Re: Laptop requirement?

[Derek Chirnside <DCandPC@NETACCESS.CO.NZ>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: phys-l@lists.nau.edu: Forum for Physics Educators
> [mailto:PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu]On Behalf Of Jon Bell
> Sent: Friday, 9 March 2001 03:50
> To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
> Subject: Laptop requirement?
>
>
> The other day I read in one of the "local" newspapers that Clemson
> University is seriously considering requiring all incoming science and
> engineering freshmen to have laptop computers, beginning in fall 2002.
> Some other schools already have a similar requirement, of course.
>
> This started me wondering:  How could we take advantage of such a
> situation in our classrooms, both introductory level and upwards?  Assume
> that we have wireless networking or something similar in all our
> classrooms, because we are in fact about to expand and renovate our
> science building.
>
> Frankly, I'm skeptical about in-classroom applications apart from
> occasional special situations, not least because students would need to be
> able to use various kinds of software effectively, both general-purpose
> and specialized; and we all know the general level of calculator-using
> skills.
You are right, skills we require of students need to be explicitly taught or
at least run sessions for them to go to if they don't have proficiency.
At my onls school over a three year period the science labs had significant
numbers of computers brought in, with a few more available out the back.
This is a High School.
The thing that made the HUGE difference was the intranet.
Now
1.      most prac instructiions are deivered via the intranet using up to 20
second mpeg videos to communicate what is often wordy setup details
Benefits: up to date, visual, etc.
2.      downloading setup files to gear where needed (MBL stuff)
3.      Simulations are available where and when they can really benefit(eg
interference of two sources)  Same with video clips like the Tachoma narrows
clip.
4.      They can cut and past images for some types of pracs.  (Set up a circuit.
Take a snap of your result . . ., label the XX YY etc etc)

We use little specialist software, but graphical Analaysis (a simple
graphing programme) has been great, as has crocodile clips.  And many of the
students use Excel since they can see the benefits of it.
Word processing has helped improve SOME presentations (the teachers now
actually tend to go more for written pracs with glued in graphs or excel
material)

Now: Wireless may have bandwidth problems for MPEGS, but most other things
should work.

This is a whole new paradigm of working, it will have upside and downsides
for specific activities.  We need to just focus on the upside - and still do
things the old way for toher things.

My 2c worth.

Good luck with your thinking on this one, it will be a major shift for all
concerned if you go this way.

Derek Chirnside
(This week helping with a 33 students in a Multicultural Language online
course just for a change :-)  )

> Labs are another matter, of course.  Most of our introductory students are
> now in the habit of doing graphs on the computers in the "micro lab" down
> the hall.  The pre-meds and biology majors learn how to do that early on
> in biology and chemistry classes.  But none of them, in my recollection,
> have taken the initiative to do their calculations on a spreadsheet; so
> that's something that we would have to teach them explicitly.
>
> --
> Jon Bell <jtbell@presby.edu>                        Presbyterian College
> Dept. of Physics and Computer Science        Clinton, South Carolina USA