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Critical thinking behind the children's web site
On this site I used a different plug-in that produced a more colourful site. The font used was Ariel which is very plain and usually fairly easy to read. I calculated the reading age of the site to around 8 years ( slightly higher than the Sun newspaper). Text on pages was kept to one or at most two paragraphs. A basic narrative structure was also employed It was the work on the children's site that first gave me the idea of using such a simple approach. I took the shape of a 'story mountain' that the children use in literacy to provide the basic structure. Many of the materials I prepared for the children's site were suitable for use in the main site with slight adjustments of vocabulary. I feel strongly that even quite young children are capable of understanding complex ideas if they are well explained in age appropriate language.
Critical thinking - adult site
Visitors need to be able to choose how deeply they want to delve into the research. To facilitate this I used a narrative structure to tell the story of the research but careful use of linking to deeper aspects and to a glossary made it rather like one of those adventure books where readers can branch off to explore other areas before returning to the main story. This idea was sparked off by a discussion with Andy about his ideas for a way of using VoodooPad with children to make stories.
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