Theodore Hodapp
Director of Education and Outreach
Physics
Education and Outreach
American Physical Society
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740
College Park, MD 20740
Phone:
(301) 209-3263
FAX:
(301) 209-0865
http://www.aps.org/educ/contact.cfm
What are, to you, the key issues in creating learning resources that support your teaching style and your student's learning styles?
Must be available 24/7, allow independent self-paced learning, available for individuals with disabilities, and (critically) proven with education research to be effective tools with demonstrated learning gains associated with them.
What is your vision for the "textbook" of the future and what impediments do you see to realizing that vision? Textbooks are not currently used well, and shown to be ineffective by and large. They are essentially long-term reference works. If we want to create something that is more than a reference work (this is a question the field has not answered as yet), then we need to look clearly at what our goals are in using educational materials and design things that meet these (assessable) goals.
Describe briefly any research you have undertaken on teaching or learning. I have worked with Ken and Pat Heller on the design of context-rich problem solving laboratories. We designed labs that are problem based rather than method based, and requires students to design their own experiment, and think critically about the design in order to provide a convincing answer to a specialist or non-specialist.
Have you created publicly accessible learning resources? LabVIEW-based laboratories that interact with Vernier interface modules to measure magnetic field, analyze movies, and other intro-physics questions. Labs available from me personally.
How would you like to contribute to the workshop? Bring the American Physical Society perspective, advocate for research that informs the academy in useful and practical ways. Learn about current thinking and help point to efforts in physics education research.
What would you like to take away from the workshop? Broader knowledge of efforts across other STEM disciplines. Potential ideas to infuse with programs the APS is currently advocating.
