Peer Review

SERI (Special Education Resources on the Internet)

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Special Education Resources on the Internet (SERI) is a collection of Internet
accessible information resources of interest to those involved in the fields
related to special education." This is a particularly interesting site because
it contain links to a wide variety of other sites such as: Products & Commercial
sites, Legal and Law Resources, Discussion Groups, Medicine and Health,
Inclusion, and information on specific disabilities and the area of education
for the gifted and talented student.
Type of Material:: A collection of internet accessible information dealing with all aspects of
special education.
Recommended Uses:: Professionals working with children and youth with disabilities and those who
are gifted. Pre-service general and special education teachers.
Technical Requirements:: Acrobat Reader is needed for some of the sites. Free down load links are
provided for those who may not already have this on their home computers.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The collection exist in order to make on-line Special Education resources more
easily and readily available in one location.
Target Student Population:: Professionals in the area of special education and parents of students with
disabilities and those students who are gifted. This a particularly good site
for pre-service and in-service teachers.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: None noted by the reviewers.

Rating:
Strengths:: This web site brings together the largest collection of links with the latest
information concerning the nature and needs of students with special learning
needs by category; legal resources; resources for parents; disability products;
and commercial sites that offer services and materials to those who serve the
"exceptional population" of students. The information appears to be current and
accurate and reflects a variety of treatment options from a number of
theoretical perspectives.
Concerns:: There are many commercial sites that only give information regarding their
productgs and then requires the reader to purchase the item if he/she wants to
know more. The product information is supplied by the developer and does not
appear to be unbiased. The viewers of these sites are cautioned with regard to
the commercial sites.

Rating:
Strengths:: This mega site is only informational in nature. The effectiveness as a teaching
tool lies in the creativity of the instructor who leads his/her students
through purposeful learning activities. The potential for learning by the
pre-service teacher is unlimited and is an invaluable resource because of the
magnitude of topics, teaching practices, activities, and other information in
one location.
Concerns:: No identifiable learning objectives are present. The teacher educator must
develop his or her own learning outcomes. Since the site is static by nature,
it can easily lead to random searching if the user enters without a purpose.
Maintenance of the numberous links for this site is one of concern. One
reviewer encountered several sites that were not active or received a note that
the site was under construction. This could be discouraging to the novice and
lead to "shopping around" for the information sought.

Rating:
Strengths:: This site is easy to navigate. No special instructions are needed.
Concerns:: The site is not Bobby Approved. For the most part, the links are informational
only and therefore not engaging. Engagement and appeal will need to be created
by the teacher eductor through specific learning activities using this site.

Other Issues and Comments:: Maintaining the integrity of the links for such a large site is of concern to
the reviewers.
Creative Commons: