Characterization of the Community
In order to fully appreciate the
vast amount of information associated with this particular website, it is
important to give a description of just who and what PhysLink.com is exactly.
PhysLink.com was created by a guy named Anton Skorucak (pictured to the left) in
1995. Anton Skorucak has a M.S. degree in physics from the University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, California and a B.S. in physics with a minor
in material science from the McMaster University, Canada. He is the president
and creator of PhysLink.com.
His biography lists a number of publications and his focuses as well as the questions that he has answered that have been published on PhysLink.com. Click Here
His goals are simply stated in a quote, 'My goal with PhysLink.com is to create the best physics & astronomy web site on the net! I will stop at nothing short of that!'
‘PhysLink.com is a result of a creative effort of a number of volunteers and
physics and astronomy enthusiasts.’ On the website there is actually a place
where one can sign up to volunteer their time to help the website and apply for
volunteer unpaid positions. It is al
so
listed that there have been over 18,000,000 visitors to the site since their
creation in 1995.
In terms of being sponsored or affiliated, the concept is merely an understatement. The site has been given over 60 prestigious awards from various the media, such as online publications, corporations and other organizations. Click Here
PhysLink.com is affiliated with a number of professional societies and organizations in physics as well as various labs and/or universities and colleges.
Through exploring all aspects of the website and looking up biographies of the professionals who typically answer the questions posed on PhysLink.com, the vast majority of the most active members are well educated with degrees in physics and a well-versed background in the topics that the questions each respond to focus on. There is no offline or face-to-face component aside from mailing a letter or information to one of the affiliates or active members of the website by using the search feature.
The website basically is free reign for anyone interested in particular topics in physics or other pages of information, for instance reference charts for physical constants and/or equations. Click Here
On the main page, a good sense of what the site is about can be perceived based on the listings of news in physics from respectable sources such as USC, CalTech, NIST and NASA. Some of the articles pertained to some topics that I would be teaching the seniors, so it was very useful to find educational materials on the site. However, the resources for teachers expand so much further than simply news articles.
Role of Technology
With the PhysLink.com website, there are a multitude of tools and resources available for its members. Some of the resources include the reference guides to constants, equations and other useful items. Click Here Others include looking at news articles and other pertinent information from respectable pages on the web. In the educators section, there are links to sites that include lesson plans, tutorials, applets and other useful resources for educators to help support their students with the use of more technology in the classroom. Click Here
I think my favorite tool available on the website is the ‘Ask the Experts’ link. It basically is a conglomeration of questions asked by not only students or teachers, but professionals or anyone simply interested in a concept or idea that is foreign to them in the realm of physics. The only downside to this question and answer session is the limitation of questions. I personally have sent in two questions that would have been beneficial to my student teaching experience, however, the website specifically lists the guidelines for asking questions:
Guidelines that you should read and follow if you wish to increase the chances of your question actually being posted on PhysLink.com:
Due to the number and reliance on
the guidelines, it can make it difficult to have a question answered. On the
other hand, the ‘Ask the Experts’ source can be very beneficial because of the
presence of the search option. By simply searching for a particular topic, it
will list the results based on the relevancy to the words used. 
For
instance, in the image to the right, the website lists the results of a search
on the neutrino. For the Honors Physics classes that I am teaching, I will be
introducing the idea of neutrinos in beta decay and also when we look at
subatomic particles. The third topic basically was a good reference for
understanding just exactly what a neutrino is, what the properties of it are and
where it can be useful in explaining topics such as beta decay.
Before the answers will be listed for a particular question, the staff will review the question, make sure no other questions posted cover the same topic and assure that the answer will be complete and accurate based on the answerer. In doing soon of questions that are not so useful to other members or users of the website will be omitted. A list of the top ten experts who most frequently answer the questions are listed on the website for ‘Ask the Experts.’ Click Here Amazingly enough, the creator and President of PhysLink.com, Anton Skorucak, is only listed at 28 answered questions and is far from the leader at 130. After searching for a number of topics in the ‘Ask the Experts’ section, it is evident that the archives of answered questions is extravagant, which presents the question of if it is even necessary to ask a question about a topic because it mostly likely is already answered.
In looking at a tool that would be most beneficial to the site would be a little more interaction with experts, rather than simply sending in a question and waiting anywhere from 3 to 30 days for a response to the question, if any. For instance, a tool such as a meeting room or chat room with an expert at designated times would be beneficial to both educators and students in regards to education. If experts were available to have discussions with teachers and students alike, some schools could schedule times in the computer lab where the students could all join a chat room as a class and ask questions that they were curious about to a professional who would be able to answer questions perhaps the teacher might struggle answering.
There is also a newsletter for members of the site that will update them on what is going on with the website, news stories and other features useful for the member.
A list of job resources are also available for members, however, since I have begun using the website, I have only seen two postings: one for a job and currently, one for an internship.
To access PhysLink.com, it is not necessary that a person have a vast knowledge of technology and navigating extravagant websites. PhysLink.com seems to be a very manageable website for anyone interested in the topic of physics with its easy to use tabs to link to various places, such as Community, Education, a store, or even a little fun and games.
Description of My Participation
Based on the layout of this website, most of my interactions mainly dealt with being an observer, or I ‘lurked’ as you aptly put it. In finding the website, I planned on being able to talk either in a chat room or through a forum with other physics teachers, professionals and even students. I wanted to expand my knowledge on topics and concepts unknown to me as well as share my wealth of knowledge.
However, as I began to fully explore PhysLink.com, I found that there was not really a resource such as this available, but the other resources that I did find were just as impressive. Like I said above, I tried to send in a few questions, one on electron capture in beta decay and another about the different subatomic particles from the book to get a professional’s perspective on them, rather than a book’s definition. Due to the strict guidelines of the ‘Ask the Experts’ section, I had to resolve to simply using the search option, which proved to be rather beneficial in itself.
I also explored the reference page (Click
Here) where I examined a number of websites, including a page listing
quantum mechanical constants, which I used for my Honors Physics classes as a
reference sheet for them. It also contained a program for a periodic table that
would list a number of properties and values for each element, some very useful
for the physical look at particular elements.
I spent a majority of my time on the ‘Ask the Experts’ page because it held the most useful information for me as an educator. For topics that the book may have covered minimally or not very well, I searched for those topics and found it to be a very useful resource. The interesting concept about those who answered the questions is that some of them had a master’s or doctorate degree in some area of physics, but there were also some questions that were answered by an undergraduate student or graduate student. Despite the level of education, the inclusion of a number of backgrounds in physics helped to make the conglomeration of answers a very useful tool.
Yet another aspect of the website that showed to be a valuable resource was the link to particular directories, such as Physics and Astronomy Departments in colleges and universities around the world. The page to the left shows a number of these departments, 675 in the United States. With direct access to this many physics departments around the world at a click of the mouse, researching not only for students looking for graduate schools, but also professionals looking for doctorate work or labs becomes very easy.
Lastly, I visited the fun tab where a number of physics cartoons, jokes and other fun websites, some of which could be used as a supplement to a lesson for teachers, were easy to access. The jokes and cartoons were, for the most part very applicable to physics and a teacher’s educational background and professional use. The other resources linked from the bottom of that page list a number of links to websites that cover a multitude of information, including a site I found to be very useful for studying subatomic particles called the Particle Adventure. Click Here
Based on the number of links and information available at PhysLink.com, it is evident that a majority of the website focuses on the exact quote that Anton listed on his website, ‘My goal with PhysLink.com is to create the best physics & astronomy web site on the net! I will stop at nothing short of that!’ I believe that so far, it covers a number of topics, resources and other aspects that are not tailored to any specific genre of people, but rather would be beneficial to anyone who is searching for a great physics and astronomy website.
Reflection
In my experiences with teaching and learning how to enter into this professional realm, I have been fortunate enough to have had a very substantial background in a variety of topics ranging most importantly from physics, but also including a vast knowledge of technological understanding and an inclusion of very good social skills associated with interactions with youth and teens from all parts of the country. Each of these experiences and parts of my life has helped to set the framework for becoming a better teacher.
As I worked through my college career as an undergraduate in physics and mathematics, I had no idea where I would be going with what I was learning. In my junior year of college, I began working as a tutor in the physics department and felt that I should look into getting into teaching because it felt like it was a skill that came naturally to me and I felt that I would be able to expand the knowledge of others in physics as well as my own at the same time. It was only a benefit to me to be very adept at the computer and other technological resources in following this idea.
Once I decided to enter into the program at Pitt, my thoughts about becoming a teacher and what that meant began to change slightly as the amount of course work and planning that goes into teaching became very evident to me. I realized that some of the information that I would be teaching was not as understandable as it was to me when I was a student and so I would need the support not only from other professionals and teachers, but also from other books and as I have come to realize, more beneficially from the internet and resources such as PhysLink.com.
Sites such as this are a great tool for anyone in a physics or engineering career, but as I have also found, are also a very useful tool for educators. Due to the vast amount of information that simply is part of the website, a person can simply tap into the resources available whenever he or she needs.
In the future when I have my own classroom, I will use websites such as these to ask students to research particular topics or explore concepts and ideas from class. For other sites that include discussion boards or other resources that are more interactive, they too, will be beneficial for a classroom environment simply because we are moving more and more into an age where the computer and technology become so much more important for our learning and interaction among professionals.
As in the Jonassen piece, it says, ‘…technologies of various kinds can serve as bridges between schools and students’ outside experiences, if they are used in the right way with supportive context. Technologies can support learning communities by providing communications vehicles to all learners.’ With the vast use of technology, students will become more in tune with the world and how science plays a role in the daily lives of so many, including themselves.