Welcome to my blog! A little bit about me first: I am a high school physics teacher at a large high school just south of Washington, DC. As I am often one of the ‘last stops’ before my students head off to college, majoring in engineering and bio-medical fields, I try to incorporate many instructional practices that the students are likely to encounter in post-secondary educational settings. This includes web-based instructions, activities, and assessment tools, as well as online discussions to aide students with course material.

Up until this point, I have largely been self-taught in the use of technology with instructional design. In my explorations, I have come across several websites that have proved to be either helpful in using different techniques, thought-provoking in teaching and technology practices, or directly relate to physics instruction using non-traditional classroom methods.

Learning Physics Online is a site designed for physics instructors to use and share web-based videos illustrating physics content. The videos are often based or accessed through You-tube.com. I have used the videos and comments to shape my practice in the classroom and I have also challenged my students to create their own similar instructional or research-based videos to share with classmates. We have posted our videos on the school-based website (closed to the public) and had open discussions about the content and methods illustrated in the videos.

The Tempered Radical is a large site, containing opinions and challenges to teaching practices, the art and state of education, and the advantages of using technology in various ways in the classroom. The author not only provides instruction on implementing technology practices, but also revisits the issues and updates instructions with tips and caution points.

Cathy Moore’s blog Making Change – Ideas for Lively eLearning is geared more towards adult learners in the business world. She offers a lot of ideas to keep learning interesting and relevant from both the student’s perspective and the instructional designer’s perspective. Her writing is energetic, quick and to the point. She also uses the comments section to have open discussions with her readers on how her entries relate to their applications and to share ideas.