Educational Technology Guy: How I use Blogs and Sites with my physics classes

Monday, March 19, 2012

How I use Blogs and Sites with my physics classes

I use a class web site, www.physicsmedic.org, and blogs with my classes to give them resources and to keep things organized. I use Google Sites and Google Blogger.

The main site is mainly static, containing my schedule, a links section, file downloads of class files and resources, and useful information for the students, as well as sections for new teachers and some educational technology resources. I post PDF copies of handouts, lab resources, materials, lecture notes and much more there for them. Google even has a class web site template available, making it very easy to create your class site.

I use blogs, http://mrandradesphysics.blogspot.com/ and http://mrandradesapphysics.blogspot.com/, as weekly or daily guides to what we are doing in class. I post lesson schedules, assignments (including labs and projects), links to web sites, and reminders about tests and upcoming due dates to the blogs. I have my students subscribe to the blogs via email so that they get updates whenever I add something to the blog. I also use it to share resources, like Evernote, Dweeber, Trackclass, with my students, and school news and information. The ease and quickness to adding something to a blog makes it a great tool.

You can even embed a Google calendar for your class onto your site or blog.

The students love having these resources available to them and it makes my life much easier and much more organized.