New Approaches to Student Problem Solving
Using
Internet Technologies
Wolfgang Christian & Aaron Titus |
|---|
| The World Wide Web began in 1990 as a text-based hyper-linked document
distribution system for Physicists. Its first use was the electronic transcription of
gigabytes of data, textbooks, and faculty notepads. Its initial impact on teaching
pedagogy was minimal. In fairness to the World Wide Web, it required heroic efforts to
move beyond text and images until fairly recently. But that has changed. It is now
possible to author curricula that include interactivity, database access, and mathematical
models using off-the-shelf tools. These tools enable educators to design web-based
activities that directly influence how students approach a problem. Although interactivity
can certainly be accomplished using very sophisticated programs such as Interactive
Physics or possibly even QuickTime movies, Java applets are often smaller and can interact
with the user via a scripting language. Scripting changes the behavior of an applet and
allows it to be used for many different types of questions. This talk will discuss the
pedagogic implications and effectiveness of small scriptable Java applets, i.e., Physlets,
developed at Davidson College. Interactive pre-labs, homework, tests and Just-In-Time
problems will be shown as examples. This project is generously supported by NSF, DUE-9752365. |