Experiences with using multimedia in teaching molecular physics and
thermodynamics
RNDr. Renata Holubová
Palacky University, Faculty of science
Department of experimental physics
Magister degree study of physics has three specializations – biophysics, applied physics and
methodology of physics. In the 2. terms of the basic course in physics there is the 3-hours
lecture of thermodynamics and molecular physics, including further numerical and practical
exercises. Physics is thought for non physics students too. The question is – to teach with or
without multimedia and where is the limit of the quantity of MM devices in teaching physics?
My experiences with teachers on the university, at various types of schools (because our
students have pedagogical trainings on schools) are as follow.
It seems to be three main groups of teachers acording to taking advantige of multimedia.
The first one never work with the computer and they hesitate teaching with multimedia. The
main teaching aid seems to be a chalk and a blackboard and this is the best way of education.
This group of teachers do not realize demonstrations and real experiments at all.
The second group are teachers that are able to use the multimedia, the PC, but they can´t
develop their own software.
The third one are teachers that develop and use their own software, they create new
programmes, JAVA applets and multimedia textbooks. For this group we must say „thank
you“ for on line data and multimedia sources for physics education.
I think, that the greatest part of teachers, it means on grammer schools, high schools and
maybe universities too, follow the second group. Teachers make use of programms, and other
sources that are presented via firms and on the internet. The trend to create multimedia
textbooks is influenced also by developing various study programms in distance learning and
a greater variabillity in study programms. Students are interested in using new technologies of
studying.
A good MM textbook must be interactive, helps in understanding the material presented
during the lecture. But an inevitable part of teaching physics are demonstrations – they make
a connection between the theory and the application of physics and they are very important.
That´s why it is necessary to find the right way between the classical way of teaching with
real experiments and the new one using multimedia.
The ideas to teach physics with computers is not new and we can find in abstracts of
methodology of physics since 1985 proposals for PC applications in physics teaching. There
were various lines to use PC:
- desplay subject matter
- practise subject matter
- solve problems
-
studying with individual rate
using MM elements – videos of demonstrations
MM teaching in molecular physics and thermodynamics
We don´t have a MM textbook yet. By the classic lecture we use presentations on the www
pages, on line JAVA applets. One of the main problems is to find good pages that are
continuously attainable and prepare an electronic notebook with instructions in Czech. A great
problem for our students and for teachers too (especially on secundary schools and high
schools) is that good pages are written in English or German etc. On the university the
language impediment seems to be from year to year smaller, because students have to pass an
exam in English. But a lot of very good interactiv materials are presented on German servers
(University of Wuerzburg) and this is sometimes a problem.
Our experiences can be summarized as follow:
a) Using multimedia during reading of lessons – JAVA applets, animations, videos – this
allows to present demonstrations and phenomenons, that can´t be presented in the
classroom. For students it is very interesting , sometimes amusing, the lessons are varied.
b) Using of the internet for studying of new materials, solving problems.
c) Homeworks – support individual students paths to solution.
d) Better grafics presentations via PC.
e) Taking advantage on PC based experimental sets for practical students experiments in the
laboratory.
Imperfections
Teaching physics with multimedia is not common on secundary schools, high schools so as
on the university.We will increase the level of knowledge in physics: There will be another
question: how much multimedia, PC, virtual labs is profitable not to get lost the physics
background ?
Materials presented via multimedia – textbooks – for some students are boring, they need a
written textbook for their study and an oral comunication with the teacher. The real
experiment and the word of the teacher is irreplaceable for them.
Virtual experiments are only plane experiments.
MM teaching programs are expensive.
Internet connection on line during the lessons brought some problems:
- slow connection
- foreign languages pages – misunderstanding
- other interests (connestion to no-physics www pages)
- overestimation of MM
- excessive amount of sources and references
The real situation on our schools - hardly anywhere works the internet connection in the
physics teaching room, the teachers are not prepared for the work with MM ( the pupils are
better with handling the PC then they teachers), time stress at schools, the language barrier –
not existing multimedia materials in Czech overspread on schools. The students have not
internet connections at home.
On the other hand in some cases explanation of problems with PC is the only way of
visualisation. In a lot of cases the PC seems to be cheaper then an experimental set. An
increasing number of young peaple are PC invalid subordinated and the only way for
studying is with help of the computer. My further opinion is that students are lazy to frequent
a clasical library, a part of diploma works were only copies of internet resources. On the other
hand students create new MM devices (textbooks, video films).
An increasing number of web-based teaching a learning materials and techniques are
presented. Is this the real benefit of our students? My further opinion is that students are lazy
to frequent a clasical library, a part of diploma works were only copies of internet resources.
On the other hand students create new MM devices (textbooks, video films).
A conteporarly trend is „just in time teaching“ – a pedagogical strategy that combines use of
the web with a collaborative learning environment. The result is a web-based and active
learner classroom. For our usage we have create a database of on line resources.
In teaching we use the databases:
http://fyzweb.cuni.cz/index.php
http://physics.about.com/mbody.htm?once=true&
http://physics.nad.ru/Physics/English/thermo.htm
http://iseslab.wz.cz
http://www.ises.info
http://atmilab.upol.cz
Wery interesting and useful for further studies and aplications is the work with the lab system
ISES. Some experiments are realized with this computer based laboratory set, it is also able to
entry the virtual laboratory of ISES on the department of methodology of physics on the
Charles University and work on line in the laboratory at a distance. The experiment is handled
in our laboratory in Olomouc, realised in real time in Prague and the measured data are send
and saved on the computer in Olomouc. Such an on line laboratory will be finished at our
department next time (among about two months).
Multimedia are nowadays necessary for teaching physics. But the teacher with the real
experiment can´t be supplied in the whole extend. Stundents hanker for doing simple real
experiments. In physics they must practice the workmanlikeness, the ability to construct and
repear simple technical equipment. They must discover how things work.