The EvaluTech: Evaluation Criteria Review page given to us for review this week is part of the Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB) which is the nation’s first interstate compact for education, founded in 1948. Its goals as stated in their “About SREB” states, “SREB assists state leaders by directing attention to key education issues; collecting, compiling and analyzing comparable data; and conducting broad studies and initiating discussions that help states and institutions form long-range plans, actions and policy proposals.” Within this context then, the Evaluation Criteria Review has a specific functions, “Support teachers by providing up-to-date, reliable and useful resources and information..” additionally, “[its purpose is] to create an online, keyword-searchable database of reviews of instructional materials…” The site seems practical in that it provides comprehensive criteria of evaluating: computer courseware, CD ROMs, Web Sites, On-line courses, Video Disks, Web Portals, it also includes non-techinical topics such as criteria for evaluating Fiction Books, Non-Fiction Books. It provides other link information for many sites that provide information on software evaluation and criteria consideration. I explored a bit and found the “Online Course Evaluation Project (OCEP)” very insightful – I was particularly struck by the AP US History 1 module.
The obvious use and value to a teacher is that such a site is a wealth of information on the availability of technical information about a multitude of software and it provides the criteria to evaluate other things perhaps we would consider as teacher. The idea of the is exactly as the SREB goal reads: assist in key education issues (technical) and make it accessible to teachers.
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