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Re: [Phys-L] Texts and Digital texts, Was: Kinetic Books?



David:

We've been experimenting with fostering learner use of the text as a generalized
professional technical skill for calc-based classes, with Knight. Several colleagues
and I require students complete one page Reading Logs adapted from Apple:
http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/pubs/AAPTmtgs/AAPT2011Jan/PST1B-03StudentWritingReflection/
and award credit (about 5%-10%) for these. RLs replace lecture in my course
(students are provided extensive online links to MIT lectures, The Mech Univ etc, and
the Knight .PPTs if they want to "watch a show.")

We use Knight b/c my colleagues want a more traditional text and we try to adopt a single
text across many instructors (I have used Chabay and Sherwood in the past). The
Knight workbook is also excellent and we whiteboard most of it in class. I tried
Mastering Physics this semester and won't use it again with my smaller classes (24-30).

I do think technical professionals need to be expected to productively and
individually read technical works, and that attempting to bypass this requirement
for calc-based students is doing a disservice to these students. We don't
slavishly follow the text in class, though largely so.

Knight is available as an electronic rental, very popular with athletes traveling
with iPads who don't want to carry several texts.

My thoughts for what they're worth.

Dan M


Dan MacIsaac, Associate Professor of Physics, SUNY-Buffalo State College
462SciBldg BSC, 1300 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo NY 14222 USA 1-716-878-3802
<macisadl@buffalostate.edu<mailto:macisadl@buffalostate.edu>> <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu<http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/>>
Physics Graduate Coordinator & NSF Investigator for ISEP (MSP) and Noyce



On Jul 10, 2013, at 2:26 AM, David Craig <craigda@lemoyne.edu<mailto:craigda@lemoyne.edu>> wrote:

Has anyone on this list used the interactive digital textbooks by kinetic books?

<http://www.perfectionhighered.com/prodPages/kb_phys_sci.html>

I am looking for a solid text for a calculus-based, three-semester sequence for a "physics for scientists and engineers" course, which uses a just-in-time and other PER-inspired methods fairly heavily.

For reference, I've been using Knight and Mastering Physics for the past several years. I am strongly considering making a switch to kinetic, and possibly Sapling as an online homework system, and relying even more heavily on pre-class reading than I have in the past so I can spend much more class time doing peer instruction, interactive demos, and such.

(FWIW, on the heels of the recent discussion concerning the utility of textbooks, I would like to separate this question from commentary concerning whether we should be using textbooks at all, or other polemics that are not directly material to my actual question.)

Thanks,
David Craig


<http://web.lemoyne.edu/~craigda/>



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