🚀 go-pugleaf

Using computers in the physics classroom is not for the faint-of-heart or
lazy teacher.  I find using computers (and I do a lot of it) takes time,
requires lots of space.  But why do I continue to use computers?

1.  We now work on non-routine problems.
2.  Students can analyze data heretofore out of their reach or very time
consuming.
3.  Spreadsheets allow us to solve iteration types of questions. (Related
to #1.)
4.  Computers have opened up a whole new array of experiments I can examine.
5.  Probes connected to computers are part of the mix.  Motion detectors
allow us to work on misconceptions students bring to kinematics.  Force
probes, 'Smart Pulleys', sound probes and accelerometers permit
experimentation with non-constant forces and ways to measure events much
too rapid for 'conventional' methods.
6.  We now do experiments we just talked about a few years ago.
7.  Through e-mail, I am no longer isolated as the only physics teacher in
my school.  I can ask questions here on Phys-L and find answers whereas
before I needed to call profs at Reed College and 'bother them' during
office hours.

I could go on but I know computers and associated probes have revitalized
my labs.

Lowell Herr
Project PHYSLab
The Catlin Gabel School
Portland, OR 97225

On Fri, 6 Jan 1995, LUDVIK KOWALSKI wrote:

> After reading todays message about the Australian conference on "Computers
> in University Physics Education" I decided to share the following quotation
> from J.S. Miller, as it appeared in Physics Today (July, 1982, page 10).
>
>    ... "This machine business is a curse upon us - anathema ! It robs
>    the beauty of physics - it cheats the students - it is a sickness !
>    It destroys the humanism the subject posesses. Deliver us from this
>    affliction - this plague - this evil monster - which so abuses the
>    spirit of physics."
>
> A lot has happen since these strong words were written but many people
> still think that teaching with computers is not desirable. I would like
> to know what most subscribers (not a random sample of physics teachers)
> think about educational advantage and pitfalls of digital technology. It
> would perhaps be useful if those of us who have strong feelings about
> teachng software (one way or another) expressed themselves BRIEFLY and
> explained their positions. I will try to do this next week.
>
>            Ludwik Kowalski        kowalski@apollo.montclair.edu