Website: http://www.brainpop.com/Publisher/Place of Publication/Date: BrainPOP is the business name of FWD Media, Inc. It became available in 1999.
Price: $605(per school based on District purchase)
ISBN: N/A
Dewey: N/A
Reading Level: Varies
Brief Description of Content: Standards-based content is presented online in a variety of audio and visual formats including text, audio, video, and still photos. There are also interactive components, a bi-lingual/ESOL option, and teacher/educator guides.
Personal Review: I have used this product and was able to attend a session about it at a recent GAtech Conference(educational technology conference. I like it for all the reasons listed below in the "Selection Rationale." The only thing I don't like about it is the animation. I think it could be a great site without most of the animation and I think children are over-exposed to animation. As an eductional tool, the animation makes it look less credible and has have less of a positive effect on the children using it.
Review Sources:
Education World from 1999 - the review praised the videos on the body but critisized some of the technical components. These have resolved over the past ten years with the evolution of computer technology. Even more videos have been added to the site and many are, indeed, excellent.
Wired (online) from April, 2009
Standards:
The entire product is standards-based. You can actually search by state, subject and grade. Activity links are provided per standard. This can be viewed from the website without having a subscription/logging on - http://www.brainpop.com/educators/state_standards/
Selection rationale: The are a number of good features about this product. The direct links to the Georgia Performance Standards makes it easy to find targeted, appropriate activities with a minimum of effort. A teacher can get to a variety of information and activities without having to worry about popups or ads that you would typically find on free sites. It saves me time as a Media Specialist as teachers would be asking me to find them such sites. The videos are a great feature of this product. Teachers can use the videos without concern that they would be blocked or inaccessible as they might be from more traditional video websites. The materials available for educators are also useful in helping teachers best utilize the site.
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