnosing young children with ADHD. As stated earlier, this website offers parents and teachers useful information on children suffering from ADHD. However, the scientific jargon could be rather confusing to parents and teachers using this website. The website goes into depth regarding assessment procedures for children and adults, such as the need for a detailed history and a Topometric Functional Brainmapping. There is a section in this website that contains many different research papers that are very insightful to read. These papers give you background information about ADHD and studies that were done to find the factors that causes ADHD. The creator of this website does not advocate the use of medication for patients with ADHD stating that medication causes dependency and has too many long-term side effects. Instead, they recommend neurotherapy as a form of treatment stating that it improves IQ scores and has no side effects. However such therapy could be very costly. I would only recommend using this website to read about the available research information and to learn about the background of ADHD. I feel that the website designer tries too hard to sell his neurotherapy treatment and the information provided was extremely long and extensive.

Other: This website also offers seminars on ADHD and other research papers that are related to behavioral science. Papers offered includes information about autism, rett disorders, sexual dysfunction and disorder, sleep disorder, and conduct disorder. You could also find current information on brain research.

Summary: This website discusses many issues of raising children from potty training to paying for a college education. ADD/ADHD is included in the vast information this website offers. It states that 3 to 5 percent of school aged children are affected, it usually appears before age seven, is more common in boys, and although the cause is unknown it is believed to be genetic. Not all children with a short attention span have ADD/ADHD. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently published a “Clinical Practice Guideline on the Diagnosis and Evaluation of the Child With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder”, which requires a child to meet the DSM-IV criteria. This basically gives a checklist for parents and doctors to use to determine if the child has ADD/ADHD. This website gives advice to parents to determine if the child has this disorder. It discusses treatment of the medical and non-medical forms and gives behavior modification tips to the parent and teacher to help the child non-medically. Medications can help with the symptoms but there is no miracle pill. Alternative therapies are briefly discussed and this site cautions parents against them. It states that these claims for a cure are unproven.

Evaluation: I believe that this website can be a very useful tool for the teacher as well as the parent. It got to the point and did not offer information that I think would be unnecessary. By reading the two lists that were offered as a guide by the American Academy of Pediatrics I was able to visualize the behaviors that could be exhibited by children who have a variation of this disorder. The behavior modification strategies that are suggested can be utilized at home and at school. The suggestion to move the child closer to the teacher’s desk, use praise, withhold privileges, and use a token economy system could all be very successful behavior modification techniques described as non-medical. Some parents who are desperate for treatment of this disorder should cautioned that the alternative therapies of herbs, vitamins, and diet are all unproven claims.

Other: This website offers many links for information on the causes, symptoms, treatment, and medications for those who have ADD/ADHD. There are links to non-profit organizations, ways to improve the lives of children who suffer from this disorder, and CHADD (children and adults with attention deficit disorder). It also offers a newsletter for parents based on the age of the child offering tips on nutrition, safety, immunizations, and growth charts. The home page has a link to talk to a pediatrician and too many topics to mention on the health of children. This is a website that the teacher should consider putting in his or her favorites to refer to regularly.

Summary: At the beginning of the website there are different profiles of people who were labeled as having ADD. This website also provides the reader with the criterion that is looked at to determine whether or not a child is considered to have ADD. The two forms of ADD, Inattention and ADD with Hyperactivity are given. Background history of ADD was given, such as when it was first identified and what the people back then thought caused the hyperactivity. What I found interesting in this website is the section labeled, “How common is ADD?” This section gave percentages recorded in three countries of children they thought had ADD. The results were compared in three different countries which all had a big difference in their numbers. This website also points out that ADD is not a “singular disease”; it compares ADD as being similar to a fever. The article also explains some misconceptions of ADD. For example if a child is hyper then they must have ADD, which is not true because there are some children who are labeled ADD but instead are quiet. At the end of this website there is a small section that focuses on the way a brain belonging to a person labeled with ADD works than to that of an average person.

Evaluation: This site can be intended for teachers and parents because of the information that was provided. Mrs. Gallagher put certain books she recommended about this topic. There are numerous articles you can read that relate to ADD. One article is about Thomas Edison being the “poster child for ADD”. What I enjoyed a lot about this website is that there is a section labeled “Professionals Speak Out” where psychiatrists and psychologists talk about their view of ADD and the medication Ritalin. What I found very helpful in this website is that there is a discussion board where you get input from many people who probably had the same experiences who can give you advice. I thought this is a very good thing to have because you can get your questions answered fast and you can get more than one opinion about a situation. There are many resources available to you at this website. As a teacher you can come into this website to find books that might help you out. Also as a parent you can get information about medications. There is also a section that tells a parent when they should take a child to get examined for ADD and what kind of specialist. For example, the article mentioned that you should not take your child to see a pediatrician if you think your child has ADD. This website is very organized and gives the reader a lot of useful advice.

Other: The website I found was all about ADD. There were no other topics introduced in any way.

Summary: Summary: This website discussed the symptoms of (ADD) Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and some treatments to help both children and adults overcome it. The numbers of both adults and children that are being labeled with ADD are increasing and many of these were previously considered hyperactive or minimally brain damaged. The American Psychiatric Association now has three classifications for ADD including AD/HD Predominantly Combined Type, AD/HD Predominantly Inattentive Type, and AD/HD Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type. And in each of these cases, symptoms must be present for at least six months. Some symptoms must also be present before the age of seven and evident in two or more settings. Some treatments for ADD such as stimulant medication, special education, and counseling might mask the problems and never actually cure them. Some drugs given for medication might have negative effects such as eating, sleeping, and growth. Counseling children and putting them in special classrooms might also undermine their self-esteem. Not only are some treatments not curing people but they are also putting out negative consequences. This article also explained about the different problems that people might have that have the same symptoms of ADD.

Evaluation:Evaluation: This website was very interesting and changed by views towards people being labeled with ADD. I never really thought about people being considered ADD and not having the problem. I assumed if children and adults were very hyper then they probably are ADD. I realized that vision and occupational therapy as well as treatment of allergies might decrease the symptoms that people are showing. This article would be great for a teacher who notices their students showing certain symptoms of ADD. They can speak with the counselor and the parents to see if the child can see a vision and occupational therapist as well as be tested for allergies. If any of these symptoms decrease or disappear the child can be helped and not labeled ADD. This website made a very important statement explaining that people should consult a behavioral optometrist for a developmental vision evaluation, consult and occupational therapist with expertise in sensory processing problems, and consult an allergist regarding possible reactions to food or airborne particles before getting treatment for ADD.

Other: Other: The only other information mentioned in this article was information regarding vision therapy, occupational therapy, and treatment of allergies. These were all very important statements because they have some of the same symptoms of ADD. And these types of treatments might be the cause of behavior that might lead one to believe a child or an adult should be labeled ADD.

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URL: http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/adler.html

Summary: The article opens with a brief biography of the late president Theodore Roosevelt. He was born with several illnesses, and had a few close calls with death as a child. However, he grew to be healthy and quite accomplished adult. He became a "New York assemblyman, North Dakota cowboy, New York commissioner of police, Assistant secretary of the Navy, Lieutenant colonel of the "Rough Riders", the governor of New York, and best-selling author, all by the age of forty". Adler never knew Teddie Roosevelt, however, he began to formulate questions about his life and other people's lives that were born weak and grew up strong. Therefore he began to form his theory on Individual Psychology. "Why are some born sick and become healthy and strong, and why do some thrive and others with away?" After this introduction, the article proceeds to give a brief biography of Adler's life as boy born very ill, suffering from rickets and pneumonia. He managed to grow into a fairly active boy and went to college at The University of Vienna in 1985. After words, he decided to switch from his career in ophthalmology to a general practice. At the time, he lived near the "Prader" (circus) and, and began doing research on the performers in the carnival. Here, he learned about organ inferiorities and compensation. In 1907, he turned to psychiatry were he wrote his first paper on aggression instinct. Freud often criticized his views even though he named Adler the president of Viennese Analytic Society and the co-author of the organization's newsletter. During the war, he was a physician and grew highly concerned with social interests after seeing the physical cost of war. On May 28, 1937 he died at Aberdeen University. Adler believes that there is a single motivating force that drives us all. He called this motivating force, "striving for perfection". It is the desire to fulfill all our potential so we become closer to our ideals. Adler also uses the phrase "aggression drive" which is any other drives that can be negative and physical. Other terms Alder uses are "compensation" which is how we strive to overcome, and "masculine protest" the term he used to describe the assertiveness boys exhibit over girls. The last phrase he use was "striving for superiority", the idea that we want to be better than others. Adler believed in the idea of holism in that we should view people as a unified whole; this is how he developed his term "Individual Psychology", which literally means "un-divided". Adler believed that our goals are what motivates (teleology) instead of our past. Adler felt that social interest held great importance, for one cannot "strive for perfection" without considering his or her environment. Adler also considered "organ inferiority" the way that some organs in our bodies are stronger or weaker that others, and that we respond with "compensation". More so in reality, we suffer from psychological inferiorities, which turn into inferiority complexes.

Evaluation: The article was very insightful and went in depth in discussing Adler's theory on "Individualized Psychology". Not only did the article discuss the theory and it's meaning, but it also discussed its surrounding areas that are part of it such as aggression instincts, and inferiority complexes. The article went on to explain theses topics of psychology and how they interrelate with one another. The article was clear and concise in wording, careful to define and explain any word or term introduced to the article. I felt the article was accurate and the source was trustworthy. Overall, found this article was extremely useful and informative in the description of Alfred Adler and his theory. I learned a great deal about his theory and how he relates to Educational Psychology. He believed people can "strive for perfection" if we see people as a unified whole, which is the foundation of "Individualized Psychology".

Other: Other topics the article discussed which pertain to Educational Psychology are the four psychological types, the ruling type, the learning type, and the avoiding type, and the socially useful type. Adler also researched childhood and the different lifestyles, such as the prototype, the pampered, and the neglected. He believed birth order has an effect on children.

Summary: This web site is all about Alfred Adler. It begins with Adler’s biography. He was born in 1870. At the age of five he wanted to be a physician. He began his medical career as an ophthalmologist. He then turned to psychiatry. Adler worked along with Freud. They began to explain some of Adler’s theories, and phrases he used. They discussed aggression drive, which is where such things as the need to be loved is frustrated. They discussed compensation, striving to overcome. This web site included writings that influenced Adler, Jan Smuts, a South African philosopher. These writings said in order to understand people; we have to look at them as a unified whole, and in the context of their environment. That approach is called holism. Adler liked this approach. This article discussed many differences between Adler and Freud. One difference was Freud thought childhood traumas determine what you’re like in the present. Adler says we are drawn by our goals, and ideals. This is called teleology. They went on to discuss his theories of birth order, and childhood.

Evaluation: I think this is a good website; it is very well put together. This web site has several pages of information. It includes many categories, and has his theories in bold letters. It compares his ideas to those of other famous psychologist. This website is easy to understand, and is very detailed. The website is all about him. It starts from his birth and family background to what people think about his theory, and the problems of the theory. I think the site was accurate, the information that are in other websites are the same. It was very useful; it gave me information on many aspects of his life. There were several topics that were relevant to education, such as, holism, which helps to understand people. It discusses social feelings, and tit also listed learning types. The last page of the website gave other web pages that referred to Alfred Adler.

Other: There are early and recent works of Adler and others in The International Journal of Individual Psychology. They briefly discussed Freud, and Maslow, in comparison to Adler’s theories.

Summary: This website offers distance training in Classical Adlerian Psychology and received the Mental Health Net Award in excellence. It contains original teachings from Alfred Adler, Kurt Adler, Lydia Sicher, Alexander Muller, Sophia de Vries, Anthony Bruck, Abraham Maslow, and Henry Stein. The psychology stemmed from Alfred Adler’s research has been applied and analysised by all of these other practioners.

Evaluation: Adler’s theory is based upon connectedness as a requirement of mental health. It also establishes ideas, which would be useful for teachers and school. Adler believed that every individual was unique, so therapist that practiced this method are considered innovative and socially responsible. This website is clearly divided into different sections, and the first one offers research by the above named theorist and offers research into their theories and practices. Teachers might be particularly interested in The Art of Encouragement. In fact, a questions and answers section follows, so the researcher can target a specific area of interest. One of the nicest features about this website is the Demonstrations section. In this section, the Socratic Method is put in practice, where real people with real problems are displayed, using the questioning technique. For teaching purposes, there is a parenting and teaching section, which outlines the Adlerian Child Guidance Principals.

Other: In addition, Audio Cassette Tapes and Books on the Adlerian Psychotherapy are included. It also lists six therapist and their cities who claim to follow the path of an Adlerian. Furthermore, this website gives several other links, as well as a biography on Alfred Alder

URL: http://www.baltimorepsych.com/Suicide.htm

Summary: This website is titled "Suicide and the School". It was created for educators, parents, and students to recognize and intervene with suicidal adolescents. First, the site informs you of the statistics of why adolescent suicide is on the rise and clues you in on the reasons why suicide claims more adolescents than any disease or natural cause. The website stresses how important it is for teachers and parents to recognize the risk factors and warning signs of suicidal students. If risk factors and warning signs are evident, steps should be taken to help prevent attempts of suicide. If suicide is attempted or completed, it could have devastating effects on other people, especially adolescents. Cluster suicides are common among adolescents as a result of one of their own completing suicide. Because of the powerful effects suicide can have, a postvention method is discussed. In conclusion the website stresses the importance of why schools should have plans in place to deal with a suicide or other major crisis in the community.

Evaluation: This website touches on every aspect of adolescnet suicide. Although written by a doctor, the site is in laymens terms so teachers, parents or students can be informed and educated to help the person in need. The site begins by giving such shocking statistics, it captures anyones attention immediately. Steps are given in proper order to intervene with possible suicidal adolescents. I would recommend this website to teachers, parents and students so they will be educated and prepared to help people contemplating suicide.

Other: Not only does this site discuss adolescent suicide, it also discusses a vast array of other mental topics such as: attention deficit disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and dementia. Medication is a common discussion in each of these topics. Because of the nature of this website, parenting and support groups are also addressed.

URL: http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/~mused/course/psych.htm

Summary: This is a great website that lists links to other websites that have detailed articles and information on various topics dealing specifically with psychology in music. Each link has detailed articles and further links in that particular area of interest. A few of the links no longer work, but that is clearly made up for by the sheer number of links to other sites that are quite worthy. This is a great site for music educators, as this addresses many issues that are not openly discussed in college curriculums. I found this site while looking for information on musical performance anxiety and issues associated with this in the public education system. This site was especially interesting and enjoyable.

Evaluation:Each link listed has a brief description of the information contained in the link. The articles and links are very understandable to the layman as well as the professional. This site will help many music educators address some very sensitive issues with their student musicians/performers. Since music is such a deeply personal and senstive subject for many students, it is important to address each individual while taking into account their specific psychological needs in learning this art. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of material in the links provided. This site will prove to be an extremely useful site in my future career as a music educator.

Other: Topics and links included in this site are as follows: performance anxiety, counseling and psychological services for performance anxiety, instrumental music teachers resources (pedagogy and other miscellaneous information), effects of music on the brain, curriculum and ideas to help introduce music to children, neurobiological disorders in children and adolescents, information on ADD/HD and tips on how to approach music students, autism, auditory integration training, blind children, down syndrome, depression and gentle teaching, Sibley Music/education library, education journals, music therapy, stress and musical performance, memory in music and music perception and cognition.

Summary: This website is a chapter full of information regarding how music is psychologically processed. It deals with auditory cognitive psychology and tries to understand how people think in terms of sound. As sound hits the ear it goes through the spectral analysis stage. Then it goes through several different stages called primitive auditory grouping processes in which sound is transformed into descriptions in the brain. The information is then sorted in the grouping decision stage, arriving at a representation of the sound sources and events. Depending upon how the sound was previously organized is how it will be perceived in terms of event and event sequences. These include pitch, pitch intervals, loudness, melodic contour, rhythmic pattern, and timbre. These attributes are encoded into the long -term memory. Information is then processed into a series of structured events. Depending upon what type of music one has heard and upon abstract knowledge of style, one expects the musical pitch and tempo to follow a certain harmonic progression. Culture is an important part of this process. What one experiences when introduced to a new culture's style of music is different from the experience of a native. Grouping decisions made as the sound is being processed are affected by cultural expectancies because they all have different scales.

Evaluation: The website provided lots of information and detail related to the neurological and cognitive aspects in the auditory process of music. It had links to a bibliography in order to be accurate, and to provide access to more information. The information would be easier to understand for someone with a musical background, but it was very straightforward. This website was not specific in regards to education as there was only a slight mention of preschool children and music. The information could be used however by music teachers in order to understand the process better. The web site would have been more interesting if it had included the effects of music instead of just the process of perceiving it.

Other: An experiment conducted on two split- brained patients suggests that these expectancies might be lateralized in the right hemisphere of the brain. Lerdahl and Jackendoff believe that every style has a system of rules to process event sequences. These rules are processed through grouping structure, metrical structure, time-span segmentation, time-span reduction, and lastly through stability. Fitzgibbons believes that it is easier for children to distinguish temporal gaps between groups. This theory was developed after experimenting with preschool children and babies listening to Mozart. Other topics addressed are grouping hierarchies, timbre and meter.

Summary: Music Education Facts and Figures, an article published by MENC, The National Association for Music Education, is an astounding outlook of how music education affects student’s success in society, developing intelligence, life and in school. It goes in depth in each of the categories listed and how it enriches the student in those ways. The article reports that music is a part of the fabric of our society and it is necessary for all students to experience It is a compelling solution to violence, substance abuse, and it also contributes to children’s intellectual development. Skills learned through music can be applied to study skills, communication skills, and cognitive skills. Also music education helps student learn how to work effectively in school without resorting to violence or other inappropriate behavior. A study done of 237 second grade children used piano keyboard training and newly designed math software to demonstrate improvements in math skills. The group scored 27% higher on proportional math and fraction tests than children that used only the math software. Also research found that students who were very involved with instrumental music over the middle and high school years show significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12. Other affects can be seen in SAT scores, increases in self-esteem and thinking skills. Music instruction shows a very active contribution to brain development.

Evaluation: This article should convince any educator of its great importance and the necessity for the well being of all students. Without some type of experiential knowledge, some type of aesthetic experience like music education, students will not be able to develop a more experiential, intellectual mode of knowing. This type of creativity provides a healthy, feeling full experience, so that children can grow up and become whole persons instead of incomplete alienated intelligences. The facts and figures presented offer hard evidence of how music education contributes to intellectual development.

Other: Other topics included in this website go over how music education can significantly decrease anxiety and depression, stimulate the immune system and increase of overal health levels. It has great psychological and healing effects.

Summary: Music is only one way in which we comprehend the world and is important to keep in schools. A scientist would measure a storm with barometric pressure and wind speed. Beethoven would “describe a storm by hurling an orchestra at our ears with blasts of brass and flickers of violins.” A painter’s venue would be breathtaking swirls of colors. The brain comprehends activities in two ways. One way is the combination of all three of the above. This is referred to as holistic. It is our emotion, imagination and creativity. Another way to think is bit by bit. “This is the kind of linear thinking typically used in language and science. It yields facts, conclusions and right answers.” The first way is similar to the Sam Reese article (Think p.214). In the article Maslow’s point of view is that in order for a man to be whole his education should include aesthetic experiences. Those experiences should be equal to his pursuit of intellect. “We can use the ability of music to bring about nonintellectual knowledge.” We use both ways of thinking constantly. If music were ever to leave the education system we would lose one of two ways we think. We need both ways of thinking to totally understand basic life.

Evaluation:This article has strong arguments for music to stay in the education systems and in culture itself. It is poetic, using terms such as “’feelingful’ intelligence,” and flows from beginning to end, but why is there a need to fight to keep music in schools? Where is it going? As far as I know the education system is not eliminating music programs. I hear of the occasional school district that had to abandon one program due to budget cuts. Also one district in west Texas could not find a qualified music teacher, so they had to discontinue the program. I think our government knows the importance of music education to our culture based on the support received from our government. The government is now recruiting new college students to become teachers and increasing their salaries. The article was clear and concise but I did not see the usefulness of it. Music education could always use more support and attention but that was not the purpose of this article.

Other: The only topic addressed by this website is the importance of keeping music in the education system because of the evidence that it is an integral part of the way we think and reason.

Summary: This website is great for researching music. It has an introduction page with a letter written by the webmaster. The website consists of a home page, links page, content page and an email page. The content page is filled with different articles written on several subjects concerning music and its benefits. Most of the articles did discuss issues pertaining to the effects music has on the brain and learning. Some of the articles include research and statistics pertaining to music. The links page does not have specific links regarding the subject of psychology in music but it does have other informational links. This website does support music and the benefits it has on learning, children and the brain.

Evaluation:I thought that the website was very easy to use and the articles are very useful and interesting. Although some of the information does not have anything to do with psychology in music, most of the links do pertain to music education. This website is beneficial to music educators. The articles on the content page are written by different authors and doctors and were very clear on the subject that was being discussed. Many of the articles written involve research done and were written with much information to support the topic. I particularly enjoyed using the links page. The webmaster created a window within the webpage so that you can see the link with out changing the web address. The link web address is given at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. I think that is very helpful because it makes it easier to use when you are researching as in my case at the moment. The links were easy to read and all of them pertained to music.

Other: As stated previously the website has topics pertaining to music other than the psychology of music within the content and links page. The contents page consists of six different topics: teaching music, value of music, music and the brain, music and children, music education pages, VIP’s page. Under each topic are several different articles pertaining to that topic. The links page does not have specific links regarding the subject of psychology in music but it does have other informational links about music. The links topics are: music education links, music interest links, music friends site, string players links, and friends links. There are many links under each topic which were easy to use. Some of the links did not work but most of them were working. The website homepage includes a link for an online petition requesting visitors to sign it to support music education for all children. Although the petition has already been delivered to Congress you may click on the link and read about the result.

Summary: This web page seems it would be a valuable resource to Music Educations. There are publications available to the public browsers, but much more to members of the organization. The web page serves multiple roles for the organization, like provide up to date publications on field related studies. Also are coordination information for conventions. Most importantly, a job resource center provides information to those who have no knowledge of what a music education can earn in the job market.

Evaluation: The National Association for Music Education has a wealth of information for those interested in the area of music education. The article found gives an evaluation of 4 different psychological schools of thought used since 1950. These include: Behavioralism, Cognitivism, Humanism, and one described as "socio/biological. The author makes observations of the technicalities of teaching the arts, like music.

Other: Music Education Standards and resources, Job Information, History of Music Education

Summary: The website was created by a student who was studying to obtain a masters degree in Psychology for Musicians. This student has taken all of the many sites and information that he has found to be useful and has combined them all on one site. This site contains numerous helpful links that pertain to music and psychology. It has many topics that deal with all aspects of psychology in music. There are also published journals that the browser can read that deal with different aspects of music and the mind. The site contains several research projects that are studies of how music affects the mind. I came upon this site while searching for the affects of music on the brain. It has topics such as music therapy and music’s effect on the human brain. There is quite a bit of information on this website that deal with how music affects the brain. It also has everything from performance anxiety to music and movement.

Evaluation:The majority of the links on the website are working links. If a link is not working, a page appears telling the reason the page is not working and when possible, gives a new address to click on. Some of the links are a little confusing. They do not all provide easy to read information about the subject matter. Some of the links are just a link to a book about the subject. Each link that is listed is a title for the subject matter contained for the link. This is a great site for a music educator. It contains a large amount of information that deals with psychology in music. It can give the music educator some ideas about how music actually affects the human body and mind. Overall, I think that this is a great site. The person who created the site has researched many helpful websites that pertain to music and psychology and has them as links on his webpage. This website has plenty of information about music and would be great for not just a music educator, but anyone else who is interested in psychology.

Other: There are a few other topics that are addressed on this website. Some of those topics and links in the site are: music history and theory, performing advice, teaching, fun stuff, awards, and upcoming conferences. These are great topics that will help someone who is interested in psychology of music, but does not know a lot about music. The topic of music history and theory is very helpful because it explains everything there is to know about music. This site contains also contains a teaching topic that extensively explains different instruments, such as the flute. There is also a fun stuff category that contains everything from musical anecdotes to musical terms.

Summary: This website links to other websites with topics related with psychology in music. It is a great site for educators who are looking forward to find ways to transform education with the power of music. This site also is dedicated to enhance children’s music appreciation and education. It also offers children, families, and schools different ways to incorporate music education into the core curriculum.

Evaluation: This website was very detailed. The information in this website was very useful because it can be used even if is just for fun. It includes the innovative “Music Lab” where children are allowed to learn music basis including tempo, rhythm, music symbols and many more things. This site focuses its attention on teaching the basic components of music in a fun, interactive and easy way for them to appreciate and understand.

Other: It included links not only for education, but also for entertainment for example, the orchestra seating chart, the “Radio” provides 50 audio clips of orchestral classics. It also provides details on “What’s Up” at the San Francisco Symphony.

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Summary: This website, An Intelligence View of Music Education, was an article written by Dr. Arthur Harvey, a professor at University of Hawaii (Manoa). Its main focus was on three major developments that had put music field at an advantage when promoting it to educators to use in the their curriculums. These developments were, extensive brain research done to prove that music helps scientists to better understand the brain, a theory by Howard Gardner, “Theory of Multiple Intelligences,?which states that people have different types of intelligence including musical, and lastly research called “The Mozart Effect?which shows a relationship between listening to music and possibly IQ. The brain research that was done showed a relationship between music and the brain in that neurologists noticed certain areas of the brain that were used by people who were musically inclined. The “Theory of Multiple Intelligences,?has seven different intelligences: Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Spatial, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. The musical intelligence is the capacity to perceive, discriminate, transform, and express musical forms. This was also a major impact on the aesthetics field because it pointed out specifically that being able to know music is a special type of intelligence in the psychological world. The last development, “The Mozart Effect,?pointed out in research that college students who listened to Mozart, for instance, over a period of time had higher IQ scores. Children were also shown to have better spatial reasoning performance than other students who had not listened to the music.

Evaluation: I found this site to be very informative for teachers, parents, psychologists, and even music lovers. It looks to be a very effective tool to get the word out about Aesthetics education. It was also put in very simple terms instead of putting it more scientifically, which is good for parents who want to know the benefits of teaching their child about music. The author used well-known sources in the article such as, Science Magazine and Newsweek. Using the familiar “Theory of Multiple Intelligences?also puts this article at an advantage as there has been much research done on that subject area of educational psychology. I felt it was very clear and to the point the author was making.

Other: This site was completely about the three major developments listed in the summary that promoted the use of aesthetics in an art curriculum.

Summary: This website, For the Professional Music Educator the “Mozart Effect? Research on Music and the Developing Brain, and more? was compiled by Richard Coff, the founder and director of Suzuki Music Academy. The website contains articles and research that neuroscientists have done to link brain development and music. The website was created to bring awareness to the growing popularity of music education and the brain. The main areas of research deal with the “Mozart Effect? The “Beethoven Effect? the “Mozart Effect?and enhanced intelligence, music and young children, music, memory and learning, nurture vs. nature/ education vs. talent, musical effects, music, emotion, and mood, brain processing and music perception, research considerations, and rap, elevator music, and heavy metal. All of these topics are broken down on this website and provide links to materials and research dealing with each of these topics. Each of these topics has been extensively researched and provides all the materials to enforce their findings. The website provides a relationship to music and spatial task performance as wells as IQ performance which is under the “Mozart Effect? The “Beethoven Effect?provides information on brain functions. “Music, Memory, and Learning?provides information on the relationship of memory and music and the brain. “Nurture vs. Nature/Education vs. Talent?provides research on why music is biologically imperative. “Music, Emotion, and Mood?provides information on how different types of information can effect the mood of a person as well as having hormonal effects. “Brain Processing and Music Perception?provides information about how language and music are link and cognitive performance. “Research Considerations?provides different articles on music therapy as well as medicine. Lastly, “Rap, Elevator Music, and Heavy Metal?provides information on different types of music and the role each of the types play in brain function.

Evaluation: This website was very helpful in finding information on Aesthetic education. I feel that this website would be extremely informative to anyone wanting to know more on music education and the brain as wells as being informative for scientist, psychologist, teachers, and parents. The website was well organized and easy to access. The website was broken down into sections so that anyone who gets on it would be able to research different areas of the music and the brain without getting discouraged. The links that were provided on the website provide clear and understandable information. Each link provides credible sources backed by extensive research. I feel that this website gave an abundance of information which would let others come to their own conclusions on Aesthetic education.

Other: This website will also link you to a Music Intelligence Bookstore, the Suzuki Method Bookstore, the Suzuki Music Academy, the Suzuki Violin Teachers Central, and Parenting Central. These links will provide others with information on different topics in early childhood education.

Summary: The website site is titled Visual Understanding in Education. This non-profit organization conducts developmentally -based educational research. Their mission is to promote cognitive growth through interaction with art images. The site informs you about their rationale, history and methodology. The sites recognizes Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine and how their collaboration on museum education would open new doors for educators. Two groups of teachers that attended a workshop from the museum were divided into groups of two. The first group of teachers taught their own students using curriculum materials provided by the museum and the second set of teachers simply observed museum educators teach the same materials to their classes. The result of the experiment concluded that the first group of teachers demonstrated greater measurable change in aesthetic development than that of the second group. This idea informed classroom teachers on the major impact of the viewing abilities of their students. With this in mind they began to consider ways to incorporate chronological curriculum to enable general classroom teachers to introduce the discussion of works of art to their students. The site summarizes Housen’s methodology and the stages of aesthetic development. She conducted an aesthetic development interview which provides a window into a person’s thinking processes. The first stage is the accountive viewers as storytellers. The second stage is constructive viewers build their framework looking at works of art using their own perceptions. The third stage is classifying viewers to adopt their own investigative stance of the art historian. The fourth stage is interpretive viewers seek a individual encounter with a work of art. The final stage is the creative viewer will have a new attitude towards the familiar painting.

Evaluation: The website was full of information on aesthetic education. The website is useful for future educators that want teach this particular methodology. It is also valuable for psychologist, parents and art lovers. The website gives you a enhanced look of how aesthetic education can improve the meaning of art in a developmentally student centered curriculum. These methodologies are now being used in Texas, Minnesota and Massachusetts.

Other: The site informs about internships and job openings that are related to this non-profit organization.

Summary: I found this website and thought that it contained a lot of good information on aesthetics education. The website, www.aesthetics-online.org, is put on by the ASA committee. The major project that they just recently put on was Aesthetic Learning at the National meeting, with topics like the role of education in the arts and teaching about the arts. There are a bunch of articles and biographies that are extremely informative posted on this website. They all deal with aesthetics in education from people who are talking from their own personal experiences. For instance, one article by Crispin Sartwell, discussing how hard it has been for him to teach aesthetics to students. The other good thing that this website provided is a list of aesthetics teaching resources and what information is provided in each of them. They also give a list of courses that can be taken.

Evaluation: I found this to be an extremely informative website for teachers looking to teach aesthetics or get better informed on this subject area. You can find how to do these things by taking courses or read about other people’s experiences. I also believe that this site is legitimate and so is the information found on it. Since it is an organization that deals specifically with this topic that put this website on they will be precise and accurate when informing their peers.

Other: It provided other links that you can get to and learn more about aesthetics education. It also provides information about the committe and ways to join or participate in functions and things that they are doing.

Summary: The Website I found was The International Journal of Education and the Arts. The Internet is a vast resource for information on many subjects. Many mistakenly refer to the Internet as the “Bubble Gum Web”. However, the information can be very informative when time is taken to explore the volumes of information available. The I.J.E.A is a perfect example of this theory. They have gathered editors with many years of experience and coupled that with articles concerning many of the major concerns in the teaching of Aesthetics in Art. A few hours of reading time can provide everything from the basics of art, to lesson plans to better teach art aesthetics.

Evaluation: This Website carries a wide variety of information. Bringing together teachers with different art backgrounds to discuss their various teaching methods. The articles are easy to read and cover a variety of subjects from a theoretical foundation to an art education to adolescent music education. I would be comfortable teaching a lesson on this subject after reading this collection of articles.

Other: This Website carries a wide variety of information. Bringing together teachers with different art backgrounds to discuss their various teaching methods. The articles are easy to read and cover a variety of subjects from a theoretical foundation to an art education to adolescent music education. I would be comfortable teaching a lesson on this subject after reading this collection of articles.

URL: http://www.fightcrime.org

Summary: Summary: When I typed in “after-school programs” on my search engine many matches were found. For some reason the one that caught my attention was a web site by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. They are a national nonprofit, bipartisan anti-crime organization made up of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and victims of violence dedicated to preventing crime and violence by helping kids get the right start in life. (www.fightcrime.org) As I explored the site I found a lot of interesting information on the affects “after-school” programs have on children of all ages. There is a link to a report entitled “America’s After-School Choice: Juvenile Crime or Safe Learning Time”. This report was broken into six chapters of research dealing with many different topics. The chapters that had information on my topic were: Chapter Two-After-School programs prevent crime, teach skills and values Chapter Four- Quality Matters Chapter Five- Investing in After-School programs saves money and lives The main message this organization is trying to state is that if children are being supervised in a quality program than they will not be out on the streets committing crimes, becoming victims, or participating in inappropriate behaviors. The programs help teach academics as well as social skills. Mentoring is a large factor in the equation of success of the “at risk” children.

Evaluation: Evaluation: I liked the fact that the site had two ways of receiving the report. You could either chose the quick two-page summary or you could choose the full thirty-five-page report complete with graphs and charts. The site was easy to access and loaded without a problem. There are also links to the past press releases made by the organization. I printed out six of the press releases that pertained to my topic. The format of the site was user friendly and self-explanatory. Overall I give this website a very good review.

Other: Other: On the home page of the website the following were other links/topics available: · New Report: Youth Crime Soars in NY After School-Report and Press Release · Legislative Update-Report · Youth Violence Prevention Plan-Report · America’s Child Care Crisis-Report · America’s After-School Choice-Report and Press Release · California’s first lady joins Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California to release new after school report-report and press release · Contact Your Officials-link

URL: http://autism.com

Summary: www.Autism.com The website I Have studied deals with autism. The name of the website is Autism.com. The website has over one-hundred different sites dealing with various neurological disorders ranging from attention deficit disorder, Asperger’s syndrome, pervasive development disorder. While researching the site, I find that the information is valuable and is directed to those who want to grasp a better understanding of an autistic child and supporting the parents that are dealing with an autistic child. Also, the website talks about different treatments, coping with autism, education options, and planning an estate future for a child with a mental handicap. The website explains how autism is one spectrum of the many neurological disorders of the brain. Generally, autism is defined as a, “severe disorder of brain function marked by problems with social contact, intelligence and language, together with ritualistic or compulsive behavior and bizarre responses to the environment”(Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine). Asperger syndrome is a neurological disorder in which the child has symptoms similar to autism but no problems with language. PDD is also similar to autism but is not as extreme and many high functioning autistic students are labeled PDD. The website labeled PDD and Community talks about the diagnoses of autism. The site explains that many children are usually diagnosed between ages three and five after taking the DSM IV test which is an age appropriate language development test. According to the website, after a child has been labeled autistic he or she has a 2% chance of becoming a high functioning autistic. The website also says that an autistic child shows bizarre behavior and has few or no personal friends but with positive environments and trained professionals, an autistic child’s behavior can evolve into normal behavior with proper intervention. The website also explains that there are many disappointments within the state educational system and with the general public that do not understand autism. These disappointments occur because the parent sees the full potential the child is capable of reaching but is having difficulty because of the obstacles that are placed in front of the parents and autistic child. These obstacles include not having support from all the family members, lack of support from teachers in the schools, changing of atmosphere because of the family having to relocate or move, and the autistic child regressing instead of progressing. The website provides supportive information on how to plan for the future with a mentally retarded child. It explains how, “planning for their child’s social, medical, and financial needs allows the parents to take control of the child’s emotional and financial security”(autism.com). The article highly suggests estate planning which is important in ensuring the child’s Supplemental Security Insurance, subsidized housing, personal health care, and Medicaid in the event that one of the parents die. This ensures that the child will receive the proper benefits and care after the child is gone. I suppose all parents have to research the options of what occurs if they die, but a parent of an autistic child has to plan for the proper care for their child because autistic children, in 90% of the cases, cannot take care of themselves. The article does give information on education provided for special educational students. The article explains that 2% of special education teachers have less than four years teaching experience, while only 10% of general education teachers have less then ten years. The web site explains that 700 colleges have special ed. Programs and most schools accept a bachelor degree in order to teach the classes. Teachers can receive accreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), which is the national accrediting body for special ed. Teacher programs. The article also mentions the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), which is a professional organization that represents special ed. Teachers and has developed guidelines and suggestions for teaching and preparing other teachers when dealing with special ed. Students. Majority of states across America require field experience after student teaching and the length of time varies across the country. The average time is eight to ten weeks of teaching full-time. The website also explains that different states have a “categorical licensure” which means that the state gives the license to the teacher for a particular type of disability. The other category is the “noncategorical” which is a general licensure that provides a license to teach any child with a disability. Generally, the license credentials change from state to state since each state has its own set of rules. The National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is a national organization that ensures that the teacher’s standards are constantly developing the standards for updated special education. If a teacher receives the prestigious certificate from this establishment he or she is considered a “master teacher.”

Evaluation:In conclusion, I found this website to be extremely informative. It has an infinite amount of information that I have used while working with autistic children. Not only does it provide textual information, it also provides support for the parents and insight on different ways to cope with an autistic child. The website is useful for anyone, especially parents that are looking for support and guidance while parenting an autistic child. I have not had a difficult time understading the information provided in this internet site. However, I will always be confused about the cause of autism and the cure for this strange disorder. Furthermore, the website has comical stories in which the parents of the autistic child have shared. These stories allow the reader to realize that there are other people going through the same thing across the world.

Other: The website also deals with: autism conferences, autism network resources for physicians,developmental delay registry, families for early autism treatment, movement stories for children, Asperger syndrome, sociey for the autistically handicapped, prevention of sexual abuse of people with developmental disabilities, Asperger support group, autism training and support, society for auditory intervention techniques,autism research institute... Much, much, more!

Summary: Autism is defined as a “disorder that severely impairs development of a person’s ability to communicate, interact with other people, and maintain normal contact with the outside world.” (MSN Encarta, p.1) Autism is common among children, and four to five times more common among males than females. 2 to 5 out of every 10, 000 children are affected by autism, and it usually appears before the age of three. Autism is a disorder in which symptoms can occur with varying degrees of severity and in any combination, and are usually seen during the infancy period. Children with autism lack social behaviors. They pay little or no interest to other people and are unaware of their needs and feelings. They are unable to develop normal relationships, and in turn, usually play alone and are not able to make friends. It is common that they engage in repetitious activities and also experience many difficulties with language. It is possible that a child with autism will never learn how to speak Children with autism usually score well below average on standardized tests and about 75% are classified as having mental retardation. They characteristically score low on verbal skills and social understanding and higher on tests of visual-spatial skills and rote memory. Among individuals with autism, about 10% have extraordinary talents, such as the ability to make lightning-fast mathematical calculations, outstanding art or music abilities, or the ability to memorize long lists of information. Scientists used to blame autism on parental causes. They believed lack of care, attention or traumatic experiences could cause a child to develop autism, but they now know that is false. It is a biological disorder that results from abnormalities in the brain structure and function. People with autism often have an unusually low number of certain brain cells and a low blood flow to certain parts of the brain. They also believe that autism is a problem of cognition, which results in individuals being unable to communicate normally or express emotions and recognize other people’s feelings, beliefs, and needs. There is no cure for autism, but there are treatments that may help reduce some of the symptoms. Some of the treatments include behavior modification, which involves analyzing the cause of an undesirable behavior, different medications and vitamin supplements, facilitated communication, auditory training, and vision therapy. There are early intervention services that the states provide for children between the ages of one and three. They try to lessen the long-term effects of autism by developing their academic and social skills. Children with autism are given individual lesson plans in school and may attend regular or special schools. Some grow up and get jobs, live independently, and succeed in their jobs, which is the goal for all individuals with autism.

Evaluation:Overall, this was a well-done article on the disorder autism. It provided the reader with good and useful information in very clear terms. It would be easy for a child to read and comprehend this article. It included interesting facts that people wanting to learn about autism would like to know. I also thought they set up the article in a good format. They divided it into seven sections – introduction, characteristics, causes, treatment, education, work and adult life, and related disorders. I thought this article would have been even better if they had included more facts and statistics. They also could have gone more in depth about some of their topics, such as treatment and education. It would be more useful to people, if they were looking for different treatments, if the article explained how the different treatments worked, which ones had been proven to work the best, and if certain treatments work better for certain individuals and why. Many people studying autism would like to know these facts. They also gave very little information about education and people with autism. Many people are interested in how children and adults with autism learn, and this should have been a substantial part in the article. This article also should have explained better how children with autism behave, act, and think. It should have provided the reader with more examples. Overall, this was a good article but just did not go into enough depth for the reader who wanted to learn a great deal about autism. It was an excellent summary and did contain useful information that was very clear and easy to understand.

Other: There are other topics that are addressed by this site. Within the article, there are certain words highlighted that the reader may click on and learn more about. All of theses topics, in some way, are associated with autism. These topics include language, mental retardation, the brain, German Measles, cognition, behavior modification, vitamins, serotonin, dopamine, magnesium, Education of Students with Mental Retardation, and Special Education. All of these topics are interesting and useful to the reader. They help to fully comprehend autism, and provide them with useful and educational information that they may use throughout their lives.

Summary: Intriguing as autism is to me, I have studied this website, Webmd.com and searched for Autism/PDD. My first choice given was an Autism link. The autism link gave an array of interesting details of the autistic spectrum disorder. Autism is the symptom, not a disease, of a developmental disability in the child that usually appears during the first three years of life. The result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain, autism and its associated behaviors have been estimated to occur in six out of 1,000 live births. Also, the prevalence of autism/PDD in boys is four times more than in girls. A milder symptom diagnosis is PDD or pervasive developmental disorder. The labeled PDD child often has a higher IQ than that of some labeled as autistic when the IQ is 30 and below. Other diagnosis of autism include autistic disorder, Asperger’s syndrome, Rett’s disorder and Childhood disintegrative disorder as well as PDD. While children are being diagnosed as autistic or other autistic disorders, the question is what causes it? It is unclear as to what exactly or remotely causes autism. Autism is a mind-boggling symptom that still is questioned as to what exactly causes this during the child’s development from birth to about three years old. Some thoughts mentioned on this web site are the mother’s exposure to certain drugs or chemicals during pregnancy. One of the many factors suggested are the developing child’s exposure to some seizure medications. Some of the symptoms of autism are the extreme difficulty in learning language, the inability to understand other people’s feelings (1, Vogin: www.Webmd.com). Autistic persons may comfort themselves in a physical act such as hand flapping and rocking back and forth continuously. While the child looses interest in their physical world, internally their psychological world is much more self-gratifying than living in their surrounding physical world. Since there are no medical tests to diagnose autism, there are treatments of this symptom. For the child to better understand the physical world around them, some parts of the treatment teaches the child to socialize with others, and improves the child’s communication skills. Children with this symptom called autism spectrum disorder or pervasive developmental disorder can be greatly improves edification skills from early treatment. Behavior modification, and skill development enhance the child’s chance of developing such important skills to live in the physical world. The earlier the treatment the better, but even with later treatment there is optimism. The prevention of the autistic spectrum disorder and its subtypes are unknown, one theory from researchers is physical problems in parts of the brain that interpret sensory input and process of language. The imbalances in the child’s brain chemicals also appear to play a role in this childhood symptom. Autism spectrum disorder and pervasive developmental disorder do not distinguish race, religion, gender, or nationality.

Evaluation: I have found this web site to be informing about autism/PDD. It is very precise on many topics. However, I found that there are some parts not included. One would be extra links to a site that had a foundation or awareness for people who would like to know more information. The educational insights were limited. What exactly would a newly diagnosed child be given as therapy? Maybe there would be a link to applied behavioral analysis, where there shows what kind of setting, teaching methods for the child, and hours the child should be given a week, etc. I feel that there could have been a great deal of extra information that would answer some questions that people have, but it gave a clear and concise description of a child with autism/PDD. One paragraph under the symptoms of autism, gave information of how to find if your child or someone you know has a child if they see these symptoms to call their doctor. There are a few good reasons to call a doctor but make your self more aware of these specific symptoms. Since this is a childhood diagnosis, what about the adults who have autism? Also, their teaching environments, can these children ever be mainstreamed in a traditional classroom with other children their age? Education is the most important thing for every child. Children with autism/PDD can be educated too and the site did not have many items about their education. It did not provide other types of integration for the child, nor did it provide an example of what it may be. For a brief thought, some readers may not know what the IQ of a mentally retarded person is. I had to recall it because it was not given here. For a top layer of the cake of autism, this site gave first facts that would intrigue someone to want to learn more about. This was good, but not good enough in details.

Other: This site brings out the different types of the autism spectrum disorder. It also exposes the reader into a situation in which they will invest their thought (s) into. Interesting enough as this site, the reader will be able to understand the basics about this symptom called autism. These topics answer a little bit of readers questions, but more research will need to be performed by the reader in order to get a full piece, not just the icing.

Summary: The website I have selected provides an abundance of information for the parents and family members of Autistic children. The site makes available newsletters and books by professionals to help families understand what being Autistic means and possible causes. There has been no definite cause related to Autism, but there are a few theories. They range from immunizations to genetics. I believe the immunization theory has some merit. The site recommends parents and doctors should use common sense: children should not be vaccinated when they are already ill, and vaccines containing the known neurotoxin thimerosol (mercury) should be avoided. We recognized changes in I normal developing child soon after his second booster of the MMR vaccine. They give you this warning of possible complication with the vaccine but don’t tell the publics when vaccination shots are being given that may be contaminated with Mercury. I guess they would sacrifice the few too save the masses. The site gives those families of children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorders and have not been diagnosed a headstart in fighting for the child’s rights and special needs. They recommend the familiy began with the child’s pediatrician on getting the diagnosis. They also warn of obstacles presented by HMO’s and recommend ways to get around them. The school system is another source of getting a diagnosis. A clinical psychologist in the Aldine Independent School District diagnosed my son after an evaluation. The diagnostician at his school recognized some the signs and requested and evaluation. We were one of those families that had and HMO and were told by the pediatrician that our son would grow out of the behaviors he exhibited, they were normal. This site makes available a list of research and testing facilities across the United States. Unfortunately the only research facility recommend for Houston, TX doesn’t specialize in autism spectrum disorder. The city with a population over 4.5 million people and thousands of autistic children with no effective testing or research facilities. The site also provides a listing of possible medication and herbal supplement available to child with Autism Spectrum Disorders. This listing includes the benefits and possible side effects. The site also provides information to help families cope with the stress of life with an autistic child. The aim is to help those families coping with community isolation, financial problems, separation and divorce and etc. They give parenting tips because the same tool used for a normal functioning child doesn’t work for an autistic child. This could be used to create a behavioral modification plan to be used at home and in school. The child now has consistent behavioral expectation and consistent tools being used to correct the undesired behavior. They also provide information on types of financial support available to families children with autistic spectrum disorder. There is no hope of disability or social security benefits for these children unless the family is already near or below the poverty level. Sometimes these families need funds to help provide additional speech or occupational therapy to supplement the feeble services provided by local school districts. The sites also helps to inform parents of the child’s rights in the school system once an Individual Education Plan has been established. The parents can learn what the process is in assuring your child receives a free and appropriate education. This includes monitoring progress of the student, extended year programs, due process hearing and going to court if necessary. There is also information on getting a 504 plan under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Information concerning high school graduation and higher education is also available. There is a list of support and advocacy groups available for families and PDD connections Web ring. The goal is connect individuals in the struggle with autism and help them to share information and support.

Evaluation: I believe this site is very beneficial to families in their fight against autism. They provide an abundance of information new and old on this growing problem in America. It provides support and advocacy groups for parents, information on medicines and supplements for patients, all in an attempt to address a problem the government has turned its back on. Sites like this helps one to realize Autism is a growing problem that is not being properly addressed and families continue to suffer as a result.

Other: This site has other links that address Bipolar disorders, Breast Cancer, Cancer clinical trials and childhhod cancer.

Summary: This web site gave a complete overview of what Autism is, who is effected by it, speech and language difficulties, communication problems, treatments, what current research is being done, and where to go for additional information. While the cause of Autism remains a mystery most believe it to be a brain disorder that makes it difficult for a person to deal with and react to the world. Many also believe, because it is found in several members of one family, there is some genetics behind it. Autism begins in early childhood and persists throughout adulthood. Autism is the most common of a group of conditions called pervasive developmental disorders. Usually noticed around the age of three, some characteristics of Autism include repetitive behaviors, excessive fears, self injury such as head-banging or biting, aggression, tantrums, and this only to list a few. There is no specific race or ethnic background that is effected by Autism, nor does the level of intelligence matter. It affects both boys and girls. However, it is likely to effect boys four times more than girls. Autism effects three crucial areas of development: verbal and nonverbal development, social interaction, and creative or imaginative play. The cause of speech and language problems in Autistic children are unknown but experts believe it has to do with difficulties caused by a variety of conditions that occur either before, during, or after birth effecting the brain. Because of this, the Autistic child has a hard time interpreting and interacting with the world. The communication problem in Autistic children varies upon their intellectual and social development. The range is from children being completely unable to speak to those who develop a huge vocabulary and can talk about topics of interest in great depth. There is no one treatment method found to be successful when working with Autistic children. After a process of evaluations by their physician, specialist, and pathologists a designed treatment is administered. Each treatment is individualized and should involve parents. It should focus on communication and behavior problems and should be directed toward improving useful communication. Some times medication is administered, minerals and vitamin supplements have been used, special diets, as well as psychotherapist have been involved but none of the above have been documented as completely effective. Research that is currently being conducted to find out more about Autism is the question of communication difficulties and the differences of people with Autism. Exploration of the features of speech and language, the evaluations of current treatment practices, investigation of brain development, and the use of certain drugs and their effects on communication behavior.

Evaluation: I thought this web site was very informative for anyone inquiring about Autism. It is very detailed in what Autism is, who it effects, and what the complications are with persons having Autism. This web site is useful for persons who are simply researching Autism and those that may suspect they know a person who may be Autistic. This will give them insights on symptoms and problems associated with Autism to allow them to get further evaluations. The best part of the web site is that it gives other places to go to find information on Autism. It gives names, addresses,web sites, and phone numbers of contacts that can answer any question you have about this disorder or any other disorder you may need information on.

Other:

Summary: This is a summarization of the FEAT (Families for Early Autism Treatment) website. FEAT describes itself as “a non-profit organization of parents, educators and other professionals dedicated to providing world-class Education, Advocacy, and Support for the Northern California Autism Community (NCAC).” This is followed by a thorough list of objectives and goals. This site’s home page consists of a table of contents that lists the site’s provisions. Among the many options offered are Program Resources and Delivering Effective Programs for Individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Both of these sections provide valuable information on creating programs specifically meant to address the difficult educational needs of autistic children. This table begins with an introduction and sample questions from the CHAT test (Checklist for Autism in Toddlers) and the DSM-4 test which is also used for early autism diagnosis. Next, the site provides an Introduction and Summary of Behavior Analysis. This section defines autism as a disorder that “can be conceptualized as excesses and deficits in a behavioral repertoire, with the development of verbal language being a severe deficit among the behaviors of autistic children.” This introduction section also includes explanations of BF Skinner’s theories on behavior analysis and how language effects development. This explanation assists the layman in better understanding the psychological terms used within the site. Moreover, FEAT provides numerous Behavioral Research Summaries on topics such as social skills, language, daily living skills and problematic behaviors. Though, the reader is warned that these summaries are not written for beginners, this site does promise very clear descriptions of some of the foundation research that brought Behavior Analysis in the field of autism to where it is today. This is all covered under just one heading (Autism Research) of this information packed website. Also included in this site is an online daily newsletter, an online Listserver of Archives, subscription offers and mailing lists and a convenient search engine. Moreover, a link to the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) website is available. This site provides further information on literature and other media such as books, booklets, fact sheets, summaries, clinical trials and press releases covering many different autism topics.

Evaluation: The site itself does not go into much detail about the psychological side or educational difficulties involved with the subject of autism as it is a reference site. However, it provides much information on and convenient links to studies and theories done in the past and those being done now in the education of autistic persons. These studies mostly conform to behaviorism approaches in teaching and observing social skills, language, daily living skills and problematic behaviors in accordance with BF Skinner’s writings. The site is clearly marked and easy to follow. The introduction to each of the topics discussed defines terms that will be used and explains in-depth what the following writings will be focused on. Each article is clearly headed and easy for the reader to browse through when attempting to find a study of particular interest. The site is also quite useful in helping “direct parents to advocacy services to help them obtain appropriate services and support from public and private agencies.” Moreover, this site provides relevant reading material meant to facilitate understanding on many of the core issues families with autistic children face.

Other: Other topics the FEAT website provides information on are resources and support meetings, creation of fund-raising strategies involving both individual and corporate sponsors and the continuation of “the project HOPE collaborative process with UCD Medical Center for research on the causes and potential cure for autism.” FEAT also provides ongoing training to tutors who work with autistic children and they provide a nationwide radio awareness program.

Summary: The website I was able to look at was by the National Institute of Mental Health, in which the web site was set up like a book. It then states that isolated in worlds of their own, people with autism appear indifferent and remote and are unable to form emotional bonds with others. Although people with this baffling brain disorder can display a wide range of symptoms and disability, many are incapable of understanding other people's thoughts, feelings, and needs. Children with autism do not follow the typical patterns of child development. In some children, hints of future problems may be apparent from birth. In most cases, the problems become more noticeable as the child slips farther behind other children the same age. Other children start off well enough. But between 18 and 36 months old, they suddenly reject people, act strangely, and lose language and social skills they had already acquired. The website also stated that autism is found in every country and region of the world, and in families of all racial, ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds. Emerging in childhood, it affects about 1 or 2 people in every thousand and is three to four times more common in boys than girls. Girls with the disorder, however, tend to have more severe symptoms and lower intelligence. In addition to loss of personal potential, the cost of health and educational services to those affected exceeds $3 billion each year. So, at some level, autism affects us all. Autism is a brain disorder that typically affects a person's ability to communicate, form relationships with others, and respond appropriately to the environment. Some people with autism are relatively high functioning, with speech and intelligence intact. Others are mentally retarded, mute, or have serious language delays. Parents are usually the first to notice unusual behaviors in their child. In many cases, their baby seemed "different" from birth-being unresponsive to people and toys, or focusing intently on one item for long periods of time. The first signs of autism may also appear in children who had been developing normally. When an affectionate, babbling toddler suddenly becomes silent, withdrawn, violent, or self-abusive, something is wrong. It is generally accepted that autism is caused by abnormalities in brain structures or functions. Using a variety of new research tools to study human and animal brain growth, scientists are discovering more about normal development and how abnormalities occur. Several disorders commonly accompany autism. No medication can correct the brain structures or impaired nerve connections that seem to underlie autism. Scientists have found, however, that drugs developed to treat other disorders with similar symptoms are sometimes effective in treating the symptoms and behaviors that make it hard for people with autism to function at home, school, or work. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 assures a free and appropriate public education to children with diagnosed learning deficits. The 1991 version of the law extended services to preschoolers who are developmentally delayed. As a result, public schools must provide services to handicapped children including those age 3 to 5. Because of the importance of early intervention, many states also offer special services to children from birth to age 3. The school may also be responsible for providing whatever services are needed to enable the child to attend school and learn. Such services might include transportation, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and any special equipment. Federally funded Parent Training Information Centers and Protection and Advocacy Agencies in each state can provide information on the rights of the family and child. At present, there is no cure for autism. Nor do children outgrow it. But the capacity to learn and develop new skills is within every child. With time, children with autism mature and new strengths emerge. Many children with autism seem to go through developmental spurts between ages 5 and 13. Some spontaneously begin to talk-even if repetitively-around age 5 or later. While it is natural for parents to hope that their child will "become normal," they should take pride in whatever strides their child does make. Many parents, looking back over the years, find their child has progressed far beyond their initial expectations. The majority of adults with autism need lifelong training, ongoing supervision, and reinforcement of skills. The public schools' responsibility for providing these services ends when the person is past school age. As the child becomes a young adult, the family is faced with the challenge of creating a home-based plan or selecting a program or facility that can offer such services. In some cases, adults with autism can continue to live at home, provided someone is there to supervise at all times. A variety of residential facilities also provide round-the-clock care. At present, about a third of all people with autism can live and work in the community with some degree of independence. As scientific research points the way to more effective therapies and as communities establish programs that provide proper support, expectations are that this number will grow. As this number grows many people with autism will have the chance to succeed.

Evaluation:Overall this is an excellence website. I found it to be very informative. It discusses many things dealing with autism such as the definition, how is it diagnosed, what causes it, the social and behavior skills that change, educational standards, and many more situations. This website also helps the person understand different types of autism by giving different examples in the form of young children, and taking the reader into their very different personal lives and circumstances. This helps the reader understand the different realities of autism. When the website breaks the different discussions down it make the website very clear and easy to understand, also the web site is very accurate in regards to facts and statistics making it an overall a great resource for anyone wanting information on autism.

Other: The website also gives a list of different books for children, parents, and professionals. Also the website gives list of centers and resources that the reader could use to find out more information about autism, such as associations and agencies. This website is strictly for autism and does not address any other topics,unless they are related to autism.

Summary: The website I found for autism comes from the National Institute of Mental Health www.nimh.nih.gov/pulbicat/autism.cfm. This web site is very informative it starts with an introduction of Autism, it explains on how many people with autism engage in repetitive activities, like rocking or banging their heads, or rigidly following familiar patterns in their everyday routines. Some are painfully sensitive to sound, touch, sight or smell. Also, under the introduction it gives a brief summary of children with autism that do not follow the typical patterns of child development. In some children, hints of future problems may be apparent form birth. Other children start off well enough. But between 18 and 36 months old, they suddenly reject people, act strangely, and lose language and social skills they had already acquired. This website also defines autism as a brain disorder that typically affects a person ability to communicate, form relationships, with others, and respond appropriately to the environment. Some people with autism are relatively high-functioning, with speech and intelligence intact. Others are mentally retarded, mute or have serious language delays. For, some, autism makes them seem closed off and shut down; others seem locked into repetitive behaviors and rigid patterns of thinking. Although people with autism do not have exactly the same symptoms and deficits, they tend to share certain social, communication, motor and sensory problems that affect their behavior in predictable ways. For this information there is a chart that show the difference in the behavior of infants with and with out autism. The web also has a sections of repetitive behaviors, obsessions, sensory symptoms, and unusual abilities. The website also explains what is the cause of autism, it is generally accepted that autism is cause by abnormalities in brain structures or functions. Using a variety of new research tools to study human and animal brain growth, scientists are discovering more about normal and how abnormalities occur. This web site also gives a little stories of two little boys by the names of Paul and Alan, who were diagnosed with autism. This section gives you and actual picture on how an autistic child behaves. Which I think is very helpful for someone who has no idea on what autism is, all of the sections are very informative and very helpful.

Evaluation: The National Institute of Mental Health web site is very informative web site. I think this web site is very helpful for anyone who wants to know about Autism. It is also helpful for parents who have children that are diagnosed with autism. Because it has a section on what types of medication are available for autistic children unfortunately there is no medication can correct the brain structures or impaired nerve connection that seem to underlie autism. Furthermore this website is very useful for anyone it has plenty of information that is very useful for anyone who either is dealing with an autistic child, it will help them understand their behavior. I worked with a little boy who is autisic and this web site made me understand how and why he was behaving the way he was. Overall an excellent web site.

Other: The web site also included sources of information and support, how do families learn to cope, what are the educational options , can autism be overgrown, can adults with autism live independent lives, can social skills and behavior be improved. All of this sections are very helpful and all of them gave a very good explanation on autism.

Summary:

Evaluation:

Other:

Summary: The website I found was www.autism.org/overview.html. This website is an overview of autism written by Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D. from the Center for the Study of Autism in Salem, Oregon. This website touched on the main points of autism. Autism occurs in 4.5 out of 10,000 of the population and its likely hood of effecting males is three times more than females. No two autistic children are alike, because their characteristics differ and because this disorder as so many different forms. Some autistic children reach a milestone and can talk as well as move around before the common child while other autistic children are behind dramatically. Autistic symptoms begin to appear between the ages of one and a half to three. Currently there are no tests to determine if someone has autism, so if a young child displays certain behaviors repeatedly then they are labeled autistic. The cause of autism is not known though there are several possibilities that remain open. There is research that shows that different viruses and vaccinations could possibly cause autism. There may also be a genetic influence in autism or pollutants contributing to autism. All of these possibilities are still being researched. There are several physical abnormalities located in the brain of children with autism. Drs. Bauman and Kemper found that two areas of the brain are underdeveloped. The hippocampus and the amygdale which are responsible for sensory input, emotions, learning, as well as aggression. They also found that the vermal lobules VI and VII are either larger or smaller then average, in autistic children. The vermal lobules VI and VII control attention. Autistic children’s immune system is not strong enough to fight off some infections do to the decreased number of helper t-cells. Senses vary with children with autism. There senses could be either hypersensitive or hyposensitive making it hard to process certain things. Some autistic children want heavy pressure while others do not want any form of contact. Autistic children believe that you want things the way they do and you think the way they do. They don’t believe you have your own needs and thoughts. There is no one drug that can solve autism yet, but there are things that can be done help decrease the symptoms. Removing certain foods like wheat and oats from their diet is a good idea because they are not able to break down certain proteins. Giving the child vitamin B6 with magnesium will help expand their communication skills. To increase appropriate behaviors try Applied Behavior Analysis.

Evaluation: This website was very informative. Dr. Edelson did not just briefly touch on points; he explained briefly why it is so. If you need more in depth information then you could get that from the main page link. He was very strait to the point telling you what you need to know without it being terribly long. The clarity of the article was very good. The information in this article was very useful in helping understand autism because he included the major characteristics, causes, physical abnormalities, sensory impairments, cognition, and interventions.

Other: This article has a return button at the end of the article which opens up a table of contents. This table of contents includes subgroups and related disorders, interventions, certain issues, temple grandin, sibling center, exclusive interviews and other information.

Summary: The Autism Society of America web site defines autism as “a complex developmental disability that is a result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain.” Most affected by this neurological deficit are the areas of social interaction and communication. Although this seems to be a broad definition, it is the best one available for a disease that continues to baffle physicians. Not only is it difficult to define, it is equally as difficult to diagnose. There are no medical tests for diagnosing autism. As with many other neurological and psychiatric conditions, scientists and doctors must evaluate a list of symptoms and form a diagnosis. The same holds true for autism. There have been several diagnostic tools developed to aid in the evaluation of symptoms. Autism is classified as a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and as of the present, it is the most common PPD. It affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans. The disease knows no racial, ethnic, or social boundaries. Autism is a spectrum disorder, which means that the symptoms and characteristics of the disease can present themselves in varying combinations. The most common characteristics of autism include, but are not limited to, resistance to change, word repetition, tantrums, little or no eye contact, extreme difficulty with simple communication, uneven gross/fine motor skills, and isolated aloof mannerisms. It is important however, to remember that each person is an individual with a unique personality and combination of characteristics. There is no single known cause or cure for autism, but it is somewhat treatable. The priority in treating the disease is discovering teaching methods that fit the needs of the child in question. Children can meet with patient and caring individuals in many areas of education. There are occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech/language therapists, and clinical psychologists, who can rally to help a child reach their highest potential.

Evaluation:This is an extremely informative Website that discusses autism with honesty, compassion, and hope. I would highly recommend this site to anyone who is directly involved with an autistic child. However, I would also recommend it to everyone else out there that have ever heard of this disease. As with many other topics in life, we are often supplied with biased or misrepresented information. An added bonus to this site is that it disposes of the myths related to autism. I was surprised to see how many of my preconceptions were indeed false. The site is straightforward and organized in an easily readable format. It clearly discusses the definition, causes, diagnoses, and treatment for this complicated disease. Most importantly, it stresses the importance of the educators’ role in helping autistic children.

Other: A final hooray for this web site is that it offers numerous links to other websites that discuss autism in depth. It offers a site devoted to understanding autism. It includes a site that specializes in treatment and education. It addresses the cares and concerns of patients who are living with autism by providing them with a link to a full and informative site. Lastly, it provides a complete list of resources that are availably regarding autism. I felt like I could discover everything I needed to know about autism through this wonderfully mastered Website.

Summary: The website I found relating to autism is Autism Society of America. The home page begins with a general definition of autism. The home page also provides current news and articles about autism. Upcoming events are also listed on the home page and they invite you to join the Autism Society of America. Within this site there are a variety of other sites you can explore. With one click of your mouse you can learn in lengthy detail what autism is, what are the characteristics of autism, the theories on what causes autism, diagnosis of autism, and there is even a section that gives advice about consulting with professionals. There is even a section devoted to living with autism. These articles discuss how it feels, the stress on families, safety in the home, sibling issues, life after high school, and planning for the future. There is another section devoted to the treatment and education of autism. They discuss a variety of approaches for treating autism such as, behavioral and communication approaches, dietary and biomedical approaches, and complementary approaches. Each one of these approaches is explained in great detail and the whole website answers any questions that you might have. It also provides a great support group for those living with autism and someone who lives with someone with autism. While visiting this website you can also learn about all of the research that has been done dealing with autism. There is also a long list of helpful links to answer any other questions that you may still have.

Evaluation: In conclusion, anything you want to know about autism you can find here. This website goes into great depth; any issue related to autism is covered in this website. The information is clear and easy to find. This website is accurate and the sources for the information in this website are given. This is a great website because it provides knowledge as well as support. It also list upcoming events such as the National Conference. This website does not go into how to educate children with autism however; it provides links to different websites where you can find this information. I also felt it was great how the website provided a variety of opinions of parents for the different treatments of autism. This will be very helpful to parents who are just learning how to treat autism.

Other: There are lots of other topics addressed in this website, mostly all relating to autism. The other topics are: treatment, advocacy, resource, diagnosis, consulting physicians, dharacteristics, theories on causes, etc...

Summary: The website that I used was created by the National Autistic Society. Autism is defined as being “lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them.” It is quite surprising that autism was first identified in 1943, and it is still a relatively unknown disability. Autistic disorders affect the lives of over 500,000 families throughout the UK. People with autism are not physically disabled and have the physical appearances of people without the disability, which makes it much harder to create awareness and understanding of the condition. Autistic children look normal, so others tend to assume that the children have behavior problems or the parents are not controlling the child. Children and adults who are autistic are unable to relate to others in a meaningful way. They also have a lack of friendships, due to their impaired ability to understand the feelings of others. Every person with autism has impairments in social interaction, social communication and imagination, which are referred to as the triad of impairments. Social interaction is difficulty with social relationships; social communication is difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication; and imagination is difficulty in the development of play and imagination. The cause of autism is not known, but research shows that genetic factors are important. It is evident from research that autism is associated with a number of conditions affecting brain development which occur before, during, or right after the child is born. People can receive appropriate help and support, if they are diagnosed with autism soon. Autistic spectrum disorders can normally be diagnosed at around the age of two years. In many instances professional workers notice the signs of autism through normal childhood health checks. This will eventually result in them being formally diagnosed. If this does not happen and the parent feels that there is a possibility that their child has an autistic spectrum disorder, they should go to their doctor and request that they refer them to a consultant or diagnostic team with a good understanding of the condition. There are a number of different doctors and health professionals who may be involved in diagnosing the condition. Most often, these professionals would be psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and in the case of children, pediatricians. In some areas there may be multi-disciplinary teams, which consist of different health professionals involved in diagnosing autism. It is important to ensure that the person who sees the child has a good knowledge of autistic spectrum disorders. There is a wide range of views on the best way to treat people with autism. Some approaches are based on very specific theories as to the possible causes of autistic spectrum disorders. Some therapies consist of a change in diet, music therapy, and many other great programs, which can also be found on the site.

Evaluation: I believe that the information on this site is very helpful and informative. Before researching this disorder, I had a vague understanding of what autism was. The site provides a large amount of information and research to support the characteristics and causes of autistic behavior. There are links that provide information on training for people who have never worked with a person who is autistic and also opportunities for people to voluntarily work with autistic people. I have never worked with an autistic person, but after viewing this site, I would feel much more confident working with a person with autism than I did before, because I am much more aware of the characteristics and therapies. I feel that this site is also helpful, because it provides a link for people to write and ask any questions that they have about autism.

Other: This website also provides information about Asperger syndrome, which is a disorder similar to autism. The site has a listing of information and dates of autistic awareness events, educational legislature bills that support autism, and concerts, such as “Stars Shine for Autism Christmas Concert.”

Summary: Autism is a very serious disorder that affects a child in many different ways. This website states its purpose very plainly on its home page. It is available in order to help people understand the key issues with regard to autism. Also, it focuses on the options for parents and the obligations of schools to offer early intervention to those children who need it. The authors of this site are trying to help people understand that there are many options out there for children diagnosed with autism, but that the world will try to limit these children if we are not prepared to fight for them. Also, since autism is such a poorly understood problem, children are often misdiagnosed and placed in programs that are detrimental to their mental and social health. Autism is a very serious problem that has many things associated with it such as large language delays and social dysfunctions. Therefore, this webpage tries to inform people about the severity of autism and the solutions that are available to those who encounter it. This website has an autism checklist, and a list of tests that should be done if children are suspected of having autism. Also, it includes the Special Education Law and the 1997 amendments, information about inclusion and IEP, TEACCH and the realities of TEACCH, facilitative language, and auditory training information. Not only are all of these options available, but the website also offers over twenty other links that include different types of helpful information about autism.

Evaluation: This website is extremely in depth concerning autism. It covers such a broad range of topics, and is still able to inform the user in great depth about all of the facets included. The checklist that is available and the many tests that are helpful in determining whether a child has autism are described in great detail while still retaining such a user friendly quality. The information is presented in a very clear and precise fashion. Also, the site is accurate on all of its information. The information is backed up by medical sites and law documents. It is clearly available to inform and help people who either want or need to know about autism. As an educator, I find this site extremely helpful and useful for my career. Being able to understand more deeply about autism allows me to better comprehend the developmental issues of some children that I will have to teach. This site is more useful than any that I have ever visited on this issue.

Other: There are many extra links available to the user of this site. For example, they give other helpful site on autism such as: a study of autism, the autism network, medical research news, legislative information library, and an internet law library. It also has a special email box set aside for any comments or suggestions that the user might feel necessary to share. The user could also perform a special autism or disabilities search of the World Wide Web and choose whether they will display the results in standard, compact or detailed form. Last but not least, there are links to children’s educational sites. These extra links only show how dedicated the author of the website is to helping people learn about autism.

Summary: This article addresses the auditory problems that individuals suffering from autism experience. It is common for people to hear words in a conversation and not be able to process the information correctly. Researcher Eric Courchesne of the University of California has been able to experiment with the auditory process by using the P300 brain wave technology. A few people were used to test the P300 test and their results showed that they did in fact have problems when processing auditory information after using cognitive processing. Improvement was shown in the individuals who were in the control group and for those in the placebo group, no change occurred. The cause of this processing problem in Autistic individuals is not certain but some studies show that premature development is obvious. The most interesting fact is that not all Autistic individuals suffer from this. Some individuals with Autism show a tremendous ability to process auditory information.

Evaluation: The research shown over the auditory processing problems was informative but could have been a little more detailed. Individuals who are seeking a lot of background information on this topic may not consider this to be a helpful website. The clarity over the particular research with the P300 tests were clarified but were still vague. This website would be a great start for someone who is interested in researching this topic, but would definitely have to get more in depth in order to provide the information necessary.

Other: This website included many more topics that I thought could be informative as well. The only problem is that they are all brief in their discussions. One of the other topics provided was Social Behaviors and there were some over Social and Sexual Awarenesses and Tunnel vision as well.

Summary: The website I chose deals with the study of autism and PDD, or pervasive developmental disorder. “Both of these disabilities are neurological disorders that affects a child's ability to communicate, understand language, play, and relate to others.” Both disorders are typically diagnosed by the age of three, and affect boys four times more often than girls. Children with these disorders vary widely in behaviors, abilities, and intelligence. This site included information on the incidence of these disorders, characteristics of the disorders and implications for education. “Some children do not speak; others have language that often includes repeated phrases or conversations. Persons with more advanced language skills tend to use a small range of topics and have difficulty with abstract concepts. Repetitive play skills, a limited range of interests, and impaired social skills are generally evident as well. Unusual responses to sensory information--for example, loud noises, lights, certain textures of food or fabrics--are also common.” The site offered relevant information in the area of educating autistic/PDD children, including classroom set-up and how to present materials. No other topics relevant to the disorders were discussed on this site.

Evaluation: Overall I found the website to be highly informative, however it was lacking in support resources for parents, and other relevant information to the topic. The structure of the site allows the reader to briefly skim the page and seek a heading underwhich to find pertinent information. The information presented was clear and concise, and useful, but not lengthy.

Other:

Summary: The web site I found has useful information about Autism. The site address is: http://www.autism-resources.com/ and it has all the information necessary to obtain a comprehensive understanding of this condition. Sometimes, especially on the Internet, the information is vague, and it is difficult to get specific knowledge about certain topics. One of these subjects is Autism. However in this case, the resources are well organized and easily displayed. The first page shows a directory style presentation of all resources available. Since the main concern of this site is the spread of knowledge about autism, the site shows several links dealing with developmental disability, and its multiple faces. In fact, the information contained includes basic definitions as well as articles of recognized organizations like CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), and NIMH (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke). One of the characteristics of this web site is the sense of community for parents, friends and relatives of persons with autism. For instance, the site has an online discussion board as well as chats and mailing list. For more detailed information, the site has a link to resources that range from pharmacology to treatments and several providers of programs designed to help such condition. It is particularly interesting the fact that the site incorporates not only information about help in the U.S but as well in the U.K. Moreover, some of the links conduct the user to web sites in other languages, so the reader can consult a broad variety of sources different than English versions. Another part of this page is a collection of articles that can be accessed by the reader without any kind of subscription. The articles cover topics from behaviorism to pharmacology concerns and social stigmas toward autism. Even though the main concern of the web site is autism, the links also refer to particular conditions like Asperger Syndrome, which is a disease related to the main topic in the site; however, the symptomatology is essentially different, as well as the behavior showed by people who suffer it. The site shows as well links to libraries, research programs, organizations, charities and foundations, which creates a strong support for parents and people interested in these resources.

Evaluation: Actually, the web site presents a very comprehensive approach to autism. In fact, the topics are clear and easy to understand. The web site goes from the basics to the complex topics, but it never assumes a vast expertise by the reader. Instead, the depth of the information about autism is appropriate to the general public. It does not deal with scientific terms and complex chemical reactions. On the contrary, the language is clear and direct. At some point it seems aimed to parents whose child has been recently diagnosed with autism. The information is direct and clear, but it does not patronize any kind of situation. On the contrary, it is an excellent source of articles, clear explanations and particular information about people dedicated to children with the disease. The information is organized by category, so it is easy for the user to find the information needed.

Other: The categories in the first page guide the user to a variety of sites where the reader can obtain a lot of information without losing focus of the lecture. Resources like news, specific issues and a extend library of articles not dedicated to autism but related to it, expands the knowledge about many medical and psychological conditions. The links to reports and publications in other languages is a plus (more than a 16 languages). Includes social programs, pharmacology, support groups, mail lists, organizations and articles about psychological problems.

URL: http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/bandura.htm

Summary: Albert Bandura’s Theory of Behaviors: Bandura felt that studying children’s development and behaviors was very important. According to the website, Bandura believed that “individuals do not actually inherit violent tendencies? but “aggression is learned through a process called behavior modeling? What this means is that the child only imitates what he/she sees the adult handle and react to situations. Bandura believed that “aggression in children is influenced by the reinforcement of family members, the media, and the environment.?When children show signs of aggression they are only using the same “aggressive tactics?that their parents use.

Evaluation: This site had a lot of information about the derivation of where aggression begins. There was a great amount of information about Bandura’s theory, enough to understand what he theorized about the derivation of aggression. The information was extremely precise, easy to understand and to relate to his theory. I found it interesting that I could relate to the thought of us modeling our parents, media and etc. because if you think about it, we now, sometimes model media in one way or another whether by aggression or something else. It was interesting to come to that conclusion. I really enjoyed reading up on Bandura’s Theory. This was a very interesting website.

Other: Other Topics were the criticisms of Bandura’s theory and how they felt that the children were manipulated to the actions that they showed. The site also mentions the different debates on whether or not media has anything to do with aggression.

Summary: The website chosen was created by Margaret Delores Isom and published for a criminology course at FSU. The website relates criminal behavior to Bandura's Social Learning Theory. It begins with biographical information about Bandura and then covers his experiments and theories. According to Isom, Albert Bandura argued that individuals, especially children, learn aggressive reponses from observing others, either personally or through the media and environment. He stated that many individuals believed that aggression will produce reinforcements. These reinforcements can formulate into reduction of tension, gaining financial rewards, or gaining the praise of others, or building self-esteem. In the Bobo doll experiment, the children imitated the aggression of the adults because of the rewarded gained. The article also covers contemporary views and criticisms relating violence to behavior modeling.

Evaluation: This website was very informative and easy to read. It gave a clear definition of Bandura’s Theory and made a clear correlation between behavior modeling and criminology. In the article it states learning occurs when individuals observes and imitate others’ behavior. There are four component processes influenced by the observer’s behavior following exposure to models. These components include attention; retention; motor reproduction and motivation. Individuals cannot learn much by observation unless they perceive and attend to the significant features of the modeled behavior then the individual must code the information into long-term memory. Therefore, the information will be retrieval. For motor reproduction, the observer must learn and posses the physical capabilities of the modeled behavior. In the final process, the observer expects to receive positive reinforcements for the modeled behavior. Isom also states that environmental experiences are a second influence of the social learning of violence. Bandura reported that individuals that live in high crime rate areas are more likely to act violently than those who dwell in low-crime areas. He also believed that television could be a source of modeling.

Other: The contemporary views and criticisms stated in the article are conflicting. The viewpoint reflected by the contemporaries believes that television plays a major part in criminal behavior of an individual. Whereas, biological theorist criticize that the social learning theory completely ignores individuals biological state. Also, they state that the social learning theory rejects the differences of individuals due to genetic, brain, and learning differences.

Summary: This website was created by Dr. C. George Boerre. It is obvious that Albert Bandura was a master at behaviors. This website shows his progress in achieving ways of understanding behaviors. Bandura believed that the environment and a person’s behavior cause each other. Observational learning and modeling are laid out for you on this website by using the example of the bobo doll studies. It explains how he used a bobo doll to do an experiment on young children. They reacted to what they saw on film and portrayed it in the own lives. There are four steps that are used in modeling: Attention, Retention, Reproduction, and Motivation. Also using reinforcements and punishments through motivation gives the person a purpose for doing an action. It also discusses Self-Regulation. Self-regulation is when we control our own behavior. This website covers many topics and gives examples of each so one may understand it clearly. Therapy is also lightly discussed on this website. It gives us a clearer understanding into the mind of Bandura and how he concluded to his beliefs of these theories.

Evaluation: While searching for a website to summarize, this one stuck out as the most informative. I believe that this website is very helpful in trying to understand Bandura's theory. It rationalizes the theories clearly by giving examples for each topic, which makes it easier for us to visualize what he is trying to explain. The accuracy on this topic seems to be perfect by portraying his beliefs in the correct manner. Bandura is a very intelligent man that has many ideas of what causes behaviors and how they are molded into our minds.

Other: There is a brief biography given at the beginning of the page which I believe is helpful to the student because it gives his credentials and past accomplishments. This helps us to understand that his ideas truly have been tested. This was a very fulfilling assignment for me. I got to take a deeper look into Bandura’s theory, which is an interest of mine.

Summary: Social learning theory is the behavior theory that is most relevant to criminology. Albert Bandura, who is interested in child development, believed that aggressive behavior is learned through a process called behavior modeling. The violent behaviors are not inherited, but they are modeled after three principles. Albert Bandura also believed that this behavior was more prevalent to children. He felt that children learn these responses from observing others either personally or through the media and the environment. Bandura also stated that many individuals believe that aggression will produce reinforcements. These reinforcements can reduce tension, gain financial rewards, gain the praise of other individuals, or even build one’s self-esteem. Bandura felt that if aggression was diagnosed early in children, then the child would reframe from being an adult criminal. Albert Bandura also felt that aggression in children was influenced by the reinforcement of family members, the media, and the environment.

Evaluation: This website gave a very in depth look to who Albert Bandura really is. It gave a biographical sketch of how he made it to the point where he was most recognized as an individual. This website I felt was very useful to me. If I was assigned a paper to find out who Albert Bandura is, then this would be a good site to look at because it tells you all you need to know about him as a child through adulthood. If I need to find out a basic understanding of the Social Learning Theory, I feel that this site would not be as useful. This website was clear and gave good knowledge in helping me understand Albert Bandura and his Social Learning Theory.

Other: Albert Bandura and the Social Learning Theory was the only thing that this website covered. From this website you could click on an icon that would give you a list of all the honors he acclaimed and a timeline of his life.

Summary: This website begins with some biographical information and a listing of all books that Bandura has written. It continues with a discussion about the social learning theory, and how internal events, like emotions and cognitions, are important as well. As a social learning theorist, Albert Bandura believed that human personality is mainly learned within a social context. It further discusses how Bandura thought cognition was neither an ego or creative self, but rather it is a product of both behavior and environment. It also discusses Bandura's thoughts on reinforcement, that it is an antecedent rather than a consequence of a behavior. That if someone is anticpating a reinforcement, it will influence what is learned and retained. Also, people must realize the connections between actions and outcomes. Also a discussion of self-efficacy, and what factors can influence one's self-efficacy was enlightening. Listing verbal persuasion, emotional arousal, and modeling as effective forms of psychotherapy in children to promote self-efficacy.

Evaluation: This website provides some helpful information, but could have been better organized - grammatically and in content. It gave great information regarding self-efficacy, and methods to promote it. Reading this article alone would probably not be sufficient enough information for Bandura, and I did find several other articles that were great resources, but unfortunately so did my classmates.

Other: Other Theorists are covered on this website: Watson, Skinner, Mischel. Other theories covered: Cognitive complexity, Correlational Theories on Personality.

Summary: “The Social Learning Theory”, from Keith Rutledge’s notes on Ormond’s psychology of learning is a website that contains Albert Bandura’s social learning theory. Social learning theory focuses on the learning that occurs within a social context. It considers that people learn from one another using methods such as observational learning, imitation, and modeling. This website explains the general principals of the social learning theory. The principals are broken down to several categories such as; how the environment reinforces and punishes modeling, contemporary social learning perspective of reinforcement and punishment, and cognitive factors in social learning. The author stresses that modeling is a key factor in how behavior can be learned. With respect to modeling he emphasizes the conditions necessary for effective modeling to occur as well as the effects of modeling on behavior. He further goes on to discuss self-efficacy, self-regulation, self-instructions, self-monitoring, and self-reinforcement. The author concludes this site by addressing the Educational implications of social learning theory. Here, he points out the many implications that the social learning theory has for classroom use.

Evaluation: The information presented by the author in this website was helpful. It provided a lot of information about Bandura’s social learning theory. The material provided was detailed but not too detailed to detach the reader from the material being covered. The author numbered his points and bolded the main heading allowing his readers to follow more precisely. Overall the information was presented in a clear and concise manner. The lack of multiple sources of information gives this website a somewhat limited view on Bandura’s interpretation of the social learning theory. Despite this flaw the website still provides an accurate depiction of social learning theory. In all, I think this website is very comprehensive and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about Bandura’s social learning theory.

Other: This website specifically addresses the social learning theory. It has no information on Albert Bandura except that he is the leading proponent of this theory. There are no additional links or documentations on this website.

Summary: This website was created by Hayley M. Cavino, a Doctoral Candidate for Instructional Design Development and Evaluation at Syracuse University. Hayley discuss Bandura’s Social-Cognitive Learning Theory. Hayley presents key concepts, a concept map, instructional example, the importance to instructional design, and Reflections: Changing Perceptions and unanswered questions. Hayle gives perceptions on social problems, learning and performance, punishment, the media, vicarious punishment, and self-efficacy. A list of related resources is given for reference.

Evaluation: This website is useful for learning about theories and how they work. Clear instructional examples and concept maps are given to explain how the theory works. This website doesn’t give background information about the theory. Instead, illustrates a parallel to other theories.

Other: Hayley discuss other theories such as: Carl Roger’s and Humanism, Gagne’s Instructional Theory and Individual Differences, Weiner’s Motivation and Attribution Theory.

Summary: The Psi Café (a psychology resource website) provides excellent information on Bandura’s Theory amongst other psychology topics of interest. This website offers an array of information on Bandura’s Theory explaining how Albert Bandura is a behaviorist who believes that one’s environment causes one’s behavior. The Psi Café website resource section under key theorists and theorists furnish articles that talk about Bandura’s belief that the environment, mind, and behavior all play an important role in one’s learning process. A study Bandura conducted, called the Bobo Doll Study, was the basis for this find, which was explained on this website. Psi Café also provides links addressing Bandura’s research and theories. Nicole Sage, a graduate teaching assistant and student in the Department of Psychology at Portland State University, constructed the website in 1999. The Psi Café was designed to provide links to high quality websites that recognize psychological issues. It displays sections of information and resources that can be found on the Internet about the general field of psychology; the various sub fields; classic, as well as current, theories/research in psychology; psychology programs, institutes, associations, and organizations; as well as application of psychological issues in daily life. The Psi Café shows that psychology has become what it is today because of the work of many great theorists in past centuries.

Evaluation: This website was created for teachers and students; however it can be very useful for any person seeking the understanding of Bandura’s Theory and general educational psychology. Psi Café goes into great depth explaining why Bandura is recognized for his work with modeling and learning. By discussing, how Bandura assigns modeling as the prominent reason behind the regulation and acquisition of thought, affect, and action. This website is clear and precise on how it presents Bandura’s Theory through written articles. The Psi Café shows how Bandura conducted many studies involving observational learning, or modeling. The modeling process included several steps: 1. Attention- In order for an individual to learn anything, he or she must pay attention to the features of the modeled behavior; 2. Retention- If an individual is to be influence by observing behaviors he or she needs to remember the activities that were modeled at one time or another; 3. Reproduction- It involves converting symbolic representations into appropriate actions; 4. Motivation- To imitate a behavior, the person must have some motivating factor behind it, such as incentives that a person envisions. The Psi Café attempts to provide references to the sources it use. However, the website does not confirm all of the source sites that are listed. I would not recommend this website for secondary students, because of the complexity of the site.

Other: This website also provide information about Attachment Theory which emphasizes the dynamic interaction of the maturation of the human organism, across the life span, with the contexts in which maturational possibilities are expressed around the functions of self-protection, reproduction, and protection of progeny. Functional Theory which is the philosophy of the mind which, most simply, holds that mental states are functional states. Cognitive Theory which is the interdisciplinary study of the mind and intelligence, embracing philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. Lastly, Structural Theory which sought to analyze the adult mind (defined as the sum total of experience from birth to the present) in terms of the simplest definable components and then to find the way in which these components fit together in complex forms. This website also offers the latest in news developments in psychology.

URL: http://spearfish.k12.sd.us/west/master/peters/page1.html

Summary: The website begins by talking about the importance and effects of behavior modification used by teachers (shape student behavior, increase performance, and discourage distracting behaviors). The website also talks about Behaviorism as a whole and some of its theorists. It specifically talks about B.F. Skinner and his work with Behaviorism/behavior modification. It also has a direct link to a website dedicated to Skinner and his work. It talks about reinforcers and punishments. It speaks about Watson and his influence on behavior modification. The websites goes in to why teachers should use behavior modification methods and has links on specific methods used in different cases. The website also talks about the logic behind using behavior modification in a classroom setting and its history.

Evaluation: I think this is a great website on behavior modification because it not only talks about how to use behavior modification in a classroom setting but also on the logic behind it. It tells the teacher what is the purpose on using behavior modification and the research to back its usefulness in a classroom. I love the way the website is written in a way that anyone can read and understand. I love the fact that they have so many links for more reading on the subject. For example, they have a section on links for the teacher to view when looking for specific behavior modification techniques and tips. They also have a section on links on additional sites covering behaviorism (the background and logic behind behavior modification). The best thing about this website is the fact that it is covered with so many links, each linking to the specific topic that is underlined and that you just pushed on. For example, as I was reading the text that is found on this specific website I came upon the name Watson, as I pushed on the name Watson I was linked to another website completely dedicated to Watson and his work. I think that is great in that I learned more than I was looking for.

Other: Behaviorism as a whole is talked about in this website. It talks about behavior modification but deals with Behaviorism (theories, theorists, history, etc.) to show the reader where behavior modification comes from and the logic/research behind it. The website has a link to the Learning Theory as well.

URL: http://forerunner.com/forerunner/X0497_DeMar_-_Behaviorism.html

Summary: This website talks about the history of behaviorism, starting with John B. Watson. He says that psychology should only be concerned with behavior. Then a man named Ivan Pavlov took Watson’s ideas and did experiments based on Watson’s theories. Pavlov found that in an experiment done with dogs, that you can “condition” them to respond to certain stimuli. He believed, along with Watson, that you could “condition” humans the same way. Today, behaviorism is associated with B.F. Skinner. He also tested Watson’s theories, except Skinner rejected Watson’s findings. Skinner believed that people respond to their environment, but that we also operate on the environment to produce certain consequences. He developed a theory known as “operant conditioning”, which basically means that we behave the way we do today because of certain past consequences. Behaviorism can be associated with education, psychology, and sociology. Four main presuppositions of behaviorism are: 1. Behaviorism is naturalistic. 2. Behaviorism teaches that man is nothing more than a machine that responds to conditioning. 3. Behaviorism teaches that we are not responsible for our actions. 4. Behaviorism is manipulative. Skinner’s main idea was to have behaviorism as the basis for manipulating patients, students and whole societies. So basically, Skinner wanted everyone to be free of responsibility, freedom and dignity. He wanted everyone to be shaped by those who used behaviorism effectively.

Evaluation:This website contained a great amount of information regarding behaviorism as a whole. The author, Gary DeMar, did not go into great detail about any particular point. He did, though, cover the main points behind the theory of behaviorism well. DeMar made these ideas clear to us in his article. The information he provided gives a good background on behaviorism, but does not give good insight into how someone would go about using this theory, or how exactly you could apply this theory in education. His thoughts are well organized and to the point.

Other: DeMar addresses the religious aspects regarding behaviorism. He states many times how the Bible does not agree with Watson’s theories. He talks about how behaviorism “shapes” the behavior of people. On the contrary, the Bible commands us to love thy neighbor, not to manipulate them. He stresses this point many times in this article, and backs up his beliefs with the opposing biblical view of the same topic.

Summary: This website is completely devoted to behaviorism. It starts out by defining in depth what the term behaviorism means. It then describes three types of behaviorism: methodological, psychological, and analytical. After describing these three types, the history of behaviorism is then told. It goes on to discuss people associated with behaviorism such as, John Locke, David Hume, and of course B.F. Skinner. There is also a section in the site that speaks specifically about Skinner, and his social worldview. This site also discusses many interesting points that include: popularity of behaviorism, why be a behaviorist, and why be an anti-behaviorist. A summary completes this very informative website.

Evaluation:I was very impressed with this website. It was very well organized and easy to read. At the top of the site there is a list of all of the major headings that are listed throughout the site. Instead of having to scroll down through the whole site to find the heading that someone would need, you can simply click on the heading and it takes you directly to that section. I found the information in this section to be very useful. Some of the information I had learned previously in other classes, but a great deal of the information was new to me. I would definitely recommend this website to anyone who already knows about behaviorism, and also to those who have never heard of it. I believe it would be equally informative to both groups.

Other: There were no other topics addressed in this site. It was strictly dedicated to behaviorism. The only thing I found that was not specifically about behaviorism was that there were links at the end of the site. There were three links provided. The first was to the Association for Behavior Analysis, the second was to the Behavior Analysis Homepage, and the third was to Walden Two, Twin Oaks Community, Virginia

Summary: This website is basically a description of what behaviorism is and the different types of behaviorism. The introduction begins with the definition of behaviorism. Behaviorism is a theory in the philosophy of mind which maintains that the talk of mental events should be translated into talk about observable behavior. The theory of behaviorism argues that the mind is a distinct substance from material bodies. In this article, behaviorism is open to several criticisms such that mental events such as pain, seeing bright light, or hearing a song all involve more than one predicted behavior.

Evaluation:In my opinion, this website could have offered more information on the topic of behaviorism, although some points that were made were informative. Although there is not that much information presented on this topic, the information presented was clarified and backed up by good examples. For being such a short article, this website offered an in depth discussion and examples of behaviorism in a way that answered all of the questions that I would have asked. I liked the way that that it discussed the way that behaviorism took a philosophical turn with positivists such as Hempel, Carnap, and Ayer. This showed that the topics were clarified and expaned upon. I believe that this topic would not be useful in my own profession as an educator. I think that this website analyzes the topic of behaviorism too much and furthermore would not be helpful in my teaching profession.

Other: Basically this website just addressed the topic of behaviorism. All of the information was backed up by research and many examples to prove the point. Instead of just discussing behaviorism in general, this website discussed many important types of behaviorism such as the most important type of behaviorism,logical or philosophical behaviorism. After this point was made there was a reference to a book that could be used to follow up this point. Also, the website discussed Skinner and Watson and their contributions to behaviorism. Both of these men contributed by conducting experiments which linked behaviors with many of the terms commonly used to describe mental states.

Summary: B.F. Skinner was a behavior psychologist. He became famous for his research by using his "Skinner Box". Skinner used this research to analyze the operant conditioning of human behavior. "operant condition" describes one type of associative learning in which there is a contingency betveen the response and the presentation of the reinforcement (pg. 4). In his research, Skinner used rats and pigeon to press a lever in order to obtain food reward and punishment by electronic shock to shape their behavior. This research is able to generate certain motor-output and learning tasks at hand. For eample, first the rat has to learn that pellets are food, the rat will be put in "Skinner box" and will be reinforce everytime the rat is hungry and by pressing on the level, food will be rewarded. From his research, Skinner's thoery has no problem with the reinforcement adn determination of the rat's behavior. However, base on this thoery compare to human being, it is totally a different situation. Skinner applied his theory and published the "Walden Two" and " Beyond Freedom and Dignity". In the "Walden Two", Skinner explained how his theory would work in real life, and In the "Beyond Freedom and Dignity", he discussed that man has no indwelling personality, no will intention, self-determinism, and freedom. He also mentioned that man intelligence are being control to behave by some one. Skinner's theory raise many problem and questionnaires issues when apply his theory to real life situations. One concern about this theory for his first real life human experiment was Skinner's daughter, Debbie was place in the "Skinner box" when she was little. She committed suicide that the age of twenty. Another probelm concern to his theory is a question of who what man should be, if Skinner said that human have no free will, nor personality, or self-determination. Since psychology means the study of the mind and soul, compare to behavior psychologist, nothing applies to mind but simply people controlling our measurement. Base on Skinner's idea of "react" and "behave" that is nothing more than chemical or stimulus-response reaction in the brain to evolutionary ecological forces. He states taht almost everyone attributes human behavior to intention, purposes, aims and goals as if they had wills for that we can not solve anything. Also it is the environment which is responsible for the abhorrent behavior. with the "Skinner Box" I can see that rat can be control, it can not use to relate to human behavior.

Evaluation:The information from this web-site point out the weakness of B.F. Skinner's theory that Dr. Liberman's had discussed in his lectures. He stated "If all of us is passive than who is the one to decise and shape our behaviors". the B.F. Skinner's theory proven to be contradiction to the theory itself when apply to human being. Since human are so complex, it is not a good idea idea just apply one his system human being as whole. Human being are unique each and individual, we are capable to think and think differently. If Skinner's theory conclude that man has no indwelling personality, no will intention, self-determinism, and freedom, than all of the human creative mind are useless??

Other: About Behaviorism - by B.F. Skinner Beyond Freedom and Dignity - by B.F. Skinner Waldon Two - by B.F. Skiner Say not to Psychiatry!

Summary: This web-site discusses the broad definition of behaviorism. It first discusses that John B. Watson originated the thought of behaviorism. The belief was fully explored through B F Skinner. This is because Skinner made his reputation by testing Watson’s theories in a laboratory. Skinner developed the theory of operant condition, which basically states that we behave the way we do because of the consequences that will occur. These consequences could be either good or bad. The web-sites also states that behaviorism teaches that man is nothing more than a machine that can be programmed to do anything. It states that the spiritual being of man does not exist according to behaviorism. In conclusion, this web-site told many great facts about behaviorism, but it seemed to be presented with a slant.

Evaluation:First, as I stated above, the web-site does give many great facts on behaviorism. The site tells the background of behaviorism and the major points of it. That is where the web-site ends. It does not go into any depth of the issues of behaviorism and the issues that it does talk about, it discusses with a slant. The author of this web site does not like the behaviorist point of view, and basically uses the site to tell his opinion. I understand that there are many different opinions of behaviorism, and for this site to be more thorough, it should have presented all of the sides. The author of this web site uses as the only reason to disprove the theory. IT makes statements such as “Skinner wants behaviorism to be the basis for manipulating patients, students, and whole societies.” Although some of the information presented was useful, I do not believe that the web site as a whole could be useful to someone who was researching behaviorism.

Other: This web site did not address any other information relevant to psychology. The only two issues that it addresses are behaviorism and religion. It did draw a few conclusions between the two, but other than that, I could not find the web sit to contain any other useful information.

Summary: This website offers a section on behaviorism titled, “Personality Psychology: Behaviorism. It offers a summary of behaviorism, which gives an overview of how behaviorism began with attempts to explain the simple behaviors of rats, pigeons, and other animals. After behaviorism was successful in predicting the behaviors of animals in constrained experimental situations, the field of Psychology turned its attention to human beings. It also briefly summarizes what behaviorism is and what it has to do with personality. Secondly, it offers a page of terms (including definitions) that are related to behaviorism. Some examples are Fixed-Interval Schedule, Punishment, Reinforcement, etc. Thirdly, the website gives a detailed essay about how behaviorism began with the work of John Watson, Basics of Behaviorism, and Applying Behaviorism to Personality. Next, it gives a page that relates The Social Cognitive Approach to personality. This page discusses the basic assumptions of The Social Cognitive Approach and Self-Efficacy. Lastly, it offers a page of five study questions and it also offers links to each answer.

Evaluation: This is a great website. It is easy to navigate. It allows you to search for the topic of your choice. When I selected behaviorism, it provided me with a Table of Contents. I had each choice right in front of me, in an organized fashion. This website offers good information about behaviorism. The information about behaviorism is profound and comprehensible. It also goes a step further by tying behaviorism in with The Social Cognitive Theory. The summary, terms, and study questions are all very helpful to the user. I also liked the way the website highlighted important words and you can click on them to get further information. The only negative part about the website, is that you have to join the website to view all of the information. It just takes extra time when you are researching because you have to submit your personal information to view all of the material.

Other: This website also offers information on other topics relevant to Psychology. It discusses: Developmental Psychology (language, social/emotional, cognition/perception), Cognitive Psychology (attention, perception, memory, language, problem solving), Personality (psychodynamic, trait, humanistic), Neuropsychology (the neuron, brain anatomy), and Abnormal Psychology (anxiety disorders, mood disorders, Schizophrenia).

Summary: This Website covered various aspects of positive reinforcements and other types of reinforcements and their effects on learning and behavior. There were examples given on how teachers can use reinforcements, weather positive or negative, to increase student behaviors that will lead to mastering learning. The text goes further to break down positive reinforcement into social and material reinforcement. Each of which can be used to create a positive learning environment. The site also explains the different schedules of reinforcement. Continuous, fixed-ratio, fixed-interval, variable-ratio, and variable-interval are all types of reinforcement that can prolong the occurrence of a desirable behavior. At the conclusion of this article, it is mentioned that rewards and punishments should be used carefully. It gives suggestions about how to effectively use them with students and not make a bad situation worse.

Evaluation: In evaluating this Website, I found that it did go into great depth on the subject matter. Since the title of it was “Rewards and Punishments”, it went into the technical aspects of them both and how to use them effectively. The Website also was very clear in explaining the different methods and their benefits. It was very informative by going into sub headings dealing with the positive and negative approaches to reinforcement. Also, the schedules of reinforcement were made clear by definitions and corresponding examples. In comparison with other texts I have read on behaviorism and reinforcement, this one seemed to be pretty accurate in its information. Its facts matched up with those of other documents of its kind. Being a student who is going into the field of education, I found it very useful in my studies of teaching, training, and development. The specific examples of what the teacher can do to increase desirable behaviors were especially helpful.

Other: This site also goes through different types of constructive punishment and how to use them to decrease undesirable behaviors in students.

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Summary: Bilingual Education: The website I evaluated, the ERIC (Educational Resource Information Center) Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, is operated by the Center for Applied Linguistics, a private non-profit organization. This website contains helpful information for a teacher, a parent or any person looking for information such as Spanish Bilingual Education, English as A Second Language, language diversity, etc. The website provides a wide range of services and materials like a section on frequently asked questions, and resources guides online (links to websites, publications and other sources of information).

Evaluation: Publications focus on current trends and issues in the language education field. The website includes Digest like A Global Perspective on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, which discusses the multiple languages in Education, research on the use of first and second languages, and the common threads of successful programs; Promoting a Language Proficient Society suggests specific ways that parents; teacher, school administrator, policymakers, and members of the business community can foster the learning of languages among children and adults; Tapping a National Resource: Heritage Languages in the United States outlines the reasons for an challenges of developing the language skills of heritage language speakers; and Ten Common Fallacies about Bilingual Education clarifies some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding language use and bilingual education in the United States. Another link is the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education. This subject is complicated because of the difficulties of formulating a strong research object due to the variations among bilingual education programs. The link provides ERIC digest, annotated bibliographies, books, monograph, other publications and websites (National Clearinghouse on Bilingual Education, etc. Also a list of synopsis is included on the search done on the ERIC database. A digest on pro/con on bilingual education is Why Bilingual Education, which examines criticism of bilingual education and its effect on public opinion, discusses the rationales underlying good bilingual education programs and summarizes research finding about their effectiveness. Overall, this website has very helpful digest or online resources.

Other: Other topics address languages such as Asian, Native and Black American. Links also provide clearinghouses for Elementary and Early Childhood Education; Reading, English and Communication; Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education; Social Studies/Social Science Education; and Teaching and Teacher Education

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Summary: The psychological foundation of Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language is Second Language Acquisition (SLA). An educator or linguist must understand the processes of SLA to fully comprehend to teach Bilingual Education or English as a Second Language. SLA is “a theoretical and experimental field of study which, like first language acquisition studies, looks at the phenomenon of language development, in this case, the acquisition of second languages. A great site on the Internet to use as research is ICoSLA. The goal of the International Commission on Second Language Acquisition (ICoSLA) is “to explain the processes underlying non-native language acquisition.” This website mainly discusses SLA and its role in Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language. This website is very organized, which makes it easy to search for correct and relevant information. The very beginning of the home page displays information on ICoSLA, SLA, and applying SLA (also linked). Other links include labeled boxes that link to a glossary, library, resources, tutorials, journals, a calendar, and other helpful places. The glossary defines terms that frequent SLA. The library includes papers, articles, power point presentations, monographs, and bibliographies pertaining to SLA to aid research. The research resources link includes many SLA sites, as well as psychology sites, dealing with SLA. Only private users may log onto the tutorials, but the journals and associations link addresses all aspects, like bilingualism: language and cognition, which is linked to the University of Houston library page. The calendar of events portrays past, present, and future events and includes minutes of meetings, articles of discussions, and materials presented at the events.

Evaluation: Grading the website on a scale of 1-5, ICoSLA receives a 5 overall. The information on the ICoSLA website is not too much in depth, a 3 on the scale, because it is so general in what it discusses, but the links it provides are very detailed and in depth. With what is presented, the material and information is very clear, a 4 on the scale, and easy to follow. The information is very accurate (perfect score for accuracy)and the usefulness of the website receives a 6 on a scale of 5 because if the information is not presented within the website, it guides you to the right ones.

Other: “SLA is an essential point of reference for researchers looking at how to facilitate the learning process.” Bilingual educators and English as a Second Language teachers need to visit this website to gain more knowledge on the processes of acquiring second language. ICoSLA also covers bilingual education - at a great length - applied linguistics, second language research, and language acquisition in addition to SLA. Another great aspect of this website is that it is international, therefore more than just the English language is addressed; spanning its wings across many languages and including much more research.

Summary: My website topic is second language acquisition. For this topic I found the website for the Center for Applied Linguistics or abbreviated CAL. CAL was the first organization of their kind to focus on training of qualified personnel and development of appropriate materials for English as a second language and foreign language instruction. Their motto is “Improving communication through better understanding of language and culture.” This website is a private, non-profit organization formed by a group of scholars and educators who use the findings of linguistics and related sciences in identifying and addressing language-related problems. This is a wonderful website for identifying and addressing language-related problems. The colors of this website are blue and black. The first page on the CAL web page provides users with the most current resources available and events taking place for teachers of foreign languages. Also listed on the first page are job openings for CAL, and a link for subscribing to What’s New from CAL by e-mail. There are thirteen categories listed on the left side of the web page that link to subcategories, which in turn connect users to other useful links. The first category listed is About CAL which provides users with information on CAL’s mission, where they are located, their staff and divisions, their history, and the information if a person wants to visit CAL. CAL was founded in 1959 by Charles Ferguson with funding from the Ford Foundation. CAL is a resource that Bilingual and ESL educators can use to learn new methods in teaching and to identify and solve problems related to language and culture. Thus, Bilingual and ESL educators will be able to improve their teaching of the English language. There is so much information in this website that a person could spend several hours. A Table of Contents category provides links to News from CAL, CAL in the News, upcoming and local events at CAL. In this same category there are thirteen topic areas, such as Bilingual Education and K-12 ESL Education. If you click on the Bilingual Education link you will find information about current CAL projects in Bilingual Education such as the Two-Way Immersion Education Program and Transfer of Reading Skills from Spanish to English: A Study of Young Learners Program. Under each current CAL project link is a brief description stating what the project is about. If you click on the link Transfer of Reading Skills from Spanish to English: A Study of Young Learners you will be able to read this article, which appeared in NABE News. You will find an Overview, the Rationale for Study Design, the Study Design, and the Findings from the study conducted. If you click on the link K-12 ESL Education, you will find an article about ESL. You will also find an Overview, Rationale, Study Design, and Findings in the Transfer of Reading Skills from Spanish to English link. The website provides a search engine where users can type in a topic, phrase, or word and it pulls up related information. There are also tips on how to search the website. In the Databases/Directories category there are links under Foreign Language, K-12 Language Education Programs, and Adult Education. Under each link is a brief summary about the database or directory. Clicking on a link will bring up the databases and directories a teacher of foreign language may need. The Clearinghouses and Centers category has links to two ERIC clearinghouses: the ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics and the National Center for ESL Literacy Education. Under each link is a brief description of the clearinghouses. Also under the Clearinghouses and Centers category are links to a number of projects at CAL that are being conducted. Clicking on one of the links will give more information about the projects’ activities at CAL. In the Publications and Products category a person can browse and shop online for CAL’s priced products. You can also choose an area to browse CAL’s free publications and products as well as CAL-authored products published and sold by other publishers. The Services category states that CAL staff can provide schools with pre-service and in-service professional development for staff in programs for teaching of foreign languages and teaching English as a second language. CAL staff also evaluate bilingual, ESL, and foreign language programs and can provide educators with technical assistance. On this page there is listed an email address and a phone number to contact someone at the Center for Applied Linguistics. The last category, Links, provides many links to any topic you are interested. If you click on that link there are more links you can click on that open up to another website. This website is so awesome. You can use it to find many useful resources you may need for teaching English as a second language.

Evaluation: This website goes beyond basic knowledge about second language acquisition and language-related problems. It provides articles and databases regarding numerous topics that foreign language educators are faced with every week. This website can be easily read and understood. If you cannot find what you are looking for, you can do a search, which will provide you with the information you need. This is a very useful website for not only educators, but anyone.

Other: The website not only deals with second language acquisition; it provides information for United States service providers to help new refugees adjust to life in the United States and how educators can better meet the needs of immigrant students. The website also provides a link to the Coalition on Language Diversity in Education, which addresses the Ebonics controversy in the education of Ebonics speakers and other African American students.

Summary: The website I found is National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition. Within this website I found an article which summed up some psychological issues a bilingual student might face once they enter an American school. The article starts by saying that America is such an egocentric country. The idea that America is superior may cause American children to believe that they are more superior to the minority children in their classrooms. Sensing a feeling of unwelcome and unwantedness can cause psychological damage to the minority children. In addition, the American children may think that the minority children have a low socio-economic status compared to them. The minority children may also be stereotyped and criticized for not believing or liking what American children like.

Evaluation: I thought this website was very interesting. It was very clear about issues bilingual education faces. The website also offers article like the one I mentioned of many opposing views. This website was very knowledgeable and up to date with all the information it had on it. I think that this is a very useful website for anyone wanting to learn about the history of bilingual education, the issues with it now, the new legislation and other hot topics.

Other: This NCELA website contains other topics such as an online library, recent news, legislation issues, ideas for educators, a place for discussion and a map that can provide you with news for your local area.

Summary: The web site I chose to evaluate was the web site for The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE). The propose of the NABE according to the homepage is to, “Promote educational excellence and equity through bilingual education. The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) is the only national organization exclusively concerned with the education of language-minority students in American schools.” The NABE web site has up to date information about the organization itself and its’ mission statement along with the most frequently asked questions. It also includes coverage about recent NABE conferences and current legislation and policies. This web site makes available press coverage and which includes NABE’s recent activities. As an added feature, the web site includes a discussion forum and an application to join NABE.

Evaluation:The NABE web site is a wonderful resource for information about bilingual education. It does more than just provide basic information, it goes into great depth covering all important aspects of the topic. The format is clear and very easy to follow. If someone were looking to gain insight about this topic, this web site would be a great tool to use. I personally have found it to be helpful in my understanding of the subject of bilingual education. The section I found most informative was the FAQ section. I was able to gain insight into questions such as, “Why doesn’t it make sense to impose limits on the time a child can spend in a bilingual situation,” and “Where can I get information about bilingual education programs”. If there is any fault in this web site it is, in my opinion, relatively one sided. This organization obviously favors bilingual education programs and does its’ best to focus on the positive aspects of it. Overall, this would be a great web site for someone to visit who wanted to learn more about bilingual education.

Other: This web site is primarily focused on the topic of bilingual education and would not be a good site to search if you are wanting to explore other topics.

Summary: The topic of the wedsite deals with theory and practice in bilingual/cross cultural special education. The topic is on culturally and linguistically different students (CLDE). It offers an insight to the psychological problems that CLDE students face due to their limited English language, their poverty, and racial or ethnic characteristics. The website examines the misrepresentation of CLDE students as handicapped. It also defines high risk students and their socioeconomic status and cultural differences. It helps you understand why these students are falling through the cracks of our educational system. Assessment is explained and the relavence it places on CLDE students. Language based assessments and psychological testing are needed to help the CLDE students. It makes references to psychometric models and the flaws it has when measuring IQ's for these student's. Reaches believe that new models for measuring intelligence should emphasize "speed of processing, knowledge base, strategies, metacognition, and executive control." The focus will then shift from standardized psychometrics models to learning environmental models. "In this type of model, the growth from unassisted performance to mediated or assisted performance( Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development,1978)" can be measured. The web site further explains the problems associated with language assessment and why standardized language assessment are inadequate in assessing dual language abilities. Educational assessments are important and explains how this type af assessment resembles regular educational context that is needed to deal with CLDE students.

Evaluation: The website explains the problems that culturally and linguistically different exceptional (CLDE) students face. It has some valuable information on theory and practice on bilingual and cross-cultural special education. Teacher will face challenging problem as the bilingual population grows.The site emphasizes the need for teachers to be sensitive to language and cultural differences. The site has information describing CLDE students and their needs. Students that are English proficient will develop problems that will impair their psychological and psychical development and this site will address those problems. Assessment and IQ testing are a major concern for CLDE students and this site will explain how it effects this students. The site is insightful and informative to the special needs and attention which will allow CLDE students to be successful in our educational system. This site will be useful to all teachers that will encounter bilingual students with special need that need guidance in psychological development and educational assessment.

Other: Other topics on bilingual special education are explained in this site. There are endorsement and support form legislation and litigation. The site explains the need for research and evaluation of special need for bilingual students. There are finding from reseach that has been done by the Texas and California Handicapped Minority Research Institutes. There are concerns that policy marker will implement policies that will directly effect CLDE students.

Summary: Summary: My website topic is Bilingual Education. For this topic I found a website call Language Policy Site and Emporium by James Crawford's. The colors of the website are gold and white. The website is designed to cover helpful bilingual educational topics such as, encourage discussion of language policy issues, follow current developments such as Colorado's English-only school initiative, report on pending language legislation, illuminate the policy debates over bilingual education by publicizing the latest research findings, flush out canards about bilingualism, track the continuing struggles against Proposition 227, California's anti-bilingual education initiative, and highlight links to other sources of information. There are many categories that link to subcategories, which in turn connect users to other links. The website provides a huge range of information. It has a “What’s New” category that provides the latest information on bilingual education. This website is very well organized and easy to understand. The website offers books that can be purchase for further information on bilingual education. This website also provides recent papers, speeches, and articles. The articles provide a lot of useful information, some articles deal with Heritage Languages in America and Ten Common Fallacies About Bilingual Education while others ask the question Does Bilingual Ed Work? This website also provides the readers with Government Resources, Professional Organizations, and Research and Dissemination Centers. This website is very useful in finding information on bilingual education.

Evaluation: Evaluation: This website is full of information that deals with bilingual education. It provides articles that deal with people’s heritage and the paradox of bilingual education. This website is very well organized and written in language that is easy to understand. I found this website to be very useful in my CUIN 4303 Second Language Acquisition class. I like the fact that it provides the reader with both the good and bad things about bilingual education. I really liked the fact that the website contained the history of bilingual education and how it has changed over the years.

Other: Others: This website also provides information on cognitive and academic growth, family values, and cultural vitality.

URL: http://www.gwu.ed/~tip/bruner.html

Summary: Bruner’s constructivist theory states that learning is an ongoing process in which the learner constructs new ideas and concepts from their current or past knowledge. The learner transforms information, formulates hypotheses, and makes a decision relying on a cognitive structure.

Evaluation:Although this site was not very long on the information, the information that it gave was easy to understand. It was clear on the overview, application, and principles of Bruner’s constructivist theory. Also this site is very useful for instructors to refer to when trying to effectively present material, and the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments.

Other: The constructivist theory is very relevant in the study of education. This theory encourages teachers to encourage their students to discover principle of learning by themselves. This correlates to what Dr. Liberman lectured in class in how to teach students to be good strategy thinkers. Bruner also states four major aspects of his theory, all of which we have touched upon in class. For example one aspect was in the finding the most effective method in presenting the material to the learner. This site has insightful tips that teachers can find helpful in teaching their students.

Summary: Jerome Bruner is an American cognitive psychologist. His theories on learning can be categorized with other constructivists such as Piaget and Vygotsky. Bruner strongly emphasizes the importance of discovery and inquiry learning. Discovery and inquiry learning motivates students, and allows them to construct their own knowledge and understanding through investigating, manipulating, and exploring new concepts. Once an understanding is formed, the students should be encouraged to communicate their discoveries with other students. Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum follows the belief that children have the ability to learn any concept at any age provided that the concept is presented in a developmentally appropriate way. He believes that it is the teacher’s responsibility to break down and present the complex concepts in a way that matches the child’s developmental level, and as the child matures, the teacher is to revisit the concept to increase the child’s level of knowledge. Bruner defines a child’s developmental level through his three learning stages that include: enactive, iconic, and symbolic. The enactive stage develops approximately from birth to three years old. In this stage, children understand objects in their environments in terms of how they can use the objects. The iconic stage develops approximately from ages three to eight. During this stage, children are developing and increasing their visual memories, which allow them to imagine or think about objects or events without actually experiencing them at that particular time. The symbolic stage begins developing around age eight. During this stage, children develop symbolic representation of activities, people, and objects, and children begin to talk and think about things in abstract terms. In addition, Bruner is an advocate of education reform. He promotes authentic assessment, the use of technology in the classroom, and individualization of instruction.

Evaluation: The website provided a sufficient amount of information about Bruner. The information was clear, to the point, well organized, and easy to understand. The website gives a brief overview of Bruner’s background and theories. All of Bruner’s theories can be easily applied to classroom instruction. When compared to other websites and references such as The Encyclopedia of Psychology, the information on the website is accurate. Also, the website included several quotes from Bruner’s The Process of Education and The Culture of Education. The website also contains a useful technology section, which addresses the use of technology in the classroom. The author of the website, who is also a professor at Ball State University, believes that technology should support teaching, and teachers should use technology to make learning more meaningful and relevant. The author also connects Bruner’s theories to the use of technology in the classroom.

Other: The website had a great list of references including several of Bruner’s books and educational journal articles. The website also briefly discussed and compared Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories to Bruner’s theories of education. The author of the website, Stephen M. Ransom, is a currently working on his Ph.D. of Educational Technology. His interest in technology is reflected through the website where there are four pages devoted to technology in the classroom. As stated previously, the author believes that technology should support and extend learning. The website also has information about Bruner’s educational background, books he has written, awards he has received, his professional experience, and links to other Bruner websites. Unfortunately only two of the four links were active.

Summary: Jerome Brurner is an American psychologist who has impacted the twentieth century with profound contribution to the process of education and the development of the curriculum theory. One of his early books titled Process of Education, changed the views of many teachers because it stated that children were active problem solvers who were ready to explore difficult subjects. Basically saying let the children test the waters out, without a teacher holding their hand. Brurner created an approach for a child’s development level that was characterized by three stages, inactive, ionic, and symbolic; which were solidly based on the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. When dealing with the inactive mode one is using some known aspects of reality with out using words or imagination. This involves manly knowing how to do something; it involves a series of actions for achieving a goal. The iconic mode deals with the internal imagery, where images stand for concepts. This process depends on visual or other sensory associations. The symbolic mode allows one to deal with what might be and what might not, and is a major tool in reflective thinking. One of his major points is that teachers should encourage students to discover things for them selves. Teachers shouldn’t give the students answers, they should only translate the information so that the can solve the problem.

Evaluation: This web site that I reviewed was good because it had a section for further reading and references that I could use if I needed more information. Also it provided links so that you could further me research. What I really liked about this site was that it was in understandable English, not jargon.

Other: This web site also stated other books that were written by Bruner.

Summary: The infed.org has titled the article of Jerome Bruner, Jerome Bruner and the Process of Education. In the article, Bruner’s life is summarized and the key events of his life’s contribution to educational psychology are outlined. Jerome Bruner, a doctor of psychology, has focused on the cognitive revolution of education. His new Cognitive Theory is mentioned in the article, which simply looks at the environmental and experimental factors and how children develop in stages through a step-by-step process in how the mind works. Burner believed that teaching should be broad and diverse and the material that a child has to learn should be in the interest of the child. The interest should be the stimulus not just good grades as the stimulus. Bruner’s three books are mentioned; The Process of Education, Towards a Theory of Instruction, and The Culture of Education. In his first book, the role of structure in learning and how it may be made central in teaching is Bruner’s main argument. He believes that too much time is wasted in school, when teachers try to teach subjects that the child already knows over and over again simply because they feel other material would be too hard. Bruner has contributed largely to the product of the curriculum guidelines and structure with his books and speeches that can be found from the reference page.

Evaluation: This website would be most useful for teachers and students in college who want to be teachers. The clarity of the information presented on the web cite is not very detailed but it is concise and accurate. Although Bruner’s ideals were first presented in the 1960’s his theories have evolved to fit today’s society of the development of education. The website appears to be accurate and has plenty of referenced and recommended sources that the reader may research to confirm what has been presented on the site.

Other: Other information listed includes Howard Gardner and Donald Schon’s ideals that parallel Bruner’s or other thoughts that they may have that extend or lead to what Bruner has come to conclude in his research. There are no immediate links to other websites but there are plenty of references to Bruner’s work.

Summary: SUMMARY: The website entitled www.infed.org is a place for students and academic professionals to explore the theory and practice of informal education. The site is part of the UK National Grid for Learning, and it is run on a non-profit basis. The site features an encyclopedia with hundreds of pages on key thinkers, theories, and themes relevant to education. This specific link provides a sufficient amount of information about one of the key players in the “cognitive revolution”- Jerome Bruner. Bruner’s contributions to education, excerpts of his writings, biographical information, and links to further reading and references are provided.

Evaluation: EVALUATION: The information that is available on this site is quite informative and helpful to those interested in the theory and practice of education. When compared to other sites about Bruner, this site provides more specific details and depth about the life and ideas central to Bruner’s theory. For instance, four important key themes from Bruner’s well-recognized text, The Process of Education, are the role of structure in learning and how it can be implemented in the classroom, readiness for learning, intuitive and analytical thinking, and motives for learning. Each point is elaborately and clearly described on this site. Moreover, after reviewing about 15 other sites that related to Bruner, most of them only list these key themes. Overall, I believe this site is a good pick for anyone wishing to get a general overview of Bruner’s central ideas and listings of relevant references. This site is a good reference for anyone doing research. However, for those who are more interested in the practice of his theories, I don’t believe that the site provides enough information about examples and methods of incorporating Jerome Bruner’s ideas into the classroom.

Other: OTHER: The encyclopedia at infed.org provides an overview of many other important people who contribute to the fields of education and psychology, such as Maria Montessori, Howard Gardner, and Carl Rogers. There is also an archives page that provides links to material and articles that relate to learning, and a forum page that allows one to join in on discussions about policy and practice in education.

Summary: Jerome Bruner is a constructivist psychologist, who believes that development is related to cognitive process. Bruner’s theories are all based on child development. Bruner’s work is very inter-related to Jean Piaget’s work. Bruner believes that learners place new ideas on top of related ideas that are already known; therefore, expanding their knowledge by building on a foundation. There are four concepts outlined in this article. The first is representation, which is broken down into three ways to represent knowledge. These three ways are enactive, iconic and symbolic. The second concept is spiral curriculum. This concept states the importance placed on the teacher to fit the curriculum into understandable terms for the students. The teacher must know what level the students are on and what prior knowledge they have. There are also three points that Bruner makes about the spiral curriculum. These are that the children must be ready to learn, the information should be structured specially for the students, and the students should want to explore beyond what was taught. The third concept is discovering learning. This concept states that children should be able to have such a background that when there is an opportunity to obtain new information on their own that they will be able to do that. This is simply letting the children learn by exploring and thinking. The last concept is application. Application is the encouragement by the teacher for the students to use the learning process on their own. There are four aspects of the theory of instruction. These are that the student should have a predisposition to learning, the material should be presented in a way that it will be easily grasped by the student, the best sequence to present material and rewards and punishments.

Evaluation: I thought this website was a good resource for the concepts of Bruner’s Theory. The first paragraph was hard to understand, but the rest of the article was organized clearly and was easy to understand. There were classroom examples used under the discovery learning concept and these were helpful in understanding the application of this concept. There are no references on this page and there are no further resources to use in case you would want more information. This web site is good for specialized information, but is not the best site to get a lot of information and links from.

Other: There were no other topics addressed on this web site. It was based completely on the four concepts of Bruner’s theory and there was no extraneous information listed.

Summary: The website given gave a brief biography of Jerome Bruner and then delved into his contributions to psychology. He was known for his theory of visual perception which led to him being one of the founders of the cognitive revolution in psychology. The revolution was an effort to describe the things that people created out of their experiences with life and then form a hypothesis about the processes shown. In the 1950s he brought "mentalism" back to mainstream psychology. This is the idea that trial and error testing is not always necessary to determine whether or not a person has learned anything. It shows that learning can occur without there being any observable behavior, meaning that humans are capable of going beyond the information given and formulate any given answer(s). In the next decade, Bruner had three themes: representation, the impact of culture, and man's growth in evolutionary history. Representation was to be the means by which humans represent their experiences and arrange them for future use. It is a method of translating human beings different courses of "action" development depending on the event at hand. The impact of culture shows that we, humans, rely on techniques to move, perceive, and think. Humans tend to link things, objects, events and so forth with each other to create a bond where everything goes into subcategories and is retained within the brain for later use. Man's evolutionary history means that man went from focusing on the body alone to focusing on things created by hand. Bruner calls this shifting from autoplastic to alloplastic evolution. Instrumental conceptualism was organized around two claims about the nature of knowing. One is that humans represent reality with action, imagery and symbolism. The world is based on a model of reality that we constructed. The second claim is that members of any culture bend the knowledge they receive from the ideas and thoughts that their culture, as a whole, put first. In the early 1970s Bruner discussed the functions of language stating that the two ways infants come to use language are internal and external. The internal method of assimilating language is the interpretation of the way that the speaker intended to get his/her message across. The external method is the way that speech encounters are arranged. The Language Acquistion Support System that Bruner was a part of claimed that the world is based on a reality that humans constructed and humans create the world the children enter into with the language used. Bruner's most recent work is on the thought of narratives. Narratives support the idea that we "organize and constitute our experiences through stories, myths, excuses, and reasons for doing or not doing things. Narratives vary between cultures and subcultures. Everything stated within narratives are accepted conventionally rather than things being checked up on to ensure that the information is factual. Bruner has had plenty of ideas, thoughts, and themes that I would deem beneficial to the departments of psychology around the world.

Evaluation: I believe the information given on the website can be very useful to anyone striving to learn about Jerome Bruner. The depth of the information, however, may be able to be expanded on. The high points of his career may be listed on the website but for those of us who wish to know a little more, we must search elsewhere.

Other: This site slightly addressed Jerome Bruner's personal history but tended to discuss subjects that were strictly related to psychology.

URL: http://www.libraryreference.org/chaos.html

Summary: This website is called “Chaos Theory and Education.” It is basically an article written by Michael Lorenzen. In summary, this literature supports the idea that the classroom is filled with daily-unexpected situations. It helps give a teacher (or future educators) a sense of, “BE PREPARED.” Since, you never know what will happen in any given day, one cannot expect to follow strict lesson plans. We must be flexible and not feel helpless or disappointed when lessons or days don’t work out as planned. The article also expresses how, “…confidence is a good approach to chaos.” Chaos is a natural universal force that appears everywhere in our lives. There is uncertainty in life, not only in the classroom. “Teachers need to prepare for chaos and accept uncertainty as a natural condition,” states Mr. Lorenzen.

Evaluation:I took this information as advice for my future in the classroom. I expected this article to have more proof or concrete information. It did not. Mr. Lorenzen seems to have a nice approach to explain possible experiences in the classroom. The article was clear and a useful, but I am afraid that it was not very “deep” at all. There is a “work cited,” which informs the reader of three pieces of literature. I am glad I visited this site, but I wasn’t very impressed by the information. The title sounds more appealing than its’ actual contents.

Other: Other topics addressed in the article dealt with the chaos theory of the universe as written by “Gollub and Solomon.”

Summary: Summary: This website is called, " Chaos in the Composition Classroom: Why Do Some Classes Fail to Function?" Vickie Salmon, who teaches composition English at a community college, wrote this article. According to Salmon, "Chaos Theory will help us calculate disorder, diversity, and change." Salmon discusses a new paradigm that helped her one semester when she walked into her classroom filled with a diversity of people. This article provides a variety of options that chaos theory allows for a classroom to succeed. The article discusses what makes a classroom fail and succeed and how the two are compatible.

Evaluation: Evaluation: This article provides useful information that a teacher can bring into the classroom because of the multiple of options that chaos theory has to offer. I feel that this article is a little hard to comprehend because the author did not give the meaning of Chaos Theory in the Classroom. The article did provide a variety of references about chaos theory and the information is accurate. However, the author should have gone into more depth about Chaos Theory because then I think I would have understood the article more.

Other: Other: The article also provides "A Layman's View," on Chaos Theory.

Summary: This website is primarily constructed for community college educators, but it benefits all educators. Vickie Salomon is the creator of this site. She begins by explaining the “Layman’s view” about the Chaos Theory, which is derived from the theories developed by Einstein and Bohr. Many elements adhere to a chaotic environment including diversity, family emergencies, and activities outside class. Salomon states that the diverse ideas in a democratic classroom and composition studies help challenge this chaotic atmosphere. She gives recommendations for teaching in chaos. Educators should stop trying to find order. Instead, they should allow disorder, failure, and confusion, because that is how society is today. Educators need to welcome the “new way of thinking, a ‘system of survival and success’.” They should revise their schedule to where it benefits the student. Both educators and students should be praised for their accomplishments. If failure originates, then educators should acquire it. Finally, a diverse group should be praised.

Evaluation: This website does offer good ideas for a chaotic classroom. However, it might have been more effective if it would have used real life success stories, or circumstances. Over all, I think the website can be useful for educators of every grade. Her ideas seem like they would work. It definitely keeps an open mind about chaos.

Other: Vickie Salomon briefly touches on the roots of the chaos theory. She mentions Einstein and Borh’s research from the early 1900’s. She also brings up the issue that classical theorists believe in order.

URL: http://parenthood.library.wisc.edu

Summary: This website is about how parents impact their children's moral development. It associates four foundational components of children's moral development. The four components suggested are social orientation, self-control, compliance, and self-esteem. The site also states that the four "central aspects" of moral functioning are empathy, conscience, moral reasoning and altruism. The site seeks to examine the eight psychological characteristics and the five core parenting processes that are affiliated "empirically" to the development of the eight characteristics. It also addresses the issues of what it is meant by morality in childhood, focusing on what characteristics or behaviors constitute a morally "good" or "bad" child. The website gives several examples to define the scope of moral development. The site states that "Part of the nature of a moral being is adherence to selected external controls; and effective moral agent must eventually learn to internalize external standards for behavior." So for example, children must learn that sharing valued objects in work and play is societally encouraged. This site also focused on "Educating Parents as Natural Moral Educators." It's about parenting dimensions and how parents play an important role in forming the moral development of their children. It gives "practical" recommendations for helping parents to become more "effective moral educators."

Evaluation: The website wasn't really in depth, although it explains how parents influence their children's moral development thoroughly. There is a great deal of information on the four foundational components of children's moral development and the four central aspects of moral functioning. The information is clear and understood. The examples made for better understanding of the concepts and issues addressed. The website gives information on parent training programs and how some might suggest ho to foster moral and prosocial behavior in children. This may be useful to some parents. It seems as though the site gives not only insightful but useful information as well. The descriptions of the eight psychological characteristics thought to identify the components of a moral child were intriguing. Other useful information on the site is a table that shows the selected parenting outcome variables. For each of the parenting variables it distinguishes what many of the child outcome variables might be. This is helpful for those who are visual learners. In conclusion the website could be a source for parents looking to gain more insight into how to facilitate children's moral development and many other issues involving children.

Other: There are several other topics that are addressed on the website. For example it mentions stepfamilies and "The Role of Culture in Moral Development." There are also community resources for families. This site didn't have any links to other websites but it did have a link for workgroups and authors.

Summary: This website, The Character Education Website, is dedicated to promoting and developing character education in the lives of the youth. By doing this, it will help create a more considerate and responsible society. This website focuses on the evalution of character education programs that are being implemented in school systems. There are eleven principles of effective character education. These principles explain the importance of the moral foundations to be taught and the importance of interaction between the staff, students and community. When evaluating, the website suggests evaluating the school’s character, the character of the staff and as well as the students. The school needs to promote respect and good character and have a family-like aura. The staff and students both need to show willingness to follow through and succeed with the character education program. There are three forms of evaluation criteria: needs assessment, process evaluation and outcome evaluation. Three primary components of character to observe while evaluating are knowledge, feelings and behavior.

Evaluation: This website is very informative. It appears to be most useful to administrators and teachers in school districts. Parents and other people interested in the subject may also find a lot of helpful information, but the core of the information relates to evaluating character education programs inside a school.When first accessing the site, there is not a lot of useful or informative information. Once you take a quick survey you are given access to a very in-depth and handy “toolkit? This toolkit provides very clear, precise and easy to understand material. It explains what to look for in character education programs and help you evaluate excellent methods and techniques for implementation. This site also contains many several easy to understand charts and graphs. The best thing about this site is that is breaks down the information for all people to understand. There is not technical jargon that only professionals will understand. It is presented in a clear-cut manner. This website is definitely a handy tool for administrators and teachers looking for character education program information.

Other: There are no additional topics addressed on this website. However, it does provide several links to other sites that are relative to the information about character education provided on this site.

Summary:

Evaluation:

Other:

Summary: This content-rich website is loaded with free resources to help you do the job of teaching character education in schools. Included in this website are links to many other sources of character education. Teaching guides are available for grades K through 12. Any teacher can find useful ideas and materials needed to implement character education into the classroom on this website. From the purchase of video and discussion question that correspond to activities which can be done with the students emphasizing the topic, a large variety of learning activities are given for different grade levels and different topics. The key principals emphasized through this website are: *Your character is defined by what you do, not what you say or believe. * Every choice you make helps define the kind of person you are choosing to be. * Good character requires doing the right thing, even when it is costly or risky. * You don't have to take the worst behavior of others as a standard for yourself. * You can choose to be better than that. * What you do matters, and one person can make a big difference. * The payoff for a good character is that it makes you a better person and it makes the world a better place.

Evaluation: The most useful information I found most was in the elementary school link. This pulls you to a valuable resource of teaching guides for whatever school age one chooses. Then there is a chart of many different topics in which character education may be developed or planned into the lesson. For example, I chose ‘controlling anger’. The site listed its educational goals for children to learn from this theme. Children were to learn how anger can cause us to lose control of our behavior, how anger can lead to violence, even when we don’t intend it too, and how we can learn to calm our anger and stay in control This lead me to a chart which can be made instructing children how to handle their anger. First, they stop and calm down. Second, they say what’s wrong and use their words. Third, they should tell what they would like to have happened. Following this there are discussion questions available if a teacher decides to purchase the video story. The student activities include breathing deeply, muscle relaxing, and combined activities. Students can then be lead into a discussion on positive ways they can control their anger and then role play situations listed on the website. There are also writing assignments and home assignments as well as a parent letter to go home. Each topic which can be chosen from the chart has detailed information, ideas, and plans for a teacher’s classroom. The information is accessible to anyone without a few or membership. The information is clear, concise, and self explanatory. Also, the amount of information found on this site could last any teacher the entire year because it has enough depth so that the teacher is not asked to work to hard, yet can still be expanded by new and creative twists to these fun activities. This is a very valuable site for any teacher wishing to support character education in the classroom.

Other:

Summary: This website discussed the different methods explored in the development of character education. It began by discussing the early character education movement. Then it moves on to discuss moral and values education, research on sex and drug education, the impact of the school atmosphere, contemporary character education programs, and future directions of character education.

Evaluation: The information on this website could be very helpful to someone who may be interested in implementing their own ideas or study on character education. The information that is given on the character education research methods is very detailed and also very easy to comprehend, even for someone who may not have a background in medicine or psychology. Many of the names on this website have been mentioned in the lecture, books, or notes for this course. This has helped me to better understand some of the information that has been presented to me in this course.

Other: This website did not address any other topics. Its only focus was Character Education.

Summary: The website is about how educators can play a role in developing better students and better people in the classrooms. The website is managed by Dr. Philip F. Vincent and the Character Development Group. The website talks about the resources found in the Character Education Series by Dr. Vincent. The series also offers books, videos, workshops, and keynote speeches. All of Dr. Vincent’s lectures focus on the five “spokes” of education including: rules and procedures, cooperative learning, quality literature, teaching for thinking, and source learning.

Evaluation: The website is very useful because it gives different links to schools, teachers, and administrators and what they can do to have an effective character education program. The website is also very accurate because it explains in detail on how the workshops would help teachers implement programs in the classroom that recognizes the importance of consistent rules and procedures. It also offers books on how to obtain positive behavior from students without continual use of rewards and motivate students to do well by developing habits of good behavior. The website also offers titles of books not written by Dr. Vincent and other resources to aid in implementing strong programs that improve character development in the classroom. The website was not that good in giving information about character education. It mostly offers resources and books to read about the subject. I would use this website just as a secondary aid, not a primary source.

Other: There were no other subjects addressed at this site. It was primarily about character education.

Summary: This website contains information on what character education is and includes the components/traits that character education deals with. The division of this site includes a preview, site overview, character traits, development partnership, resources, how to order and contact us, and teacher login. The site preview provides activities and lessons for the character traits. The site overview helps clarify the preview and provides student notebook activities that can be used for specific ages. The character traits section of the website has just what the title states. It also has a “What is Character Education” at the end of the page that defines character education and details what good character is based on. The development partnership portion of the website provides a couple of websites that can link educators and students to organizations, materials, and schools for character education. The resource section provides a list of websites that deal with character education. The ordering, contacting, and teacher login is standard but I must note that it states that The Character Education Network will cost $200 a year for each school.

Evaluation: This website is well organized but does little to provide an objective view of character education. This website speaks positively about character education but does not show any negative aspects to a character education curriculum and method of resolution. The website fails to address opposing views to character education such as the belief that character education may be seen as teaching a religious vision of what morality is and that it may lead to a limited, less diverse curriculum. The site can be used to get a general idea about character education but the view you get may be seen as bias by opponents of character education. Although the words used on this website are clear, the depth of the website is limited and the information given is one sided.

Other: This website does not address any other topic.

Summary: This site explains that character education is an attempt, by educators, to model (teach) community values, citizenship and character development. The author stresses the importance of community partnership in the process. It briefly discusses common criticisms or character education, and contains links to sample character education programs.

Evaluation: The site offers a brief, but clear, description of character education and how it should be implemented. The discussion is only useful for the casual observer; however, for the adamant researcher, it also provides a list of print resources on the topic.

Other: No other topics are addressed.

URL: http://ericeece.org/

Summary: SUMMARY: The website I evaluated is useful for teachers and parents because it is a national information system designed to provide users with resources and information on education. Elementary and Early Childhood Education (EECE) provides information for educators and parents involved in the development, education, and care of children from birth through early childhood. EECE is one of sixteen clearinghouses in the ERIC system, which is part of the National Library of Education. ERIC clearinghouses select documents and journal articles for the ERIC database. EECE identifies and selects documents for possible inclusion in the ERIC database. Documents include the following types resource and curriculum guides, annotated bibliographies, books and magazines, videos and multimedia kits. Through these documents and databases EECE provides information and resources related to the physical, cognitive, social, educational, and cultural development of children from birth through early childhood. It also provides information about the education and learning theory research and practice related to the early childhood development.

Evaluation: EVALUATION: This website is useful because it offers a great deal of information on early childhood development for both educators and parents. The target audience is educators who want to find information about child development such as, early childhood education initiatives, early childhood literacy and other early childhood educational websites. Although the website focuses on educators it also provides useful information to parents about parenting and early childhood organizations that are available to them. This website contains other links and resources to the National Parent Information Network (NPIN), Early Childhood Research and Practice (ECRP) as well as other useful links. This website also contains a national calendar of events in early childhood and education. The website gives the user a chance to log on to the group discussion board where other educators and parents are discussing frequently asked questions about early childhood development. This website is well organized and easy to maneuver through which makes it user friendly for anyone. It contains an overview of what the site offers on the left hand side and a quick link on the right hand side. This helps guide the viewer to find their topic quickly and accurately. The site contains few graphics but it is still attractive to the viewers.

Other: OTHER: The website is all about Early Childhood Development and related topics. It contains early childhood development information for parents such as parenting techniques and articles on child care. It contains articles and discussions for educators on early childhood and related topics such as early childhood literacy and diversity.

Summary: This website was created by the Marshall Public Library. The main audience for this website would mostly likely be anyone in the school environment and parents of school children. The website offers links to books, internet websites, videos as well as periodicals on the subject of child development. The list of books mainly focuses on brain development of children, while the internet websites are broader in the topic of child development. Each link is full of research based material and articles on how to improve and understand child development. As part of the internet links are links to longitudinal studies, focusing on child development in a school environment. For example, one longitudinal study is over how brain development in learning disabled children correlates with not being diagnosed early enough by school care providers. The periodicals, just like the books, focus on brain development. The links for the videos can be very useful to teachers and parents, alike. After reviewing the links to the videos, it can be said that each one focuses on the importance of parent interaction with their children.

Evaluation: As a pre-service teacher, I think that this website can come to great use once I start practicing in my profession. A problem that often occurs when researching a psychology topic on the internet is that you often find websites that have no real substance of science to be found in them. This website did not disappoint me as other websites in the past. Not only does it include longitudinal studies, but each internet link is full of recent research. This website is easily navigable and is not too caught up in psychological terms that it might lose the attention of laypeople. A drawback of this website is that it has no original work, rather links to work and research done by others. Another negative aspect of this website is that it has a list of periodicals that can not be viewed through the internet, but would have to be researched at a library.

Other: This web site is primarily focused on the topic of child development and would not be useful in other psychological topics. It also has links to the Marshall Public library and its?resources.

Summary: This website goes into specific details of the life of Psychologist Victor Frankl. Victor Frankl was born on March 26, 1905 in Vienna, Austria and lived until the age of ninety-two, dying on September 2, 1997. From the age of three, Frankl had declared he wanted to be a doctor. Faced with a rough childhood, Frankl proved to overcome those difficulties by being one of the top students in his class. He found studying the behaviors of others interesting. Frankl’s interest in psychology changed from the area of behavioral to experimental. Frankl found himself fascinated with Sigmund Freud’s idea of psychoanalysis. In 1924, Freud helped Frankl get his first article published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Shortly after Frankl’s article was published, Frankl began doubting Freud’s idea and came upon Alfred Adler’s idea of individual psychology. Frankl’s relationship did not last long with Adler due to their opposing views on man. While Frankl was still a student, he worried about his future in psychology due to the fact he managed to lose the backing of two influential men. He was forced to pursue his own thoughts and ideas. He made a positive career move practicing psychology at a youth center. Also, he began lecturing for organizations of socialist youth movements. In 1930, Frankl received his M.D. in Psychiatry. He worked for a couple of different doctors before he was able to start his own practice as a doctor of neurology and psychiatry. Frankl was fortunate enough to be one of the few psychologists to come up with his own psychoanalysis, Logotherapy. Logotherapy was based on a man finding meaning in his self versus the basic idea of psychology focusing on a man’s past. Frankl’s practice did not last long due to the invasion of Hitler’s troops. Frankl was one of the few to survive the horrible ordeal at the concentration camps; his first wife and immediate family were not so luckily. Frankl managed to take this negative ordeal and use it to make him a stronger person. He ended up writing a top seller “Man’s Search for Meaning”. He also remarried in 1946 to a woman named Eleonore, who outlived him. Frankl continued to write books and spread his idea of Logotherapy. He received many awards over his lifetime, such as the John F. Kennedy and the Maryland Psychological Association for Contribution to Psychology Award. In 1992, ‘The Victor Frankl Institute’ was founded. A few years later, Frankl passed away.

Evaluation: After reviewing this website, I found the information about Victor Frankl to be very resourceful. This site covers Frankl’s entire life. His journey as a young boy wanting to be a doctor to him fulfilling his dreams and becoming an important contribution to the world of psychology. I found the site to be very user friendly. It was easy to move through and had all the information broken down into simple categories. I would definitely recommend anyone who needed to find information on Frankl to use this site.

Other:

Summary: Summary: The website I chose to research and critique is that of the Child Development Institute, or www.cdipage.com/. The reason I chose this site is because, from their introduction, you can see they explore a wide array of options when it comes to developing the young minds of the world today. CDI’s site is recommended by Psychology Today and the American Psychological Association. I like CDI because its whole purpose is to gear up the parents and kind of team up with and educate them. The CDI site also provides comprehensive information on child development, psychology, parenting, learning, health and safety as well as childhood disorders such as attention deficit disorder, dyslexia and autism. On the home page, you have a list of optional links. The information presently being featured is entitled “Parent Information”. Topics of the Parent information links include: “Understanding child development”, “Improving your child’s learning ability and/or behavior”, “Childhood Disorders”, “Taking care of a baby”, and “Raising successful teens”. All these topics are discussed in depth. There are “television picks” that assist parent in finding educational programs for children. What I like most about what the Child Development Institute is doing right now is there disaster education. On this page, a parent can find aid in helping their child deal with disaster, 9/11 memories, and war.

Evaluation: Evaluation: This website almost made my favorites list. This was because of one of the last things I saw; the page with links regarding kids and how they deal with disaster. Living in the world we do, and since the internet is the inevitable, we need websites like CDI to be surfed by parents worldwide on a regular basis. The information was not sugarcoated, but concise… which is why I think they cover so much material so thoroughly. From taking care of a baby, to the effects a video game can have on your young one, the site has a plethora of engaging topics. I found tremendous accuracy in stories the articles about spankings (and their theory of the message it sends to the child), and also tag-team parenting to better develop the child. The Child Development Institute’s website was clear, concise, educational, and I’m sure it is useful to parents of all kinds who have access to its pages.

Other: Other: The site also had some available information and links on topics such as: C.H.A.D.D.: Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder. This is national organization that provides information about the organization but also has volumes of useful information on ADHD. Also Child Help USA, which is a source of information on child abuse issues and programs for abused children.

URL: http://www.algy.com/anxiety/anxiety.html

Summary: This website deals with the subject of childhood anxiety. It first talks about simple phobias such as being afraid of the dark or animals. Saying that the fear can sometimes be very intense and overwhelming for a child. If this is the case then the child may need to recieve psychaitric help. Treating a child is very similar to treating an adult with panic disorder. The next section discussed the effects of separation anxiety on the child. This is when a child develops an intense fear of being separated from a parent or loved one. This anxiety tends to interfere in their daily lives. The child refuses to leave the places and people they feel safest around. Children with this disorder often feel sick and are unable to sleep at night. Another part of this type of anxiety is school phobia. This is when the child refuses to attend school for the same reasons as separation anxiety, but also including a fear of the school enviroment. Children with these types of symptoms should seek psychaitric help. Both psychodynamic play therepy and behavioral therepy have been shown to help. Selective mutism is the last part of this website it is when the child fails to speak in certin settings. It is most common in school and other social settings. It is unknown what the exact cause is, but selective mutism is a sign of severe anxiety or panic.

Evaluation: I feel this website is very useful and easy to understand for the average peson seeking information on this topic. I like it because it tells me the symptoms to look for in the child and informs me on the actions I need to take as the adult. As a child, I expierenced childhood anxiety and this accurately explains my feelings that as a child I was unable to express. I feel it is very accurate in describing the feelings the child expierences and is not able to explain to the parent. The website includes other links to visit and get other information from. It also includes bullitin boards, newsletters,and information about the web group.

Other: Other topics links viewers to support cites for further support on childhood anxiety. It also deals with other forms of anxiety.

URL: http://www.nami.org/helpline/depression-child.html

Summary: This website is about childhood depression. It explains what depression is and gives a list of signs that might indicate depression. The page also lends advice to parents that have a child that is depressed. The website lists facts about childhood depression. This is a good site for parents and teachers to visit if they are uneducated about depression. It will help them to determine if their child or students show signs of depression. It will help them approach the issue. Parents can find a hotline number to call if they need any other questions answered.

Evaluation: This is a good website for parents and teachers to learn about childhood depression. It gives a detailed explanation about depression and it's symptoms. It also gives advice for the parents to follow when dealing a child that is depressed. Teachers should also be aware of the signs of depression. The site lists hotline numbers that can be called for further information. The facts that are listed in the site are very helpful also. "As many as one in every 33 children and one in eight adolescents may have depression." This is something that teachers should be aware of while dealing with issues and students in the classroom. This website was not to long, it was very clear and to the point, and it was very useful.

Other: Other topics addressed in this website linked the viewer to sites that one could find out about research on depression, medications used, and the support line.

URL: http://www.angelfire.com/az/ChildrenandViolence/

Summary: The website I found has a lot of information. It gives a brief introduction of how violence is a part of the human condition. It also tells you how researchers have become more interested in violence and its effects on children. This website talks about violence in many different ways. On the left side one can find all the topics related to violence. They range from the war and how war affects children, the Holocaust and Children of the Holocaust, the media and the impact of televised violence, music and youth and violent music, sports and how to cope with sports frustration, video games and research on video game violence, school violence and school violence in America’s schools, gangs and gangs in school, kids who kill, spousal abuse, familicide, child abuse, spanking, and all the way to prevention. Some topics go back to our history and others are what we are living now.

Evaluation: I evaluate this website as very informative. The website provides resources for anyone interested in examining topics related to violence and children. The information varies because it not only gives you information from the present but it also gives information from the past like for example the Holocaust. It gives helpful information for parents and teachers. It gives them preventive strategies that will help children and youth stay away from violence.

Other: The website addresses helpful links for child information. Statistics on children and youth, Pediatrics, Future of Children, and March of are only a few of the links.

URL: http://www.disciplinehelp.com/instruct/main.htm

Summary: This website's goal is to describe reasons for misbehavior and to provide classroom strategies for handling the behaviors. The site includes student relationships, aspects of discipline problems, major causes of misbehavior, primary and secondary needs, motivators and a discipline model. In addition, educators can refer to a behavior index consisting of 117 different behaviors and ways to correct them.

Evaluation: This website goes into great depth, detailing many aspects of discipline problems. There are three variables of a discipline problem, which include the teacher, the student and the rest of the class. This is important because it points out that teachers should adjust themselves before trying to change the student. The site states that teachers must look at each student's relationships to better understand behavior. The four relationships of students described are the student and himself/herself, the student and teacher, the student and peers, and the student and curriculum. The various relationships must be examined to fully address behavior problems. This site also discusses the four major causes of misbehavior: attention, power, revenge and self confidence. Examples of behaviors that result from each cause are also provided. In addition, the site states that understanding the seven primary needs is essential in order to handle discipline problems. All seven needs must be met before students will be self-disciplined, cooperative and respectful. There are also eight secondary needs which are often overlooked. Teachers must work to fulfill these needs in order to prevent discipline problems. The site states there are nine motivators that can be used to encourage appropriate classroom behavior. Knowing the motivators can help teachers understand why students act in certain ways. The website is clearly written and easy to understand. Someone with little psychological knowledge could comprehend and benefit from the major ideas. The information is accurate in exploring the psychological causes of misbehavior and in detailing ways to handle the behaviors. This site provides an abundance of useful information. Teachers experiencing various behavior problems in their classroom can go to the site and find reasons for the behavior. They can also find steps that can be taken to correct the problems. Various options are provided, so teachers can find what works for them and their students. Perhaps the most useful piece of information from this website is that teachers need to focus on what they are doing, instead of simply trying to change the student.

Other: This site also has parenting tips, discussion groups, a "Behavior of the Day", and resources that can be purchased.

Summary: The website was created by Dr. J.R. Ouyang. Dr. Ouyang states that a well-managed classroom is a prerequisite to learning. The website says that to prevent management problems from happening, effective management would conduct and organize their classroom to avoid problems from happening in the first place. Dr. Ouyang defines management as "the complex set of plans and action that a teacher uses to ensure that the learning in the classroom is effective and efficient." The site is divided into two regions:Prevention and Intervention.

Evaluation: Overall the website was very informative and clear. It provides accurate concise information that every teacher should incorporate into his or her arsenal. While the site lacked depth, the little information that was provided was useful to all instructors. The website isn't anything flashy but the page is definitely worth a glance.

Other: The prevention section basically deals with being well prepared for class. Effective teachers should be well aware of everything going on in the classroom. They must earn the respect of their pupils by quickly learning their names and being well informed about whatever topic is being discussed. Teachers must challenge students and keep the lesson interesting with visual aids and demonstrations. The Intervention section of the website covers sources of classroom management problems, solutions to those problems, intervention guidelines, theoretical approaches to management problems, and assertive discipline.

Summary: The web site that I found talks about discipline in he school as well as in the classroom. The site deals with the finding of researchers who did studies on the discipline practices of well-behaved and well-managed schools, the classrooms inside the schools, and the teachers inside those classrooms. It was a very informative site because it not only offered solutions to the problems; it also offered the “no-nos” of ineffective discipline.

Evaluation: The first section of the web site deals with the problems schools have with effective discipline. One thing that this section suggests is that the schools have a committed staff, which are passionate about being effective disciplinarians, as well as effective teachers. This section also discusses enforcing the school rules. One example was to make sure that the students view the punishment as punishment. If the students were not to view the punishment as that, how can the teacher maintain order? What I really liked about this site is that it gives suggestions as to what works and does not work. The next section talks about effective classroom management. The site gives suggestions on how to keep the students’ attention, such as walking around the classroom or standing next to the disruptive student while teaching the daily lesson. What I like about this site is that the researchers believe that “problem students” is not just a personality problem, but it might also stem from an academic problem. This site also offers some discipline programs and theories that the school should try to look into to help teachers be the effective disciplinarians that they need to be in times like this. At the end, the site then summarizes it points with a list of how to prevent discipline problems, in the classroom and in school, and what to do if and when they arise. I thought that this was a great way to end because not only does it summarize everything discussed, it also creates a guideline for the teachers, as well as parents, to follow in order to become effective disciplinarians in a handy list.

Other: Nothing else that did not pertain to school and classroom management was discussed on the web page.

Summary: Teachers need to have control of their classrooms. The administration thinks well of a teacher who never needs to send a student to the office. Teachers fear their students having too much control in the classroom. A teacher who has control of their classroom is respected highly. Control in the classroom is more important than teaching. The most common used program for teachers is called Assertive Discipline. The Assertive Discipline plan provides an easy to learn and use lesson plan in classroom management. Although it is widely used this is a great deal of criticism that says it does more harm then good. Assertive discipline suggests that the only problems in the classroom are students that do not know how to behave. Another approach is Reality Therapy in which the teacher tries to help the students to understand the choices they are making. The student also gets to choose the consequences of his or her behavior. Another approach is called Control Theory which suggests that there are four needs that the teacher must provide for the student. Those needs are love, control, freedom, and fun. If the teacher is to provide a healthy learning environment for the student these needs must be met. Behaviorism which is used in most classrooms today was brought about by “Skinner.” With behaviorism the child will behave or the child will be punished. The punishments are not called punishment but rather negative and positive reinforcements. Classroom management is a necessary part of teaching. Teachers need to be taught how to manage their classroom. Learning to control your classroom takes a lot of time and patience. Teachers do not learn classroom management in two easy steps they must work hard to master it properly.

Evaluation: This internet site was very informative. I believe that it was explained briefly the different forms of classroom management. I believe that it could have gone into more detail about each kind of classroom management. Some of the different types were very brief. I would have liked to see more on how the teacher would use all of these types of management styles. The clarity of the site was very good. It was easy to read and understand. Each type was listed separately and described in laymen terms. It was a smooth read as the author did not jump around but stayed right with what he was talking about

Other: The only other topic that this site addressed was that teaching is supposedly a science.

Summary: The web page entitled Theories in Education in American Society describes several different teaching theories. The theories covered in this site are: behaviorism, progressivism, reconstructionism, perennialism, existentialism, and essentialism. The author first gives the definition of the theory and then provides an example to better illustrate the idea. After that he also describes the curriculum used and several teaching methods for each theory. It also provides several classroom management strategies used in each theory. At the end of each theory the author provides a list of theorist who supported each belief.

Evaluation: This Website was very thorough and clear in giving information. It was very clear and easy to understand. The web page could cover more theories than just six. Although it is very brief it covers adequate information for each theory covered. Each theory is broken into the same categories making it very easy to understand.

Other: The author also provides evaluation methods that a teacher would use according to the theory they teach by. For each theory listed it also provides the role of the teacher. This is a very useful website for future or current teachers. It gives plentiful information, good examples, and various ideas for each theory

Summary: Summary: This website was created by Dr. J.R. Ouyang. This website focuses on the prevention and intervention on classroom management. This site has information on how to be an effective teacher by giving you some tips on earning students?respect, organization and lesson momentum, interaction and involvement, smooth transitions, and interaction and involvement. It also includes information on different types of organizational patterns that can be brought into the classroom such as competitive pattern, cooperative pattern, and individualistic pattern. This sites also mentions strategies that can be used in preventing management problems as well as solutions to management problems and intervention guidelines. Theoretical approaches used to deal with management problems as the noninterventionist approach, the interventionist approach, and the interactionist approach are all mentioned in this site. Assertive discipline is also discussed.

Evaluation: Evaluation: This website offers a variety of ideas and suggestions that can be brought into the classroom. I feel that this website is very useful in helping you with some suggestions on classroom management. This article is very easy to follow and goes straight to its point. I agree with many of the comments made in this article such as that a well-managed classroom is prerequisite for learning and that the amount of control that teachers have in the class is often seen by the administration as a measurement of quality of a teacher. In this article it states that effective teachers are the ones who are able to remain calm, listen without becoming defensive, respect each child as an individual, as well as many other traits mentioned. Suggestions for earning students?respect are also given. An important aspect mentioned in this article is the teacher’s ability to remain continuously aware of what’s going on in the classroom and to communicate this awareness to the classroom. Distinctive times were a teacher is advised to organize carefully to keep the control of the classroom are the beginning of the class period, the last period of the day, the few minutes before lunch, and the beginning of a period following a rally, school assembly, or a fire drill. Lots of information is provided on how to prevent management problems. Careful planning is strongly suggested and by doing this should keep the students busy and effective. The teacher needs to establish clear and consistent rules. When handling a classroom problem, the encounters should be kept as brief as possible, the teacher needs to maintain consistency, avoid arguments, and also avoid threats and ultimatums. It is important to keep in mind that you, as the teacher, should ensure effective and efficient learning in the classroom.

Other: Other: Other topics discussed in this article are the use of different medias such as power point presentations, overhead projectors, charts and displays to attract the students?attention. Issues on the actual layout of the classroom are also addressed.

Summary: Summary: Positive Reinforcement: A Self-Instructional Exercise This Internet assignment is about positive reinforcement. The exercise explains the use of positive reinforcement. The definition of positive reinforcement is when three conditions have been met. 1. An outcome is granted dependent on a behavior. 2. The conduct becomes more probable to happen. 3. The conduct becomes more probable to happen on account of and only on account of the result is contributed dependent on the conduct. There are different examples of what is positive reinforcement and what is not positive reinforcement. The first example is about Dr. Hopkins and two mentally disabled boys who did not smile much. He had a theory about positive reinforcement. The conducted the experiment. He would take them for walks and every time a passerby would pass and if they smiled he would give them a candy. This procedure made the boys smile more often than before without positive reinforcement. This was a good example of positive reinforcement. A bad example of positive reinforcement in the same content is: The Dr. would give the candy to the boys every time they would smile at people passing by. The boys ate the candy fast. This was a bad example because there is no mention in increase behavior. This is a good exercise when used in the classroom setting. The children need to have positive reinforcement. Would you recognize what is positive reinforcement? In order to answer this question the exercise goes through other scenarios. The next example is about a girl named Martha she was a five-year-old and did not like to stand up. She was ignored when she was sitting but when she stood up she was praised. As a result she stood up more regularly than before. This was a form of positive reinforcement. In contrast the same girl was sent to the corner until she stood. This was not a form of positive reinforcement. This is so because it was a consequence not response dependent. The next example was about a professor who gave weekly quizzes. He noticed that the first quizzes most of the students failed. In response to the negative grades he praised the children who passed the quizzes. In response to that the others who did not do too well in the quizzes began to improve their quiz grades. In contrast to the grades the professor made rules to make them do better. This is a bad example of positive reinforcement. When rules are made due to instruction to engage in a behavior. In short this summary is about what is positive reinforcement and what is not.

Evaluation: Evaluation: The evaluation in this article is it showed the effects that positive reinforcement has in a classroom setting the different examples that are given shows what is positive reinforcement and what is not. The definition to positive reinforcement and what is not is explained in the article. The article is best emphasis in the contrast in what is not positive reinforcement. Other: None

Other:

URL: http://crystalinks.com

Summary: The crystal links web site contained various links to many of the different social sciences. Each link is full of detailed insightful information. Fourteen of the well noted psychologists are listed on this site, each with a link connecting you to a full informative description of their life, thoughts, theories, and accomplishments. Though details are offered in each subject area, some areas lack in great depth for those who are looking to write a well rounded complete detailed paper. My focus was on Jean Piaget and his development of cognitive stages. This site offered great examples and explanations of his levels of development, but did not cover many of his other theories, such as education and attachment.

Evaluation: My evaluation of this particular site is that it is very clear to understand, user friendly and accurate with the information it offers. I looked specifically at Jean Piaget because he is one of the most influential theorists of cognitive development. The theories he derived are used today to evaluate, categorize, and track the development of the “how’s and why’s” children think the way they do. Piaget provided many stages and levels of cognitive development for the active child. Although he greatly underestimated the competence the child had in his development, he believed that the best way for a child to learn was through discovery learning rather than adult teaching. Piaget’s schemas, practical applications, and examples are provided to explain the levels and stages of his theory. Assimilation and accommodation area what Piaget labeled as learning schemas. He saw learning as a biological and nurturistic process. Genetics as well as the environment influence behavior and thought. An infant’s adaptation to his environment is learned as he advances in his cognitive development. For example, if an infant is holding a bottle in his mouth with one hand and a toy in his other hand and he sees something else he wants to grab, he realizes that he can’t grab the other object without first letting go of something he has in one of his two hands. He will then either accidentally or deliberately let go of one of the two objects without much thought. It becomes a natural reaction to let go and grab. An adult as well as a ten-year-old child would be able to read and make sense of Piaget’s theory, and be interested in it as well. For those students, researchers, and educators who want or need more details on Piaget’s other theories, then further exploration of other sites may need to be viewed.

Other: This site offered many different topics of interest such as, woman’s studies, mythologies, languages and scripts, religion and other social sciences. I briefly viewed some of the other areas and found them to be very enlightening. If one had to do research on any of the different types of categories mentioned in this site, they would find it to be of great help in getting started with their thoughts and ideas. It is easy to read, comprehensible, and thorough.

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Summary: This website discusses infants’ motor development from two months to eighteen months. The website states that infants develop motor abilities at approximately the same time and in the same order. The website then gives an in depth breakdown of cognitive development in children. Piaget’s theory is discussed and a link to his biography is provided. The sensorimotor stage is the first stage that occurs between the ages of birth and two years. Object permanence is discussed and a link is provided to a definition of object permanence. The next stage is the preoperational stage, which begins after a child achieves object permanence. Several important factors of this stage are provided such as the development of language, Egocentrism, conservation, reversibility, and centration. A link to a definition of centration is also provided. The website then gives a description of the concrete operations stage that occurs between the ages of seven and about twelve. At this stage, the child moves away from centristic thought and is able to view more than one condition of a stimulus, but still does not have abstract thinking abilities. The final stage discussed on this website is the formal operational stage of development that occurs from age twelve and beyond. The child gains the ability to think abstractly as well as apply reversibility and conservation.

Evaluation:In my opinion, the website gives very brief information on cognitive development and does not provide detailed information. The website would be good for someone who needed a quick breakdown of Piaget’s stages, but only needs a brief overview and not a lot of details. The information provided is clear and concise and would be useful for overview purposes.

Other: This website is a chapter of personality development. In the first section, an introduction to development, personality, and stage theories are discussed. The second section contains cognitive development and motor development that is the focus of my Internet technology assignment. The third section is an overview of Erikson’s Stages of psychosocial development and is followed by a section on Freud’s stages of psychosexual development. A fifth section discusses Freud’s structural and typographical model followed by Freud’s ego defense mechanisms. The final section provides an overview of Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. Other links are provided on the website that discuss the author, gives a table of contents, an introduction to psychology and research methods, biopsychology, learning and behavioral psychology, sensation and perception, memory, intelligence, and states of the mind. Also, motivation and emotion, social psychology, psychopathology, psychotherapy, and references are provided.

Summary: Summary: This particular web site briefly defines what cognitive development is and what other aspects are involved for healthy development. It also looks at the importance of nutrition for cognitive growth, how to take a positive role in a child’s progression, activities that help promote cognitive development, and resources for both children and parents. It also briefly discusses the brain and multiple intelligences and the importance of these subjects during cognitive development.

Evaluation: Evaluation: Although this website is not very long, and is a “.com” site, I found the information to be quite enlightening without being so technical in terms. It seems to be primarily focused for parent learning, and touches not only on cognitive development, but also other developmental areas that promote healthy growth, such as language, physical, and social/emotional development. For all five of the developmental areas, this website explains why nutrition is such a vital part towards a child’s growth. Although it is common sense that nutrition is the key to energy, and energy is needed for healthy development (cognitive), nutrition also plays an important role such as providing self esteem (social and emotional), helps with improved vision and hearing (language), and helps develop muscles (physical). Ironically, I realized that I had not really thought about the importance of nutrition while learning about the different developmental areas. This website also shows how a parent or educator can promote a positive role in their child’s development. For example, in cognitive development a parent or educator could just simply help the child in everyday activities such as playing with them, talking and reading to them, and encouraging them to explore and experiment. With studying to be an elementary teacher, the one thing that I liked best about this website was the activity section. In each of the different developmental areas, this website included particular activities for each of the different age groups, ranging from 0-6 months to 3-5 year olds. First it explains what mental and physical tasks each age group is involved in and what they can accomplish, and then it provides a list of different activities that could help with the different developmental areas. For example, an activity to help promote cognitive development would be to make sequence cards of an activity that the child performs, and then ask the child to put them in order. The example the website gave was of building a house out of blocks, standing next to it, and then knocking it down. This not only gets the child involved in the first activity, but also gives them another activity to help develop other skills. Again, although very brief, anyone could learn the basic information about cognitive development along with the other important developmental areas. It was easy to understand, navigate through, and fun to look at.

Other: Other: Other topics briefly addressed included resources for children and parents, information on brain development and multiple intelligences. The resources included a list of books that can help the child develop, and a list books that can help the parent learn more about the different developmental areas. This website also looked at brain development and explains how connections in the brain is important to childhood development and how these connections work. The eight different multiple intelligences were also briefly described, and that knowing which intelligence a child engages in more will help the child develop the best.

Summary: This website focuses on Jean Piaget and his philosophy of cognitive development. In the beginning of the document, it gives a brief overview of Jean Piaget and how his interest in cognitive development and epistemology came about. The website then touches briefly on Piaget's stages of intellectual development. The four stages are:sensorimotor-ranges from birth to two years;preoperational-two to seven years;concrete operational-seven to eleven years;and formal operational(abstract thinking)-eleven years and up. Each of these stages are then explained using one sentence for each stage. The document then focuses on the process by which children learn. Piaget believes there are three fundamental processes to intellectual growth for a child: assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration. Piaget believes that "equilibration is the major factor in explaining why some children advance more quickly in the development of logical intelligence than do others." In addition, Piaget emphasizes a hands-on style of teaching. Rather than the teacher doing the majority of the work-lecturing, demonstrations, programmed instruction-the student needs to play an active role as well. He believes children "need to explore, to experiment, to question, and to search out answers for themselves." A child can obtain knowledge with a greater degree of understanding when they are allowed to learn on their own. Finally, the type of technology Piaget believes works the best are those that require interactivity. Again, the concept of the students completing their own activities and working things out for themselves promotes better comprehension. Technology that "is strictly drill and practice, as well as drill and memorization practice, often used in language schools, do not fit in with Piagetian thought."

Evaluation: I found this website to be very informative and useful. It explained Piaget's approach to cognitive development briefly, however, the word usage used was easy to understand. I also liked the fact that it offered insight not only on his stages and his philosophy of how children learn, but also on ideas of technology he preferred worked the best with children. This website, not only was informative, but it also helped me realize that my philosophy about educationand the way children learn is in direct relation to how Piaget perceived it. The child will obtain a higher degree of knowledge when they are allowed to grasp and experience the concept for themselves.

Other: There were no other topics addressed by this site.

URL: http://www.sqwiggles.com/Cognitive.htm

Summary: The topic on this website was "What does cognitive mean?" According to this particular website many people in the childcare field, parents as well as providers are hesitant when asked what is the meaning of cognitive development. Cognitive development is how a child makes sense of their world. It is how children interpret what is important to them. Piaget believed children could not separate what they believed from their emotion, and said when a child is learning they are also feeling. Children explore their world differently form adults. They are constantly combining knowledge acquired from the past with new knowledge they are learning daily. Children have a unique way of learning. They learn most effectively through play. When they are playing they are most of the time exploring the different jobs they watch their parents perform on a daily basis. Children are active learners instead of passive.

Evaluation: In terms of depth this article is not very long. It is very informative. It also gives information to better explain the topic of discussion. It was helpful because words or phrases that a person would have difficulty understanding was explain in a link provided by the website.

Other: There were no other topics addressed by this website.

URL: http://

Summary:

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Other:

Summary: The cognitive approach emphasizes the scientific aspect of phychology. A cognitive map is an internal representation of an explanition of behavior. Our self concepts are our abilities behavior and personality. Topics that are discussed on the site are general mental illness, mood disorders, schizophrenia, substance related disorders, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, disorders diagnosed in childhood, eating disorders, somatoform disorders, mental illness and crime/violence, personality disorders, dissociative disorders, and cognitive disorders which are all related to my major health and human physical well-being. I thought this website is very useful in relating many topics that are discussed by most students in society. The array of information and general breakdown of the topics was very easy to understand and helpful for all problems that face the the adolscents of today.

Evaluation: The information provided for the topic of cognitive development was very clear and useful. Cognitivism emphasizes mental processes. It looks at how we direct our attention, perceive, think, remember and solve problems. Piaget stressed that children do not just passively receive information from their environment, they actively construct their own cognitive world. Organization and adaption underline a child's mental construction of the world. These are just a sample of the vast amounts of information provided through this website. Each topic is covered in depth and many clear and concise ideas are given throughout the website.

Other: This website offers a large variety of information for many issues in todays society. These topics include general mental illness, mood disorders, schizophrenia, substance related disorders, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, disorders diagnosed in childhood, eating disorders, somatoform disorders, mental illness and crimes/violence, personality disorders, dissociative disorders and cognitive disorders.

Summary: The article, “Thinking: Six to Eleven?by Dr. Phyllis Tyson, covers the issue of how the cognitive skills for a child changes throughout different stages of his life, specifically from ages six to eleven. Dr. Tyson discusses how children in this age group develop the capacity for self-reflection, abstraction, the ability to take several scenarios into account, and the ability to empathize. During this time frame, the child also develops the ability to rework old emotional problems and how to see them in a new light.

Evaluation: This website seems to be a sub branch of the Sesame Workshop group, which is an affiliate of the children’s TV series, Sesame Street. This website is devoted to helping parents find information about matters dealing with their children. Under the “cognitive development?topic, multiple items came up, as well as links at the bottom of specific articles that point to other articles on the same topic. The material in this article appeared to be very clear and concise. The material was presented in a way that a parent could easily read the passage and understand what the author was trying to make a claim for. The facts listed in the article were clear, factual elements paralleling much of which was discussed in class about how younger children grow and gain the abilities to form new mental tasks.

Other: * The effects of hormones and the body’s equilibrium * Abilities of children from younger aged groups as a comparison * The impact new cognitive developments have on the emotions of a child

Summary: This website gives information on Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development, a child’s ambition to memorize everything, and the foundation of Piaget’s Theory. The introduction begins with a child’s scenario that depicts the ambition to memorize everything. The child watched the t.v. show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and said, “I’ll remember all the answers to all the questions. Then, I’ll become a millionaire”. According to the website, the question is, “Should a child spend a lot of time memorizing facts?” It always seems easier for adults to just “simplify” things for our children by pointing out to them “what you said is wrong and the correct answer is this”. Furthermore, it takes extra effort and patience to think about and comprehend why children make mistakes. The foundation of Piaget’s Theory begins with the aforementioned statement. Piaget took the time and had the patience to study “errors” made by his own four children and others for decades. Later, his observations formed the foundation of his theory of intellectual development, known as the “Theory of Knowledge Construction”. The theory is based upon that the inquiring young mind is not a clean sheet of paper that is waiting for knowledge to be painted upon it, but that it actively constructs knowledge. Children reconstruct their knowledge so that they can understand and assimilate new information. Piaget’s four stages describe the development and abilities children go through. Stage One is called the Sensorimotor Stage and begins at infancy. The infant develops motor and reflex actions and learns about herself/himself and the environment through sensation and movement. Stage Two is called the Preoperation and begins in toddlers and early childhood. At this stage, the child’s intellectual development deals with language and using symbols to represent ideas and objects. Stage Three is called the Concrete Operation and begins in elementary and early adolescence. Children at this stage begin to process abstract concepts such as numbers and relationships, but they need concrete examples to understand these concepts. Finally, Stage Four is called Formal Operation and begins in adolescence and adulthood. The child adolescent begins to reason analytically and logically without requiring references to concrete applications.

Evaluation: The website begins with a very interesting introduction. The example of the child watching “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” provides an insight of how a child thinks. The child develops intellectually at different stages with various processes. The information that is given is very clear, but lacks more information. Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development are only described in three or four sentences. I believe that more information could be provided with explicit details and examples of each stage. Also, a brief biography or additional information about Piaget could be offered. The information could focus on why Piaget was interested in cognitive development, his motives and beliefs, and what he noticed through his observations.

Other: This website contains many other topics. Some topics include adult development, clinical and cognitive psychology, animal psychology, behavior analysis, intelligence, and learning theories. Each topic has its own article that provides information on the related topic.

URL: http://classweb.gmu.edu/awinsler/ordp/cogdev.html

Summary: This website is very broad in the information given on cognitive development. It covers the study on this subject in regards to Piaget, including his theory of development, Regents?Center for Early Developmental Education, Jean Piaget Society, and a Cross Cultures Study. It also covers Vygotsky, and his ZPD (zone of proximal development), cultural-historical psychology, and his centennial project.

Evaluation: I found this Web site too advanced for me, because in my opinion to understand the information offered in this Web site one needs a stronger base than what I have in this subject. Also, I felt the Web site jumping from one thing to another without fully explaining one point at a time. It kind of just gave a taste of many things, rather than a full bite of a few. However, the information as a whole was precise and accurate (I concluded this from my limited knowledge on the subject). However, someone who is more knowledgeable on cognitive development may understand and appreciate this Web site more than me. Although I found the information very broad, I think that is so people can find a specific subject they are interested in within this Web site, even if they are not interested in everything offered in it.

Other: Other topics covered in the Web site are: intelligence and its theories, Howard Gardner’s 7 intelligences, multiple intelligences; mind, culture and activity, laboratory of comparative human cognition; Mensa, IQ and intelligence, intelligence and IQ, and Reviews of The Bell Curve. It also covers information processing, cognitive psychology online laboratory and mind tools. And in general, cognitive science eprint archive, millennium project. This Web site gives additional references, and tutorials, which are offered in many related subject.

Summary: This web site is very interesting and fun to look at. When I was looking for a cognitive development site I found this and I really enjoyed it. This web site includes information that is useful for personal and professional use. Astromind is a privately owned cognitive research and development center located in Iceland. They research, develop and teach advanced methods and techniques to measure and increase focus and expand consciousness. The center has grown out of seminars conducted by Gardar Gardarsson, author and recognized authority in the field of mental fitness training. Astromind provides a continually updated source of information on techniques to increase intelligence, focus and consciousness. Astromind has made a career out of researching and developing mental techniques to enhance the mind. Their program includes advanced techniques to increase intelligence, focus and consciousness.

Evaluation: Astromid provides the viewer with important information about cognitive development. It contains many different articles over cognitve development ,and every month the Astromind newsletter brings the viewer the latest information on the subject from their research and development team. In this website you will also find links to other sites that are relevent to cognitive development provided by this website. The website is very clear. It shows the viewer what is available and takes you directly where you want to go. Across the top of this website, right now, the viewer will find that it provides information on conentration, conciousness, intelligence, and self mastery. When you choose to go into these categories, you are given more options that lead you to what you specifically want to know. I thought that it was very easy to use and understand.

Other: This website also provides the viewer with information of products, awards and testimonials, and a link to contact them. The website also informs the reader about the website and how they are supported. The most entertaining part of this website is their link to Fun and Games. I really enjoyed playing the games that it provided.

Summary: The Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology website has a lot of information regarding many terms used in Psychology. The website has information on the four different types of cognitive style. They are wholist, analytics, verbalizers, and imagers. Wholists are students who understand better when the teacher lays all of the information out there at one time. Analytics are the opposite of wholists. They break information into many parts. They have a hard time understanding the whole picture. Verbalizers prefer information presented in words. These are the students that do well in class lectures. Imagers need to see information being presented. They either need to see pictures or have vivid descriptions.

Evaluation: This website does not go into great detail about cognitive style but I feel that it does give good information. It is very easy to read and understand. I feel that you do not have to have a huge psychology background to use this website. I also like the way that it breaks each topic down. You see only what you want to see. This information is useful to teachers because it is the different types of learners that every teacher will have.

Other: This website has too many other topics to list. It covers things such as Gardner, ADD, Bloom’s Taxonomy and much more.

Summary: This web site’s home page contains links that explain the human mind, describe cognitive styles, analyze personalities, and causes for mental diseases. Cognitive style measures the strength of your preference for the manner in which you process information. One’s cognitive style operates in an unconscious manner, that is, while an individual may be aware of the outcome of the information processing process, he or she is unaware of the mental process used to acquire, analyze, categorize, store, and retrieve information in making decisions. This website also gives examples of the way individuals react while they are trying to understand a particular thing. Learning was explained to be a constructive, cognitive, and social process where the learner strategically manages the available cognitive, physical, and social resources to construct knowledge. Construction requires individuals to direct attention to relevant aspects of the given information and relate it to previous experiences.

Evaluation: In term of depth and clarity, the site was long, but very informative. All the links corresponded to a particular area, which made it very easy to follow and understand. I encourage individuals to visit this site because it helps you figure out what types of cognitive styles you may have. I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know before.

Other: Other topics that I found within this site where individual profiles pertaining to being a contributor, exhorter, facilitator, mercy, perceiver, server, and teacher. Each analyzes characteristics that individuals might fall under. There were four cognitive styles that were described throughout the site, which were wholist, analytic, verbalizer, and imager.

Summary: This website article titled, The Application of Learning Style Theory in Higher Education Teaching, quickly considers learning and how to improve student learning. This website began by arguing that in order for learning to be effective, educators need to have an understanding of individual’s learning styles. Background information about how students develop styles of learning was introduced. The term learning style was also defined and the different styles were contrasted. Research studies were suggested and the flaws between the nature of learning tasks and the different perspectives on styles were heavily reported. There were many research studies throughout the website. They research learning styles, learning style instruments, the value of applying knowledge of learning styles, and the right learning environments. In conclusion, they also stated there is a need for further research of learning styles to establish whether they are temporally stable and if it would help to identify how learning styles may change.

Evaluation: This website provides the viewer with extensive research information about cognitive styles. The research contains different studies over cognitive style and theory. For many viewers like myself, I like to hear about the research and what it proves, but do not care for the depth of which this author covered. I will also comment on the accuracy of the subject matter researched. Even though the studies were lengthy to read, they were clear to understand and easy to put into perspective. The remaining of the information was informative, especially for first year teachers like me. I thought the topic of “the right learning environment” was most beneficial and interesting as it explained the pros and cons of teaching strategies which aids in student learning. It also termed how different teaching strategies increase retention of the subject matter studied. Overall, this website article was helpful for the education field allowing sufficient knowledge for beginners.

Other: There was not any other information applied to this website other than that of cognitive style. The website was absent of links to further any information in regards to this topic.

Summary: In searching for websites on the topic of cognitive styles, I came across a website offering answers to frequently asked questions about cognitive styles. Upon opening this site, it became apparent that this site was actually a small portion of the official ERIC,(The Educational Resources Information Center Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation) website. It was actually a page of the website. This webpage actually lists links to citations and research articles about cognitive styles. It gives the email address to ERIC to ask questions about cognitive styles. It states the definition of cognitive styles as information processing habits which represent the learner's typical modes of perceiving, thinking, remembering and problem solving. It also states the term cognitive style is used for the more popular term learning style. It then lists other terms such as learning modalities, learning strategies,multiple intelligences and cognitive processes as other terms that may be used in relation to cognitive style. It gives eight overviews of topics ranging from "Learning Styles"; to "The Roles of Styles and Strategies in Second Language Learning"; to Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligence. It then offers several links to citations of articles which talks about the importance of teachers knowing individual learning styles of students. They explain how knowing learning styles can lead to limited frustration between teachers and students; better communication between teacher, students and administrators; better self concept and higher achievement of students.

Evaluation: When first evaluating this webpage it seems that it is very limited in the information available for research. But in further exploration it becomes apparent that this page is just the tip of the iceberg. The page actually belongs to the site www.ericae.net. This site offers numerous research tools not just for the topic of cognitive styles but for any topic relating to educational trends and issues. It provides links to articles, journals and studies for present educational processes. It also provides access to articles, journals and studies for past educational processes. It goes into depth about learning trends and it affects on the community, the classroom, the individual child and adult student. It offers procedures,and tests to evaluate learning styles and personalities. It states its major bibliographical resources used for the information used in the site. It also offer links to internet resources. This site can be used by the student, teacher, and parent alike to locate information about educational trends past and present.

Other: In this website you will find short reports that demonstrates research and ideas about current issues in education. It also offers links to on-line journals maintained by the American Educational Research Association Special Interest Group on Communication Among Reseachers. It offers links to assessment, evaluation and research full-text resources. You can also find a Test Locator which is a database containing descriptions of over 15,000 tests and research instruments.

URL: http://www.college.hmco.com/education/resources/res_topics/students/index.htmls

Summary: The website I visited to obtain information about constructivism was http://www.college.hmco.com/education/resources/res_topics/students/index.html. I found this website by conducting a search on altavista.com. The website was extremely helpful in providing me with the information I needed. The information was accurate, as well as relevant to the subject. I found that constructivism in education is a cognitive perspective of learning in which the teacher serves as a facilitator or coach. As a philosophy of teaching, it falls opposite of behaviorism on the spectrum of education. While behaviorists believe that individuals are passive recipients of knowledge, constructivists such as Piaget, Dewey, Ausubel, and Vygotsky believe that individuals construct knowledge, and that learning is an active process. Constructivists also believe that meaningful learning is retained, and that it is important to build on what a student already knows, while behaviorists believe that learning should occur through programmatic repetition of activities. The constructivist classroom provides a variety of opportunities for children to take an active role in the learning process. The activities provided in a constructivist classroom are hands-on and allow students to build their own knowledge through discovery. The website stated that students that are a part of a constructivist classroom become experts at creating strategies, as well as excellent self-questioners. The website also provided a page of teaching strategies that relate to constructivism. It was taken from pages 302 and 303 of Teaching Strategies by Orlich. It provides a variety of open ended questions teachers can use to trigger critical thinking. For example, “What do you think will happen now?” and “How can we do this more easily?”

Evaluation:The website was more of a site reporting on how constructivism is integrated into the modern classroom, then an informational site about the history of constructivism. It listed the key contributors to the theory, but did not go into detail about what their individual contributions were. It serves as an excellent site to get a basic understanding of the underlining premise of the theory. It lists key points and does a great job of comparing it to behaviorism. It even puts the comparisons on a chart to make reading easier. The information is accurate and cited. A list of resources can be easily accessed for each of the topics on the site. The resource list not only includes texts that were used, but other internet sites. This could be very useful to the researcher who is trying to obtain a better understanding of the theory. The website belongs to Houghton Mifflin, a famous text book publishing company, which also accounts for validity. Overall, I think that this was an excellent website. If one was doing a research paper on constructivism alone, one would need to visit other cites to obtain more information. I think this is a great site for someone who would like to get a very basic understanding of what the topics listed above are about. I think that the best pages within the site where the “Topics in Education” page and the “Project-Based Learning” page because the information about them could be found on the site. Although I found the resource pages for the beginning teacher and special education to be useful, I think it would have been better if the information about each topic could be found directly on the site. The reference and resource page for all of the topics is an excellent contribution to the site. It reassures one that the information provided is accurate. It also is of assistance to one who would like to further their understanding about a topic. One can use one of the resources provided to assist them in their research. I also thought that it was great that they had a page for students, as well as for professors. In conclusion, even though the information provided did not go into great depth, it was clear and accurate. The website is useful to the student, as well as the professor.

Other: The website was fairly easy to navigate through. The front page has five educational topics to choose from. These include constructivism, cooperative learning, inclusive classrooms, the learning environment, and technology as a tool. Each topic has a short synopsis of what the article is about. Each topic also has “Background Knowledge,” “In Practice,” and “Resource” pages. These can be located simply by selecting a sub-heading in the box at the top of each article. The information on each topic is accurate, but not detailed. All of the articles are similar to the one on constructivism in that they give one a basic understanding of what each topic is about, and how it is implemented in the classroom. Each “In Practice” page has exerts from various text books. The actual page of the text book can be seen if one clicks on it. The page number, name of text book, and author or publisher are all cited. This is also a major contribution to the validity of the information on each topic. The front page also has a section for instructors. This can be found by clicking on “Instructors” at the top of the page. This part of the website is of no relevance to me, but can be very useful for the college professor. The “Instructors” page allows one to search for a text book by title, author, or ISBN. One can also narrow the search by selecting a discipline. Education, as well as ESL, are some of the choices. One has the option to go to the page of their discipline for course materials, lecture outlines, PowerPoint slides, and textbook sites. One also has the option to request a copy of an exam. The “Reviewers and Authors” page can also be found by clicking on it at the top of the front page. The page is just a short summary of Houghton Mifflin’s motto to insuring quality text books. It also has a link to another page if one is interested in writing a text book. The page is also a contribution to the validity and accuracy of the information on each research topic. The “Booksellers” page is helpful if one would like to further their research by locating and buying the text book of their choice. A “How Can I…” page is also included on the website. One can use this page to obtain further information about getting technical support, purchasing a product, requesting permissions, and requesting a copy of an exam. One can also choose to write to the company by clicking on “Write to Us.” At the right hand corner of the front page one has the option to click on “Resource Centers.” This links you to an online education resource centers list. The page has five different educational resource centers one can choose from. These include resources for the beginning teacher, special education, project-based learning, topics in education, and literacy resources. I found the information on constructivism on the “Topics in Education” page. Under each resource option, there is a short summary about what one will find on that particular page. On the resource page for beginning teachers, one is given resources where one can find information on topics such as curriculum, diversity, government, inclusion, professional organizations, social and legal issues, standards, and technology. This page can be extremely helpful to the beginning teacher who would like to research these topics, but has trouble knowing where to find accurate information about them. ERIC and NCTE were two of the resource options listed. The resource page for special education also gives a resource list where one can further their understanding about topics such as print and electronics, assistive technology, school reform, information on current legislation, and teaching tools. The page also provides a link to professional organizations. The resource page for project-based learning is similar to that of the “Topics in Education” page that I utilized to get information on constructivism. It has a section on background knowledge and theory, as well as a reference page. It also has a section on projects and teaching concepts. Each section has a short summary under it to give the researcher a basic idea of what each page contains. The literacy resource page contains ACE practice tests, as well as links to all of the company’s literacy texts. The tests are based on literacy topics that range from comprehension strategies and phonemic awareness to vocabulary and formal and informal assessment. The tests are for students on the college level and could be used as a study guide for literacy classes.

Summary: The topic of this website is resources for gifted and talented students. The focus is on the high abilities of these students and the different methods that can be used to teach them. From the use of the constuctivist theory, which uses the student’s prior knowledge to build a base, to scaffolding and information processing, this site gives real examples of what to use for different lessons. From recommended reading materials, to math programs that encourage acceleration, this site has a variety of information that will help the teacher in the classroom. Rather than focusing on the theory, it instead shows how to implement it in the classroom, from what different programs should include to problem solving techniques.

Evaluation: In terms of usefulness, I found this site very helpful and informative. In terms of depth and clarity, the site did not go too much into the technicalities of each theory, rather it made the information and implementation methods for real life uses of each theory easy to understand. For additional information it contained links to organizational strategies, other web sites on education for G/T students, and other resources on line. Most of the information concurs with the information discussed in class.

Other: This site contains other links to Reading/Language Arts, Resources, Mathematics, Suggested Readings, Organizations, and other Web sites for teaching the G/T students. It also contains sample lesson plans and ideas for motivating the student, and accelerating their learning process.

Summary:

Evaluation:

Other:

Summary: This article was written by J. Bruner, who was believe that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. The learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so. Cognitive structure (i.e., schema, mental models) provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows the individual to "go beyond the information given". 4 major aspects: (1) predisposition towards learning, (2) the ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner, (3) the most effective sequences in which to present material, and (4) the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments. Good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying, generating new propositions, and increasing the manipulation of information.

Evaluation: The article on this website is very short and simple that explainning very clear about important information about Constructivist Theory. Bruner written well for another and I could understand easy that go to straight main point and idea. The site gives most of the information I need for this topic. I really think everyone should take out this website or be read to one of the curriclum classroom.

Other: Cognitive structure

URL: http://www.ecewebguide.com/curriculum_approaches.htm

Summary: The ECE website is a user based search engine mainly for teachers and administrators to retrieve valuable information on current educational topics, as well as, submit information for other teachers to use. The curriculum theory page allows the user to choose a specific curriculum approach from “Creative Curriculum,?“High Scope,?“Montessori,?“Multiple Intelligences,?“Project Approach,?“Reggio Emilia,?and “Waldorf.? From there the user is given a list of websites applicable to those topics. Also, teachers are allowed to submit sites or articles they deem appropriate to the site. This website has an extensive list of links that are useful to teachers of all levels.

Evaluation: I was very pleased with this site. The amount of information presented was very well-rounded and thorough. Not only was it free access to a number of curriculum websites, but it did not have one main theory focus. Each section had more then one point of view presented. The user was allowed to choose which specific area he or she was interested in. The links for each topic are also very useful. They presented a large amount of information any teacher could use. Thematic units, lesson plans, and classroom management techniques are just a few of ht4 contents form the links. Because this search engine allows for site submission by users, the ECE monitors the accuracy of each site. Also, since more then one theory is presented, the site does not have the ability to be biased. One extra feature is a free e-mail account provided by registering to submit a website.

Other: Each section presented by this website on the topic of curriculum theory and instructional design is relevant. ECE shows different approaches, and ideas for teachers to make their own decisions on how they wish to run their classrooms. Once an educator has elected one approach over another, this site gives them plenty of information to make that idea work for them. Also included in the site are ideas about lesson plans, an online catalog for educational props, and activity ideas.

Summary: Summary: The website entitled Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) was copyrighted in 2002 by the Regents of the University of Michigan. Although the mission statement of the website states the CRLT is dedicated to the University of Michigan faculty, Graduate Student Instructors and administration, the information is available to anyone who has web access. There are links to extensive information on teaching strategies (curriculum theory), grants, resources and publications. At the top of the website are current topics for teachers that change periodically. At the time of this review, the topic was “Guidance for instructions concerning class discussions about the war in Iraq”. The link I was interested in was “Teaching Strategies and Disciplinary Resources”. The information was sorted by topic and by discipline. There were 22 topics and 28 separate disciplines to choose from. Once you clicked on one of these, you were taken to a list of anywhere between 3-15 websites dealing with that particular topic.

Evaluation: Evaluation: This website is an in depth and extensive resource on teaching strategies. Some of the topics covered are: Active Learning, Case-Based Training, Creating an Effective Learning Climate, Experimental Learning, First Day of Class, Syllabus and Course Design and Study Skills. Each of these topics are then discussed further by the links provided. One of the links for Syllabus and Course Design provided a step by step outline for Preparing a Course and Teaching your Own Class. These files were in a .pdf format and could be printed. Overall this website provides a wealth of information for pre-service teachers and current teachers.

Other: Other: There were many links on this website that contained information that was relevant only to University of Michigan instructors, such as handbooks and information on grants. The website did have a link to several websites on National Resources for Teaching and Learning such as a link to the Carnegie Foundation. This website has an archive of articles on several teaching topics.

Summary: The website I chose to research on curriculum theory was written by M.K. Smith. The article was published by the encyclopedia of informal education, or www.infed.org. This website contains information on curriculum theory and practice and its relation to informal education. The article was very long and extensive in its contents. The article begins with an introduction on idea of curriculum, and other content areas such as curriculum as transmission, curriculum as product, curriculum as process, curriculum as praxis, curriculum and contexts, and last curriculum and informal education. The article addresses four ways of approaching curriculum theory and practice; one is transmitted, two is product, three is process, and four is praxis. Each on of these subjects is outlined and explained in detail.

Evaluation: I felt that this was a really resourceful website on curriculum theory because it started out with the most basic meaning and origin of curriculum. This article is really broken down into main topics or four major ways to approaching curriculum theory and practice. I thought the article was extremely easy to comprehend and easy to follow throughout the reading even though there was quite a lot of reading material. I enjoyed the reading because it was not difficult reading with contents that I had never heard of. The author does a great job of building upon curriculum theory concepts in a manor that is similar to follow like a timeline. The author made the contents of the article very clear and easy to comprehend. The research in this article is extensive in itself but for the researcher that still needs more resources the author has listed many recommended readings and references. This is a great website considering the extent of the knowledge given by the author.

Other: Other topics addressed in this article link of the four curriculum theories and practice to the four main forces in North American curriculum-making in the twentieth century: the liberal educators; the scientific curriculum makers; the developmental/person-centered; and the social meliorists.

Summary: The article that I have chosen describes the different cognitive approaches of Instructional Design. The article is based largely on behavioristic premises, and it also describes how the instructional design adjusts to cognitive ways of viewing the learning process. Many researchers have defined two definitions of learning settings;(1) Traditional View: people learn in classrooms; there they acquire the knowledge and skills needed to perform successfully on the job. Revised View: people learn by introducing elements of work tools, aids, help systems, and low-risk training environments. Job demands are simulated in controlled training settings. Instructional Design as a discipline rests on the twin foundations of (1) a systems design model for managing ID development process, and (2) theories that specify what high-quality instruction should look like.

Evaluation:This website is useful to researchers that are interested in the evaluation of the cognitive process of instructional design. It would not be helpful to teachers because research is not a good tool to test in the classrooms. Teachers should establish and maintain an instructional design prior to the beginning of the school. Students are not guinea pigs and studies should not take place during the learning instruction.

Other: This article also talks about new methods and technologies that can motivate learners. It also features a study on training vs. education. It states that when learning takes place, both knowledge and skills are acquired. A cognitive view of instruction would argue that both training and educational systems need a better repertoire of effective strategies to make material more meaningful and useful to learners.

Summary: The article that I have chosen describes the different cognitive approaches of Instructional Design. The article is based largely on behavioristic premises, and it also describes how the instructional design adjusts to cognitive ways of viewing the learning process. Many researchers have defined two definitions of learning settings;(1) Traditional View: people learn in classrooms; there they acquire the knowledge and skills needed to perform successfully on the job. Revised View: people learn by introducing elements of work tools, aids, help systems, and low-risk training environments. Job demands are simulated in controlled training settings. Instructional Design as a discipline rests on the twin foundations of (1) a systems design model for managing ID development process, and (2) theories that specify what high-quality instruction should look like.

Evaluation:This website is useful to researchers that are interested in the evaluation of the cognitive process of instructional design. It would not be helpful to teachers because research is not a good tool to test in the classrooms. Teachers should establish and maintain an instructional design prior to the beginning of the school. Students are not guinea pigs and studies should not take place during the learning instruction.

Other: This article also talks about new methods and technologies that can motivate learners. It also features a study on training vs. education. It states that when learning takes place, both knowledge and skills are acquired. A cognitive view of instruction would argue that both training and educational systems need a better repertoire of effective strategies to make material more meaningful and useful to learners.

Summary: The article that I have chosen describes the different cognitive approaches of Instructional Design. The article is based largely on behavioristic premises, and it also describes how the instructional design adjusts to cognitive ways of viewing the learning process. Many researchers have defined two definitions of learning settings;(1) Traditional View: people learn in classrooms; there they acquire the knowledge and skills needed to perform successfully on the job. Revised View: people learn by introducing elements of work tools, aids, help systems, and low-risk training environments. Job demands are simulated in controlled training settings. Instructional Design as a discipline rests on the twin foundations of (1) a systems design model for managing ID development process, and (2) theories that specify what high-quality instruction should look like.

Evaluation:This website is useful to researchers that are interested in the evaluation of the cognitive process of instructional design. It would not be helpful to teachers because research is not a good tool to test in the classrooms. Teachers should establish and maintain an instructional design prior to the beginning of the school. Students are not guinea pigs and studies should not take place during the learning instruction.

Other: This article also talks about new methods and technologies that can motivate learners. It also features a study on training vs. education. It states that when learning takes place, both knowledge and skills are acquired. A cognitive view of instruction would argue that both training and educational systems need a better repertoire of effective strategies to make material more meaningful and useful to learners.

Summary: This website provides a very informative directory constructed through The Open Directory Project, which is the largest human-edited directory of the Web, as opposed to those of computer-based search engines. Extensive information, such as definitions, articles, resources, examples of implementation, and various associated services, is available on the topics of Reference, Education, Methods and Theories, Instructional Design, and Learning Theories. The website is 100% free with unlimited access and use. The site maintains continued growth and evaluation through regular editing by a wide-ranging network of net-citizens. Outdated links are removed regularly and new links are continually added through the process of open editing. Any knowledgeable person may contribute pertinent information to this directory by joining the editors and complying with the directory license.

Evaluation:This site is an in-depth, user friendly, website with extensive updated information available in each of the areas of Education, Methods and Theories, Instructional Design, and Learning Theories. The Home Page provides simple definition of terms and links to access further information. In the area of Instructional Design, one can find design models, titles of books on the topic, and a wide variety of articles on each topic. Also provided are various lesson planning sessions as well as established lesson plans, ready for use. Examples of implementation of instructional designs are also readily available. In the area of Learning Theories, one can find information on thirteen different theories including, but not limited to, Behaviorism, Constructivism, Problem-based Learning, Aesthetic Realism, and Multiple Intelligences. There are over 200 articles available to gain in depth understanding within the thirteen learning theories listed. Articles also provide several links to additional sites concerned with the same topic of discussion.

Other: This site also gives access to other topics in education, such as leading educators of the past like Maria Montessori, Charlotte Mason, and Dorothy Sayers; journals, such as “Academic Exchange Quarterly’ and “American Journal of Education;” and various counseling services, as well as existing societies in education. In addition, access is given, through the Reference section, to additional directories and various products and services, as well as information and locations of specialized learning centers and schools. Countless links to additional sites provide further information, resources, and services in each or the area or concentration.

Summary: The website’s contents were designed by Brenda Mergel. At the time of it’s origination, she was a graduate student at the University of Saslatchewan. She realized there was a lot of confusion surrounding the different learning theories and their relationship to instructional design. Ms. Mergel realized that many times particular theorists had ideas and concepts that crossed the line into another theory. The website strives to define behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitivism as independent theories.. She also gives a brief history of the key theorists relating to behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitivism and their major contributions to their respective theories. Then, the site goes further to explain how each of the theories individually relates to instructional design

Evaluation: I tried to analyze the depth and clarity of the explanation of the individual theories as if I were a student with absolutely no knowledge of the concept and I had a paper due on the concepts and I was without a textbook. I asked myself if I could write at least a "B" paper on these theorists and their theories and the answer was, "yes". In the sections that relate the theories to instructional design, it is my evaluation that the depth is not quite as complete as the outline of the theories. I felt like on the instructional design sections, she may have assumed the readers had a higher level of understanding and knowledge on instructional design. In the theories section, Mengel used bullets to organize the information in a more neat pattern. In the instructional design section, they seemed to serve more as a short-hand. A way to throw in information that was needed, but not totally developed. Overall, the information was still clear. I learned more about a topic that I wasn’t very knowledgeable on and to this point, I still don’t think I have the knowledge to truly test the accuracy,

Other: The website gives a comparison between the development of learning theories and the development of the atomic theory. Questions to ask yourself to guide you in your understanding of the different theories. It gives a brief biological analogy to learning theory classification. Lastly, Mengel gives her synopsis on is their one best learning design and her conclusion is, it depends mostly on what is being taught.

Summary: The article that I chose to research contains an essay by Peter de Lisle. In this essay, he attempts to explain the role that theory plays in Instructional Design. The essay begins with a brief introduction about the role of ID on learning theories. Then it proceeds to describe the different kinds of theories and their origins. The essay provides an outline of the process of ID and the problems that surround this approach.

Evaluation:This website is extremely useful for anyone interested in learning more about Instructional Design. The essay provides an in-depth research and the format is easy to understand. Teachers should steer clear of using this process in the classroom, unless they have a clear understanding of the possible outcomes. What is most unique about this essay is that it provides a list of alternative approaches to ID. Overall, this is a great website for people who want to gain some knowledge about ID and other alternatives.

Other: This essay does not provide links to other websites, but it does provide a list of alternative approaches to ID. Each approach is accompained with a brief summary of its objectives. It allows provides an overview of different learning theories and their impact on ID.

Summary: This website is the Ohio Learning Network Using Technology to Enhance Learning. The page is divided into two sections. Primers/overview is exactly that – an overview. It is an overview of aspects concerning instructional design from definitions to principles of instruction. The second section is titled going deeper. This section provides articles of study and research, an interview, and reading material from E-learning post. Throughout the website, instructional design is explained as several different components. Instructional design is explained as a process, as a discipline, as a science, as a reality, as a system, as technology, and as development. This site gives explanations and defines the learning theory and what learning is. There are over fifty links to major theories of learning and instruction that are offered.

Evaluation:This website is user-friendly and easy to navigate and maneuver through. The many different links take the user to pages of other universities throughout the nation and their view or use of curriculum theory/instructional design and other educational sites. The user can email the webmaster of this website for questions, comments, concerns, possible additions, and suggestions.

Other: I found this website useful for the topic of instructional design. Many of the theorists studied in class throughout the course are mentioned. The links are helpful and there are plenty to choose from that are related to the topic and other related topics.

Summary: The website was created by Sangchul Oh, a doctoral candidate for the University of Missouri-Columbia, and it contains many topics including instructional design. It furnishes a description of what instructional design is, tells what the purpose of design theories, the diverse characteristics of instructional design, and it provides an explanation for the importance behind the values in instructional design. It also distinguishes the theories that are not considered to be the instructional design theory. The website contains a link to Robert Gagne’s conditions of learning, as well as, charts used in the Component Display Theory. Also, different views within instructional design are examined. Two such views include the objectivist view and the constructivist view. The website provides, under the objectivist view, possible circumstances that might trigger that type of view to be considered.

Evaluation:This website includes many links that allow the student or educator to navigate the site with a large amount of liberty. The site itself does not go into much depth although the links do a good job at that. The website allows topics to be searched for through the provided links which include situated cognition, problem-based learning, cognitive flexibility, and other learning theories. There are many subcategories in the website that allow the navigator to explore beyond instructional design. The site is very clear and easy to maneuver. There is no need for the student, educator, or other interested person to be technologically inclined. The information provided shows accuracy, and can be understood. The website is useful to those who are beginning their study of psychology. It provides the bases for what knowledge will be acquired through psychology.

Other: Some other important links that can be reported are under the learning theory subcategory. The theories examined are Behaviorism, Constructivism, and Cognitivism. These topics are extremely important in the field of education, as well as, in the study of educational psychology.

Summary: Topic Assigned: Curriculum Theory/Instructional Design This site focuses on what instructional design theory is defined here as: design oriented (focusing on means to attain given goals for learning or development). It identifies methods of instruction and the situations in which those methods should and should not be used. It also mentions that design theories are intended to provide direct guidance to practitioners about what methods to use to attain different goals. It includes a section that provides different methods to facilitate learning and development and situations to indicate when to use them. It later breaks down instructional situations into two major aspects: Instructional conditions and Desired instructional outcomes. Also mentioned in this site that values play two major roles for design theory: (1) values decide what goals to pursue and (2) what method will be used to attain it. Also mentioned was examples of what is not an instructional design theory, which helped clarify in depth what it really consists of. At the end it includes a section where it explains and lists other learning theories that the Instructional design theory is based on. Examples of these theories are: Robert Gagne’s Conditions of Learning, Dave Merill’s Component Display Theory and Charles Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory. In the end it provides related sites to this topic, that can be helpful to further explain the theory.

Evaluation:This site does a tremendous job defining the theory but it did not explain much about how it’s changed over time. It even lists theories and ideas that are not included in the Instructional Design theory, to further clarify what the theory consists of. It also only mentions the Curriculum theory very briefly and refrains from going into detail with that subject. I think that it was necessary to describe the curriculum theory in more detail to help the reader understand the differences between the two theories. I do think however that including the related links was a wise decision because we can access these links to read more about the Curriculum theory. Overall, I feel that this site was useful, clear, and accurate. I also feel that the Instructional Design theory was explained in real depth, however, the Curriculum theory was avoided.

Other: This site did provide three other related links for further research, which also included more information about the Curriculum theory. These links are: http: //carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/idmodels.html, http://www.soe.ecu.edu/Itdi/colaric/KB/InstructionalModels.htm, and http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bwilson/construct.html. To improve this site my recommendation is to include more information about curriculum theory and keep the format, it was very helpful and easy to comprehend.

Summary: The web site for Scott’s Research Library is very informative. He shines light upon different instructional theory and design resources. The nine web sites he chooses to address are as follows: Instructional Design looks at Gardner’s seven styles of learning; Directory of Instructional design models; Instructional technology connections, from Dr. Martin Ryder; Case studies in Instructional technology and design; Bobby’s place: Directory of Instructional design theory and research resources; Theory into Practice database; Instructional design – Robert Gagne, the conditions of learning; Gagne’s nine instructional events; finally, David Merrill’s commentary on instructional design. These various links provide assistance for various types of teachers.

Evaluation: The first link from this web site discusses seven of Garner’s multiple intelligence’s. He talks about “plays with words, plays with questions, plays with pictures, plays with music, plays with moving, plays with socializing, and plays alone.” This web site also gave many other multiple intelligence’s links. The second link offered information about prescriptive models, phenomenological models, and comparative summaries. This web site originates from the University of Colorado at Denver, School of Education. The extra links were presented in the form of questions such as “What is DESIGN?” It also talks about objectivist, behaviorist, and modern models links, such as B. F. Skinner web sites. Finally, it talks about cognitivists, constructivists, and postmodern model links. Some of these links include concept mapping web sites, montessori web sites, and role play web sites. The third link from the original page is instructional technology connections. Some of the links discuss theory and philosophy in education but most don’t apply to early childhood education. An example of one that doesn’t apply is performance technology going beyond technical training. The fourth link is case studies and publication links such as multimedia on instructional technology and design. Most of these were not applicable to ECE. The fifth link was not as organized for ECE teachers. It discussed adult CPR and Bloom’s taxonomy for teaching, learning and assessing. There were links for teaching tools but it was not the main focus for the web site. The sixth link was very well organized. It was a database and all the links to different theories were arranged alphabetically for easy access. Some of the links were learning domains for different subjects including: Computers, aviation, sensory-motor, problem solving, etc. Another link in this web page was learning concepts such as: anxiety, imagery, mental model, taxonomies, etc. The seventh link was Gagne and Conditions of Learning. It was very informative and talked in detail of Gagne’s theories. There were no other links on this page. The eighth link was an overview summary outline of the previous web page. The final link is no longer in use and no longer accessible.

Other: The majority of these links were useful for Early Childhood Education. Only a few links were not applicable towards this subject. Overall, I think this site was very informative and well designed to aid in the education of current and future teachers.

Summary: The website I found for the topic of Curriculum Theory was entitled Mission to Mars: Project Based Learning. This site discussed John Dewey’s concept of developing the child thoroughly both intellectually and physically by elaborating on the theory of enhancing the child and not the teacher.

Evaluation:This site was very impressive to me, for the simple reason that it was concise yet thorough in content. For instance, at the beginning of the site it stated that the Mission to Mars goal was to discuss the elaboration of John Dewey’s theory of a child based curriculum, immediately following the objective of the project the site discusses how the Mission to Mars project goes about teaching the child “as a whole” in a more elaborate way. Not only did the site give textual information of how teachers should be teaching in an elaborate sense of Dewey’s theory, but it also gave a graphic model as well. The site also was very considerate, in that it guided teachers even further, to let them know how to effectively implement this theory in their classroom. I also felt that the site was very professional with regards to giving credits to the persons who provided information and labor with making this site informative and successful.

Other: John Dewey’s belief in the coordination of the development of the individual and the benefit of that individual to society was best facilitated by the creation of a miniature community. Dewey was first to recognize the importance of school being directed toward what valued by the child in the present and not some abstract future.

Summary: This site discussed what the theories are behind the engagement of children. It is broken down into subcategories that cover learning and twelve of the theories, seven theories of curriculum and what should be learned, and instruction as to how the learning should be designed examining ten theories. I found each of these categories very helpful and very thorough by giving definitions, discussions, impacts, and basic elements of the topics.

Evaluation:Although, to someone with previous understanding it might seem a little mundane, this site provided much information to an individual who is not very knowledgeable in educational theories by providing very clear and descriptive definitions and examples. I also liked how they provided you with the impact of certain learning theories. While this site did give clear and concise information on learning I do not think it would be very useful to teachers because it does not guide them on how exactly to go about implementing these theories. Also, it does not provide new and upcoming research in the field which a very accurate website would have. I believe that this site should be used just as an overview of these theories.

Other: Not only did this site go over the general learning and curriculum theories but it also gives four different organizational theories of education discussing how a school should be designed and three different theories: Authentic Assessment, Classroom Assessment, and Techniques Portfolio Assessment.

URL: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/LShaw/F95syll/philos/phprogr.htm

Summary: This website discusses progressivism. The author of this website, Instructor Larry Shaw, discusses that John Dewey is responsible for the success of progressivism. Shaw divides his progressivism web page into three topic areas: “Progressivism”, “The Roots of Progressivism: John Dewey’s Philosophy,” and “Progressivism in the schoolhouse.” Under the subtitle “Progressivism,” Shaw discusses the background of John Dewey and the impact of the progressive movement from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. When Shaw discusses “The Roots of Progressivism: John Dewey’s Philosophy," he points out how Dewey welcomed change, how Dewey was not fond of traditional American education, and his reliance on the scientific method. Shaw discusses Dewey’s proposed five step method for solving problems which are: Become aware of problems, define it, propose various hypotheses to solve it, examine the consequences of each hypothesis in the light of previous experience, and test the most likely solution. Under “Progressivism and the Schoolhouse”, Shaw explains that in progressive classrooms teachers stimulate student’s interest, and students are exposed to democratic curriculum. Progressivists hope that the home, workplace, and school will unify into a fulfilling experience for students.

Evaluation: Overall, I feel that this website explains progressivism very well. The author organized the text well and thoroughly defined progressivism. The information was easy to understand and I definitely obtained a clear understanding of the educational philosophy progressivism. This web page is especially useful for educators that are trying to develop a philosophy of education for their classroom.

Other: At this website you can access educational philosophies: essentialism, perennialism, existentialism, and behaviorism. I chose this website because earlier this semester I was learning about educational philosophies and theorists. Progressivism and John Dewey drew my attention the most. If I could chose on educational philosophy to model in my classroom it would be progressivism, with a little input of the other educational philosophies as well.

Summary: The website summarizes John Dewey’s gift for suggesting classroom activities that captured the center of what his classes were studying. It details Dewey’s Philosophy of Education by stating his belief of active learning, and unnecessarily long and restrictive schooling. It discusses his idea of how students should be involved in real-life tasks and challenges and should come to school to do things that will give them real, guided experiences, which in turn will foster their capacity to contribute to society. Additionally, the website provides useful links on other pertinent topics of John Dewey’s Philosophy of Education such as the following: • John Dewey Philosophy of Education Resources on the Web • Summary of John Dewey’s Biography • Summary of John Dewey’s Philosophy of Instrumentalism • Summary of John Dewey’s “Experience & Education” • John Dewey Quotes

Evaluation:I used Yahoo’s search engine and simply typed in the words “Psychology, John Dewey” and a plethora of topics emerged. I selected this website because it summarizes John Dewey’s Philosophy on Education in a very organized, detailed, and succinct manner. I particularly enjoyed the segment titled: “John Dewey: Philosophy of Education Resources on the Web”, because this segment listed more than 17 links to resources available on the web for further study of John Dewey’s Philosophy of Education. Also, the segment titled: “John Dewey Quotes” offer fun, insightful tools teachers can use in their classrooms to invoke discussion, or to simply add a fun spirit to the learning environment. I found this website to be current, relevant, informative and useful!

Other: The website is specifically dedicated to John Dewey’s Philosophy of Education along with his works in the field of Educational Psychology. Original documents dating back to 1882 can be found as well as John Dewey’s theory of emotion. Additionally, it addresses how Dewey's education philosophy helped forward the "progressive education" movement, and spawned the development of "experiential education" programs and experiments.

Summary: This website is the homepage for the John Dewey Society. Liberal educators established the John Dewey Society in 1935. The organization supports the philosophy of John Dewey and his ideals of a democratic education and it’s relation to the process of social change. The society holds annual meetings and lectures to allow discussion of issues in education. Through the meetings and lectures for it’s members, the society hopes to help educators examine and solve issues that occur in the classroom or in education in general. Members are also provided access to publications and journals that examine educational and cultural issues in education. The members consist of educators, students, interns and retired teachers. Members are from all over the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and as far as Egypt.

Evaluation: This website clearly states it’s support in John Dewey’s philosophy. The website is designed well and explains the goal and history of the society. Visitors of the site who are interested in joining are clearly explained the objectives, functions, and requirements for membership. This website is extremely useful for students as well as educators who follow Dewey or who would like to apply his theories in the classroom. The website also provides links to other Dewey websites.

Other: The 2004 Annual Meeting of the John Dewey Society will be held in conjunction with the AERA meeting in San Diego, April 12 - 16, 2004. More information is available at http://www.aera.net/meeting/index.asp.

Summary: This website deals with John Dewey’s two-month trip to the Republic of Turkey in 1924. It describes his efforts in the restructuring of that country’s educational system utilizing his ideals for progressive education and their importance in maintaining a successful democratic nation. He was invited by Mustaga Kemal Atatǖrk, the founder and president of the new democratic Turkish Republic. This website provides the opportunity to learn the importance of John Dewey’s assistance in aiding the government of Turkey to provide literacy for its entire nation. President Atatǖrk felt it imperative to provide this education in order to insure the future of a democratic republic in Turkey. Mr. Dewey’s recommendations for modernizing the Turkish educational system helped to develop a feasible educational policy not just for Turkey, but for other developing nations as well. This website portrayed John Dewey incorporating the same progressive educational beliefs in Turkey as those being utilized in his “laboratory school” in Chicago. This allows the reader to see his philosophies being utilized in a wider societal scope than one school experiment, therefore allowing for the validity of his theories on a larger scale. This site relates his personal philosophy upon how education should be structured for children and democracy in order to maintain a productive and orderly society. It also states the importance of his position on knowledge and ideas being put into action to keep any society moving towards a state of freedom and maturity. The information on this website allows the reader to see the practical application of Dewey’s educational philosophies put into use and their results. In this sense it is important to anyone interested in educational psychology to see the actualization of theory and philosophy in a format other than classroom lectures and reading about them in educational textbooks.

Evaluation:I chose this website because it allows for the opportunity to learn more about John Dewey and his philosophies through a real life application of those beliefs. The website contains valuable insight into John Dewey as a person who not only theorized upon what education should be and its importance, but put those beliefs into action whenever he was given the opportunity to do so. This website was structured in a concise and informational manner giving the subject matter to the reader in an easy to comprehend format. It stated all of the information in a continuous and easy to follow timeline relative to the material being presented. I felt this website to be important and useful because it gave realistic and historical information about the application of John Dewey’s educational philosophies and the successful implementation of them, not just in a classroom, but for an entire country. I felt it important to be able to read information where educational theories and beliefs were put into practice in order to better utilize them as a future teacher or educational administrator.

Other: This website incorporated Lawrence Kohlberg’s viewpoints upon two other philosophies of education through a comparison of Rousseau’s “romanticism in education” and the traditional “cultural transmission” of education as opposed to Dewey’s “progressive education”. These viewpoints were given in order to portray a comparison between American and European educational systems in order to determine which would have a more promising effect upon continued literacy in Turkey. These viewpoints were relevant due to the prediction of which educational system would increase Turkey’s opportunities to maintain a democratic future. This reflected one of John Dewey's basic beliefs concerning education being vital to a continued democracy in any society.

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URL: http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/HSYouthtrends.html

Summary: The website basically covered statistics and trends of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students. The NIDA has been in existence since 1975. Since 1975, they have seen trends increase and decrease among these grade levels. The 2001 “Monitoring the Future” study, shows an overall decrease in drug use among 8th graders. Their use of inhalants, hallucinogens and LSD is the lowest it’s ever been. 10th graders have slowed down on drugs such as hallucinogens, LSD, Crack Cocaine and Heroin. The 12th graders have had a significant decrease in Heroin. Among the three groups the use of cigarettes are at an all time low. The drugs used at a steady unchanging or increasing rate where Steroids, MDMA (Ecstasy), Alcohol, Tranquilizers and Marijuana.

Evaluation:The website gave a lot of information about what was being used the most and how frequent the drug use has become. The site displayed a chart of statistics and numbers to give a general impression of drug abuse among the different grade levels. They were clear on their focus, but not to in depth on the who’s and why’s. The researchers failed to give the viewers of this website an idea of where the surveys where administered. Meaning, where the kids from the suburbs or inner city? They didn’t answer the question of race or past family use. They didn’t volunteer information as to why the students may have been using these drugs. I can safely assume their survey didn’t include questions to assess the reason for drug abuse among the teenagers. Judging from this website, I cannot make an accurate assumption about all teenagers. If I were to go into an auditorium of one hundred 12th graders, I could not say 25 of the students I see are using some sort of drugs. The numbers on the site are correct, but for who and what part of the population.

Other: The site did not address any other topics. Their focus was on illicit drug use for 8th, 10th and 12th graders. The information posted on the website was taken from the results of the 2001 “Monitoring the Future” survey. Their only focus was the data received from the survey conducted.

URL: http://www.interdys.org/servlet/educators

Summary: This website provides a lot of useful information about dyslexia and is developed by The International Dyslexia Association. The International Dyslexia Association is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping individuals with dyslexia, their families, and the communities that support them. IDA was founded in 1949 and is the oldest learning disabilities organization in the world. This website is full of resources for educators that encounter children with dyslexia. The first section is an overview of this learning disability. It mentions that 15-20% of students that an educator might encounter will have a language-related disability. Many of the children diagnosed with these disabilities have average to above average intelligence. From this page there is links to information called, “About Dyslexia.” On this page there are definitions and some frequently asked questions that can help educators when these children are encountered. The definition given on this page of dyslexia is as follows: “Dyslexia is one of several distinct learning disabilities. It is a specific language-based disorder of constitutional origin characterized by difficulties in single word decoding, usually reflecting insufficient phonological processing abilities.” There are links to common signs and information regarding more specific groups of people: Pre-School Children, K to 4th Graders, 5th to 8th Graders, High School & College, and Adults. These links give good signs to look for when dyslexia is suspected. In a link called “More Information,” there is additional detailed information about teaching strategies, testing techniques, cause and effect, and treatments. The site refers to the causes as not being clear, but anatomical and brain imagery studies show differences in the way the brain of a dyslexic person develops and functions. It goes on to say that dyslexia is not due to either lack of intelligence or a desire to learn. With appropriate teaching strategies, dyslexic students can learn successfully.

Evaluation: I think that this website was an excellent source of information. It gave detailed information that would be very useful for any educator who encounters children that they know or suspect of having dyslexia. The site contained all the information and did not require links to other websites. It was careful about siting sources used. I would recommend this sight to any teacher, parent, or student who has dyslexia, or has children with or suspected dyslexia.

Other: There are no other topics that this website covers, but there are other links to this website that are available at http://www.interdys.org. From this page one can access other links that are specially designed for parents, children, adults, college students, and other guests. In these links, the information is designed to fit the different reasons that one might be accessing the site other than help in educating students that have this disability.

Summary: This website is a branch off of the homepage to the Psychology Department at the University of Sheffield. It looks rather simple when first entering it, but as soon as you click on the first link you will run across many others. You may choose to go to the numerous articles featured on the website by clicking on their link. These articles are some that have been published by distinct individuals in various journals and deal with the issue at hand, i.e. dyslexia. Some of these journals are Dyslexia: An International Journal of Research and Practice, Journal of Learning Disabilities, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, and the British Journal of Educational Psychology. Alongside this page, it also includes a link to a page that describes the various dyslexia screening tests, which were originally developed by Professor Rod Nicolson and Dr Angela Fawcett, both from the University of Sheffield. These tests have been refined after many years of testing and research and are designed for school and employment professionals, unlike many other psychological tests.

Evaluation:My opinion of this website leans towards the positive side. This site provides much information that has been collected after numerous amounts of research and studies. For example, in an article written by Prof. Nicolson and Dr. Fawcett titled “Naming Speed in Children with Dyslexia” a series of tests were conducted on children with dyslexia. Next, normally achieving children were matched according to age and IQ to be the control group. These two sets of children, in the ages of 8, 13 and 17, were then tested on naming speed. The results stated that the overall performance of the 17-year old children with dyslexia was closest to that of the 8-year old children under the control group. In terms of depth, this site covers it very well. Each article describes how the children were tested and what the results were. In regards to clarity, the average person, I think, would have a difficult time understanding the many terms used throughout the sites. It seems to me that the only way you would find this site the most useful would be if you held a degree in psychology. This explains how useful the information really is. As already stated, the site can be quite useful because of the valuable information it gives, however, one must be able to understand the lingo. I think that a glossary or simply defining the terms used in the text would make this site useful to all people, especially those who are trying to find information on this particular disability.

Other: An advantage to this site is the fact that it branches off of the university’s psychology department website. If you click on the link to go to the psychology homepage you are able to find information on various topics. If you maneuver your way around the site you may find the cognitive development site. It provides information on autism, various studies being conducted at the university at this time, and how you can help. Links to many other websites, journals, and papers are also included. Aside from this there isn’t much more that a person can research to find useful information.

Summary: This website was designed by a professional association of teachers of students who work with students with specific learning difficulties, it is an organization for all those concerned with the teaching and support of pupils with SpLD: dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADD, and Aspergers syndrome. The organization of Patoss was formed in 1987 as an association representing teachers who had gained the RSA Diploma for Teachers of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties. Since then, the number of Patoss members has grown to over 1000, working with students across the age range from primary through adult.

Evaluation:Since the RSA (now OCR) Diploma and Certificate for Teachers of Learners with Specific Learning Difficulties were introduced, many other high quality-training courses now exist and we are all aware of the importance of co-operation between professionals working to help children and adults with SpLD. The organization is open to those who are qualified teachers in SpLD and those studying for certification in teaching those with SpLD. Patoss have widened its acceptance of members to include other professionals who are working in the field of specific learning difficulties. Many of our members teach in schools and colleges. Many provide one-to-one attention to students with specific learning difficulties. This includes assessment of current level of knowledge and ability, planning programs of work, delivering those programs, advising on the broader educational program, and liaising with other professionals.

Other: The actual teaching methods as that are used by those in the organizations that seems to be effective. Other than dyslexia that is addressed, there are other Learning disabilities that are worked with. They are as followed: ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) Aspergers syndrome and Dyspraxia.

URL: http://URL: www.interdys.org

Summary: Summary: In today’s era of technology finding information on whatever topic you wish is as easy as the click of the mouse. The site which, I will be discussing is sponsored by The International Dyslexia Association and provides information about dyslexia. The IDA is the oldest learning disabilities association and the site allows educators, parents, and people of all ages who may have dyslexia to access the information. I find it very important to start off by informing you on what dyslexia is. Dyslexia is a language-based disorder where people have problems with single word decoding. This is usually a result of insufficient phonological processing abilities. In other words, these individuals are not ‘stupid’ as an ignorant person would label them they just have problems with language. For the most part these individuals have average to above average intelligence. The main thread that is seen throughout the entire site is support. Every section was geared to the age group designated and gave then encouragement and ways to seek help and information. The parent section presented a parental view that is all too common. Parents are around their children from the day they are born and throughout each year in school. Many times they are the first to notice that their child is different from all the rest. Instead of acting on this instinct from the first time it is noticed parents tend to repress their instinct because they feel that their child will catch up. The IDA discourages this typical response by pointing out that the sooner treatment starts the better chance the child has in being successful within school. Also, the when parents act on their instinct they will be able to gain knowledge on dyslexia and will be better equipped to help their child tackle the many educational obstacles they will face. I was also, very impressed that the organization had branches in every state and within each state. Here in Texas there are three branches Austin, Dallas and Houston. I looked into what the Houston Branch had to offer as far as community resources. As a ventured through the Houston resources I was informed of up and coming seminars over dyslexia. One seminar that I was overly impressed with was the seminar geared towards in coming college students. This seminar basically was designed to help college students with dyslexia make it through college with their learning disability. The professionals who headed the seminar showed the students how to selected a college, courses, and how to just make it through. The college student portion of the site offered words of encouragement to help these students through their obstacles with dyslexia. They also have a seminar in February 22, 2003 where Maryanne Wolf, Ph.D. will be speaking on her research with reading and language for people with dyslexia. This is something that I as a pre-service teacher am marking on my calendar to attend. Admission is free and it will offer me further insight on educating children with dyslexia. This site had tons more to offer to the viewer. The on-line shop was another area of interest for me. As I looked at different items that were offered to teachers and parents mainly I realized that some of these resources would be great for my professors to look into buying. There was a video, which discussed this learning disorder along with current research. I feel that by offering as many resources as possible educators will be able to gain proper insight on this topic which effects 15-20% of all school aged students. Another area of great interest to me was a section dedicated to informing people about the laws and policies for educating students with disabilities. One Act, which was recently put into effect, is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This Act insures that under Title I every struggling student who meets high academic standards will be provided with help. I was a student who was labeled dyslexic in second grade however, I was not given the support from teachers to become a strong reader and writer. It is because of my school experience that has driven me to become a teacher so, that I can hopefully keep one student from experiencing what I did. I am relieved that our government has passed an act that will protect students with learning disabilities from being pushed to the side for ‘someone else to worry about’. Research on dyslexia is being done across many fields such as Speech Language Pathology and Genetics. From that research many devices have been made to help people with severe dyslexia function in a world where one must communicate. Assistive Technology is one of those devices. This device helps these individuals communicate because many of them cannot write properly. Many people have misconceptions of this device and to clear those up I discovered that assistive technology devices are a tool not a cure. Whether or not a person is using the site for a school project or for personal use this website has it all.

Evaluation: Evaluation: This website and organization is one that I will definitely use within my career as an educator. It not only offered me valuable information and resources to contact for further information but it also, allowed me to become a member of the organization. The website was easy to move around and gave precise information. I would also, direct parents to this website if need be. My overall impression of this site was above average. This is because of the overflow of support given to educators, parents, and dyslexic individuals. I read over the bulletin board posting and I had an overwhelming feeling of unity. Every person who posted had an insightful message, whether it was a personal story or a cry for help. This is an incredible site.

Other: Other: As I discussed in my summary of the website, the IDA offered many community as well as nationally driven resources for a person to come in contact with. Along with this current research and resources the IDA website allowed people to link to EducationNews.org where they could sign up for a free newsletter. This newsletter is just one more great resource that the IDA has located to educate people on learning disabilities and other key issues in the world of education. I also, felt liked the fact that a person was able to become a member.

URL: http://www.earlychildhood.com/index.cfm

Summary: Summary: This website covers all the aspects related to early childhood education. It is especially designed for teachers and parents. It provides information on different types of behaviors that teachers or parents can face. It also contains list of several articles that can help many parents to take care of their young ones in a better way. There are many arts and crafts activities posted on this website which changes every month or so. Through this website one can get expert opinions regarding their problems. This website also provides links to other related websites. It has sharing boards. It also provides few activities for all the age groups which changes every month.

Evaluation: Evaluation: This website is wonderful source for teachers and parents. On the home page on the left hand side there is a list of different topics that one can pick according to their requirements. The very first topic is related to early childhood news. Under this topic there is list of various articles posted every month. These articles talk about the different behaviors or emotions shown by children and it also provides the techniques to deal with those behavioral or emotional problems. The next topic is about activities and curriculum. Each month they have new activities for different age groups. For example this month they are doing activities based on Dr. Seuss books. Third topic deals with the art and crafts. These arts and crafts are divided according to different category. There is a huge selection of all types of arts and crafts. They also provided a link to get expert opinions. Every month they have a list of questions and answers asked by different teachers and parents. One can also view the previous questions if they are not able to find a question related to their topic. There is link where one can post their question to get the expert opinions related to their child. This website also has advertisements for job opportunities for teachers under the topic of classifieds. The other benefit of this website is that it can find a daycare or school according to your choice of program in any part of the country. If you fill out a form under the topic news link, you would receive free newsletter about the latest happenings in the area of early childhood education.

Other: I think it is a very useful website for parents who are facing challenges to raise their young children and the new teachers trying to do their best to help children to learn. The homepage of this website contains several advertisements related to early childhood education.

Summary: This website was created by the Early Childhood Research and Practice, which is an Internet journal about development, care and education of young children. The article in the website, “Comparisons in Early Years Education: History, Fact, and Fiction” was written by Mary Jane Drummond. This website discusses three different schools. The first school Drummond discusses is a Malting House School, which teaches the lesson of looking at everything children do with attention. This school shows that educators should learn from the children they teach. Susan Isaacs taught in this classroom and she was definitely an early childhood educator that was interested in what children did. She makes comparisons between what is and what might be. Isaacs feels strongly that the central work of an educator is the act of seeing. The children at this school were more active, curious, creative, and exploratory than in other schools. She talks about different confusions children go through such as how parents tell children to treat cats nicely and not to do what cats do to mice. Isaacs has the most to teach us today and tomorrow. Educators should learn from the Malting House School that an effective educational practice is to attend to everything that children do. This school teaches educators to look at everything children do while they are living and learning under educator’s compassionate provisions. The second school is a present day classroom where the teaching methods of Annabelle Dixon are described. This school shows the relationship between and educator’s pedagogical practices and an educators core values. It shoes the relationship between understanding and purpose, a lesson in educational values and their steadfast application. In this classroom, it is shown that whatever and whenever teachers teach that they always teach themselves. Educators are shown that the why questions are more useful then the what and the how questions. This classroom shows that understanding children and their learning is not enough and that educators need to understand themselves to be effective teachers. It was shown that children ask good questions and follow them through to try to find understanding without the teacher asking millions of questions first. In the classroom, Dixon developed a list of words onto a board that the children told her they do not know. The children are then able to use those words throughout the day in the correct manner by learning them through the teacher and on their own. The most important aspect of this classroom is respect. This respect follows the grain of children’s thinking. In this particular classroom, a child’s strengths are valued instead of their weaknesses. The third school described in this website is Louisa May Alcott’s fictional school called Plumfield. This school shows how importance imagination is and that it teaches people to aspire to a more just and harmonious society. Looking at the school one can look into the lives of children and reflect on what might compose a good life for them. This school shows that seeing into the life of both teachers and children are an essential component for educators of young children. The center of interest in this fictional school is the interest of children and their daily lives. The school has a curriculum of relationships, constructed with a vision that society might be loving and inclusive. Children’s growth and well-being are central values of this particular school.

Evaluation: This website offers educators as well as future educators a chance to look at different types of schools as well as different ways of schooling children modern educators can learn lessons from the three different schools talked about in the website. It helps show early childhood educators that they can support their own thinking, reflecting, and responding rather than simply responding to others. By reading, this article on can learn children’s confusions and be able to reflect on them. Educators should learn from the Malting House School that an effective educational practice is to attend to everything that children do. Early Childhood teachers are shown that the why questions are more useful then the what and the how questions while teaching children. This website shows teachers that understanding children and their learning is not enough and that educators need to understand themselves to be effective. Teachers realize that they need to look at a child’s strengths instead of weaknesses. Educators learn that children need space and time to grow to learn the powers to do, to think, to feel, to understand, and to represent through reading this article on the website. This website is very clear about its intentions and is primarily for educators of early childhood education. It shows teachers different ways of looking at things in the classroom and then allows the teacher to deicide what one thinks is best for the classroom at one’s school.

Other: This website shows a variety of classrooms studied by Drummond to help educators learn lessons to enrich their professional thinking. It shows different activities that the educators, discussed in the article, participated in with the children. It shows how others felt about the educators and their opinions on what the educator did. Some educators rejected certain activities these teachers did with their students saying how some of the activities were not age appropriate, since many of the classrooms ranged from age 5-10 or even younger children then age five at times.

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Summary: Educational Psychology 3300 Early Childhood Education Summary: The website is very useful and informative; it covers early childhood education from infancy to middle school. It provides many sources that can be used for teachers, parents and kids. The information is current and appropriate to the parents and kids. It has explanation of babies’ behavior; it covers aspects that affect child development. It has major subtitles such as behavior, development, language communication, playing, learning, social, and emotional, growth, childcare and preschool. The information in this website is extraordinary, it can help parents to understand better their baby’s behaviors as well their development in all their early stages. Also it explains stage to stage, it explains why babies behave the ways they behave. It is more than a web site; it is guide for parents and educator. It has answers and questions of child education; it has many examples for adults and children. It provides activities for all the age groups which changes every month. This website is excellent because it can help people in all needed areas of child education. It has experts in child education, who can provide instant assistant. Educators and psychologists are always available to respond question and concerns about kids’ education.

Evaluation: Educational Psychology 3300 Early Childhood Education Evaluation: The Scholastic web site is wonderful; it provides essential information for parents, teachers and kids. I definitely enjoy reading the site; it provides so much information of child development as well early child education. It is an excellent tool for new parents who need to know more about childhood education. In his website, teachers and parents can acquire information of new learning technique. Also it has all kind of activities for toddlers and preschool kids. The content of the web site is self-explanatory; it is easy to read and to understand. It has many explanations, definitions, games, lesson plans, and excellent articles about children behavior. I love this web page because it has all kind of information that is very practical for people who want to work with their children education. I find this web site an excellent source of learning for parents and kids who have difficulties in their homework. The scholastic also engages kids in leaning games, which are attractive for kids and parents because it helps them to learn more about their kids by playing games.

Other: Other: This site brings out the different types of early childhood education as well child development in preschool years. Moreover, it provides individual help for those parents, teachers, and kids who want to learn about both child development, and cognitive development. Scholastic, publishes a magazine every month with very useful articles for new parents. It also publishes books and learning games for early childhood. WWW.scholastic.com is really useful. I will recommend new parents to log in to this website to learn more about their infants, toddlers, children, and teenagers.

Summary: This website is created by Paideia Press. The website is created for parents, teachers, and directors. The site is divided into four sections. The first section is dedicated to parents. This section includes parenting issues, life lessons, parenting tips, parenting news, parental concerns, parenting corner, and bright ideas. The second section is dedicated to teachers. This section includes an activity room, break room, the chalkboard, teaching issues, editorial, and news for teacher, teaching tips, and life lessons. The third section is dedicated to directors. This section includes many things that are in the teacher’s section, except that it pertains to directors. The resources section has many web pages that have information on early childhood education. Parents, teachers, and directors can use this information to learn more about early childhood.

Evaluation: This website is very useful for parents, teachers, and directors who want to learn more about early childhood education. They can use this website to find many activities to experiment with children. The website also has many useful facts on how to choose the right type of equipment to use with the children. Teachers, parents, and directors should have access to this website because it gives them in depth information on why early childhood education is important.

Other: The website also include some student resources such as financial aid information, how to write a paper ALA style, AskEric, Ask Mr. Science, and Learning Resources Search Engine.

URL: http://www.mcrel.org

Summary: Summary: The web site that I chose for Internet Technology Assignment is www.mcrel.org. The topic is early literacy. The reason why I chose this topic is that I am interested in how we, as teachers and educators, can prevent children’s reading difficulties and how we assist, help, facilitate children with reading and writing difficulties. McRel is a nationally recognized, private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving education for all through applied research, product development and service. The staffs at McRel are highly respected educators and researchers. They focus on providing the highest quality, field-tested, research-based products and services available in PreK-16 education. McRel suggests making differences in education by delivering the best in field-based research and product development, workshops and training, technical assistance and consulting, evaluation and policy studies, information resources and community education and public outreach. The Early Literacy Advisor (ELA) is one of the programs of McRel. The ELA believes that the seeds of literacy are planted before children enter school. The ELA focuses on four major areas in early literacy program: oral language, general cognitive skills, understanding and applying the concepts of reading and writing, and specific literacy skills.

Evaluation: Evaluation: This web site is very informative. There are a lot of information about early literacy such as why early literacy is important, what Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Teaching Early Literacy is, what standards & benchmarks in early literacy are, and how to use computers in the early childhood classroom. The information is very short and lacks of depth. I have already known and acquired all information in this web site. For example, The ELA explain Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and scaffolding. The ELA states that instruction should challenge the child and aim towards the upper level of ZPD. Unfortunately, I have already learned Vygotsky’s ZPD. Additionally, this explanation takes only three lines. I do not think that teachers and educators who learn Constructivism use this web site to learn new knowledge or research for their students. There is nothing new to me. As I mentioned before, I believe that teachers and educators will not learn new knowledge from this web site. Thus, this web site is not useful and helpful. However, if a parent who does not have any knowledge about Constructivism wants to learn why early literacy is important, he/she will learn get information, not learn and understand what Constructivism is. However, this information could be very tiny part of Constructivist education. I tried to find more information that I did not know. So I clicked the icon of research. I was excited because I expected that I could see what happened at the ELA program, how to get the results and how to apply the methods into my future classroom. However, I was disappointed about this research article. The article about literacy program for At-Risk children contains only two pages. I could not find how many children received this program, the method that they used, and the observation logs that I can understand how those children develop their reading skills. The article states that this program based on Vygotsky’s theory of development, but not state how to apply the theory into the program. The results say that the At-Risk children could organize all of the upper case and most of the lower case letter, knew sounds that had a one to one correspondence between letters and sounds, were able to match voice to print when following the teacher, could comprehend the message based on the text, were able to correctly sequence elements of print and had transitioned from scribbling to using letters when writing. By the end of the year, 80% of the children demonstrated an ability to write and read. The results are great. However, I want to know and learn "How to apply Vygotsky’s theory and how to get this results." If teachers and educators who have At-Risk children in the class, they cannot learn anything from this research essay. There are no statistics, no methods, and no observation logs in this research essay. I believe that this is not research essay or paper. This looks like just repot. Thus, this web site contains lots of information, but nothing new and knowledgeable to us (people who learn Constructivism). This web site is not useful and clarified, does not have depth, but has lots of information. This web site does not contain what I want to know and learn. I will not use this web site in my future.

Other: Others: There are programs and services: mathematics and science, technology, instructional practice, equity issues, literacy and assessment and accountability. They also did not have depth. When I clicked the icon of resources, I could find many books. These books are good choices , very useful and helpful.

URL: http://www.EdPsyc.org

Summary: The Loyola University of Chicago sponsors the Educational Psychology Central @ EdPsyc.org. The site offers a very extensive arragement of information on the topic of psychology as related to education. The site is maintained properly, some of the pages were redone as early as this month. The site provides credible, objective information with a great number of links to other private and public institutions related to psychology. Information is clear, accurate, and its concentration on education makes this site of extreme relevance to our class. Topics as related to education and psychology are properly organized and easy to follow. To find Erickson's theories from the home page I went to Theory Research and practice icon. From there I picked research to alphabetical list of topics in psychology to Erickson. There are many links just to Erickson from his page. Information is accurate since it verified all we learned in class and what is stated in our texbook.

Evaluation:This web site goes in depth and is supported by many links. Topics are properly presented and are a very reliable source of information for educational psychology.

Other: The site offers training, history, learning theories, and the complete spectrum of research information with links to other universities. The list of topics offered is of 10 pages. This site is like a school and a library in one, very complete.

URL: http://psychology.about.com/library/weekly/aa091500a.htm

Summary: Babies have innate abilities and specific temperaments within them; however, they go through changes, or eight ‘psychological stages’, defined by eight different ‘psychological crisis’, that must be successfully resolved before a leap to the next natural, pre-ordered, stage can be made. The first stage is ‘infancy’, and it involves the crisis of trust versus mistrust, occurring from birth to the first year of life. During this period, infants learn to faithfully trust caregivers for warmth, affection, and food. If this crisis is successfully resolved, an infant learns to trust the environment and attach itself to the caregiver; if not, the crisis manifests its self through the infant mistrusting people, him or herself, and its environment. The second stage, ‘toddler’, occurs from the first to second year of life, and involves the crisis of independence versus shame. By learning to use the toilet, walk, talk, and be independent in activities, the infant develops self-confidence and control. If caregivers encourage their child(ren)’s initiative and reassure when mistakes are made, their child(ren) develop confidence to deal with future choices, independence, and control. If parents are overprotective and disapprove of child-independence, their children may become ashamed, and doubt their abilities. The third stage, ‘early childhood’, occurs from the second to sixth year of life, and involves the crisis of initiative versus guilt. Due to engagement in social interaction with others and the development of motor skills, children learn to achieve a balance of eagerness and responsibility, as well as control impulses of childish fantasy. Children guiltlessly accept rules, feel free to use their imaginations in role-play, if they are encouraged and disciplined to accept those rules. Without this aspect, children develop guilt and a belief in the wrongs of independence. Stage four, or ‘elementary and middle school’, occurs during the sixth to twelfth years of life, and involves the ‘competence versus inferiority’ crisis. Competence develops from learned pleasure in intellectual stimulation, productivity, and success, and the sense of inferiority develops from a lack of pleasure in regards to these pleasures. The fifth, or ‘adolescence’, stage occurs from the twelfth to the eighteenth years of life, and involves the crisis of identity versus role confusion. Erikson’s belief is that the most important conflict involves the question, "Who am I?" At this stage, adolescents are ready to integrate healthy resolution of the earlier four crisis, in healthy resolutions are achieved, to successfully answer the previous question of identity crisis. If adolescents solve their previous, four crisis in a healthy manner, they will emerge with strong identities and anticipation for future plans; if not, they may become submerged in confusion, and unable to decide future plans, sexual orientation, and their roles in life. The ‘young adulthood’, or sixth stage of life, occurs from the nineteenth to fortieth years of life, and it involves the crisis of ‘intimacy versus isolation’. If no identity develops, a fear of intimacy, committed relationships, and maybe a retreat to isolation and from love relationships, develops. Erikson maintains that intimacy development, along with the level of success in work, completes overall development. An achieved identity allows adults to share experience with others, and form close relationships with them; however, a fear of commitment, the feeling of isolation, and an inability to depend from others stems from a lack of achieved identity. ‘Middle adulthood’, or the seventh stage, occurs from the ages of 40 to 65, and involves the crisis of generativity versus stagnation. It is during this stage, that adults feel the need to create a living legacy, and begin to look outside themselves to care for others. Adults can successfully solve this crisis by creating and nurturing children, and helping the heirs to the world in other ways. Or, adults can fail to resolve this crisis by remaining self-centered, and then move on to a sense of stagnation within their own lives. Finally, the ‘late adulthood’, or eighth crisis, occurs from the ages of 65 to life expiration, and involves the ‘integrity versus despair important’ crisis. It is during this stage that adults reflect on pleasures and satisfactions, or feel a sense of failure of disappointment, with regards to their lives, and in the context of the overall plan. Adults who don’t fear death and view it with integrity, do so because they’ve achieved a sense of fulfillment about their lives, and have achieved unity within themselves and/others. Adults who haven’t achieved that sense of fulfillment, despair over their lives, and fear death.

Evaluation: The information provided by this site on Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Life was crystal-clear, moderate in depth, dictionary-like in accuracy, but failed to present, in outline form, its usefulness. In terms of clarity, the site not only outlined all eight stages, but also provided a dummy-proof explanation of the crises, and likely positive and negative outcomes, depending on if the crises of each stage were successfully resolved or not; although, it failed to thoroughly explain ‘stagnation’ in stage seven. As far as depth goes, the information information wasn’t too ‘wordy’; the site merely presented the eight stages, briefly described them, and listed positive and negative outcomes. This web-site merely provided enough information on the subject to inform you on the subject for the purposes of…let’s say ‘coffee talk’. In regards to accuracy, the article doesn’t get too caught up in supporting examples for its definitions and examples, and merely provides razor-sharp accuracy of its definitions of the eight stages and examples of outcomes of the stages, if required by the reader. The only gripe to be found in the article was its failure to provide examples of usefulness…I guess the article’s author felt that the article’s subject was so thoroughly explained, that usefulness would naturally follow within the reader’s mind. This article would definitely be useful as a quick study guide on the topic, and as a basic outline on how Erikson feels parents should raise their children.

Other: Since this site was a brief, in-depth summary of Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Life, there was no additional information provided on related topics within the article, but there were links provided at the bottom of both pages of the article for information on such related topics as: child development psychology, adult development and aging, personality psychology, and Erik Erikson. Furthermore, this site is excellent in that it provides other articles and a discussion board for various psychological subjects.

URL: http://med-stud.narod.ru/human/psyhol/frankl.html

Summary: The website that I chose on Viktor Frankl began with a brief Biography of his life. It discussed his birth in Vienna, his jobs before the war, his time in concentration camps, his jobs in the United States, and his death. Next, there was an indepth description of his theory of logotherapy. It discusses how humans find meaning in their lives, and stems from his experiences in the concentration camps. Next, there was a section on Special Clinical Details. This consisted of definitions of things such as hyperreflection, and dereflection. Lastly, there was a section called “Reading?that discusses the different books Frankl has written discussing his theory.

Evaluation: This website was fairly brief in discussing Frankl’s life, but only because he is known for his theory. It was helpful to know that he was in several concentration camps because his experiences there were the basis of his theory. The information would be useful to someone outside of education studying logotherapy, but for our purposes, it was hard to understand. I came out of it with the interpretation that in education, logotherapy could be seen as if you think you are going to fail and you set yourself up for it, then you will. Which teachers see a lot in schools. The website was also difficult to understand because it was not in laymen’s terms, and therefore, the average person would have a difficult time deciphering what the author was talking about.

Other: At the bottom of the website there is an icon that says "Other Documents." That takes you to another website written completely in German. I could not understand that, so I will say nothing else was addressed by this website.

Summary: Summary: The website that was chosen is called The Official Website of the Viktor Frankl Institute Vienna. The website shows the chronology of Viktor Frankl’s life along with the explanation of logotherapy and existential analysis. In 1905, Viktor Emil Frankl was born in Vienna, Austria. During the years of 1915-1923, he gets in contact with psychoanalysis during his High School years and attends public lectures on applied psychology. In 1924, Frankl studied medicine and acts as the spokesman for the Australian Socialist School Students Association. A year later he met Freud but became more involved with Alfred Adler. In 1926, he presents public lectures on congresses in Berlin and uses the word logotherapy for the first time. In 1930, he organizes a counseling program at the end of the term and there were no suicide occurances for the first time in years. In 1939, Frankl is offered a Visa to America but passes because he does not want to leave his old parents. Frankl also coins the phrase “Existential Analysis” in his paper “Philosophy and Psychotherapy on the Foundation of an Existential Analysis”. In 1942, he marries his first wife Tilly Grosser, and the Nazis force the couple to abort their child. In 1945 he comes down with typhoid fever and on April 27th he learns about the death of his wife, mother and brother who had been murdered in Auschwitz. In 1946 he overcomes his losses and reconstructs his book “Man’s search for meaning” and by 1997 nine million copies had been sold. 1947 he remarries to Eleanor Schwindt and they have a daughter named Gabrielle. In 1950 he becomes the first president of the “Australian Medical Society for Psychotherapy” which he created. In 1970 California the United States International University installs a Chair for Logotherapy. In 1992 friends and family found The Victor Frankl Institute. In 1997 Frankl’s last book is published “Man’s search for ultimate meaning”. This same year Frankl died of heart Failure on September the second. There are many more accomplishments of Viktor Frankl but I felt that the ones that were chosen were the most important in his life. There are many more that are interesting and important in his life but the ones that interested me the most were the ones I chose to relate to the reader. On to Logotherapy and existential analysis. According to the Institute it regards the search for meaning as the primary human motivation. Logotherapy and existential analysis has been internationally recognized for decades as an empirically humanistic school of psychotherapy.

Evaluation: Evaluation: This website is very useful to students, parents, and teachers. This website offers information on Victor Frankl’s life and his achievements. The information and the chronology of Frank’s life are very clear. This website has made me feel more confident about discussing and teaching others about the life of Frankl and has made it easier to paint a picture of the life that he had lived. This website offers many outlets for teachers to gather information on Viktor Frankl. It offers the chronology of his life, an explanation on logotherapy and existential analysis, books that can be purchased on the sit along with an email address to get contact information. There is also an updated newsletter for 2003 and lists seminars that will be held in Austria, Germany, USA, and Mexico. The site also contains a page that offers The Viktor Frankl Scholarships. The site also contains a page that tells about the Viktor Frankl award. This site seems to be very helpful in finding out about the life of Viktor Frankl. The site seems to go into depth about Frankl’s life. It is a good website for everyone. Although I would not recommend it to small children but for research in the later years this is a wonderful site.

Other: Other: This site focuses on Victor Frankl. There were no other links on this site. There were also no other topics other than his works and logotherapy discussed to further a search on Viktor Frankl.

Summary: Viktor Frankl believed that humans are in search for meaning. He experienced the Nazi camps where he observed that those who have hope had better chances of survival than those who had lost all hope. Frankl's therapy is named logotherapy and is ruled by the will to meaning. One must search for meaning which is not something invented that is given to the person, meaning is different to each human being. Humans should be prepared to confront any kind of difficulty and or challenged presented in life and it is the job of educators to help individuals find their own meaning in order to cope with those challenges. The existential vacuum according to Frankl is when the individual tries to fill the emptiness caused by meaninglessness of life with litlle things that provide some insignificant pleasure. This creates vicious cycles the first is referred to as anticipatory anxiety that is an individual gets so afraid to feel some anxiety symptoms that that same fear makes the symptoms become inevitable. The second vicious cycle is hyperintention this is feeling too much concern over something. The individual is so concern that he/she is not able to relax or enjoy a pleasurable situation. The last vicous cycle is known as hyperreflection which means that a person is thinking too much on what is going to happen that his/ her thoughts will eventually happen. Now the way to find ones meaning according to Frankl can be through experiencing love towards someone this is called experiential values. Another way to find meaning is by means of creative values this is by art, music, and writing among others. Finally one can find meaning through ones virtues like bravery and compassion this is known as attitudinal values.

Evaluation: The website clearly and briefly explains Frankl's theory without getting into too much detail. It is very clear because for every concept there is an example taken from every day like experiences that might help the reader understand better. The website is divided in topics, terms are highlighted and there are plenty of quotes from Frankl that also are very clear and strait foward. There are also some comparisons of Frankl's ideas against other famous psychologists like Freud. I think this website can be found useful for educators because the examples and the short story about the Nazi camps are good explanations to understand that depending on the ones motivation is ones performance. If teachers keep in mind what motivates students the children might improve there performance and find school more interesting.

Other: This page is very iformative it has a brief story about Frankl's experience in the Nazi camps. It alco includes a biography describing his life and accomplishments. This stuff is worth reading it may help understand better his ideas.

Summary: The article I found on Viktor Frankl is a brief story on is life. The obituary. In this article it mentions where he was born and where he died, things that he wrote in his life, things that he was involved in highschool. Also mentions where he went to college and what he did afterwards. He died in Vienna. Frankl was involved in the social youth organization, and became very interested in psychology. That is really all the things that this article talks about.

Evaluation: I think that this website is very useful to people who want to know about Viktor Frankl's life story. It mentioned where and when he died, where he was born, what he did in his childhood, including highschool. It also said where he went to college and what he did after. So this is a very good article to look at for information on Viktor Frankl.

Other:

Summary: The website I found with information on Viktor Frankl ended up being a website from another university. It started by giving a short account of what happened to him, and his work during WWII, during which he was held in several concentration camps. During this ordeal he tried to continue thinking of and writing his manuscript in any way possible since it was taken from him. He also thought of his family. This is very significant because it is a major impact of his theories that people are driven by some kind of meaning in their lives. Next it goes into a biography of his life, it's not incredibly detailed but it gives you a good amount of information about him and his life. It discusses the books he published and major evens that occurred during his life, that influence and helped develop his theory. After this it goes into his theory itself. In a nutshell his theory states that people are driven and survive by having some kind of meaning in there lives, they feel that they have some kind of purpose, or they have a goal they are striving to achieve. That the problems people have come from a lack of this meaning or person in their lives. It goes on to explain that people succed of fail, survive or die, decause of there belief in weather they will or not. It has much to do with hope and a persons own predictions about the future and about there life. It is a good example of self efficacy. If you believe you will survive, and have things to hope for and look forward to, you will. But if you have given up hope, and lost all reason for living or trying, your chances of death or failure are great. It also talks about how he view therapy should be done. He said that since psychological problems form because we do not know or understand our purpose, the point of therapy is to help them find it. Now this does not mean telling a patient what their purpose is but communicate with them in order for them to find it out for themselves. This is the general idea of what this website covers. It goes well into the details about what he considers are the aspects of this need for a meaning or purpose in one form or another.

Evaluation: I think that this website went into fairly good depth about his theory and the things that go into it. It gives you an understanding of how and why he believes in this theory with the account of his being held in concentration camps. It has a few problems with clarity at certain points while i was reading i had to go back and reread to try to make sure that i understood what was being said and the significence of it. I think it is useful in providing at least a general knowledge of Viktor Frankl and his theory. It does not go into great detail but it touches on important information.

Other: Other than Viktor Frankl, his thoery and the asspects that go into it there is nothing at all on this web page. It is a page completely dedicated to a description of Viktor Frankl and there is no other people, theories, or topics included in it.

URL: http://courses.lib.odu.edu/engl/cbrooke/aacra/psycho.htm

Summary: Psychoanalytic theory is based on the belief that it is possible for someone to be cured of mental disorders by talking freely and bringing repressed feelings into the conscious mind instead of keeping them hidden within the unconscious. This theory was established by Sigmund Freud. To understand Freud’s theory, one must understand some of his concepts. Freud's believed that the unconscious is the part of the mind beyond consciousness. He also thought that this part of the mind influences how people act. So his goal was to strengthen the ego or 'I' self – which is known as the conscious mind - by bringing the repressed thoughts into consciousness through psychoanalysis. By bringing such repressed thoughts into the conscious mind the ego/conscious and the id/unconscious would be closer to being one in the same. Freud wanted to make people more conscious of particular things that were previously suppressed. “Sublimation - the promotion of repressed material into something noble, transference - the redirection of the patient's emotions towards the psychoanalyst, and projection - the recognition of desires or feelings in another” is a major part of Freud’s theory. He also thought that sexual thoughts started in infancy and labeled three stages as oral, anal, and phallic. Jacques Lacan was a guy who believed that Freud was right about many aspects of the Psychoanalytic Theory. Lacan basically took Freud’s theory and re-wrote it to pertain directly to language.

Evaluation:I thought that the web site was very informative. There were many things that I learned about the subject matter. The site was easy to move around in and had a large amount of information on the subject. I like how the site had many links instead of being just one big page. That made it more enjoyable to read. The information seemed to be very thorough, and the language was very readable.

Other: This web site covered other topics such as Structuralism, Post-Structuralism/Deconstruction, Postmodernism, and Marxist Theory.

Summary: This website covers the biography and theories of Sigmund Freud. It provides information on his theory of the mind which includes the levels of consciousness, libido, id, ego, superego, defense mechanisms, psychosexual stages of development, and repression. Other topics include information about his personal life such as his upbringing. It also includes techniques that Freud used as a result of his findings. His biography is an overview of his life as a child and how he went on to become known as the Father of Psychoanalysis. His biography touches details of his life that lead to his writings. For example, the death of his father in 1900 lead to the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams, the death of his daughter lead him to write Beyond the Pleasure Principle in 1920, and The Ego and the Id in 1923. Most of what this particular website covers is Freud's theory and the work that he developed from his theory of the mind.

Evaluation: The information found in this website is very relevant to understanding Freud's theory. The website is designed in a way that provides only the crucial points of his techniques and theory of the mind. The depth of this particular website is reasonable since it includes what the different types of levels of consciousness. It states that Freud that his theory was that different fuctions of the mind operat at different levels. From there it covers the id, ego, and super-ego. The id is a motivational force that demands satisfaction right away, the ego supresses the id until a situation to satisfy the id comes about, and the super-ego is the right and wrong of the situation. This website is a great way to better understand Sigmund Freud and his theory of the mind. The psychosexual stages of development include the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, latency period, and the genital stage. All these stages are important to understand to fully comprehend Freud's theory. mind.

Other: All the topics in this website have to do with Sigmund Freud's theory. His biograpy, chronology, and all other information found in this website is important and relevant. I found the website informational and very productive in better understanding Freud and his findings.

Summary: The website I visited to obtain information about Sigmund Freud was http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/freud.html. I found this website by conducting a search on www.yahoo.com. The website was extremely helpful in providing me with the information that was needed. I found that Sigmund Freud practiced many theories while being in the field of psychology. Sigmund Freud was one of the most important thinkers in the twentieth century. Freud was both a doctor and a philosopher. As a doctor he was interested in the human mind affecting the human body. While being a philospher, he was interested in the relationship between mental functioning and certain structures of civilization. The most important fundamental principles that Freud used was the pleasure principle and the reality principle. The pleasure principle tells us to do whatever feels good. On the other hand, the reality principle tells us to subordinate pleasure to what needs to be done, to work. Both of these fundamental principles go through a process called the sublimation. Sublimation is where you take the desires that can't be fulfilled and turn that energy into something that is useful and productive. For example, sex is the main focus for Freud. Since, we can't have sex all of the time we do things to turn that sexual energy into something else such as, playing sports and writing a paper. Another theory that was discussed were dreams. WE have learned that dreams are symbolic fulfillments of wishes that can't be fulfilled because they've been repressed. Dreams used two main mechanisms which are, condensation, and displacement. Condensation is when a whole set of images is packed into a single image. Displacement is when the meaning of one image gets pushed onto something else associated with it. The next way into the unconscious besides dreams is what Freud call parapraxes. This could be another word for slips of the tongue. Many mistakes such as reading, speech, and writing are not coincidences or accidents. We are even able to see that the three routes into the unconcious are parapraxes, dreams, jokes, are all apart of the psychoanalysis. This part of the theory is where you need to pay close attention in the language. There are three zones that the human goes through and they are oral, anal, and phallic. These stages mainly takes place in the ages of 2 to 5. The oral stage begins after birth, then there is the first experience with nursing and this is where that phallic stage ends. The oral stage is where you are knowing no boundaries between self and other. The anal stage is associated with expelling things with learned boundaries that are inside and outside. The phallic stage is where you refer to about he penis and the clitoris and is very common between both boys and girls. This stage leads the child towards maturbation and then to adult sexuality.

Evaluation: The website gives many examples of each theory studied by Sigmund Freud. It gets extremely in depth about each theory that was discussed. In addition, it also gives enough information to understand the theories. It was useful to read this information because, it explained every theory in a very simple manner. The writing is very easy to follow and the word usage is very simple to comprehend.

Other: There were books that were suggested such as, Freud for Beginners by Richard Osborne, Civilization and its Discontents, The Interpretation of Dreams, The Psychopathology Of Everyday Life, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, and Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.

Summary: The website appears to be very organized. The website first details Freud's life, describing his early years until adulthood. It then describes the theories he is best known for, and provides links to further research the theories. The page also lists many of Freud's publications, and also provides links on some of the publications for further information. The website also lists its references, and provides other resources for further study of Freud. This website appears to be very useful for a brief overview of Sigmund Freud. It not only lists some of his greatest theories, but it also provides biographical information. I believe this is a good combination for a student to use, because it allows someone not familiar with him to learn about his life before learning about his theories that have greatly impacted psychology. Learning about his life is important because many of his theories such as the Oedipus Complex, are believed to have originated from family experiences.

Evaluation: This website does not go into great detail, but it does provide links to further research Freud and his theories. It is very easy to understand, and all of the information presented appears to be very accurate. I believe that it can be a very useful source for a student when researching Freud. The site also provides simple links to read his publications such as The Interpretation of Dreams, which he published in 1900. Therefore, I believe this is a very useful website because it allows a student or learner to go as far in depth as they choose.

Other: All of the topics posted on the web page are in reference to Freud. However, at the bottom of the page, there is a search provided which allows students to search for other web pages,or other particular psychological theorists. The page also lists other resources that provide information on Sigmund Freud. There are also five or six biographies listed on him which list the year of publication, and the authors. I also like the fact that there is a picture of Freud on the top of the webpage. I always like to put a face with facts. I think that students will also appreciate it. In Conclusion, I think that this is a good website for becoming familiar with Freud. It does not go into great detail, but it does allow the learner to sample some of his publications.

URL: http://www.coe.unco.edu/DonnaFerguson/ETHistory/GAGNE.HTM

Summary: The website that I have evaluated is a useful tool to better understand the conditions teachers should make available for children to learn. The website explains the theory, conditions of learning, in a simple manner. The language is easily understood and the information is concise. Robert Gagne’s theory, conditions of learning, has combined behavioral and information-learning theories to develop instructional guidelines for directed instruction. In addition, the author has also provided an explanation of what the theory is based on, the major categories of learning, different learning types, and nine instructional events.

Evaluation: This website provides ample information to understand Robert Gagne’s theory and supplies accurate information. The author provides in-depth information about how Gagne came to develop his theory on the conditions of learning. The background information the author supplies allows the reader to understand the importance of identifying the different types of learning that exist in order to develop practical instructional strategies which will create the optimal conditions of learning. The information the author provides helps to link Gagne’s learning theories with teaching practices. The author does this by giving a brief explanation of how the teacher should accomplish each task. In this site the author has provided sufficient information on the conditions for learning that could be useful to anyone who is seeking information on this topic. It is a good resource to keep in mind if you are looking for accurate and concise information.

Other: The website does not provide any links to other websites related to this topic nor does it address any other topic.

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Summary: Robert M. Gagne is a modern scientist of instructional theory. He says that people can learn in many ways. To apply the theory,first, you must look at the type of learning outcome you need to work and the ways of learning the material. The outcomes of learning is important to get out the right way of thinking. Instruction is broken down into different parts that can be taught in order. The outcomes listed are verbal information, intellectual skill such as discrimination concepts, rules, and high order rules. Cognitive strategy, attitudes, and motor skills are the other outcomes. These outcomes have conditions that facilitate outcomes of learning. Gagne has steps of instruction that shows many types of learning. Gagne has nine universal steps of instruction found in any instructional context. One way is to gain attention, describing a goal, and work with a recall of prior knowledge. The material needs to be presented in order to learn. Provide guidance for learning, elicit performance, provide informative feedback, acess performance and to be able to enhance retention to transfer to review the lesson is vital part of the instructional learning. These items mentioned are his ideas of learning theory called the "Conditions of Learning".

Evaluation:This website shows a brief outline on the many strategies of Gagne works on learning theory. It gives a brief discription of the type of work Gagne is doing of cognitive process. The outcomes of learning is broken down into visible parts with examples and the conditions that comes out of the actual outcomes. Gagne also have on the website his steps of instruction to accomplish learning. This website is a brief general discription of his work. It can be used as a quick link for research. The work is able to be understood when you read it. Teachers will be able to follow the basic parts of the learning instruction.

Other: This website is a general and brief discription of Gagne's condition of learning. This site does not have any links to it.

Summary: Assigned Topic: Gagne, Robert URL: http://www.ittheory.com/gagne1.htm Summary: This is a website that I chose over many others, because it offers more concise information. The site discusses Gagne’s contributions to education and educational psychology. It also talks about what educators need to understand, one of the ways, how children learn and what helps foster their learning. It outlines Gagne’s cumulative learning theory, the learning hierarchy, the domains of learning, the events of instruction and conditions of learning. The author did provide a link to the career of Robert Gagne to help the educator realize his credentials and impact on education. The site is easy to read and understand, (where there is full elucidation) as long as the viewer possesses educational psychology nomenclature.

Evaluation:Evaluation: The website scores high for clarity, when it expands on the theories. The author clearly outlines the career of Robert Gagne with the list of what contributions he made in each assignment, and professional engagement, as well as a list of his publications. The author offers scant information on the instruction theories, before Gagne developed his theories. The website progresses to Gagne’s contributions for his learning theory. The article goes into some depth of the Cumulative Learning Theory and Hierarchy of Learning. The explanations are bulleted for understanding, and there is a schematic flowchart to show the sequential order of cumulative skills learned; each skill needing to be acquired, before moving up to the next more complicated skill. The author then cites Gagne’s revised domains of learning in 1979, but they are not explained. There is a link to the author’s outline of Gagne’s Conditions of Learning with out expansion of what the eight learning types entail. The nine Events of Instruction was the only part of the site that had some depth in explanation. The Enterprise Schema is also outlined, but there is no explanation of the learning objectives, and what they mean for the educator. This concise website is a great place to start understanding the theories of Robert Gagne, but it lacks depth. The outline is clear in what Gagne believed, but there is a gap in translating some of his theories in applicable language.

Other: Other: The website does not give any outside links, or any bibliographical information.

Summary: This website mentions that Robert Gagne used the method of eclectic behaviorism to investigate the foundations of the conditions of learning. Gagne equates learning to information processing because he thinks that the process of people is comparable to operating a computer. The learning process has 4 phases and the outcome is based on verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, attitudes, and motor skills. The website also defines the eight conditions of learning.

Evaluation:The website offers a simple explanation of eclectic behaviorism. In terms of clarity, the website is good because it has definitions for the conditions of learning and gives brief examples of human capabilities. The information given on the website is useful because it doesn't go into great detail, but it gives the reader the main idea of the subject.

Other: This website does not have a bibliography of Gagne and it does not have any links. The website is just a basic explanation for eclectic behaviorism.

Summary: This website gives a biography on Robert Gagne, as well as information on his various theories. Robert Gagne was born in 1916 in North Andover, Massachusetts. He attended several colleges such as Yale and Brown University. He then furthered his educational journey by teaching at such colleges as the Connecticut College for Women and Penn State University. Between the years1949-1958, Gagne was director of the perceptual and motor skills laboratory of the U.S. Air force. It was during this time that he initiated some of his ideas that comprise his learning theory called the "Conditions of Learning". Some of the other theories mentioned in this website are Gagne’s Eclectic Behaviorism and Theories of Instruction. Today, Gagne is measured as an experimental psychologist who concerns himself with the topics of learning and instruction. Even though his former work is grounded in behaviorism, this website hints that his more recent work is partial to the information processing view of learning and memory.

Evaluation:This website gains points in the field of depth and description. It gives you a complete biography of Robert Gagne, which in turn gives you background information to further understand the motives and ideas behind his theories. It also gives detailed information about each individual theory. The webpage is set up in order for anyone to be able to easily navigate through the different links in order to view additional information on the topic. It gives comprehensive information on the theories such as the outcomes, examples, and conditions that facilitate the outcomes. In addition, it outlines the nine steps that Gagne suggests for instruction and gives examples of his theories being applied. This inclusion of this information is important to onlookers who do not speak the language of psychology. It allows itself to be understood from anybody’s viewpoint. Furthermore, this site offers interviews and video footage of actual interviews with Robert Gagne. It also provides information on Gagne’s books, and allows you to order them through Amazon.com. This becomes all very useful to anyone attempting to do research on Robert Gagne. It gives you sufficient information about him, as well as his theories. With the addition of video tapes and interviews, this webpage proves itself practical. The only negative aspect of this website that I encountered is that some of the links were unable to be viewed due to them being improperly linked.

Other: This website provides links to topics such as: About Robert Gagne, Gagne’s Research and Theories, Interviews/Videos, Gagne’s Theories Applied, and Selected Books by Gagne. It also links you to a detailed biography of Robert Gagne and more in depth looks at his theories.

Summary: Robert Gagne went to Yale in 1937, and got his Ph. D. at Brown in 1940. He was an experimental psychologist who was interested with leaning and instruction. Due to his interest, he wrote The Conditions of Learning in 1965. This identified the five categories of learning. The five categories are: verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, attitudes, and motor skills. This research was an outline that linked Gagne’s learning objectives to appropriate instructional designs. Then below that it listed his nine events of instructions and example lessons that teachers could follow.

Evaluation:This site goes in depths by explaining each stage and giving good examples. The site gave good information, but was short on his bibliography. This site helps to link Gagne’s learning theories with good lessons for teachers to practice. I liked how the site was easy to read and understand his work, therefore when I become a teacher I will be able to fallow his basic parts of leaning instructions.

Other: This site gave links to other theorist and its sources. This site is also good for helping college students learn about the different theorist for test.

Summary: This website provides information on Robert Gagne's theory on conditions of learning. Robert Gagne believes that learning takes place in several ways. He even agrees with Skinnerian conditions and other types of cognitive process. However, Robert Gagne feels that two steps are significant in applying the theory. The two steps that are critical are specifying the type of learning result and to determine the events of learning. The website breaks down the learning outcomes, examples of learners, and the conditions that facilitate the outcomes. There are five types of learning outcomes displayed which, include Verbal information, Intellectual skill, Cognitive strategy, Attitudes, and Motor skills. One example on Verbal information provides an example of a learner writing down Gagne’s five major learning domains. The conditions that facilitate the outcomes are the information that arranges content, meaningful context, and instructional assistance for retention and motivation. The websites also provides information on Robert Gagne’s steps of instruction. Gagne implies that there are nine universal steps of instruction that should be found in any instructional context. He suggests that the instructor should gain attention, describe the goal, stimulate recall or prior knowledge, present the material to be learned, provide guidance, elicit performance, provide informational criticism, assessment, and enhance retention and transfer. Overall, this website provide resourceful information on Robert Gagne’s theory on the conditions of learning. The examples provided help you see the learning outcomes and how to facilitate them.

Evaluation: The depth and clarity of the website is clear and to the point and does not provide the run around. I like how you are able to read the information in a chart and how it is displayed. The formation of the website is not cluttered and easy to read. The information is purposeful and resourceful for others. The accuracy of the website provides information that points out Robert Gagne’s theory on conditions of learning. The information provides examples to help the reader understand the concepts shown better. This data on learning is useful for an instructor to follow and to help them better understand a learner’s process of learning.

Other: On the webpage there are no other areas of topics discussed, however the website provides links to other theorist and quizzes on information provides on them. For instances, some theorist provided are Lev S.Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, John Dewey, John B. Watson, Edward L. Thorndike,B. F. Skinner, Max Wertheimer,Jerome Bruner, and David Ausubel. The quizzes provided are on Cognitivism, Constructivism, Behaviorism.

Summary: This website covers Robert Gagne's theory of instruction and was written by Michael Corry. Robert Gagne’s theory has provided helpful and valuable ideas for several people. Michael Corry focuses his paper on how Driscoll breaks Robert Gagne’s theory into three major areas. These areas are the taxonomy of learning outcomes, the conditions of learning, and the events of instruction. A brief description of Robert Gagne’s theory of instruction is provided. Gagne’s theories of the taxonomy of learning outcomes are similar to Bloom’s taxonomies of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor outcomes. Both theorists believe that it is significant to break down the humans’ learned capabilities into categories or domains. However, Gagne’s taxonomy contains five categories of learning results. These five categories are verbal information, cognitive strategies, intellectual skills, motor skills, and attitudes. The five categories explain a different class of human performances. Gagne breaks down his ideas of instructions into internal and external conditions of learning. The internal component deals with previously learned capabilities of the learner. The external component contains deals with the stimuli presented externally to the learner. When Gagne’s theory is put into play it is as follows: The instructor needs to determine the objectives for the instruction. The objectives should be classified into one of the five domains of learning results. These objectives should be stated in performance terms using on of the standard verbs related with a particular learning result. Then the instructor will uses the conditions of learning for end result to determine whether the conditions are necessary for learning. Finally, the events of instruction are necessary to promote the internal process of learning to choose to put into the lesson plan. These events are vital because they become the framework for the lesson plan. Corry experienced some problems when he tried Gagne’s theory in his classroom. Some problems that occurred were when he tried to classify some of his goals and he found that some goals were easy to classify and some were not. It was hard for him to categorize the goals into the learning outcomes category. He even read and studied more of Gagne’s information to try to understand his theory better, but that did help him a little. Another weakness that occurred was when Corry tried to create the objectives for the instruction. He found it difficult to use Gagne’s standard verbs in the creation of the objectives. Corry tried to change the goals to better fit the standard verbs. Overall, Corry feels that the theory of instruction is beneficial to him as a teacher. He feels that the theory is a guideline for him to abide by and to help him make sense of his instruction. The theory helped him structure his lesson plans and his teaching.

Evaluation: This website provides information that is clear and accurate because they were able to use Gagne's theory and describe in detail the outcomes of their result. This information provided on the website presents useful data that can help maintain an effective lesson plan and structure of learning.

Other: Some topics discussed were based on Gagne's taxonomy of learning is similar to Bloom's taxonomies of cognitive, psychomotor, and affective outcomes. Another topic criticized and analyzed Gagne's theory from their point of view.

Summary: I found this site to be extremely helpful for anyone who wants to find out about Robert Gagne and his theories. I was glad to see that the site even gave a consie biography about Gagne therefore, we can get and idea of why Gagne may feel a certain way in his theories. Within the site there is a list that includes a timeline of Gagnes life, research and theories, and selected books by Gagne himself.

Evaluation: Overall, I found the site to be helpfull if you wanted to learn about Gagne and his theories. What i liked most about the site was that it broke down his theories and made them easy to read and understand. I also liked the fact that the site went into detail about his theories. The site gave you the facts and only the facts. You did not need to search and searc to find what you were looking for beacuse every thing was there in a list all you had to do was click. I found the information to be espically usefull in terms of educational psychology because Gagne has a theory on the conditions of learning. He suggest that learning tasks for intellectual skills can be organized in a hierarchy according to complexity. This entire theory is actually very interesting.

Other: There were no other outside topics addressed by this site. This site was strictly about Robert Gayne and his theories on education and the learning process.

Summary: This website provides a brief overview of Robert Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction. The website gives a short biography on Gagne and where he was when he developed his theory. There is also a listing of the books that he has had published. Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction are gain attention, inform learner of objective, recall prior knowledge, present material, provide guided learning, elicit performance, provide feedback, assess performance, and enhance retention and transfer. The website author has placed an idea with each event so that others may be able to read and understand how Gagne’s theory applies in the classroom. For example, the teacher used the idea of showing a s’more and talking about how delicious it is to gain the attention of the students and engage the learners’ interest in the subject. This sample lesson of ideas allows the reader to understand exactly what the definition of each event of instruction is. The website author briefly mentions how the Nine Events of Instruction can be used in the traditional teacher-led settings and how it can apply to distance learning environments. This website provides a basic framework and example for Robert Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, but does not go into great depth to explain it.

Evaluation:This website provided a good but brief overview of Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction. The main problem with the site is that it does not provide an in-depth look at the information. All that is provided is a small definition of each of the nine events an example of how the event could be practically used in a lesson. This is very useful for teachers, but the small definitions leave something to be desired. Overall, I would find this website useful in supplementing my knowledge on Gagne’s Nine Steps of Instruction and would find the lesson ideas very beneficial.

Other: This site provides links to several other sites about the conditions of learning and learning theories. There are also several links for books that Gagne has written. Besides these links, there was no other information covered.

Summary: Summary: This website is about Robert Gagne’s instructional phases. There is a chart at the beginning and it goes through each phase in order. This website talks about the pre-instructional, instructional, and post instructional phases. The chart at the beginning of the site is a short overview of what the site entails. The site goes through each phase in detail and also gives you some strategies of how to use these phases in the classroom. This site gives many examples and scenarios on how to incorporate the instructional phases in the classroom. This website shows teachers how they can use Gagne’s information and implement it into the classroom. The site also tells you what tools and lessons that you can use to implement these phases. This site is rich with information for teachers.

Evaluation:Evaluation: I think that overall the site was pretty good. Although, they give no information on Robert Gagne, just his instructional phases. I like that the information is organized into charts as well as in regular paragraph form. The charts make the information easier to understand. The site was easy to move around in and everything was well organized. The information was good but there could have been a little bit more about Gagne and maybe touch on some of his other theories. I think that this sit would be helpful as a supplement to other information about his instructional phases. I also think that this site would be beneficial to teachers because they could use the examples given to incorporate into their classrooms. This site is good because it tells you what tools and plans that you can use to incorporate these phases into the classroom. Overall I think that this site is good but it could use a little more information on Gagne as well as some links to other sites on educational psychology.

Other: Other: This website did not cover anything other than the instructional phases. There were no other links to any other educational sites.

Summary: Summary: The website that I evaluated is an overview of Robert Gagne’s Conditions of Learning, types of learning outcomes, his ID, and Nine Instructional Events. It is brief, but it has charts, which makes the information easier for reading and understanding purposes. I chose this website because many of the others that I actually enjoyed were already taken.

Evaluation:Evaluation: The title of this article is Robert Gagne’s Conditions of Learning. It begins with a brief reference to some of the terminology included in the article. The first thing mentioned is the difference between software for business and software for educational training purposes. This initially confused me because it led me to believe that this site dealt with computer software, instead of the theories of Robert Gagne. After previewing the article, I then understood that this whole software background dealt with Gagne’s ID, or Instructional Design. Design is another word for development, according to the article. Now the article begins to make more sense to me. I think that there should be some kind of explanation to the terminology instead of the first line beginning with software. The next section explores how Gagne classifies the types of learning outcomes. I like this section because it has a chart, which shows each type of learning and then in the next column is how you can use that particular type of learning style. The chart also has important words highlighted in bold, in case a reader might want to skim or just get the overview of the chart. After the chart is a description of the internal processes and the external conditions of learning. Gagne believes that it is just as important to learn the attitudes of people as well as the cognitive skills that they are capable of. The next section is a chart on the Nine Instructional Events, which are ways to learn of the attitudes and intellectual skills. This chart has each event characterized under External Instructional Event or Internal Learning Process. The next major section breaks down Gagne’s Instructional Design (ID) into eleven steps. In short, the ID shows what is supposed to be learned, then lists the importance of events in order to help learners internalize information or learning, and finally test and evaluate. I liked this website because it had so many charts of information. This is helpful for those of us who are visual learners. It was not just mounds of information grouped in large paragraphs, but the information was highlighted, charted, and grouped, which gives the reader a variety of ways to interpret the information.

Other: Other: This site has one link to a graphic example of one of the figures shown.

Summary: The website I ran into, written by Rita C. Richey, was developed in three different sections, all of which played major roles in the development of human beings. Section I, or "The Ideas" was broken down into smaller parts such as Models of Human Behavioral Development, the Cumulative learning model, examples of cumulative learning, a cumulative learning sequence in conservation,and generalization and transfer. Sections two and three were divided in the same manner. According to Smith and Ragan from the University of Oaklahoma, Gagné (1985) described the nature of an instructional theory as an “attempt to relate the external Events of Instruction to the outcomes of learning by showing how these events lead to appropriate support or enhancement of internal learning processes. . . The province of an instructional theory is to propose a rationally-based relationship between instructional events, their effects on learning processes, and the learning outcomes that are produced as a result of these processes”. The source later says that though the brillance of Gagné can be seen in his work, he too was influenced by several intellectuals who proceeded him. So in order to get more of an insight on his thoughts we must study about those who influenced his work. They then continue to give information about individuals in this place.

Evaluation:I thought this website was full heplful information about Gagné. ERIC does a pretty through job of covering the major contributions in Instructional Theory. Other names not mentioned on other websites that were driving forces in Gagné's peception were given credit here including Gordon, Guthrie, Skinner, and Hull. It is also clearly written in a manner that is incredibly user friendy. This website is a good reference for present and future teachers to refer to when coonsidering the condition of a child's learning ability.

Other: At the present time, this source does not contain any additional websites to refer to.

Summary: The website that I evaluated discusses the Robert Gagne’s Conditions of Learning. The website is very brief and to the point and does not include any background information on Gagne but a link is provided if someone wants his background information. The site covers in depth conditions of learning, the nine instructional events, and corresponding cognitive processes. The site ends with a list of references and links for more information.

Evaluation:I feel the site is informative and straight to the point. A person does not have to read through a lot of pages to find out the information needed. The website starts off with a brief overview of his learning theory, the Conditions of Learning. His theory tells us that there are several different levels of learning and they are identified in five major categories. They are verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills, and attitudes. Also discussed are the difference between internal and external conditions and how both are necessary for learning. The website also outlines the nine instructional events and corresponding cognitive processes which is shown in a list so that it is easier to follow that your normal paragraph format like the rest of the website. An example of how to use the nine instructional events in the classroom is available. When a person finds themselves at the end of the website there is a list of references that were used to gather the information. Also if more information about Robert Gagne is needed there are links to other websites that talk more in depth about him and his theories.

Other: At the end of the site is a list of relevant websites that can be used to gather more information about Robert Gagne and his work. The other websites include information about his life and major accomplishments. Also a list of references is given with enough information were a person could look up those specific articles about him.

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URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/gardner.html

Summary: This page gives you a brief look into what Gardner has done and his field of study. You also find out about who and what contributed to his work. On the page about multiple intelligence, www.indiana.edu/~intell/mitheory.html, you will learn about the Theory of Multiple Intelligence. I like the way the information is outlined and not just presented all in one big blob. The outlined topics are Development of MI theory, Definition, Criticism, Implication for Assessment, Future Research Directions, and References. Under each heading the exact information, matching the heading is present in a clear and understandable fashion. Multiple Intelligence was developed by Gardner and presented in his book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences in 1983. Gardner was inspired and gained much information and insight through his early work with stroke victims and children at Harvard’s Project Zero. Gardner explains that intelligence is not single and it is more than IQ. According to Gardner, “Intelligence is a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a culture setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture.” He established eight specific criteria for defining intelligence. The areas included for the criteria are biological sciences, logical analysis, developmental psychology, experimental psychology, and psychometrics. Those who criticized Gardner believed that each of the seven intelligences were not different new ways of thinking, construction and processing information. They state that they are instead a cognitive style. Gardner does not agree with standardized intelligence testing such as the Wechsler scales and Stanford-Binet. He wants to make assessment a natural part of the learning process.

Evaluation: This is a very useful and helpful website. I believe it is an excellent site for research and one of its purposes is to provide information not just to educators but also to all who have an interest in the subject. The information is presented in a clear easy to read and understand fashion. When I a looking for information, I do not want to read a lot of useless information that do not pertain to the subject or that is old. I like the way this site bullets Howard Gardner’s education and background information. This is information that I believe that should stand out and alone because it is pertinent to any research or for anyone that would want information on Howard Gardner. Along with his background information, you get a brief but valuable introduction to Howard Gardner’s work-what he has done and is doing and his field of study and interest. Cool links that are available include hot topics where you can get more information on multiple intelligence and other topics, most of which have been revised in 2001. Other links include an alphabetic index listing of those who have made influences in the development of intelligence theory and testing. A map is also available that allows you to follow the development of intelligence theory and testing. The map starts with a “historical foundation” with Plato (ca 428/42-348/347 BCE) that goes through the years up to what is happening today. There is also a link that gives you a listing of the references used and all those who contributed to the page. In addition, there is a link that allows you to take a survey and give your own comments about the site and the information presented.

Other: Most of the topics discussed have to do with intelligence. Hot topics is the link that will give you other topics.

URL: http://www.maec.org/beyond.html

Summary: Summary: The website evaluated provides an overview of key gender equity issues faced in schools. It provides a comprehensive overview of Title IX legislation with clarifying interpretations. The website is a tool educators can use to identify equity issues in education. It also suggests steps educators can take to ensure a nondiscriminatory school environment and equal education for all.

Evaluation: Evaluation: The information provided is a thorough review of Title IX legislation and regulatory requirements. However, it also addresses issues facing girls in school that do not come under the Title IX format. Issues covered in great depth on the website include: · Girls at risk of dropping out of school · Gender bias in student / teacher interactions · The participation and achievement of girls in mathematics and science · Students enrolling in and completing vocational education courses historically non-traditional to their sex · Gender bias in standardized tests · Gender differences in learning styles · Teen pregnancy and parenting · Sexual harassment of students by their peers Each of these ten issues is presented in the following format: 1) the issue is discussed with supporting data 2) key questions are raised to determine the extent to which a particular issue is a problem for schools 3) selected strategies are proposed that schools can implement to increase equity, along with a list of resources that schools can access to achieve their objectives.

Other: No other topics other than those discussed were included on this website.

URL: http://www.enabling.org/ia/gestalt/gerhards/polito.html

Summary: Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist Mario Polito's lecture at the 10th Scientific convention of Society for (GTA) Vienna Austria March 1997, details the how the integration of Gestalt theories can facilitate teaching and learning. Polito's argument is"Amplifying the contribution of Gestalt Psychology (Kohler, Wertheimer, Kofka, Metzger,Katona ) and those of Gestalt Therapy (Perls, Hefferline, Goodman 1951) it is possible to elaborate a Gestalt Psychopedagogy, a theory that takes interest in the specific way of teaching and learning processes and educational relationship/ The main objective is to make finally possible learning as a real experience, an authentic experience of contact with the environment and with others".

Evaluation:It is realistic that the Gestalt theory was one of very early cognitive learning theories and an important forerunner of current information processing theories. There were many conclusions relating to the perception of work, which were applied directly to learning. These include the laws of "grouping, similarity, proximity, closure and good continuation. Polito's lecture demonstrates how the proposed Psychopedagogical theory of gestalt could be developed in practice. "Gestalt theory is focussed on the experience of contact that occurs in the here and now. It considers with interest the life space of teachers as well as students. It takes interest in the complexity of experience, without neglecting anything, but accepting and amplifying all that emerges. The fundamental of this approach is the creative adaptation of each individual within the organism-environment field. In the gestaltic perceptive the organismic needs of man/woman, the authentic needs of autorealization, are respected .It stimulates learning as experience and the experience as a source of learning. I appreciate the affections and meaning that we attribute to what we learn. Knowledge is conceived as a continuous organization and rearrangement of information according to needs purposes and meanings. It asserts that learning is not accumulation, but remodeling or insight. The teacher stimulates anatomy and freedom of the student. The time necessary for assimilation and for cognitive and existential remodeling is respected. Didactic contents are proposed not for being introjected or swallowed but for having them chewed, destructured and assimilated .The contact experience between teachers and students is given value: an authentic meeting based on sharing ideas and affections. It is a matter- of- fact that the Website displaying Polito's lecture is trustful as it was sponsored by the Society for Gestalt Theory (GTA), it is clear and displays an accurate and summary of a new approach to apply The gestalt theory to facilitate teaching and learning processes.

Other:

Summary: Gestalt, which means a unified or meaningful whole, was incorporated into psychological studies during the 20th century. Max Wertheimer founded Gestalt psychology although the concepts and ideas began in the minds of older philosophers and psychologists. Among them is Ernst Mach who introduced the idea of space forms and time forms, a concept that rests on the assumption that no matter the size, color, pattern, etc. when looking at a square a person sees a square. Christian von Ehrenfels is the originator of the term “gestalt” as referred to by psychologists and was Wertheimer’s professor. Finally there is Oswald Kulpe who conceived the idea of imageless thoughts, or mental activities such as judgements and doubts that occur without images. Kulpe also counseled Wertheimer on his doctoral dissertation. Wertheimer’s first two subjects were his assistants, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka, at Frankfurt. Kohler went on to study in the Canary Islands and published many books including his most famous, Mentality of Apes as well as Gestalt Psychology that he wrote while serving as director at the University of Berlin. Koffka taught at the University of Giessen and while there wrote Growth of the Mind: An Introduction to Child Psychology and an article that introduced the Gestalt curriculum to readers in the United States. The theory of Gestalt psychology “is based on the observation that we often experience things that are not a part of our simple sensations. The original observation was Wertheimer’s, when he noted that we perceive motion where there is nothing more than a rapid sequence of individual sensory events.” There are many principles of Gestalt psychology called “gestalt laws”. The law of pragnanz “says that we are innately driven to experience things in as good a gestalt as possible.” The law of closure states that “if something is missing in an otherwise complete figure, we will tend to add it.” For example if a corner of a square is missing in a picture we automatically close the corner and see it as a square. “The law of similarity says that we will tend to group similar items together, to see them as forming a gestalt, within a larger form.” When images appear close together people assume those images belong together. This represents the law of proximity. Next, the law of symmetry asserts that objects, although individual, when placed near one another is often observed as pairs. The law of continuity refers to the observation of a continuous line or flow versus stopping and starting or a combination of angles, etc. Gestalt psychologists first noticed these principles in regards to perception; however, there are other principles that do not deal with perception but rather such things as memory. Gestalt psychologists noticed “that we often learn, not the literal things in front of us, but the relations between them.” Solving a problem by means of recognition of a gestalt or leading principle is known as insight learning and is a major concept in the Gestalt theory. Although Gestalt psychology is no longer a separate entity, it has had a tremendous impact on other people whom have incorporated it into other conditions of psychology.

Evaluation:The above website on Gestalt Psychology is organized and maintained by Dr. C. George Boeree, a professor at Shippensburg University. The information discussed on the website is not only interesting it is informative and historical. Boeree traces the roots of Gestalt psychology and the manner in which it came about. He notes the major theorists behind the concept and provides information on each. The website lists a comprehensive look into Gestalt laws and principles and provides examples both in pictures and text to assist readers in understanding the laws and their terms. Boeree digs deep to uncover and make accessible a clear, distinct overview of major concepts of Gestalt psychology and its key players. This is useful to students, researchers, and everyday readers who may have or desire knowledge on well-known psychologists of the 1900’s. Not only does this website provide valuable information on Gestalt psychology but also on other terms and theorists associated with educational psychology.

Other: The following link, www.ship.edu/~