Mission Statement

Mission Statement

            “From the very beginning of his education, the child should experience the joy of discovery.”
― Alfred North Whitehead

            When learning physics the student is engaging in the study of natural philosophy.  The goal of the teacher is to consistently engage the student in that study and to create an environment that will facilitate the student’s quest for understanding.  We live in a rapidly changing world and with that change comes new opportunities to understand the very basic principles of everyday life.  Newton’s laws apply just as significantly today as they did when he wrote The Principia.  The fact that we can discuss them with people half a world away and that we also know of other principles and properties that seem to make exception to these laws does not diminish the fact that these are the principles that guide our understanding of everyday experiences.

            Galileo was able to determine the acceleration of gravity without even the use of a stopwatch.  I would challenge anyone today to match his feat of inquiry and investigation.  As we have progressed in the availability of technology to help us measure and analyze the universe, we have not necessarily progressed in our ability to so.  Students in the classroom sometimes seem to get even worse results when using digital tools to measure the acceleration of gravity.  Even with the significant error of reaction time, a student using a stopwatch to time the fall of a lump of clay can get the same level of accuracy in the measurement of the acceleration of gravity as a student using a digital timer and photogate.  With advancing technology there is sometimes an assumption that the technology will provide the answer.  In reality, we must still seek the answer and must question our methods and analysis in order to understand the answer we find.

            The big and overriding goal of Educational Technology in my teaching-learning environment is to provide students with a new set of tools and methods of scientific inquiry to enhance each student’s ability to engage in the study of physics.  The addition of Educational Technology does not change the primary goal of my physics classroom.  That goal is learning through inquiry.  However,  Educational Technology should be a seamless piece and greatly add to achieving that overarching goal.

Educational Technology and Inquiry

  At the start of the inquiry process the student must first generate a question or problem that they will investigate.  This may require some basic information that the student can gain by using internet resources or e-texts.  The student can also use these resources to help develop an experimental design.  In doing this, the student will need to identify reasonable independent and dependent variables, determine how the variables might be changed, and in what manner might the response be measured.  Making decisions on measuring responses will require a familiarity with the digital tools and other resources that might be available to collect the data.  In my classroom, we have iPod, digital probeware, digital cameras, and other technology.  To be able to choose the best tool, the student will need a complete understanding of the resource and the variable they are measuring.  There may be occasions where multiple tools are needed.  Once the data is collected, a spreadsheet can be used to organize the data and formulas in the spreadsheet can be used to analyze the data and produce a graph that can be used to evaluate the relationship between the variables.  In addition, statistical software can be used to determine the significance of the relationship and to determine if the hypothesis is supported or not supported by the data.  Finally, the students can use a digital notebook to compile their inquiry process and to communicate the results to others.

Learning Theory Support of Educational Technology in Inquiry

            At the basic level in the physics classroom, objectivist theories are influential.  In a very general sense on a day to day basis providing some level of directed instruction is beneficial to student learning.  Educational technology in this context provides students with resources, practice, and feedback that would be supported by information processing theories.

Although an objectivist approach would seem to be supported by the traditional science classroom, constructivist theories are predominant in a more engaging student-centered classroom.  In an introductory physics course, students are studying phenomena that they experience in everyday life.  One of the challenges for the physics student is to question the understanding that they have likely already developed.  Often our everyday experience creates misconceptions and misleads us from the simplicity of the explanation.  Piaget referred to this as schema and the development of schema occurred through observational and experiential processes of a child.  Learning (Cognitive Development) occurs through a process of assimilation and accommodation where the existing schema is not adequate to accommodate understanding of a situation and a new schema must be developed (McLeod, 2009 Piaget, http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html).  In addition the application of Educational technology is reinforced by the theories of Bruner.  That to add educational technology and digital resources should enhance a student’s ability to engage in discovery learning. “How the mind works is itself dependent on the tools at its disposal.  “How the hand works”, for example cannot be fully appreciated unless also one takes into account whether it is equipped with a screwdriver, a pair of scissors, or a laser beam gun” (Bruner, The Process of Education, 1977).  

Resources:

Bruner, Jerome, (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

McLeod, 2009 Piaget, http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html