| Subjects » Education » | Physics Internet-Based |
Tue, Feb 17, 2009, 4:16pm
Math/Physics/Etc Group Study
I've got a pile of math, physics and computer books that I've been meaning to get through, but I would prefer to go through them with someone likewise interested. If you're up for an experiment, I'd like to pick a book to study with someone, or a group, and at the same time I'd like to develop web resources to make it an experience where no one feels like they are being dragged down by the use of the internet as the medium. All the book discussion sites I've seen out there are almost completely useless for reading or studying a book as a group, so this is no small trick. [Read more…]
(4 comments, in Education » Internet-Based)
Tue, Dec 16, 2008, 10:42pm
Promoting Depth on the Web
A core problem with the internet is that it facilitates a very short attention span. Even well-meaning research is easily turned into hours of tangents and segues that would have been much shorter and more productive with a limited print resource. Books seem, on the face of it, absurdly restricted compared to the resources available on the web, but one rarely is more productive at studying on the web. The web is still best at being a supplementary resource. Given the choice between the PDF and a paper version of the same, I'll choose the latter every time.
The problems are manifold [Read more…]
The problems are manifold [Read more…]
(2 comments, in Education » Internet-Based)
Fri, Dec 9, 2005, 5:07pm
Pirelli Relativity Challenge results out
The webcast of the award ceremony for the Pirelli Relativity Challenge is available here. The webcast quality is pretty bad, and it's about a half hour. The winning entry is shown in the middle of the broadcast. Not sure why they didn't test the feed more ahead of time, since it looks like they put a fair amount of effort into the event.
Most of the entries seem to be Flash animations. I was thinking of trying to enter something for this earlier in the year, but I'd never get the kind of polish on it they'd be looking for. But I had thought that one of the main points of this challenge was to provide novel pedagogical techniques to teach special relativity to the layman, and it would be an opportunity to come up with a decent new way to introduce the ideas. In this sense the winners were a bit of a disappointment for me, using all canonical ways to teach relativity, with many of the problems I always have with them.
Most of the entries seem to be Flash animations. I was thinking of trying to enter something for this earlier in the year, but I'd never get the kind of polish on it they'd be looking for. But I had thought that one of the main points of this challenge was to provide novel pedagogical techniques to teach special relativity to the layman, and it would be an opportunity to come up with a decent new way to introduce the ideas. In this sense the winners were a bit of a disappointment for me, using all canonical ways to teach relativity, with many of the problems I always have with them.