I.                    The Merlot Project: http://www.merlot.org/Home.po

This multimedia website has several different curricular areas to search.  Each area then can be broken down into different subcategories.  Each category or subcategory then has a given amount of resources that can be explored.  The resources consist of mostly interactive websites that further explore a specific topic.  This particular site could be utilized by both the teacher and the student.  However, a teacher would more likely benefit from the Merlot Project by using some of the instructional ideas offered and the available research and secondary sources.  The site is very easy to navigate and has thousands of links to hundreds of different topics across curricular areas.  This is a very strong educational resources website.  It is free, easy to access, and users can contribute material that they feel is relevant, thus the site’s resources should continue to grow.  One of the downfalls of the site, however, is that many of the links lead to other websites that can be hard to navigate. 

The Merlot Project addresses the NETS for Students standards #3 and #5 because students could use this technological tool to enhance learning, increase productivity and promote creativity.  Students also could use the M

Merlot Project site to locate and evaluate information from a variety of online sources.  The website also demonstrates the NETS for Teachers standards #2 and #3.

II.                 Discovery: http://school.discovery.com/

The Discovery School website has some beneficial tools for both students and teachers.  To begin with, the Discovery School website offers students some study strategies in the form of several different links to help with homework from any curricular area.  The Discovery School also presents students with some brain teasers and word puzzles to help stimulate and provoke thought.  Also available are games, riddles and a clip art gallery.  Students may also choose from several different Web Quests that are largely science oriented but also some historical material as well. 

      For teachers, the Discovery school offers a variety of tools such as lesson plans, quiz and test makers, puzzle makers, and Web based activities.  The site has countless lesson topics for teachers to choose from.  The only problem that I encountered with the site is that it is primarily directed to the areas of science and math.  This is only a problem for me because I do not teach in those areas.  This is, however, a strong educational site that demonstrates NETS student standards numbers 1, 2 and 6 as well as NETS teacher standards numbers 1, 2, and 4.   

III.               History/Social Studies for K-12 teachers: http://my.execpc.com/~dboals/

The major purpose of this home page is to encourage the use of the World Wide Web as a tool for learning and teaching and to provide some help for K-12 classroom teachers in locating and using the resources of the Internet in the classroom.  The homepage has many links to different Social Studies topics.  The site has the capabilities to be a useful tool for teachers because there are numerous links and many different topics, secondary sources, primary sources, and lesson plan ideas.  However, I ran into a few problems.  Since the site is a homepage and not a professional site, there were some dead links and some links that were not as useful or relevant to the given topic.  Nonetheless, a teacher could filter some of the information from the site to be utilized in a classroom setting.   The site demonstrates NETS Standards for Teachers #2 and #6.