New Approaches to
Teaching Problem Solving:
Physlets and Other Internet Technologies
Wolfgang Christian |
|---|
| 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
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 packages such as Interactive Physics or possibly even
QuickTime movies, non-proprietary Internet technologies are often
preferable. Curricula designed using these technologies are easy to create
and modify and will run on a variety of computer platforms. This
talk/workshop will discuss the pedagogic implications and effectiveness of
small scriptable Java applets, i.e., Physlets, developed at Davidson
College. Interactive problems will be shown as examples and Physlets will
distributed to conference participants. This project is generously supported by NSF, DUE-9752365. |