SlideShare

I was excited to find a SlideShare by Chad Orzel who wrote "How to Teach Physics to Your Dog".  I bought this book in June at University of Washington while visiting my daughter and it is a very interesting book.  I also found a lot of astronomy SlideShares that are pretty good.  This seems a lot like a power point presentation so I will have to see what the differences are.  I guess that it is just "shared".

What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics

View more presentations from Chad Orzel

Screenr

I chose to make a screencast describing an APOD (astronomy picture of the day) picture of the Helix Nebula. This technique would work well for lots of astronomy terms.  It would help to have visual input when describing specific phenomena.  I could also use it to work out a physics problem step by step with explanations along the way.  Here is my first venture:

Wikispaces and Voicethreads

     Wikispaces might be useful in several ways.  I could post topics about physics or astronomy in the news and have students comment on them.  I could ask students to post articles or links to articles that they have found about science in the news.  I could post a picture or video from NASA's APOD and have students comment.
I could post a problem and have students post about how to solve it. I could post review questions or practice quizzes.
     Voicethreads could also be used for posting problems or science in the news articles.  There are more ways of commenting than in Wikispaces.  It might be good for students who have a hard time writing their thoughts to be able to just speak their comments.  It would be a type of differentiation for these students. Many of the websites and webtools that we have been exploring can be used for the same purposes,  It is just a question of which one would be most convenient for the specific purpose at hand.    

Animoto

      I made a little video of our vacation in Great Britain.  We first went to Northern Wales, then spent a week in the Cotswolds and then a couple of days in London. The weather was wonderful - sunny and cool.
      For classroom use, I could post little mini-lessons or problem-solving hints on Animoto.  I could make a demo video of a lab for students who are absent on lab day,  They would then be able to see what the experiment entailed and get data.  I could also use it to publicize the musical by taping a section of a song in rehearsal and putting it up on the website.

CreativeCommons.com

I was surprised to find that my son Conor was already using this site to publish some of his music.  It allows him to share  his music while still retaining ownership of his intellectual property without having to go to a lawyer.  I was interested in the educational and science sites ( MITOPENCOURSEWARE,  Connexions, Curriki, CK-12 Foundation, Public Library of Science, Science 3.0, PLoS Blogs, etc.)  I can use these as research sites for myself and my students.  I also was thinking about taking textbook modules and modifying them for my own particular use.  This would be helpful when I want to put a unit together that isn't in my text.  It also would be good for creating a module of appropriate reading level for students that have difficulty reading the regular text (differentiated learning).

Updating my Blog

In order to update my blog, I added a slide show of pictures from GHS's spring musical, Les Miserables.  I also added a welcome message and a list of recent and upcoming musicals that I am working on.  I also changed the "about me" section.  I really don't like to write about myself - it all seems so lame.  It is much easier to talk about physics or astronomy or musicals!  By the way, Donna Lounsberry took these beautiful photos for us.

Flickr

I am excited about using Flickr.  I have wanted a way to share pictures from the musicals and in class pictures .  I could also use pictures for labs in physics and astronomy.  I could take a time lapse photo of a trajectory and have students analyze horizontal and vertical motion or I could use a set of photos of the position of the Sun at different times during the year.  If anyone would like to see photos of last year's show ( Les Mis ), check out my flickr account.  My flickr user name is LOB1122.  Click here to go there.

Google Reader

I like Google Reader - it makes it easier to follow the blogs I have subscribed to.  I won't have to navigate around to check up on new science news.  I found a blog on what's happening on Broadway so I can keep up with theater news also. Anything I can connect directly to my home page is more likely to be read.  I do want to check out how to put my delicious sites on the homepage so I won't lose all of them. There are sites about activities and labs I could use as well as teacher blogs I can follow.

Twittering

I did not like the premise of twittering b/c I don't want to know what someone is doing all the time.  I also don't think that anyone wants to follow what I am doing.  However, I did find some good science twitter sites and Stephen Colbert has a very funny site.  I even found out that my son Conor has a site.  I'll follow some of these sites and see which ones will be relevant to my classes and/or interests. In general, I like websites with more complete coverage of science topics like some of the ones I have already found in previous lessons.