Peer Review

Mali Interactive

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Mali Interactive was a brief, live interaction between an archaeological team,
with accompanying family, and several classes in intermediate schools in the
Conroe Independent School District. The website consists of a brief contextual
essay, several interviews, and a number of photos relating not only to the
archaeological site of Jenne-Jeno but also interactions between the team's
children and local children and dignitaries.
Type of Material:: Lecture and text with photographs.
Recommended Uses:: Not recommended for university use. One gets the feeling that the interaction
was not entirely a success, and there is little real archaeological information
presented.
Technical Requirements:: none
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The stated purpose of the Mali Interactive Project is to share information on another culture and way of life very different from our own in the United States.
Target Student Population:: Intermediate school or high school students with no real grounding in
African affairs... there is peripheral information useful for lower-divison
archaeology students and a world civilization survey course.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: none

Rating:
Strengths:: Easy to read, easy to use... accessible even to middle school students.
Concerns:: Despite the projects informative goals, little context is made available and the
few journal entries regarding archaeological 'discoveries' give little sense of
history. The site is more useful in providing a brief and uni-faceted view of
present Mali.

Rating:
Strengths:: Several pictures and journal entries for use in the classroom by a teacher, but
not alone. There are links and references to other web sites, which can be of use.
Concerns:: No academically rigorous treatment of information presented.

Rating:
Strengths:: Text is accessible, project aims for user-friendliness
Concerns:: Lack of relevant organizational style makes it difficult for students to
synthesize information in different pictures/journals. There seems to be no
'goal' or 'point' to the project other than general 'cultural enlightenment',
thus frustrating attempts to glean lessons.

Other Issues and Comments:: This website is useful in the middle school classroom as potential aid to
teachers who are already able to give students the contextual information in
which to place it.
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