Aptly Named?

After viewing the Marco Polo website, it was very clear to me what types of things that an education website should strive for. Before I delve too deeply into my rubric comparison of the site contents, I just thought I'd comment on the title of the website. The name Marco Polo translated into English (Webster or otherwise) would be Mark "The" Chicken. Now, I don't want to offend the namesake, so I would also add that Marco Polo the Explorer transcends the very spirit of learning, and thus is very aptly named. Just a bit of irony, I suppose.

Now, the actual site itself is an exceptional collaboration of ideas and content for the classroom teacher. The cross-curriculuar content in literacy, technology and other subject areas is exemplary. I consider myself a good web harvester for all things school related, but I have not come across this site until Michael suggested it for review. I'm very glad he did.

My group website evaluation tool was designed in a traditional rubric format with seven categories, which looked at such things as site Accuracy, Authority, Relevance, Diversity and Inclusion, Evaluation, and Supports for Special Populations. In all, Marco Polo scored very high or perfect in many of the categories we selected. If I were an Administrator of a Elementary or Middle School, I would probably develop or mandate some of the professional development opportunities that are linked to the "Rollout" section of the site. The fact that it has a corporate sponsor in Verizon does not bother me in the least. In fact, I think it makes for good corporate citizenship to make significant contributions like the Marco Polo website. Overall, I would definitely use the site for it's content and structure and added value to the curriculum.