Peer Review

Street Children - Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation

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Reviewed:: Feb 6, 2015 by Psychology

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Ratings

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Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

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Overview:: The goal of this website is to educate and inform about children who live on the streets in countries all over the world. It functions as a repository for data and reports about “children for whom the street more than their family has become their real home.” Designed for educational use, the website includes resources for teachers such as lesson plans, discussion questions, and topics for debate. Also included are resources for students who are researching and writing about vulnerable child populations. The site could be used in child psychology or child welfare courses.
Type of Material:: The website is a repository of online references that link to relevant information about "street children" across the globe.
Recommended Uses:: • This website would support any discipline where a discussion ensues on homelessness (and its prevalence) across the globe. • The site provides a significant amount of material that would allow faculty to design many possible learning exercises and assignments about children who live on the streets. Those provided within the site itself include multiple (three full) lesson plans, essay questions, topics for a debate, term paper recommendations, graphics and images, and video playlists. The proposed educational strategies may be applied in countless ways by faculty to engage students and to support them in further researching the topic. • Some of the links are to older reports which suggest that a historical view could be gleaned from using this website.
Technical Requirements:: Only a basic web browser is needed. The website was successfully reviewed using the most recent versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The purpose of this website is to link learners to a variety of reports and data sources about the prevalence and circumstances of vulnerable children. After using this repository, students will be able to: • Identify data and reports about children who live in the streets • Apply critical thinking skills to research on vulnerable children.
Target Student Population:: The chief target would be undergraduates studying child development or child rights issues. However, the website could be useful for both undergraduate as well as graduate level coursework and students studying poverty, world issues, cultural differences, and sexual exploitation. Some content is mature in nature and may not be appropriate for younger students (e.g., high school).
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Only basic computer navigation skills would be needed to successfully surf this site. However, students also would need to know how to assess the quality of primary and secondary source material.

Content Quality

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Strengths:: • This module appears to be comprehensive, covering most countries on the planet and including an impressive breadth of information. Under each country, there are multiple links to reports from a variety of sources including NGOs, governmental agencies, and advocacy groups. It offers a valid representation of street children across the globe. • Although some material appears dated, relatively recent information also is included (dating to approximately 2009). • Further, the topic is valuable in its attention to the plight of vulnerable children.
Concerns:: • While some of the content is recent, much also appears to be dated with several broken links. While all the website links are properly sourced, the written content on the website does not have references nor is there detailed information about the authors of the site.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: • This website appears to be comprehensive in its coverage of information from all the countries of the worlds. There are resources for educators that include different types of assignments that could be used with the material. The author does attempt to connect the content to different disciplines, and provides a list of resources for students. • The potential for diverse application of this material is a notable strength, and the inclusion of possible learning exercises is very useful.
Concerns:: • There are no learning outcomes associated with this website, and explanatory information for instructors and students is brief and limited.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: • Overall the site is relatively straightforward to navigate, and it is easy to understand what content is available in various locations. While the site does not feature a contemporary design (i.e., it does not have the appearance of a commercial website), it contains useful information that in its volume outweighs its simplicity. • As a repository, the site contains links to a wide variety of information.
Concerns:: • A more contemporary website design would likely enhance navigability. • The site contains broken links. • The photos and videos are not sourced. • Some links appear in very small font that should be increased for readability (e.g., Related Websites). • Because of these issues, some faculty may prefer that students access resources from the primary sites first.

Other Issues and Comments:: This may be a useful tool to post in an online, hybrid, or traditional class with an online component to assign research projects for education students, psychology students, and students studying diversity/social issues across the curriculum.
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