Web Workshop by Sunburst

Reviewers: Scott, Sam,Tom and K. Rodriguez
Middletown, CT
Age: 11 years (fifth grade students from Bielefield School)
Teacher: Kathy Rodriguez
E-mail: farmhill@connix.com

Rated a 10 (on a scale of 1-10), Way Cool!

Web Workshop by Sunburst
Available on CD ROM for both Macintosh & Windows
In addition to the software, the program comes with a manual and a package of classroom activities. They give you many concrete suggestions for planning your web page.
Evaluated on a Power Macintosh 5200.
Sunburst Communications, 1996.
Date reviewed: April 1997
List Price: $79.00

The software builds a web page. In using this program, we found everything easy to do. There were many colorful backgrounds to choose from and it was simple to select and then change it. By going to the menu bar, you could also select a different font, size, color and style. The text can be edited easily and moved around on the screen. The graphics were easy to select, move around on the screen, and resize. You can import graphics and photos, which can help to personalize your page.

What makes this program Way Cool is that you can do practically anything on it that you can do by writing a web page in HTML. You could design a page in about ten minutes. The presentation is appealing to both students and adults. Some of the negative points were; the paint program was tricky to use (be careful of deleting), the colors were hard to see when selecting colors for fonts, and the record section, we couldn't get to work. It is appropriate for ages 7 and up.

Our rating would be a 9+.

Teacher Comments

The Web Workshop is a very likable web design program. It's the classroom teachers answer to a delightful, quick web page, using all the familiar drawing tools. The students LOVE it! They need not have to learn HTML or other programming. The page can be designed easily and tastefully. Other features include: -send the page to Sunburst and they will post for 90 days, free, -you can create links to 'cool sites' or you can link to anywhere on the WWW.

From my viewpoint, the program took away the challenge of writing HTML. Selecting the colors, backgrounds and dividers,(downloaded from the internet) are all part of the design process. If that's not important to you, or you don't have the time to teach HTML, then this is the program for you. I think it does too much. Keep the manual nearby, because as easy as it is to use, it's complicated to get the files uploaded to an existing site. The tech support number is very helpful.

I rate this program a 10!!! It is really WAY COOL!

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