2learn.ca is an extensive website resource center for Alberta teachers, students, and parents. The resources on the website are centered around the Alberta Education Curriculum, and are organized by grade. The website is supported by Alberta Education, The Alberta Teacher's Association, and The University of Alberta Faculty of Education, making it a very credible and authentic source for resources. The website even comes in a French language version.
The website is organized with bullets on the Home page, making it easy for the viewer to find where they would like to go quickly. There is a section for teachers, a section for teens, a section for senior high students, a section for elementary age students, a section for parents and many others. When compared to readinga-z.com, I found this site much easier to understand and navigate, but I think it could still use an overhauling from a web designer.
This site is enormous, and the more I look around, the more I like it. If I am teaching a Grade 3 social studies class, instead of spending all night searching Google for good Tunisian websites, 2learn.ca has a section with links already provided. (Although I have already wasted a couple of hours exploring the site and it's links....so only a time saver if you are efficient) Teachers can even compile resources specific to their class and set up a center on the website that students can access with a password.
As an art major and an aspiring art teacher, I was really pleased with the amount and quality of art resource websites provided. I found many of them very interesting and very applicable within a classroom setting. The art curriculum in Alberta is very old, and has not yet been updated. On many other educational resource sites, including learnalberta.ca ( a government created website) all but ignore the Fine Arts curriculums. They do not include many resources, and the resources they have are often lack luster. It was nice to see a website with a good mix of quality resources for art.
For students, there are great subject based resources that can be utilized both in and out of the classroom. I did find a few links that were not working, but you can send the web master a message to report these links so that they can be repaired. The links that do work (which most do) are fabulous. They are taken from a variety of locations, such as bbc.com and nationalgeographic.com, and have a lot of interactive activities. If a student doesn't like a certain link, they have a variety of others to choose from.
For parents, there is a link to a page with resources dealing with everything from curriculum to nutrition to parenting advice sites. There is an internet safety page, linking to various sites that keep parents in the loop when it comes to internet trends, up and coming events, as well as learning text and instant messaging lingo.
As far as design and layout go, this site, as with learninga-z.com, could use a major overhauling. The site itself looks rather boring, and may not capture the attention of the viewer for long enough to have them actually explore the links. I found that it was well organized once you learned how to navigate, but not very eye catching. The links on the home page could be set up in much more user friendly way, even if simply by changing the language used for the bullets. To use an analogy, this webite is like a diamond in the rough. It could use a cut and polish, but the actual material is well worth it.
I spoke to my mom about this site as well, and she said that she doesn't use it very often, but wishes she did. She expressed frustration with the amount of material that you have to look through, which I found surprising after she praised readinga-z.com, as it has way more material to sift through, and I found it much harder to navigate.
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