This assignment had perfect timing for me as my gifted students are finally coming to the point of putting all of their researched information on the millennium together in a web site.  As I was looking in Open Directory, I came across Good Sites, which addressed the issues of evaluating a student created web site as a teacher.  It made me stop and think more about how I was going to evaluate the final product, or web site, my students are going to create.  As the gifted teacher, I do not need to give the students a grade, but I do want to hold them accountable for their work. The rubrics found in the above web site have been researched by the author and appear to be very detailed and easy to use.
    A big point that I need to address with my students is that web sites that have too many graphics and low content become frustrating to use.  Students need to be taught how to present their content in a meaningful fashion.  Good Sites encourages students to focus on 4 questions.

    What? The web site should have a clear set of goals that the reader can determine in 10 seconds or less.  In other words,
                as a web page designer, you have about 10 seconds to grab the interest of a visitor.

    Who?  The web page needs to state who has created the site.

    When?  The web page needs to state when it was created.

    Where?  The web page needs to state where it originates from.

It also wants students to think about where to place links, "new" information, and where to send feedback.

Overall,  Good Sites gave some basic rules for the students to follow, which I plan to use with my students..

    1.  The site must load in 10 seconds.
    2.  The students must be able to give three reasons why they chose to incorporate graphics.
    3.  The site must guide the reader....The top 4 inches of the screen are crucial to design.
    4.  The site must capture interest and quickly communicate a purpose.
    5.  The graphics must match the feel for the site.

Does my millennium project bring up any evaluation challenges?
    One area that might present a challenge to my students is consistency.  Throughout a web site, it is important to be consistent with what you do.  In other words, have titles, links, etc. in similar spots on each page so the reader can find them easily.  For the millennium project, I want each students web site linked to a main millennium home page.  Therefore, I not only need consistency within each student's project, I also need consistency between all of the student's projects.  I do not want to take away from the creativeness of each student, yet I want the browser to locate the information easily.  In order to address this challenge, I will have the students discuss possible layout designs and ultimately decide on one which the students can build from.

    Finally, I decided to search the web for more rubrics to evaluate my student's final projects.  The following web site includes guides that were developed for students and teachers to use when evaluating the content and graphic design of home pages.  It also is helpful when designing your own web page.

http://www.cyberbee.com/guides.html
 
 

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Last update 11/14/99