Exploring Kepler’s laws using an interactive whiteboard and Algodoo

Gregorcic, Bor

doi:10.1088/0031-9120/50/5/511

Cited by 24 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Lesson activities included throwing planets into orbits around the Sun and using different tools within Algodoo software (e.g., the tracer tool and the surface-area measuring tool) to investigate the properties of the planets' orbits (Gregorcic 2015).…”

Section: Teacher Training and Lesson Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A New Way of Using the Interactive Whiteboard in a High School Physics Classroom: A Case Study

2017

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In recent decades, the interactive whiteboard (IWB) has become a relatively common educational tool in Western schools. The IWB is essentially a large touch screen, that enables the user to interact with digital content in ways that are not possible with an ordinary computer-projector-canvas setup. However, the unique possibilities of IWBs are rarely leveraged to enhance teaching and learning beyond the primary school level. This is particularly noticeable in high school physics. We describe how a high school physics teacher learned to use an IWB in a new way, how she planned and implemented a lesson on the topic of orbital motion of planets, and what tensions arose in the process. We used an ethnographic approach to account for the teacher's and involved students' perspectives throughout the process of teacher preparation, lesson planning, and the implementation of the lesson. To interpret the data, we used the conceptual framework of activity theory. We found that an entrenched culture of traditional white/blackboard use in physics instruction interferes with more technologically innovative and more student-centered instructional approaches that leverage the IWB's unique instructional potential. Furthermore, we found that the teacher's confidence in the mastery of the IWB plays a crucial role in the teacher's willingness to transfer agency within the lesson to the students.

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Section: Teacher Training and Lesson Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…b) The process of teacher training and preparation of a lesson, which leverages IWB-specific affordances for student kinesthetic engagement (Gregorcic 2015). c) The implementation of the lesson in an authentic classroom setting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Way of Using the Interactive Whiteboard in a High School Physics Classroom: A Case Study

2017

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“…In the study at hand, students were engaged in a learning environment that we have designed as a part of a more extensive research project on the use of interactive whiteboards in physics instruction. As part of the project, we designed a learning environment that leverages the unique possibilities of IWB technology to allow students hands-on access to previously inaccessible topics [46]. One such case was the topic of orbital motion-Kepler's laws.…”

Section: B Designed Learning Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Doing science by waving hands: Talk, symbiotic gesture, and interaction with digital content as resources in student inquiry

Gregorcic

Planinšič

Etkina

2017

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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In this paper, we investigate some of the ways in which students, when given the opportunity and an appropriate learning environment, spontaneously engage in collaborative inquiry. We studied small groups of high school students interacting around and with an interactive whiteboard equipped with Algodoo software, as they investigated orbital motion. Using multimodal discourse analysis, we found that in their discussions the students relied heavily on nonverbal meaning-making resources, most notably hand gestures and resources in the surrounding environment (items displayed on the interactive whiteboard). They juxtaposed talk with gestures and resources in the environment to communicate ideas that they initially were not able to express using words alone. By spontaneously recruiting and combining a diverse set of meaningmaking resources, the students were able to express relatively fluently complex ideas on a novel physics topic, and to engage in practices that resemble a scientific approach to exploration of new phenomena.

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“…The learning materials that we used in this study (Gregorcic 2015) have been developed as a part of a larger research project on the educational potential of interactive whiteboards in highschool physics. The rationale behind these instructional materials was to allow students to engage with the content (orbital motion) in a way that productively brings together students' motoric engagement and the relevant physics concepts.…”

Section: Instructional Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual Blending as an Interpretive Lens for Student Engagement with Technology: Exploring Celestial Motion on an Interactive Whiteboard

Gregorcic

Haglund

2018

Res Sci Educ

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We present and analyze video data of upper secondary school students' engagement with a computer-supported collaborative learning environment that enables them to explore astronomical phenomena (Keplerian motion). The students' activities have an immersive and exploratory character, as students engage in open-ended inquiry and interact physically with the virtual environment displayed on an interactive whiteboard. The interplay of students' playful exploration through physical engagement with the simulation environment, their attention to physics concepts and laws, and knowledge about the real planets orbiting the Sun presents an analytical challenge for the researcher and instructor encountering such complex learning environments. We argue that the framework of conceptual blending is particularly apt for dealing with the learning environment at hand, because it allows us to take into account the many diverse mental inputs that seem to shape the student activities described in the paper. We show how conceptual blending can be brought together with theoretical ideas concerned with embodied cognition and epistemology of physics, in order to provide researchers and instructors with a powerful lens for looking critically at immersive technology-supported learning environments.

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Exploring Kepler’s laws using an interactive whiteboard and Algodoo

Cited by 24 publications

References 7 publications

A New Way of Using the Interactive Whiteboard in a High School Physics Classroom: A Case Study

A New Way of Using the Interactive Whiteboard in a High School Physics Classroom: A Case Study

Doing science by waving hands: Talk, symbiotic gesture, and interaction with digital content as resources in student inquiry

Conceptual Blending as an Interpretive Lens for Student Engagement with Technology: Exploring Celestial Motion on an Interactive Whiteboard

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