This week, some of my students are discussing website evaluation in schools – and raising some very interesting points. There are some classic guides to website evaluation e.g. from the dynamic Kathy Schrock, who not only provides her own guide to evaluating websites but also an impressive list of what other people have to say about the topic. As ever, Kathy’s contribution to teacher librarianship is outstanding. One of the difficult aspects of website evaluation which is often missed is how you evaluate a website(s) in relation to differentiation e.g. where you have a range of reading levels/ages in one class. One way round this is to offer students a choice of website and provide some guidance to them about which ones to choose.
In Australia this week, we had a spectacular lunar eclipse where the moon turned orangey red in a clear sky. The street lights here in Wagga Wagga are not bright, so with the naked eye you could see the red moon clearly.
Out cycling on Wednesday evening at Pomingalarna, a local nature reserve, I came across my first close up view of an echidna which was waddling nonchalantly (but possibly dangerously) across the track. I stopped and it rolled into a ball which let me see its short, thick spikes which are brown but some of which are orange tipped. It looked as if it might have been to an expensive hair salon to get tints added. Once I kept still, its head appeared and it wandered off into the bush. Which raises the question of how you would evaluate websites on echidnas e.g. for year 5.
