http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/greatwar/default.htm

At first sight this website looks pretty sketchy. There is no scrolling down like normal webpages and there is a decent amount of empty space; however, this website is jam packed with information on WWI. It is built with students, teachers, and school projects in mind. This website has information on every basic question about WWI from start to finish and provides background information and numerous resources. This website is a fantastic resource with several functions. It could be used by teachers to guide lesson plans and give ample information about WWI, it could be used by students without the instruction of a teacher to learn about WWI, or it could be used as a goldmine for primary and secondary sources.
This website’s strengths are:

• This website contains numerous useful sources for projects and papers.
• There are clear and concise blurbs for every new page of the website.
• It is easy to understand language wise.
• It is easy to navigate the website.
• It has prompts and critical questions for every aspect of The Great War that it has information about.
• This website gives “how to use this source” information and questions with every source.
• It has detailed background information.
• It has extensive and detailed information about the soldiers’ experiences.
• The website never overwhelms viewer with words on a page or too many options.
• This website contains printable worksheets to help understand and critically think about WWI.
• This site never speculates or shares opinions, but prompts viewers to come up with their own opinions.
•  Fun facts are displayed on the home page and a new one appears every time you return to the home page.

This website’s weaknesses are:

• This website contains links to other websites about how WWI is remembered today that are out of date.
• The language used leads me to believe that this website may be in need of an update.
• I would not say this website is inviting appearance wise at first glance.
• Some primary and secondary resources can be difficult to read due to faint ink or photocopying.
• Sometimes new pages on the website load very slowly (this may just be school wifi).
• There is not much information on public perspective or any perspective other than the soldiers, commanders, and a minimal amount on the political point of view, which is mostly in the background information.

Overall, this website is best suited for those just starting to learn about The Great War. It can be used to construct lesson plans or be used as the lesson plans themselves. It can be a useful source for primary and secondary resources in a research paper, group project, or essay. There is so much information on this website, as long as there is no need for multiple perspectives in your essay or paper, this is the only resource you would need since it contains so much information and so many primary sources. I do not think this website is the most helpful for our class specifically, because it is more of an overall lesson on the events and causes of The Great War when our class focuses more on specific books. I do think it is a good resource for those who can not for the life of them remember anything about WWI from their history class or who want more detailed information on specifics like trenches.
I pledge,

Rachel Franklin