This is a beautiful and interesting IDEA !!!!!!!

 for educational purposes on the basic and the high schools, I was thinking that a personal training (on-line or not) 

How could I not be in agreement .......... seen that I myself alreadyon a smaller scale I do it with you on RG .............. with my Files ............... FOR TEACHING, LEARNING, RESEARCH n. XX ???

BRAVI !!!!!  AD MAIORA !!!!!!!!!

Good luck !!!!!!  In bocca al lupo !!!!!!!!!

ciao

peppino daurelio ( giuseppe )

Have you tried Alison? See the following link if you can find an online course that fits your interest:

https://alison.com/search/result/?q=use+of+apps+for+teaching+physics+or+math

Physics/Mathematics are tough subjects due to which students feel bored while studying them, so trying to teach them through apps would definitely be exciting and interesting to the students. And thus training would be best as well...

Its really a very good idea...

I seem to remember that there are currently Apps which address the topics indicated above.  I suggest that you seach Google play (app store) for similar apps.  I recall, high school (UK) showing a maths learning and revision tool on their phone a couple of years ago. You could try looking under 'education' and 'maths games.'

Good luck with your concept 

Do you know 'Waze'? When you type a destiny, the App shows the ETA (expected time of arrival), as well as the distance. You can ask students to calculate the mean velocity.

In early school, you can use 'Color Switch', which has geometric figures, like squares, triangles and circumferences. You can ask children to identify the figures.

I found also one for Maths that is quite interesting for Android Smartphone called "Brain Wars". They have everything there: logical, reaction, decision and calculation games! This for sure I will use. The "Color Switch" is also quite good and similar to "Brain Wars". Great idea for using "Waze"!

Answering my own question (this topic is still running on my mind):

Prof Patrick Vogt (Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg) has done already interesting research on use of smartphones on teaching physics: 

https://www.ph-freiburg.de/physik/projekt/smartphone-physics.html (in German)

also Prof Carlos Eduardo Aguiar (UFRJ - Brazil)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwLbdWv2GMiTRkU4YkhsSlZfNGc/view (in Portuguese)

In general I think the best sources I got was searching on Google with the following terms (in English, German and Portuguese):

smartphone on physics teaching

apps physik unterricht

apps no ensino de fisica

Do we really need apps to learn physics? Physics is about the real world, not its virtual representation.

I've seen research about the effectiveness of particular features of the on-screen modeling and representation of physical phenomena that one can easily observe--and, more importantly, experience--in one's own living environment or make visible using objects and tools that are readily available in the kitchen or garage of the average household. Why deprive our current generation of emerging explorers and scientists of the opportunity to develop their creativity and observational skills in the real world?

Apps I am aware of do typically not enhance one's interaction with the real world (such as for instance a microscope or telescope would do), Instead, they replace the real world. In doing so, take away the context in which phenomena occur. Their overall impact on the depth of learning will therefore be diminished.

Thoughts?

Dear Jan,

Where I agree with your overall thoughts, especially the interaction with the real-world. Technology, such as App's can act as a knowledgeable other (Vygotsky's zone of proximal development), which can promote independence, out of the classroom learning and promote free learning for all. Assuming the App is free! 

For example, for a couple of pounds (£) you can by a simple microscope which fits over the camera on the mobile device and displays zoomed imaged on the screen. This allows the students frame and take photos in the real-world and seek guidance from books or people to help answer questions the student generates from the image and experience.  The image can also be shared with others (collaborative learning) or used within learning journals or students write up's. 

What would be interesting, in terms of accelerating learning, would be some form of augmented reality linked to the photo. For example, the student takes the photo and tells the augment software what it is a photo of (leaf from a tree) and the software loads the relevant data allowing the student to explore the object at different levels of magnification (see attached link). Resulting in personalised learning etc... I acknowledge that the life span of App's such as these is fairly short but if it helps to capture the imagination of students, acts as a revision tool or promotes lifelong learning then it is worth it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URUJD5NEXC8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBIYwiktPsQ&ebc=ANyPxKqlI-U7ONawdoohfQmYqfL8eae2OfKWMpFjeenGn_MUpe33ybV0Do5qizB0TvSI9oOiPJGz78OnxtgTwqGSYvZHcCbYgQ

Hi Daniel

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I perfectly agree with you.

I may have created the impression that I am adverse of technology altogether. This is far from the case. I love the kind of applications you describe. I love them even more if learners are involved in inventing them, rather than that those apps are being offered to them, or when learners develop the creativity to use particular tools in ways for which they were not primarily designed, i.e. when learners are allowed to think of them as ingredients of a toolbox to which they have access.

The main question I wanted to raise has to do with how I see young and older people use technology in ways that are detrimental to their intellectual, creative and emotional well-being.

The purpose of my critique is to encourage development and use of tools in ways that counter the tendency I refer to in the above paragraph.

Thank you for the links to those beautiful videos. These are great resources of which I am happy that they exist. Here, too, I think it is important to help learners become critical explorers in and creative contributors to that world of open learning resources, avoiding that they simply react to prompts emanating from a set curriculum but that instead they follow their own passions.

I assume you are aware of HHMI's BioInteractive. Those readers of this conversation who are not are referred to https://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive. 

Dear Jan,

Thanks for your questions. Another point of view is always very worth for thinking.

I would ask instead: Smartphone Apps: why not? We do not desperately need them however they are there on the hands of our children.  Kids like to play with them. Why not to give an even better use for these Smartphones on their hands?

Real world is, as you said and everyone experiences, much more fun. Since you use some smartphone apps as tools and not as replacement for the reality, we will have interesting revenue. I still have on mind that we are losing a huge opportunity not using smartphones on physics and math lessons.

In the case of some developing countries as my Brazil, where children have already smartphones but their public schools are still so delayed that they still do not have adequate science rooms for teaching, ignore the use of smartphones is somehow an opportunity waste.

Even worst, the teachers in Brazil teach (class preparation is extra) in average 40 hours per week and work in more than one school (usually two or three at the same time). The basic & high school classes are crowded since decades (in average more than 40 students).

How would we expect such teacher to have time to prepare a decent experimental class of science? This is not an excuse at all. I am just trying to show how the use of smartphone can be a powerful tool (in replacement here, maybe yes).

I personally am teaching in Germany nowadays. Here I am complementing (on the proportion of 10 - 20% I would say) my lessons with these apps. Only with these proportions I have the feeling that the interest of my students increases, even for the ones that are not attracted by science/math at all.

Dear Jair,

That's a tricky issue. No doubt, kids as well as adults spend a lot of time exercising their thumbs on their smart phones and looking down at the little screen in front of them. They love it. At least, it appears that they love it. But it could also be that they engage in that behavior because they have been deprived for too long of opportunities to be passionately creative so that this is only one of the few things left in their lives that give them enjoyment. If that's the case, then I would say one shouldn't contribute to the further degeneration of their once beautiful minds. If, on the other hand, they are seen to be exploratory and creative beyond the mere engagement with apps, yes, then the right apps may enhance their learning.

I am quite familiar with the situation in Brazil that you describe. It's a situation that is not much different from what one finds in many other countries around the world (I worked for a solid twenty years in Africa and have frequently been in Brazil as well, in addition to scores of other countries in different continents). The problems you describe are not caused in the first place by absence of technological means. They are first and foremost caused by lack of serious thinking about how best to use all that is available in the environment (including smart phones, if they are indeed already present) to create solutions for real problems, problems that are felt by those who are at the receiving end of our actions.

It is my experience that such problem solving is often best done collaboratively, involving learners, teachers, and relevant others together. If one puts a biased focus on just one of the many options, much may be lost as one tends to overlook what else is there.

I agree that this is not easy and there are no immediate miracles. But one should be patient and persistent if one wishes to change the world. :)

Dear Cecilia,

Thank you for this Bulletin. The study is quite interesting however does not point how intense is the use of the new medias in the schools. Of course, everything that is used in excess would harm its users. It can be in education, it can be in the private life. I am aware of the harm that the excess in general can cause. I am also aware that the moderate use can also bring benefits. At the end, it is always about moderation. I believe on the benefits of these medias if fairly used.

Although the topics (suggestion of use & consequences of use) are connected, I would suggest that we create a new question for the "The effects of new media on science/math education". In this way, both will remain better registered and individually focused.

Hi,

I recommend the free app Viana (iOS app) for video analysis in physics education. I use this app with students in high school physics courses to investigate the effectiveness of apps for learning kinematics.

. Best regards

Sebastian

Thanks Sebastian for that suggestion. The app is quite practical! 

You're welcome. If you want to know more about usage of this app in educational research please contact me via email.

I agree with Jan Visser.

I suggest this sit , http://smarterphysics.blogspot.com, Thanks Dr. Martín Monteiro.

I can recommend to look at Khan Academy appl Dear Prof. Jair Ricardo De Moraes

In my humble opinion KA-VLP is a good one, it has several online tools for teaching & learning: for instance, I directly quote an external web link [1]:

• Khan Academy allows for students to self-pace through material, and scales material based on student progress, something that is impossible in a traditional classroom.
• Students can be linked to “coaches” who can be their classroom teacher, a parent, a tutor, or a peer-tutor.  
• The coach can track student progress and intervene and make suggestions based on student progress.

[1] https://blogs.umass.edu/onlinetools/learner-centered-tools/khan-academy/