Community reviews for Hackasaurus

Initially difficult to figure out because of the way the website is set up to focus on the tool known as "X-Ray Goggles" which allows for remixing a webpage. The tool is a (primarily) HTML hands on learning tool for younger audiences. Although I think adults might enjoy it too. The objective is to load an "X-Ray Goggles" "Bookmarklet" to you browser's Bookmark Bar, and when you want to "hack" a website you simply access the website you want to hack and click on the "X-Ray Goggles" (which is now located in the Bookmarks Bar and you are now in hacking mode. The hacked websites are saved in a special location and although they are made public they do not overwrite or supersede the original website you hacked. One of the coolest things I found on this site didn't really have to do with the tool itself but with modeling user design. When you go to the instructions for loading the "X-Ray Goggles" to your browsers Bookmark Bar, the video instructions adjust to provide instructions for that particular browser, and why wouldn't it?- this site after-all is created to help develop young web designers and that is an example of fantastic user design. The lessons and exercises provided with the site applied the concepts of HTML elements but not necessarily the structural elements that may add coherence and relationships within the design elements. The lesson portion requires quite a bit of time to effectively deliver the curriculum and I fear young learners might be overwhelmed, or simply play with it to see what it does and then get bored never making connections to understanding the purpose and power of HTML web design. For learners that have experienced some HTML, they might be able to catch on more quickly. (I have a Web Design Certification and a Master's in Information Technology and I had a hard time making sense of some of it. But maybe not having been trained might make the pedagogy work better). If you've got time to allow your class to go through the lessons and practice, it may be an effective resource. But its best use seems to be in social way for after school groups or to just get kids playing with it to see what they can come up with.