Educational research has made us more aware of learning style differences and the importance of passing some of the control of learning to the student. The development and application of Physlets (Physics Applets) provides us with a fine example of an interactive engagement in practice. Consequently curricular changes are taking place in physics to provide more interactive engagement of heads-on (always) and hands-on (usually) learning activities integrated with immediate feedback. Select the [More] link if you want to find out about these Physlets. Physlets are Java applets written by Dr. Wolfgang Christian and his students at the Davidson College physics department. Each physlet deals with only one aspect of a phenomenon. The graphics are simple which helps keep them relatively small. Physlets have been written for the Web and are controlled using JavaScript. Many examples of their use are available, one of which can be found at http://curie.umd.umich.edu/Physlets/satellites.htm In this example the student has to engage with the problem by answering a number of ‘open-ended’ questions. This encourages the student to look at the problem like a physicist looks at a problem - to consider the problem conceptually, to decide what method is required and what data to collect and finally analyze the data.
Whilst Physlets are a relatively simple method of helping a student to gain a better conceptual understanding of physics what is particuarly impressive is the way that old media, i.e. the textbook has been integrated with new media (the Physlet) with each playing their part in the student's learning.
