Peer Review

High Rise

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: High Rise is a National Film Board of Canada production of the history and contemporary state of high rise buildings, and projections as to their potential futures. It is a "many media" presentation and incorporates some interesting features, such as the ability to stop a documentary and learn more about a specific topic presented. It has since generated many projects which includes mixed media, interactive documentaries, mobile productions, and live presentations. The interactive collection includes videos, graphics, games, and articles that allow users to understand the nature, history, and impact of High Rise structures.
Type of Material:: Presentation. The website offers animated videos with interactive graphics.
Recommended Uses:: It can be used as a resource in class lecture or team project.
Technical Requirements:: Flash plugin and browser such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Demonstrates the history, contemporary use and impact of, and the future of high rise buildings. Useful in showing the history of cities and the impact of living space on residents.
Target Student Population:: The animated videos with graphics are suitable for High School, College General Education, College Lower Division, College Upper Division courses.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: None

Rating:
Strengths:: Good history of the development of the high rise and the current use of this type of structure. Impact of high rise living on some residents give some insights into the effect of this ecological space. The videos can be described for the visually impaired. It is also closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
Concerns:: Although other countries are mentioned, the focus is primarily on the Western world.

Rating:
Strengths:: Highly innovative format makes this a very interesting and interactive presentation. Site is visually rich. Broad scope of content is appealing.
Concerns:: Probably limited applicability as it was developed for a general audience.

Rating:
Strengths:: Interactive nature of the site is a real innovation. Allows time for further discussion and additional information. Probably best seen as visual "footnotes" to the documentary. Good navigation overall.
Concerns:: Some difficulty viewing all the features. IE kept blocking the site for security concerns. Sometimes in both IE and Firefox the images would freeze.

Other Issues and Comments:: Use of Wikipedia for some materials somewhat of a concern. Sometimes aerial maps were missing. Some areas froze up when examined.
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