Class: Global Media Narrative.
Date: Sept 24th, 2010.
Professor: Annemarie Fischer
Website Evaluation
Citation: Cornell University: Cornell University Learning Strategies Center.
Like a wise man once said “Great art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us” (Roy Adzak); this website might have been initially constructed to come off as beautiful, but for some reason when I first logged on to the page, it looked like an online version of a children’s story book, an uglier version at that. Thank god we’re not children and we can actually decide for ourselves. People say that color does not matter and it’s what a website has to offer which should guide our decisions, but I disagree, after spending hours and hours on research engines and student guides, the difference between bright red and light blue or gray; can be worth a few hours of sleep. Unfortunately, humans are yet to evolve eyes completely resistant to a bright red screen for prolonged periods of time. I have no solid information when I make this claim but I am going to go ahead and do this anyways, not like this is a science class, but green or grayish things; websites in particular, not only have an aura of professional academics but they are also much easier for the eyes to handle. As a biology student I can’t emphasize on this issue enough.
As much as I’d like to talk about color all day, it’s time to discuss further about this educational tool. The website is divided into lots of subcategories, after going through them almost all are justified, none seem to be misleading or a waste of space. In the middle we have Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Economics; on the side we have instructions regarding the help center itself, its staff along with the usual operational hours. There’s also a link for students with disabilities and tutoring on the side; which impressed me the most because even though campuses tend to have support facilities for disabled students, they aren’t actually offered in any form or shape online.
Now as a student of Global Media and Narrative, I was eager to see what the website had to offer for this particular course. I put in several different terms and received the following three links.
1- http://polson.cals.cornell.edu
The link is titled “Polson Institute for Global Development”
This subsection has a lot of good information for any student interested in the state of rural and agricultural lands across Europe and North America, however it lacks a broader perspective that I was looking for.
2- http://www.pressoffice.cornell.edu/
This link is titled “Cornell University Press Relations Office”. Basically the page is about connecting Cornell to worldwide media and staying in touch with them. The website itself seems interesting because it has all these artistic and event based pictures from around the world. The bottom right of the page has links to events conducted by Cornell University which are not only towards the betterment of the university itself but the world in general. In the middle one can see articles and information regarding Cornell students who have taken initiatives to maintain this relationship between the university and the rest of the globe. I feel that this link is alittle too narcissistic and only focuses on University’s achievements; it does not offer any sort of solid global information. If you want to see the world through the eyes of Cornell then this is the perfect link, otherwise browse away my friend.
3- http://www.international.cornell.edu/
This link is pretty much my favorite out of all three. It offers global information even if it is not related to the university itself. There is a world map at the bottom with different sets of indications, on top left you have headlines for important global events and on the right side there is search bar which allows the users to browse the subsection. On the extreme left there is a link for charity, which is a very nice thing to do.
Unfortunately I am a student and my time is limited, I cannot spend hours and hours reviewing a website if it does not offer easy information. As quoted by Walter Benjamin “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element; its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be”, even though the Cornell University website is a third party learning tool and it’s limited to begin with because it is not the real source, the website seems to be mediocre at best due to the way it represents the information.
It is definitely better than the Binghamton University’s website because it has a lot more links and sources present, but it is no match for a search engine such as Jstor or Ebsco. There are only two or three links total regarding global information and they all seem to be biased in a sense; every single event has to involved the university somehow otherwise it will not be allowed to show up on the webpage. The bright red color also threw me off big time because it means I can’t stay on the website for too long before my eyes catch fire. I did however like the search option available on the main page and every single sub link that I went to, the charity option was a nice touch also. At the end, I am giving these webpage three out of five stars.
Sources:
Benjamin, Walter, Illuminations: The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. United States: Shocken Books inc. 1955. Book
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