Computer Enhanced Learning

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Computer Enhanced Learning

• Rick Matthews
• Wake Forest University
• matthews_at_wfu.edu
• http//www.wfu.edu/matthews

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What drives faculty to incorporate technology ?

• They want to learn how tools of technology that
  can aid teaching and learning.

• What in your course would you like to
  differently? Do you ever say, If only I
  could.?

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What do faculty worry about?

• My students need to work harder.
• We cant get discussion started for twenty
  minutes.
• I dont have time for discussion.
• I dont have time for hands-on activities.

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What do faculty worry about?

• My students need to work harder.
• We cant get discussion started for twenty
  minutes.
• I dont have time for discussion.
• I dont have time for hands-on activities.

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What do faculty worry about?

• My students need to work harder.
• We cant get discussion started for twenty
  minutes.
• I dont have time for discussion.
• I dont have time for hands-on activities.

• The whole class bombed question 3.
• The students just skim the reading.
• They havent intellectually engaged the
  assignment.
• I want the students to interact more outside
  class.

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Principles of effective teaching

• Encourage contact between students and faculty
• Develop cooperation among students
• Encourage active learning
• Give prompt feedback
• Emphasize time on task
• Communicate high expectations
• Respect diverse talents and ways of thinking

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What can computers do better than professors?

• Not much!
• Simulations, statistics, graphing, data
  acquisition
• Professors time is precious computer time is
  not.
• Available all the time!

What can the technology do well enough?
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How do computers help?

• Content distribution
• Reference materials

Homework solutions!
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How do computers help?

• Content distribution
• Reference materials
• Class notes

Students can engage the material, not worry about
writing everything down.
Students may stop coming to class. Students may
resent the notes!
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How do computers help?

• Content distribution
• Reference materials
• Class notes
• Multimedia

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How do computers help?

• Content distribution
• Reference materials
• Class notes
• Multimedia
• Video clips

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How do computers help?

• Content distribution
• Reference materials
• Class notes
• Multimedia
• Video clips
• Lectures!

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Lectures online

• Streaming Media
• Sequenced web pages accompanied by audio
• 50 minute lecture becomes 15 minute streaming
  slide show.
• SMIL
• RealPresenter, from RealNetworks
• Easily converts PowerPoint presentation to
  narrated slide show.
• Video quality is not so good on web, but great if
  you distribute ppt.
• Students can pause, adjust pace.

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Online discussions

• Chat fairly rare.
• Asynchronous nature of threaded discussions is
  key.
• Stimulates students to think more carefully about
  assignments.
• Students challenge each other.
• Students walk in the door arguing!

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Online discussions

• Chat fairly rare.
• Asynchronous nature of threaded discussions is
  key.
• Stimulates students to think more carefully about
  assignments.
• Students challenge each other.
• Students walk in the door arguing!

• Outside experts.

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Just in Time Teaching(frequent online quizzes)

• Thanks to Dany Kim-Shapiro
• In todays classroom, it is desirable to spend as
  much time as possible using active learning
  techniques
• Thus less time can be spent lecturing on factual
  information that can be obtained from reading.
• Need better and more prompt assessment.

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Goals

• Encourage students to read ahead
• Enhance communication between the professor and
  the students
• Discover weak spots in understanding

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Methods

• Make assignment on the web for each class.
• Students submit responses and comments.
• Professor reads comments and answers (feedback)
  and can adjust class preparation just in time for
  next class.
• Easy grading using excel macro

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Examples of Students' Comments Sent via e-mail

• I guess section five was the only difficult
  problem, section six turned pretty clear cut once
  again. I guess seeing problems would help jog my
  memory.
• I'm having trouble following a lot of the book
  calculations on the vector stuff. Maybe if we
  look at it in class it will become more tangible,
  but now it's all foreign to me. I have a
  question, though (although it may not be
  important) why does rubbing with silk material
  have a different effect than rubbing with wool?
  Does it have something to do with the friction
  between surfaces and the charge this creates?
  Thanks!!
• I find great trouble in understanding the
  material on the electric flux and electric field
  lines. I have difficulty in conceptualizing the
  field lines. What exactly are they? What do they
  help us visualize? I hope I will understand
  these points better after class tomorrow.

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More Examples Comments Sent via e-mail from 98

• "I don't know if other people feel the same way,
  but Problem 30-41 from our homework due next
  Monday just seems very difficult. I've read my
  notes on displacement current, read section 30-8
  twice, and looked at the example problem in it
  and I just can't figure it out. Could we maybe
  do 30-41 in class? -
• "I have had difficulty conceptualizing what a
  "closed surface" is, and the connection between
  Gauss' Law and such surfaces.
• " would you be willing to do some sample
  electrical force problems in class. i am having
  problems with the homework. more than i feel i
  should

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Acknowledgements

• Just in time teaching was developed by Evelyn
  Patterson and Gregor Novak, http//www.usafa.af.mi
  l/dfp/physics/webphysics/
• The cgi-bin stuff was implemented by Ching-Wan
  Yip

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Structured online discussions

• A variation on online quizzes.
• Tries to capture Peer Instruction experience.
• Challenges every answer.

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Structured online discussions
Suppose a ship is in a lock of the Panama Canal,
and carries a cargo of steel girders. If the
girders are thrown overboard, the water level in
the canal will A. Fall. B. Rise. C. Stay the
same.
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Structured online discussions
Suppose a ship is in a lock of the Panama Canal,
and carries a cargo of steel girders. If the
girders are thrown overboard, the water level in
the canal will A. fall. When you take the
girders out of the ship, the ship will rise and
the water will fall. However, when you drop the
girders in the water, the water will rise again
by the same amount. The water level stays the
same.
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Structured online discussions
Suppose a ship is in a lock of the Panama Canal,
and carries a cargo of steel girders. If the
girders are thrown overboard, the water level in
the canal will C. Stay the same. What is special
about steel? Its dense! What would happen if,
instead of the steel, there was a tiny little BB
pellet with the same mass? What happens when you
take it out of the ship? Ship pops up, water
falls. What happens when you drop it back in the
water? Not much. The water level falls.
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Java, Shockwave

• Power of a full programming language
• Great possibilities for platform-independent
  simulations, demonstrations
• See http//WebPhysics.davidson.edu/Applets/Applets
  .html, http//www.wfu.edu/Academic-departments/Che
  mistry/cel/
• Caution we do not all need to do it all.
• Davidson, Georgia Tech

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PowerPoint presentations

• Advantages over traditional lecture
• Images
• Sound
• "Death by PowerPoint"
• PowerPoint on the Web
• Automatic conversion
• Can use SMIL for narrated slide shows
• RealPresenter is easy, but slide quality is poor
• Student use!

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Discipline-specific applications

• Simulations
• Professional tools
• Other

Why do students not work harder? Why do they
turn in inadequate work?
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Simulations

• CircuitMaker
• Zemax (and applets)
• ActivPhysics
• ActivChemistry
• NMR spectral analysis, etc.
• Yue-Ling Wong and Angela King

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Simulations

• CircuitMaker
• Zemax
• ActivPhysics
• ActivChemistry

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Simulations

• CircuitMaker
• Zemax
• ActivPhysics
• ActivChemistry

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Simulations

• CircuitMaker
• Zemax
• ActivPhysics
• ActivChemistry

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Simulations

• CircuitMaker
• Zemax
• ActivPhysics
• ActivChemistry

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Professional tools

• Spreadsheets and data analysis
• Maple, Matlab, Mathematica
• Scientific graphing and analysis Axum, Origin,
  SigmaPlot, etc.
• Quantum modeling software Hyperchem, Spartan,
  etc.
• Data acquisition and experiment control Science
  Workshop, Labview, BioPac
• Statistics software

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Professional tools

• Spreadsheets and data analysis
• Maple, Matlab, Mathematica
• Scientific graphing and analysis Axum, Origin,
  SigmaPlot, etc.
• Quantum modeling software Hyperchem, Spartan,
  etc.
• Data acquisition and experiment control Science
  Workshop, Labview, BioPac
• Statistics software

39
Professional tools

• Spreadsheets and data analysis
• Maple, Matlab, Mathematica
• Scientific graphing and analysis Axum, Origin,
  SigmaPlot, etc.
• Quantum modeling software Hyperchem, Spartan,
  etc.
• Data acquisition and experiment control Science
  Workshop, Labview, BioPac
• Statistics software

40
Professional tools

• Spreadsheets and data analysis
• Maple, Matlab, Mathematica
• Scientific graphing and analysis Axum, Origin,
  SigmaPlot, etc.
• Quantum modeling software Hyperchem, Spartan,
  etc.
• Data acquisition and experiment control Science
  Workshop, Labview, BioPac
• Statistics software

41
Professional tools

• Spreadsheets and data analysis
• Maple, Matlab, Mathematica
• Scientific graphing and analysis Axum, Origin,
  SigmaPlot, etc.
• Quantum modeling software Hyperchem, Spartan,
  etc.
• Data acquisition and experiment control Science
  Workshop, Labview, BioPac
• Statistics software

42
Professional tools

• Spreadsheets and data analysis
• Maple, Matlab, Mathematica
• Scientific graphing and analysis Axum, Origin,
  SigmaPlot, etc.
• Quantum modeling software Hyperchem, Spartan,
  etc.
• Data acquisition and experiment control Science
  Workshop, Labview, BioPac
• Statistics software

43
Professional tools

• Spreadsheets and data analysis
• Maple, Matlab, Mathematica
• Scientific graphing and analysis Axum, Origin,
  SigmaPlot, etc.
• Quantum modeling software Hyperchem, Spartan,
  etc.
• Data acquisition and experiment control Science
  Workshop, Labview, BioPac
• Statistics software

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Music

• Cakewalk
• Band in a Box

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Principles of effective teaching

• Encourage contact between students and faculty
• Develop cooperation among students
• Encourage active learning
• Give prompt feedback
• Emphasize time on task
• Communicate high expectations
• Respect diverse talents and ways of thinking

46
Lessons learned

• Techies start -- explosion happens when
  non-techies successfully adopt.
• Faculty ownership.
• Standardization important.
• Adopt culture of support -- encourage play.
• Sharing successes
• Ancillary benefits -- pedagogy.
• SUPPORT!

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Discussion
Rick Matthews Department of Physics Wake Forest
University http//www.wfu.edu/matthews matthews_at_w
fu.edu
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Brainstorming slide

• Content delivery
• Reference materials, sources (data books),
  Lectures
• Interaction outside class. Threaded discussions,
  etc.
• Prompt feedback--simulations.
• Multimedia
• Powerpoint
• Experts, Seeger

• Labs -- data acquisition.
• Techies start -- explosion happens when
  non-techies successfully adopt.
• Sharing successes
• Faculty ownership
• Adopt culture of support -- encourage play.
• Ancillary benefits -- pedagogy.