Visualizing Electricity & Magnetism The collaborative development of a multimedia text

1. Visualizing Electricity & MagnetismThe collaborative development of a multimedia text Jennifer George-Palilonis George & Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Multimedia Ball State University

3. ABOUT THE AUTHORS • John W. Belcher: Class of 1922 Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology • Research: space plasma physics, outer planet magnetospheres, solar wind in the outer heliosphere, and astrophysical plasmas • Projects: Co-investigator on the Plasma Science Experiment on board the Voyager Interstellar Mission; Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) includes efforts to convert freshman physics instruction at MIT from a lecture-based passive environment to an active learning environment.

4. ABOUT THE AUTHORS • Jennifer George-Palilonis: George & Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Multimedia Journalism, Ball State University • Research: visualization as a teaching & learning tool, information graphics reporting, visual rhetoric, multimedia storytelling • Projects: Ball State Digital Publishing Project focused on the development and research of electronic texts; iMedia focused on the design of interactive news and advertising applications for television & mobile devices.

5. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? Physics + Journalism =

6. NATURE OF COLLABORATION • TEAL sims lacked narrative thread, cohesive path control and the opportunity for interactivity in their original presentation.

7. NATURE OF COLLABORATION • Authors joined forces to create Flash-based digital text that provides student learners with two important features that dramatically improve comprehension, understanding and overall experience: • Nonlinear path control • A visual and textual narrative • Interactive Exercises

8. ELECTRONIC TEXT

12. INTERACTIVE EXERCISES

13. COLLABORATIVE PROCESS • One face-to-face meeting to discuss philosophical approaches and collaboratively build interactive exercises. • All remaining development was done from a distance. • Physicist would embed the content and storyline he imagined for a particular topic in a Power Point presentation with appropriate graphics and links to visualizations. • Multimedia journalist used Power Point as a guide and embedded content in a Flash framework as well as consult on storyline. • They would then iterate the content until they arrived at a presentation they were both satisfied with, and then • proceed to the next topic.

14. CHALLENGES & TRIUMPHS • Learning to speak the same language • Articulating ideas from a distance • Making consistent progress • Overcoming technical limitations • Convincing others of our vision • Getting out of university silos • Using journalistic skills for non-journalistic purposes

15. SINCE WE LAUNCHED • Module is used in freshman physics courses that deal with E&M at MIT • Module has been presented at American Association for Physics Teachers & Course, Curriculum, and Learning Conference • Paper presented at the International Conference on the Future of the Book and published in The International Journal of the Book.

16. SINCE WE LAUNCHED • Usability tests and informal focus groups with MIT students show high levels of engagement and enjoyment of the etext experience. • One year after taking a course in electromagnetism, average students do not remember the details of textual explanations and hard equations. However, if they have “seen” the visualizations, they continue to have a mental model as to why compasses “work” this way.

17. OUR FUTURE TOGETHER • Currently developing a similar module for advanced E&M, a course Belcher will begin teaching on a four-year rotation. • Submitted a $3 million NSF grant to develop a 3D virtual world for E&M.

18. OUR FUTURE TOGETHER

19. THANK YOU!http://web.mit.edu/viz/EM/flash/E&M_Master/E&M.swf