Hello all. My name is Shane Raben, a physics major planning on picking up physics teaching. I added this class about as late as possible (I believe it may have been on the add deadline) so I may have missed any getting-to-know-you activities held prior.
I've come to learn how amazingly useful some of these technologies are and correspondingly how inherently lazy we can come to be with them. I created this blog under my primary Gmail account, then got to cracking on my class web page. As it turns out, the process I used to create that page created a whole different Gmail account, thereby requiring a log-in switch each time I access my mail or this blog. Needless to say, I've not checked my mail in weeks.... :Þ
As I batted ideas around for the class web site I realized what I ended up planning was somewhere between a class web-page and a web-class page. What I would like to create is a website where principles being taught in the class could be supported by more immersive material than word problems. Take for an example the popular game Angry Birds. There have been individuals who have utilized various softwares (software? softwari?) to analyze the trajectory of Angry Birds and determine the gravitational effects in-universe, and prove that launch speed remains constant, regardless of angle.
While this is a great approach to catching students' interest, I'd like to see it taken one step further. Give students a chance to input trajectories precisely, (à la Scorched Earth, anyone?) and let them test vector addition and freefalling body homework problems in a more engaging atmosphere. Sure, I doubt you'll have many kids preferring something even hinting of homework over a standard point-and-click video game, but if we can make learning more engaging, perhaps homework can be less work, and gaming need not be as castigated by those who want the best for the upcoming generations.
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