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Should a Fortran-savvy educator learn Java, Flash, both, or neither?

Funding: Kavli Operating Institute NSF. PER Group CU-Boulder. Should a Fortran-savvy educator learn Java, Flash, both, or neither?. Michael Dubson, Physics Dept University of Colorado at Boulder michael.dubson@colorado.edu. Physics Education Technology Project.

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Should a Fortran-savvy educator learn Java, Flash, both, or neither?

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  1. Funding: Kavli Operating Institute NSF PER Group CU-Boulder Should a Fortran-savvy educator learn Java, Flash, both,or neither? Michael Dubson, Physics Dept University of Colorado at Boulder michael.dubson@colorado.edu

  2. Physics Education Technology Project Wendy Adams, Mike Dubson, Noah Finkelstein, Kathy Perkins, Noah Podolefsky, Sam Reid, and Carl Wieman U.Colorado at Boulder, Ron LeMaster, Kavli Operating Institute • Highly interactive, visual physics simulations (~35) • Fun, real world, visual/conceptual models • Research-based and user-tested • Freeware, online or downloadable http://phet.colorado.edu

  3. JAVA: • Programming language from Sun • Compiler is free • Clients require ~ 15 Meg download to run on PC or Mac • FLASH: • Animation tool and scripting language from Macromedia • Authorware ~$100 • Flash viewer is free • Clients require ~500K browser plug-in

  4. Java and Flash are both… • Platform-independent (mostly) • Immune to viruses (they say) • Widely available (hmm…) • Powerful (truly!) ~ ideal for creation and wide Internet delivery of educational software

  5. Flash Flash MX Flash MX 2004 Java and Flash are both.. • Complex:Difficult to master without previous experience in Object Oriented Programming • Evolving: Java appears to have stabilized, but Flash is still undergoing major revisions at ~2 year intervals.

  6. My Java/Flash books

  7. f u n c t i o n s f u n c t i o n s functions variables variables objects variables What is Object Oriented Programming?It is not Procedural Programming. Procedural Programming (Fortran, Basic, Pascal, …) OO Programming (Java, C++, …)

  8. Why Object Oriented Programming? • More “natural” (to the unfossilized young) • Much less debugging needed • Easier to maintain, extend, update

  9. Java vs. Flash Java has some advantages:

  10. Java vs. Flash Flash has some advantages:

  11. Conclusions: • Use Java or Flash to create sophisticated, interactive simulations that can be delivered widely and safely over the Internet • Use Java if you need speed, or have a very complex simulation. • Use Flash is you want the most users. • Use someone else unless you have lots of time.

  12. phet.colorado.edu Website freeware

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