Workshop overview

1. Sites with web simulations

1. Physlets, Davidson College (Wolfgang Christian)
   see also point 7.
2. National Taiwaan Normal University (Fu-Kwun Hwang)
   ca. 75 simulations
   
3. Gymnasium Gersthofen, Germany (Walter Fendt)
   ca. 40 simulations
   

and many others (see point 2.)

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2. Find simulation pages

NatSim-Search- Find and download 14000 simulation pages on-line ! 
(Google "natsim")

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3. Edit text and lay-out

1. Open MS Word on your computer. Open there an html file.
   In regard to point 4 this MUST have been downloaded with NatSim-Search using option  [html] !
   Choose from the menu "File/Open..." and select file type: "web pages .htm/.html" instead of "Word documents .doc"!
    
2. Information about other web editors.

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4. Upload your own web pages

NatSim light  - Publish html files through your browser without having an own web server ! 
(http://www.natsim.nl/nsl.php)

Beware: NatSim light is restricted:

• Even though you have your own project folder - any user with password could alter your pages !
• You can solely upload html files.
  Therefore, pages with simulations and/or images must be prepared by NatSim-Search (download option [html]).
• Your files will be deleted after a while if you don't contact the NatSim adminstrator.

To make it clear: We do our best to support your first steps towards your own web presence through NatSim. We try to keep this service sustainable. But we do not give the warranty of a professional server solution! You still have the option to hire web space from a commercial enterprise, e.g. GeoCities (also free if you tolerate advertisement).

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5. Discussion on the Internet

Meet your colleagues from this workshop on-line and discuss technical and educational issues on your own simulation pages:

• Discussion fora:
  
  • http://www.lec.ie/   (Limerick)
    (-> Discussion Board / Teachers / Physics Teachers)
  • http://webcourses.dit.ie   (Dublin)
    

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6. Application: Just-in-Time-Teaching (JiTT)

Lessons prepared on the base of direct feed-back by the students.
Use of web pages with e-mail links as this one: (html), or web forms for:

• motivation before introducing new concepts ("What is Physics good for?")
• homework with investigations on simulations
• evaluate the succes of the previous lesson

Advantages at school:

• students become affected by the discussion over their own wordings.
• lessons are more predictable (less improvisations and unrest during the lessons)
• students who have difficulties to contribute in class get another chance
• comprehensive archive of student contributions throughout the whole year
• students are better prepared, for the teacher contol is permanently

an authentic example from a German school  (Thomas Poth, Annweiler, Germany)
- sorry, I have none in English so far, but you get an idea about the amount of text you'll have to deal with -

• An assignment on the web ("Which graphs belongs to the motion of the car?")
• All answers from the students (compiled from their e-mails to the teacher)
• Selection by the teacher to be discussed in the following lesson
   

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7. Configure the actual simulations

Physlets^� van W. Christian

1. Davidson College: Physlet homepage
2. Interactive documentation: Physlet Scriptoren by F. Schweickert
   (e.g. download OpticsScriptor, unzip and go to folder start)
3. 800+ Physlet examples on CD-ROM: Physlet Physics
   Physlet books: Amazon.com (search for: "physlet" - and also "physlets" )

(all: Google "physlets")

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8. Technical requirements

Plug-ins

In order to display programs on web pages, your browser must be installed with additional plug-ins:

• for applets (.jar, .class): a so-called Java Virtual Machine (JVM)
  Two possibilities:
  
  1. Al browsers: official version from SUN   - recommended
     Download (ca.14 MB), (archive: v1.4.2_04)
  2. Microsoft Internet explorer: built-in version (MSJVC)
     • doesn't support some newer applets (Java 1.2)
     • support from Microsoft ends by 2008 (Info)
     • is not available by default in some cases, e.g. Windows XP without SP1. (Download 1, 2, meer Info)
     • check this in menu Tools/Internet Options/Advanced.
        
  • Example Java applet (Java 1.1)
  • Example Java-applet (Java 1.2)

• for Flash / Shockwave (.swf/.dcr):  Flash player / Shockwave player from Macromedia

Download these two players from Macromedia.
(installation is often automatically started, requires sometimes log-in as system administrator)



• Example Flash
• Example Shockwave

Web editors

Web pages can be edited with any plain text editor - for instance with Notepad. However, more comfortable than working with the html source are graphic web editors, e.g.:

1. Mozilla Editor, Netscape Composer
   free / must be installed with the whole browser, applets fields not visible.
2. Namo (equation editor!), Dreamweaver, Frontpage
   more comfortable / commercial
3. MS-Word
   common / makes horrible html source, small icons instead of applet fields
   

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9. Other multimedia resources for Physics Teaching

1. Merlot.org
   Refereed data base with thousands of multimedia examples for physics and other subjects
   (Click on the small triangles with a + sign to expand the sub-categories.)
   
   
2. Physicsweb.org
   IOP
    
3. (German) Interaktive Bildschirmexperimente IBE (TU Berlin -> firma MHSG)
   e.g. Dampened oscillator.
   This and other examples: FiPS-Medienserver (user:medien pswd:uni-kl)

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Frank Schweickert, april 2004