Holy cow, Emma; it's the Star Trek holodeck!!!
The 3-D screens video is really impressive. I don't quite understand how the polarizing filters & various lenses & projections etc. all work together, but the image of the man 'moving' through Stonehenge is very compelling. I think there could be all sorts of educational applications for this. You'd think it could even be effective for air traffic control learning...?
Gina Bennett
Posts made by Gina Bennett
Hi Chris,
I don't think haptic devices are necessarily well-known, even to those in the sciences. A haptic device is an input device (as is a mouse or a keyboard) that provides feedback to the user about the tactile properties of a virtual object. For example, if you are manipulating an object on the internet using a haptic device, you could 'feel' if the object was hard or soft, heavy or light, from the pressure you felt back from the device. The link provided in my post earlier this morning provides more information if you want. If you want to see what such a device actually looks like, this link is good (http://haptic.edutechie.com/novint_falcon/).
Hope this helps!
Gina
I don't think haptic devices are necessarily well-known, even to those in the sciences. A haptic device is an input device (as is a mouse or a keyboard) that provides feedback to the user about the tactile properties of a virtual object. For example, if you are manipulating an object on the internet using a haptic device, you could 'feel' if the object was hard or soft, heavy or light, from the pressure you felt back from the device. The link provided in my post earlier this morning provides more information if you want. If you want to see what such a device actually looks like, this link is good (http://haptic.edutechie.com/novint_falcon/).
Hope this helps!
Gina
Barb, thanks so much for jumping in. Your description of how the interdisciplinary teams learned to work in 3-D was fascinating. Like Paul, you pointed out that some skills must be practised in a 'real' situation in order to be learned (although I think I would challenge your statement that 'there was no direct transfer from digital to physical' - emphasis added).
I remember doing a molecule-building exercise in SecondLife. The atoms were about the size of balls (from ping-pong to beach-ball size) & the molecules had to be assembled in the air above me. It was an interesting sensation of 3-D, & I did learn something about molecules, but of course my learning was not tempered by various forces of reality (like super-sub-microscopic size, for example!)
It really does seem that some skills must be learned 'through the fingers'; i.e. just reading about it or practising with a keyboard & 2-D computer screen is not enough. What do you think about the potential of haptic devices (haptics are "any device that provides a touch-based system of interaction with virtual environments")? This SFU Master's student used haptic devices to augment a virtual frog dissection & found that students who used the haptic devices completed the dissections about 20% faster, cut more accurately & learned faster. They are used a lot for surgical training.
Has anyone out there tried a haptic device? Apparently the cost is only about $100...
I remember doing a molecule-building exercise in SecondLife. The atoms were about the size of balls (from ping-pong to beach-ball size) & the molecules had to be assembled in the air above me. It was an interesting sensation of 3-D, & I did learn something about molecules, but of course my learning was not tempered by various forces of reality (like super-sub-microscopic size, for example!)
It really does seem that some skills must be learned 'through the fingers'; i.e. just reading about it or practising with a keyboard & 2-D computer screen is not enough. What do you think about the potential of haptic devices (haptics are "any device that provides a touch-based system of interaction with virtual environments")? This SFU Master's student used haptic devices to augment a virtual frog dissection & found that students who used the haptic devices completed the dissections about 20% faster, cut more accurately & learned faster. They are used a lot for surgical training.
Has anyone out there tried a haptic device? Apparently the cost is only about $100...
While exploring the great collection of links from last week (each link led to many more!) my mind wandered from the teaching of science to the actual practice of science. I don't think this is really 'off-topic': certainly we need to be aware of how science is practised in the 21st century so that we can prepare our students accordingly.
Two areas that are have made interesting (to me) use of the internet are data gathering and results publication.
When you stop & think about it, an awful lot of data acquisition obtained during scientific inquiry is mediated by technology. While googling around I came across a number of examples of remote science conducted using telescopes, microscopes, etc. but what fascinated me most was the rather understated use of the lowly webcam for data gathering & collaboration. These UBC Pharmacy students, for example, were able to access some sophisticated special equipment at Western Washington University to conduct experiments; webcams provided interaction with the technicians at WWU. Grade 7 students at Branksome School used a webcam to gather round-the-clock data about some fish they were studying. And webcams are routinely used for telemedicine & to gather data in severe environments.
Has anyone out there in SCoPE used a webcam for a scientific activity of any kind? or do you know of anyone who has?
This post is already too long --I'll leave the topic of technology-mediated results publication to a later post.
Two areas that are have made interesting (to me) use of the internet are data gathering and results publication.
When you stop & think about it, an awful lot of data acquisition obtained during scientific inquiry is mediated by technology. While googling around I came across a number of examples of remote science conducted using telescopes, microscopes, etc. but what fascinated me most was the rather understated use of the lowly webcam for data gathering & collaboration. These UBC Pharmacy students, for example, were able to access some sophisticated special equipment at Western Washington University to conduct experiments; webcams provided interaction with the technicians at WWU. Grade 7 students at Branksome School used a webcam to gather round-the-clock data about some fish they were studying. And webcams are routinely used for telemedicine & to gather data in severe environments.
Has anyone out there in SCoPE used a webcam for a scientific activity of any kind? or do you know of anyone who has?
This post is already too long --I'll leave the topic of technology-mediated results publication to a later post.
Thanks to everybody who jumped in & got their feet wet in our first week of 'Rethinking Teaching in the Sciences'. While re-reading the posts from last week, I couldn't help but be impressed by all the great links to online science resources & I thought I might summarize these in a list:
- thanks to Marsha West for this link to secondary school math resources: http://seeingmath.concord.org/sms_interactives.html
- also to Marsha for these science & math interactives: http://www.concord.org/resources/browse/251/
- thanks to Rob Johnson for science teaching utilizing ICT's: http://ict-in-science-education.wikispaces.com/
- thanks again to Rob for links to Newton's Laws of Motion and also to An incredible five minute tour of underwater creatures
- thanks to Estrella Gancedo for the great link to PHET (Physics Education Project of Colorado University) with its free Physics simulations
- also thanks to Estrella for her link to Hooke´s Law
- thanks to Nalin Abeysekera for his link to this definition of science: Academic Press Dictionary of Science & Technology