Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

The Physics InfoMall for the Mac



For those of you subscribing to both Phys-L and PhysLrnR, please
excuse the redundancy of this posting.

As many of you know, the Fuller/Zollman Physics InfoMall (1) can be a
valuable resource for physics students, teachers, and education
researchers. I recently purchased the Physics InfoMall for the Mac
for $209.75 from "The Learning Team"
<http://www.learningteam.com/tlt.html>.

The CD ROM installed the programs ok, but unfortunately the InfoMall
does NOT work on my machine (Mac G3/400 with OS 8.6). If I click on
any sector of the Mall I get a panel:

"The Application "KRSMAC" 2.7.9.3 has crashed (Unmapped memory exception)."

If I click on any icon to the right of the sectors I get a note that
there's a "file error." I then have to restart the machine.

A Learning Team representative told me that (a) they had received
several complaints similar to mine and that it was likely that the
InfoMall does NOT run on Macs with more recent operating systems, (b)
they were trying to fix the problem and hoped to solve it by
Christmas.

If any of you have had similar difficulties and/or have developed "work
arounds," I should appreciate your letting me know by emailing
directly to me (or if your response is of general interest, by
posting to the list). If there is sufficient private response, I
shall prepare and post a summary. Evidence of widespread
dissatisfaction might spur "The Learning Team" to more rapid action.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESSES!
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~redcube>


REFERENCES
1. D. Zollman, "Millikan Lecture 1995: Do they just sit there?
Reflections on helping students learn physics, "Am. J. Phys. 64(2),
114-119 (1996): "......we need a technology which provides the
ability for searching and organizing large amounts of information.
Here, we expect the Physics InfoMall to be a real help. With
megabytes of information including 19 textbooks and thousands of
articles from which to select, students can find something that
matches their needs. They can create their own paths for learning
concepts form each exploration through each application."