Welcome!
All the Web's a Stage: A Shakespearean Webliography
The following Webliography was assigned during module 1 for an assignment that asked for a minimum of 10 similarly themed websites be examined and analyzed. Because I chose to use Shakespeare as my topic, I had no trouble finding related websites. The problem I did have however, was finding a decent Shakespeare website. I found that most of the sites were poorly made or simply huge chunks of text that had obviously been copied and pasted from other sources. I had to wade through a lot of garbage to find even a few good sites. I’ve presented my findings here, the good, the bad, and the ugly (and there is A LOT of ugly and down-right hideously designed Shakespeare sites out there!) with summaries and analyses of the sites content, function, and reliability.
This website provides users with information about the life and work of William Shakespeare.
This site has a lot of information I haven’t seen on other sites. One of the features I particularly enjoy is the inclusion of artwork based on Shakespeare’s work. This site is well organized and according to the “awards” tab, has been noted for being an excellent and user-friendly resource by various organizations.
One of the issues I see with this site, is a complaint I’ve made many times before; aesthetics. I know appearance isn’t everything, but most of these Shakespeare sites (including this one) are horribly designed. With a brownish green top banner, the site looks like a word document posted on-line. Even with information that could easily be manipulated to become interactive and interesting (such as a timeline or trivia game) the words are just there, black on a white background, Times New Roman, size 12 font. Boring.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Simple yet effective, this site allows users access to full text versions of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry. Within the “plays” tab, users can choose to view the play by scene or to have the entire play on one web page.
What this site lacks in color it makes up for in conciseness. Arranged into “Comedy” “Tragedy” “History” “Poetry” the links to the texts are organized and functional. The site’s author is an alumnus of MIT and while there is no date of last update given, users can be confident that they aren’t missing out on the latest Shakespeare play. While it certainly isn’t an engaging or creative site, it accomplishes what its title promises.
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare for Kids
A website created and maintained by Capitol Hill’s Shakespearean Library, this website offers resources, activities, and contests based on Shakespeare and his plays.
At long last! An attractive Shakespeare site! This site has it all- information, videos, games, links, and an open invitation for students to participate and engage with the information. This site is professional and attractive, overall a great resource!
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
This website is an annotated index of Shakespeare resources from all over the World Wide Web.
Even though this website was last updated a year ago, the author has left a message explaining his need for a hiatus opposed to just abandoning the site without explanation. The annotations on the site are humorous and well written. While many of the resources are great, I did encounter many dead-links, which is to be expected with a site that isn’t currently being maintained. Overall, the appearance and information on the site is more engaging than other sites I’ve seen.
A subdivision of the notorious slacker site, Sparknotes, No Fear Shakespeare offers study guides, character analyses, and modern translations of Shakespeare’s most famous works.
While I know that Sparknotes often gets a bad rap, I’ve found the side-by-side translations of Shakespeare’s works to be excellent and true to the original texts. The line-by-line comparison can be helpful for students who are struggling with the language of Shakespeare. The website doesn’t offer every Shakespeare title, but is updated regularly. The site is sleek and with kid-friendly (though distracting) “Take a Break” articles along the side. The advertisements on the site can also be a little overwhelming, but overall this site is very engaging and informative.
This website features an artificial intelligence “bot” that responds to users in Shakespearean language. According to the site’s “about” section, the bot is programmed to handle glossary questions as well as questions about various plays.
When I actually interacted with the site, it was pretty entertaining but like most chatbots, the responses can be strange or completely off topic. Specific questions like “Who is Lavinia” resulted in specific answers, “LAVINIA tis a character from Titus Andronicus. She tis Daughter to Titus Andronicus.”
The appearance and interactive nature of this site makes it a fun little extra for teachers looking to engage students with the bard.
The official website of the globe theater, this site offers information about the current happenings at Shakespeare’s old stomping grounds.
While the site didn’t offer as much history or background information as I would have liked, I think this site would be great to show to students learning about the theater. The site is colorful and allows users to see how the new globe attempts to carry on the traditions of the original. Overall the site is very professional, well organized and engaging.
True to its title, the Shakespeare Resource Center website is a list of Shakespeare related links deemed reliable by the site’s author.
While this website is not at all aesthetically pleasing, the information is well maintained (the site was updated within the month of this review) and well organized. The author explains that he started the site as part of a class assignment but enjoyed the work so felt compelled to maintain the site. This site would be a great springboard for any user looking to research Shakespeare.
This website is a comprehensive guide to all things Shakespeare. On the website, users can browse articles, take quizzes, or even read any one of Shakespeare’s plays, the full texts of which are available along with analyses and study guides.
This website is incredible. The information presented is up to date (the site was updated just three days before this review) and features a “word of the week” and current news articles relating to the bard. I was shocked to see how extensive the information was and to find that the site’s author is just an English Major with a desire to provide the Internet with accurate and accessible information about Shakespeare.
My only suggestion for the site would be to update the appearance. With so many cool options and web tools available, the outdated look isn’t excusable and doesn’t do justice to the wealth of information users can derive from spending some time on the site.
This website focuses on the language of Shakespeare’s work, allowing users to search glossaries and browse a list of “frequently encountered words”.
Shakespeare’s Words is a sharp looking website compared to most of the Shakespeare websites I’ve encountered. The information is presented in an attractive and user-friendly way with tabs sorting content into categories.
I did however find it strange that little information about the authors or intent of the site was given. Another slightly off-putting element on this site was the plastering of buttons directing users to “donate” “contribute” or “subscribe” to the site to “help cover the costs of maintaining the site”. Despite the authors’ seeming dedication to collecting funds to maintain the site, it was last updated in 2008.
WebQuest
WebQuests are one of those tools that I’ve always read about but never actually tried to create on my own. For this assignment, we had to create a WebQuest on any topic so I decided to create a PowerPoint that could be used to introduce the historical context for Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a MockingBird. It was fun to compile and I definitely plan on using it some day.
Download the full WebQuest here.
Final Thoughts
As someone who lives about an hour and a half from Oswego, on-line classes were purely a matter of convenience (not to mention gas money) for me. When I first began taking on-line classes I wasn’t sure I would like them but I’ve found that for a self-motivated and independent student, on-line classes can provide a thoughtful and challenging learning environment while fitting into even the busiest schedule.
As I’ve mentioned, the asynchronous learning was a great benefit for me, after a long day of subbing the last thing I want to do is get in my car and drive all the way to Oswego. This class allowed me to complete coursework in small chunks whenever I had time and Internet access. It was wonderful to be able log on and accomplish so much during a planning period while subbing. The only thing I missed about driving to Oswego was the camaraderie that can develop between classmates. While Professor Yang did set up a “bulletin board” for introductions and off topic conversations, I found that after the initial batch of introductions, that area of the course was mostly ignored. In that way, on-line classes are definitely lacking. The sense of belonging just isn’t there. So while I learned a lot through responding and interacting with my classmates during this course I don’t really feel like I know anyone personally or that they know me.
The student-centered focus of this course is a definite bonus. Rather than reading through endless pages of lecture-type notes, students are required to construct their own learning through discussion and research. This type of learning allowed us to go at our own pace and take the projects in the direction that would be most beneficial for us. The ability to choose our own topics for the Webliography and WebQuest gave the projects meaning and made them worthwhile to me because I was producing them for actual use.
The learning content for this course was appropriate and effective. The Webliography, WebQuest, and Weblog all required students to understand and execute a different web-based project. I had thought at first that these projects were too simple but was surprised to find how many of my classmates weren’t at all familiar with PowerPoint or blogs. This variance in skill levels allowed me to feel like I had something helpful to contribute during discussions. Then, because all projects could be individual efforts (mercifully! I’ve had some horrible collaborations through on-line classes) I was able to produce work at my own level. It was a good balance. The only thing I would say about the course work is that there could easily be another module with another project. There was so much time (dare I say, too much time?) to complete each project that the modules could definitely have been redistributed and another project could have been added to the syllabus.
Overall, this was a good course. I love what technology can do for education so I appreciate any chance I get to share and discuss it. So while the social aspects and the schedule of the course could be improved upon, the logistics and spirit of the course were right on.
It was a fun semester! Thanks for everything!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)