6C+Justin

I feel as though the top two things to look at when deciding whether or not a Jewish educational website is worth using and/or is appropriate for use are: 1) who wrote/published the website, and 2) what was their motive in doing so. The rest of the criterion, while valuable, are not nearly as essential as these two, in my opinion. A slower loading or less engaging website, etc, might entice the learner less, and may in fact be less useful in the long run, but still, I feel that the two questions listed above are the most important.

It is essential that the material being presented on a website (or anywhere else really) be "kosher" for use by the respective audience using it. In my community, the entire website would need to be carefully screened for any material unsuitable for use. Further, the website needs to be screened for truthfulness and for being entirely accurate and from a reliable source. Performing such a screening prior to use is related to both points listed above.

Once a website has been deemed suitable for use in a particular Jewish educational setting, it then needs to go through the screening process of whether or not it is actually educationally useful for that particular topic, as some of the other posts have described.

One last important point is age appropriateness. Material that is either too simplistic or too advanced for the age group being taught can defeat the entire purpose....it must be engaging and interesting for the target audience.