I’ve been considering getting my students to use Google Apps in a big way next year. In fact, I have already set one up in preparation for my new classes in 2010. Group reports can be done online, with everyone’s contributions noted in the revision history. Equations can be easily edited using WYSIWYG editors or Tex. There are even drawing functions. These could come in really handy for Science subjects, where equations and diagrams are often important to explain concepts or solve problems. There really isn’t a need for a tablet PC for all these to work, although drawing with a stylus is must easier.

In fact, I’m making use of this public document as an example of how collaboration can be done. This is going to be a compilation of solutions for the 2009 A level solutions. Its editing will be done almost wiki-style by anyone anytime. Marking can be done using comment inserts all over the page or in red font.

http://docs.google.com/a/sciencerockz.com/Doc?docid=0ATnTWQTijo_3ZGhwNG5zZGZfODJ4cG4yZHpjaA&hl=en

You can even organise chat sessions on Google Apps (but MSN might be more powerful for this purpose) or maintain an online calendar that can be shared with students or synchronised with your smartphone or iPhone.

Best of all, Google Apps is free and you can customise it for yourself if you own a domain.

Did I mention that you can use it to make online forms like the one below too?

This form is used for my students from 2009.

Introducing GoAnimate, a website that allows anybody to create animations without the need for learning how to use Flash or other similar software. I did a search for Physics-related animations and found some rather creative explanations and applications of Physics concepts. Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!

Who do you agree with and why?

I’m posing the following questions to my TA2 and JC2 students, who should be read this post.

Why can’t the paper clip stick onto the iron plate with the magnet? Why is it that, towards the end of the video, like poles of two magnets seem to be able to attract each other with the iron plate between them?

Our colleague Iskandar managed to make a gaussian gun from the neodymium magnets that came with the Lenz’s law demonstration kits that we bought. Notice from the video that there were two balls at first and within a split second, there was only one left.

We can ask students to consider how the ball flies off with a high speed when the sliding magnet was so slow in the beginning.