Peer Review

Street Children - Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation

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Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: A website for use in both education and research consisting of country-by-country reports focused on children who make their homes in the street. A number of resources for teachers are provided, namely Lesson Plans, Graphics and Images, Essay Questions, Anecdotes, Topics for Debate, and Background Material. There are also abundant resources of up to date web based informational and service oriented references for parents. Students can use the guidelines for a term paper and may also benefit from essay questions included. The information per country is in the form of annotated bibliographic references.
Type of Material:: Reference materials- statistics, videos, and external data sources.
Recommended Uses:: Both in class (videos) and as resources for students outside of class. Good resource for research papers.
Technical Requirements:: High speed internet and browser with multiple tabs for reference pages.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: To educate the public on the various fates that children experience around the world - from the sex trade to torture and poverty.
Target Student Population:: High school or college.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Basic computer and internet browser skills.

Rating:
Strengths:: Good coverage of the world. Every country has a summary and a list of articles about the topic listed. There are videos for continents that would be most useful.
Concerns:: The following disclaimer is notable. It is found on many pages. "CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Mali. Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content." This aspect of the site does not negate the useful parts, but it does contextualize them. The first section of every country is pulled directly from the CIA world factbook.

Rating:
Strengths:: There are easy to read annotated resources which make it easy to gather a good deal of information. The material and this resource itself can be easily included in assignments devised by an instructor. There are connections with a wide variety of web based resources.
Concerns:: It has very little in the way of stated goals, learning outcomes, or assessment. The page is presented as a resource for students conducting research on the topic. It is not presented as a lesson in itself. It is not clear what prerequisite knowledge may be needed to use the information - Although there is clear evidence of updates, many of the resources are several years old. There is not an interactive nature with students or parents, so it would be hard to determine the effectiveness of this resource and its learning outcomes.

Rating:
Strengths:: The material is organized both topically and geographically, enabling a student to quickly find material suitable for a research project. Navigating the material is intuitive and simple. It is effective, if not attractive. There are readily available links to articles and videos.
Concerns:: There are not specific directions or examples of how to use this material. Some of the print is small and may not be easily read by persons with visual impairments. There are also some broken links.

Other Issues and Comments:: One concern is that there are no identifiers for who produced the material. While it is clear that the authors (listed at the bottom of the first page) were wide ranging in their inclusion (from the Heritage Foundation to Change.Org), it would be stronger if there was a clear statement of the purpose and sponsor of the site. This material is well suited for use as a data source for a research project, or as a contributing resource for a larger lesson on child welfare at the global scale.
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