Ancient Egypt

homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient

KS2 (Years 3 - 6)

History

There were no problems with accessing this site, all pages loaded quickly at all times of the day. There were no large graphics, or downloads to hinder access times.

Design & Navigation

On arriving at the home page, because pages are so long, the main menu options are not easy to find. It is only when you scroll to the bottom of the page that you find these options; they are laid out in a table format and on the main page you have 15 to choose from. Down the left hand side of this page are also some "highlight" choices to visit within the site.

Clicking on a menu button takes you to the relevant area within the site, where again you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the menu buttons - again laid out in a table, but bizarrely, this time with 16 choices. If there is any sub menu items within that section, links are provided just above the main menu table. There is a facility to return to the home page; again this is found at the bottom of each page.

The design is "functional", rather more than appealing and within a school context is not inspiring for children.

Because there is so much information on each page, the pages are very long; this combined with the way menu items are laid out, means they are always hidden when arriving at a new page. This doesn't make it easy, especially for young children, having to scroll to the bottom of each page to find links to move on, or return to the home page.

Special Needs

Children with any type of Special Educational Needs are going to find little of use on this site. Most children who used it needed support to read the text, which is long, very small and only interspersed with a few images. There is nothing here at all to motivate children with Special Educational Needs.

Conclusion

As informative as this site is, it is of little use in the Primary classroom; there is nothing here to interest the children, no interactivity, or games/ challenges for the children. The content is way above their heads and the children who viewed it were quickly bored. If you are planning a holiday to Egypt this site may be of use, otherwise try somewhere else for things on Ancient Egypt - the British Museum's website is more than excellent for children.

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