CBLIS Conference 2010

1. CBLIS Conference 2010 Learning Physics with Hypermedia materials From AFINET project Víctor López Simó, Roser Pintó Casulleras 6th July 2010 Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Catalonia Centre de Recerca per a l’Educacio Cientifica i Matematica

2. Digitalization in Education • There is a general process of digitalization in Education, with the entry of computers in school, digital textbooks and virtual environments. • There are many researches about the implication of digital materials in schools. Very often the studies are focused on satisfaction, motivation, classroom management and so on. Not about the characteristics of the digital materials. • The quality of the digital materials is given for granted. • Many teachers do their own educational materials, and many textbook publishers are putting on the market their “innovative” textbooks.

3. Introduction to our research • The process of digitalization textbooks and school materials is consisting only in changing to a digital interface the same texts written previously for linear reading. • Why not? Something more is necessary to do? • Are we thinking linearly? Considering that hypertext structure is much more similar to the connexion among our ideas, we ought take advantage of the properties of the hypermedia • How to do it? • How to transform linear and classic educational materials into hypermedia materials (it means non-lineal documents, multimedia materials, interactive resources)? • We are concerned with materials for students to learn Physics.

4. Research question and methodology • How to design materials for learning physics with hypermedia materials for a deep, coherent and flexible learning? • The question can be answered through a theoretical analysis, based on a logic-deductive research • We didn’t follow an empirical research • Interesting studies from a theoretical perspectives can be found • about hypermedia documents • about the process of learning • about the specificities of Physics as a body of knowledge • Analysing studies about these three theoretical fields will allow to answer the above question about “Learning actually physics with hypermedia materials”

5. Theoretical research: We embark from three bodies of knowledge LEARNING HYPERMEDIA PHYSICS

6. … and we look for its intersection… LEARNING Learning with hypermedia Physics Learning HYPERMEDIA PHYSICS Represent Physics with digital tools

7. … in order to find to establish some statements about… LEARNING Learning with hypermedia Physics Learning LEARNING PHYSICS WITH HYPERMEDIA HYPERMEDIA PHYSICS Represent Physics with digital tools

8. 1. Features of Hypermedia documents that differ from those of the linear text Hypertexuality: • Interactive navigation • Non-linear navigation • Links and integration between parts Multimodality: • Dynamism • Many communicative codes Interactivity: • Applications, not only statements • Multidirectional communication Jonassen (1986), Mayer (1998), Acuña (1999), Rueda (1999), Amadieu (2002), Gosse (2002), Lamarca (2006), Salmerón (2009),

9. 2. What does “learning” means? 2.1. When do we consider that somebody has learnt something? • When he/she is able to transfer and apply the new knowledge to different contexts or situations. Makes possible a large store of domain-specific knowledge • When he/she integrates the new knowledge inside an hierarchical network of concepts. Knowledge hierarchically structured • When he/she is able to easily retrieve the new knowledge when necessary. Good retrieval • When he/she is able to face critically to new relatable facts and ideas and connect them to the knowledge recently learnt, establishing meaningful links. Knowledge richly interconnected • When he/she is able to represent concepts and relationships through multiple modes, or to interpret different representations displayed with different modalities. Integrated multiple representations Bransford (1999), Biggs (1999), Leonard (1999), Houghton (2004)

10. 2. What does “learning” means? 2.2. What pedagogical conditions promote learning? Some issues to highlight • When learner has an active role in the learning sessions • When learner is encouraged to face cognitive challenges • When the learning activities foster the development of high order thinking skills (e.g: make predictions, use compare & contrast, summarize, discuss, debate, argue. generate Multiple solutions, etc.) • When learner has to use and interpret multiple representations • When student is fostered to explore extended contexts • When the same situation is used to foster student to ask many different types of questions • When new knowledge is presented as a solution of a previously posed question / problem to be solved present • When teacher and didactical materials propose students to go forward and backward, to make explicit the relationship between the hole and the parts. The goal is not to introduce content as isolated and unconnected pieces of knowledge. • When learner is driven to be aware of his/her learning progress • When the learning rhythm is adapted to students Bransford (1999), Biggs (1999), Leonard (1999), Houghton (2004)

11. 3. Features of the Physics thinking and Physics objects • The willingness to understand the nature by means of the fundamental properties of and interactions between Time & Space, Matter & Energy. • The use of ideal situations, ideal objects and ideal phenomena, as a first step to address the world complexity. Many constructs explaining real world phenomena are far away of sensorial perception. • The use of physical models and the physical constructs (magnitudes, variables), which are univocally defined by means of mathematics. Physical definitions are clear and univocally interpretable. • An organisation of physical knowledge (conceptual knowledge, operational knowledge and problem-state knowledge) in hierarchical clusters of concepts. • The use of the multiple languages (verbal, graphic-pictorial, graphic-figurative, graphic-numeric and numeric-algebraic). Van Heuvelen (1991),Discerna (1998), Lacki (2003), Cook (2006), Besson (2009)

12. After our definitions of Hypermedia, Learning and Physics, we look for the intersections among the different bodies of knowledge LEARNING Learning with hypermedia Physics Learning HYPERMEDIA PHYSICS Represent Physics with digital tools

13. LEARNING Learning with hypermedia HYPERMEDIA

14. 4. Learning with Hypermedia materials 4.1. Using hypertextuality of hypermedia documents for learning, that is using non linear reading across links Jonassen (1986), Thuring (1995), Jacobson (1996), Troffer (2001), Jonassen (2006), Amadieu (2002)

15. 4. Learning with Hypermedia materials 4.2. Using the Multimodality (combination of communicative codes) of hypermedia documents for learning Austin (2009), Tabbers (2004), Stelzer (2009), Muller (2008), Mayer (1998)

16. 4. Learning with Hypermedia materials 4.3. Using interactive resources (applets, flash animations and simulations as well as other programmes) for learning Linn (2003), Esquembre (2004), Pintó (2010)

17. LEARNING Physics Learning PHYSICS

18. 5. Physics learning Somebody has learned a physics concept when: • He/she is able to apply it in different physical contexts • He/she is able to use and interpret its physics representations • He/she is able connect the concept with real world, and to work with physics “ideality” (distinguishing between the real world, the ideal world and their representations). • He/she can move from the qualitative analysis to the quantitative analysis and viceversa. • He/she is able to talk about the concept with rigor and univocally, using appropriate terms and appropriate relationships with other concepts. We can establish that a deep, flexible and coherent Learning Physics should consider the above points plus all the statements of point 2.2. Van Heuvelen (1991), Leonard (1999), Dufrense (1999)

19. HYPERMEDIA PHYSICS Representing Physics with digital tools

20. 6. Representing Physics with digital tools Digital tools allow to do some representations like… • Time dependence • Large range of scales of magnitudes • Change of scales • Imperceptible physical models and constructs (electromagnetic fields, equi potential surfaces) • Non visible objects (galaxies, molecules) Digital tools allow to do: • Dangerous experiences • Experiences not easy to do at school laboratory • … Novell (2003), Esquembre (2004), Cook (2006), Franco (2007), Hennessy (2007), Pintó (2010)

21. 7. The Learning of Physics with hypermedia materials LEARNING Learning with hypermedia Physics Learning HYPERMEDIA PHYSICS Representing Physics with digital tools

22. 1 El so com a fenomen 2 si ens fixem en el moviment de les partícules si ens fixem en la propagació de la pertorbació “Model” vibració “Model” ona mecànica 3 Atenció en els aspectes cinemàtics:temps, vectors, trajectòria... Atenció en l’espectre de freqüències, els harmònics... Atenció en els aspectes energètics, forces conservatives... Vibració com a y(t), v(t), a(t) Descomposició espectral, A(ω) Vibració com a E(A), P, I 4 Fext=0 Fext=γv Fext=F0cosωt ω fonam. espectre absoluta percebuda MHS MOA MOF Harm. Fona. Esp. Fourier E α A2 S=log(I) 5 Sons purs Atenuació Ressonància To Timbre Intensitat Percepció (dB) 7. The Learning of Physics with hypermedia materials: Five crutial conditions 1) Hierarchical node-link organisation A navigation map, instead of the meaningless traditional list like presentation of contents (equations and exercises)

23. 7. The Learning of Physics with hypermedia materials: Five crutial conditions 2) Meaningful and univocal links Meaningless and not univocal links (as wikipedia, digital dictionaries) 1. Com podem descriure un moviment com aquest de la manera més simple possible, és a dir, quan no intervenen forces externes? Study of vibration movement Instead: Meaningful links formulated as questions to be solved when navigation 2. Com podem descriure aquest moviment si, com succeeix en la majoria dels casos, hi ha una força externa de fregament que tendeix a amortir la vibració? Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 3. Com podem descriure aquest moviment si, com succeeix de en alguns casos, també s’excita el moviment amb una nova vibració? MHS MOA MOF

24. 7. The Learning of Physics with hypermedia materials: Five crutial conditions 3) Appropriate use of modelling tools : - helping students to make clear distinction between real phenomena and their behaviour, not allowing to confuse simulation results with evidences - introducing the use of these tools when students has been taught previously about the scientific explanation of the phenomena 2nd Kepler law is not demonstrated here but you can visualize the constant area when the planet rotates (a mathematical representation of the relationships imposed for the tool designer)

25. 7. The Learning of Physics with hypermedia materials: Five crutial conditions 4) Appropriate use of the multimodal language why particles colour changes? Slow movement Fast movement http://www.librosvivos.net/smtc/homeTC.asp?TemaClave=1062 The codes of the multimedia should convey the idea to be highlighted (only changes of position when analyzing motion, etc). Other changes only distract or lead to misconceptions.

26. 7. The Learning of Physics with hypermedia materials: Five crutial conditions 5) Interactive resources that involve cognitive challenge, not merely repeating what has been memorised Low educational value activity that reproduces a traditional view of learning http://perso.wanadoo.es/cpalacio/acelera2.htm http://wise.berkeley.edu/student/topFrame.php?projectID=16933

27. Learning Physics with Hypermedia materials, From AFINET project CBLIS Conference 2010 THANK YOU Víctor López Simó: victor.lopez@uab.cat Roser Pintó Casulleras: roser.pinto@uab.cat www.crecim.cat Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Catalonia Centre de Recerca per a l’Educacio Cientifica i Matematica