Website Evaluation Review

EduPuppy - Everything for Early Childhood Education

      I gave the educational website EduPuppy an “excellent” rating after evaluating it according to the Educational Website Review Rubric. This website is found at the URL http://www.edupuppy.com.  EduPuppy’s home page includes a welcome letter to this “reNEWed” and up-dated website from Kristen Hammond, the CEO and founder of the site.  In colorful text above this letter are listed the various capabilities which the website offers; while at the bottom of this page are easy to navigate sub-site buttons which provide straightforward access to pertinent information about the website. Also posted on this homepage was an attractive “Coming soon” notice advising visitors of a Professional Brochure to be posted and an upcoming newsletter which will be available by e-mail upon request.  The “About Us” page gives a clearly defined purpose and mission statement which this site definitely maintains. The homepage displays another link listing awards and recognitions from at least twenty different educational sites and professionals since their renewed site has been online. There is also a “Partners” page allowing you to further explore the credentials offered for EduPuppy.  There was not an actual date given for EduPuppy’s up-date but the copyright date was posted as 2000-2003 EduPuppy.com.  The EduPuppy site has an award of its own entitled “Dog-Gone Good” which it gives to sites it considers ‘above the norm’ in educationally appropriate information. The “Your Privacy” page states information concerning visitor privacy and the fact there are no fees, names, or e-mails required in order to use the site.   

     EduPuppy is presented as primarily a teacher resource site rather than an interactive site for students.  The target audience is specifically early childhood educators in classrooms from Pre-K through Third grade.  Although there are sites available to parents and children, there were fewer sites for children to actively utilize.  EduPuppy clearly states all children’s searches should be monitored by either a teacher or parent in spite of a link being listed under their website.  They requested notification of any broken links, “unavailable” sites, or sites that may have become objectionable in any way in order to repair or remove these links from their resource database.  The many links I researched did work, with the exception of one, and I notified the site of this unavailable link.      

     EduPuppy’s web pages are appealing and appropriate for teachers and children alike.  The picture of a young boy laying down reading with his puppy at his side invokes the feeling of easy and innocent childhood days.  As you scroll down the page the puppy will run toward a school and a notice of “Education World and EduPuppy getting together” will be seen while you begin a category or keyword search.  This is the only active graphic and allows for searches to be completed quickly without slowdowns from “busy” graphics on every page.  The background color of soft turquoise blue and the accurate accompanying text being in complementary colors for each available page keeps the site appealing, while not becoming monotonous or boring. The website’s use of clip-art depicting various learning toys indicating sub-site pages is wonderfully appropriate for an educational resource.  These sub-site buttons are displayed conveniently at the bottom of each webpage and allowed every page to be accessible from anywhere within the site.  One refreshing aspect of EduPuppy’s website is there are no advertisements or “pop-ups” on any of its web pages. 

     One other facet of EduPuppy’s site that proved quite useful was the row of colored boxes placed underneath each resource link indicating by color and text what grade level this site would be useful for.  In addition to the grade level boxes, there was a burgundy indicator box posted advising if the link was primarily a professional resource site.  This allowed searches to be educator specific and better delineated.

     I would recommend EduPuppy to anyone who would like to utilize an educational gateway site that is appealing, easy to navigate, and be able to bookmark it as an invaluable resource site.  This educational site allows anyone utilizing its capabilities to search for everything from clip-art to professional resources.  As a future teacher I appreciate EduPuppy’s advisories and requests regarding their site, and their efforts to keep this site up-to-date and user-friendly for teachers, parents, and children.