Short Review of Educational Sites

Here I present a concise review of the two War of 1812 teacher resource sites. They are Scholastic.com and Proteacher.com. Both sites provide online assignments and the Proteacher site also has syllabi and other resources for teaching the War of 1812. Although these sites are primarily teaching resource sites, they do have features of a virtual community, in this case a community of K through 12 teachers sharing resources and teaching tools. Additionally, though it is not their primary purpose, both sites have some features of a gateway because they provide access to other Web-based materials.¹

Each of these sites will be reviewed in the areas of content, form, audience and use, and use of new media. I will then offer some general conclusions about these two sites.

Content

The Teacher Scholastic site is limited to a single-day lesson on the War of 1812, with middle-school level scholarship. It has hyperlinks to sites for the young scholars to visit with a series of questions for them to answer after theit web visits. Each site has a brief article with an overview of a particular topic (the war in general, Old Ironsides, Francis Scott Key). The overview article has a bibliography. The site is at too basic a level for any interpretation.

The first Proteacher site has an extensive lesson plan in PDF format with an elementary school level focus. It is basic celebratory-type history (George Washington, the Star Spangled Banner, General Jackson). It is at too basic a level for any real interpretation or analysis. The second site is more investigative in tone, targeted to teachers of middle school or junior high school, and asks "Should it be called the Second War of American Independence."

Form

The Teacher Scholastic site has a very minimal design and navigation to the articles is cumbersome.

The first ProTeacher site has no design and there is an irritating graphic at the top of the page. The second site is somewhat better in design. It is contained on a single page, so there is no navigation.

Audience and Use

The targeted audience for both sites is apparent: K through 12 teachers. The sites serve their needs reasonably well. The Teacher Scholastic site is targeted to teachers of middle school children (grades five through eight). The first ProTeacher site is for elementary school teachers. The second site, a War of 1812 research assignment lesson plan, seems to be targeted to the middle school and high school level.

Use of New Media

The Teacher Scholastic site makes no use of new media except for web links, but is able to reach a larger audience than it could in print. The web also enables its information sharing features.

Like the Teacher Scholastic site, the only use of new media on the ProTeacher site is web hyperlinks. The PDF form of the syllabi shows that the same product could be produced in a print format but the web does allow a larger potential audience of teachers to be reached. The second site takes advantage of the web to put a class lesson plan in a web format with hyperlinks. It contains a useful "Link to Resources" linking to other sites with information on the War of 1812.

Conclusions

These sites fulfill their purpose of providing teaching resources very well but offer no scholarship that could not be found in an encyclopedia. They offer nothing for anyone outside their targeted audience and are of no interest to scholars researching the War of 1812 or seeking acedemic analysis and interpretation.

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