Site of the Week

SITE OF THE WEEK

Education Otherwise is regularly asked to place links on its website related to other websites. Rather than refusing something which may be of interest to home educators, or accepting almost everything without exception, a panel of 'judges' has been brought together to review websites and to make judgements of those sites in relation to their usefulness to home educators. A standard format has been worked out amongst all those on the panel (and more panellists from among EO members would be welcome) as below. There will be a mixture of sites, those offering free services as well as those offering paying services. But the reviews are on the website alone. Previous Site Reviews can be found here.

Where appropriate, scores out of 5 have been awarded, with a brief explanation as to why that particular score has been awarded.

Name of Site

Handwriting Page Maker

Url

http://www.thebigbus.com/free/resources/writing/

Aim of Site

This utility allows you to create pages of text to assist in the development of children's handwriting skills. By joining the dots, children can copy the characters. A dark arrow shows where to begin the character. Where applicable, a lighter arrow shows where to start the second part of the character. The character set is based upon Christopher Jarman's Jardotty font. He is a leading authority on children’s handwriting in the UK.

Age/Ability suitability

3 -11.For any child who needs help to learn to write legibly.

Site run by

The Big Bus, part of the National Grid of Learning and approved by Curriculum Online

Browser used to check site

Internet Explorer 6

Date of Review

22 May 2003

Categories	Score	Comment
Easy to Read	4	Well-designed and easy to use. Just type the words in the box on the left hand side of the page. This is not immediately obvious, hence a 4.

Accuracy	3	Simple to use, could do with a choice of smaller fonts, to gradually reduce the handwriting to normal size.

Appearance	5	No gimmicks, so quick to load

Site Navigation	5	Fits on one page, no scrolling required

Bias of Presentation	4	A taster of what is available on a subscription basis, where for up to £120 per annum you get up to date content through the member’s website, or an optional monthly CD, with more interactive learning activities for all disciplines.

Usable Free Resources	5	Excellent, no copyright restrictions to create words to print out

Overall Comment

The Big Bus has a lot more to offer for free. The website, www.thebigbus.com, uses Flash, so is very colourful and imaginative for today’s interactive world. Well worth a visit to this treasure trove. Enjoy.