Bruce Mason
University of Oklahoma
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Bruce Mason is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Oklahoma, where he has worked since 1989. Starting as a theoretical condensed matter physicist, he also had an interest throughout the 1990s in the use of computation and digital resources in the undergraduate and graduate physics curriculum.
In 1999 Dr. Mason became involved in MERLOT (http://www.merlot.org), an international, multi-disciplinary consortium working to improve the use of multimedia and technology in higher education. In 2002, he lead an effort of the American Association of Physics Teachers, American Physical Society, American Astronomical Society, and American Institute of Physics to apply the MERLOT model specifically for physics and astronomy educational resources. This effort became the AAPT/ComPADRE project. Working with a talented team of programmers, designers, and librarians, ComPADRE now provides the technology and web-hosting support for several physics education projects and resource portals.
Dr. Mason is the Online Publications Editor of the American Association of Physics Teachers and has been recognized as a Fellow of the AAPT and American Physical Society.
Keynote talk's title: What can AAPT/ComPADRE do for you?
Abstract: For more than two decades, the AAPT/ComPADRE project has provided online resources for physics educators and education researchers. Developed initially as part of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Science Digital Library, ComPADRE has continued as a technology and online hosting service of the American Association of Physics Teachers. The most successful efforts of the AAPT/ComPADRE team involve collaborations with communities of physics educators and projects that benefit from ComPADRE’s technology infrastructure and established hosting expertise. Some notable examples include the Open Source Physics Project (Physlets, EJSS, and Tracker video analysis), the PICUP project integrating computation into the physics curriculum, the research-based support for physics instructors on PhysPort, and the Living Physics Portal for introductory physics courses for the life sciences.
This talk will give an overview of what AAPT/ComPADRE has and does but will mostly focus on answering the question of what it might be able to do for the members of the audience. I also hope the audience will be able to give advice on what AAPT/ComPADRE should be doing.
Andréas Mueller
University of Geneva, Faculty of Science/Physics Section
Institut Universitaire de Formation des Enseignants (IUFE), Switzerland
Prof. Müller is professor of science education at the University of Geneva/CH, on a joint appointment of the institute for teacher education (Institut de Formation des Enseignants, IUFE) and the Faculty of Science/Physics Section. His current interests in research and development are twofold:
- empirical investigations and research based development in science education, in particular about context orientation and about the role of tasks and exercises for effective learning and teaching;
- science of everyday phenomena, cross-disciplinary connections of physics with the other sciences, hands-on-experiments.
In both areas, the use of smartphones and other mobile devices has had a central place in his work in recent years. In physics teacher education, his main goal is to establish a good synthesis of good practice of experienced and innovative teachers on the one hand, and the large body of research-based knowledge about teaching and learning available nowadays on the other hand.
Keynote talk's title: Digital Competences and Physics Education – Perspectives for Classroom Practice and Teacher Education
Abstract: Recent work in research & development using smartphones or tablet computers and theirs sensor for physics education will be reviewed, with a focus on intended competences and other educational objectives to be achieved with this approach.
Based on empirical outcomes and on the current intense discussion on multimedia and other digital tools for educational purposes, several promising perspectives for classroom practice and teacher education are presented for discussion.
Cyril Brom
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague
Department of Software and Computer Science Education
Cyril Brom is the founder and head of the group Advanced Multimedia Learning Laboratory (AMULAB) and an assistant professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University in Prague. His research interest is in computing education and in how people learn from multimedia learning materials. He previously worked in the fields of artificial intelligence, computer games development and computational neuropsychology.
During that time, he headed a group called Artificial Minds for Intelligent Systems at Charles University (2008 – 2016). He contributed to well-known gaming and educational projects such as Data Newtown, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Czechoslovakia 38 – 89: Assassination and Pogamut.
Keynote talk's title: Emotional design in multimedia learning for children: a long saga of null results?
Abstract: Multimedia learning is often understood as learning from texts and pictures. In this context, emotional design refers to minimalistic redesign of texts or pictures in learning materials in such a way that the redesigned elements can boost positive, activating affective-motivational states of learners. The motivation for doing so is the hope that the elevated affective-motivational states would positively impact learning processes and thereby improve learning outcomes.
This talk discusses recent empirical evidence concerning effectiveness of emotional design in the case of preadolescents, including related game-based learning approaches. All in all, the talk argues that null or mixed results dominate the field, pointing at limited benefits of emotional design approaches for younger audiences.
Lana Ivanjek
Johannes Keppler University Linz, Austria
Prof
. Ivanjek is professor of physics education at the Johannes Keppler University Linz, Austria. Her current research interests are modern media in teaching and learning physics, development and validation of research-based teaching materials for introductory physics courses at university level and for high school and development and validation of concept inventories for middle-school, high school and university level. During COVID-19 pandemic she was part of the research group investigating student perceptions on online course formats.
Keynote talk's title: Digital tools in teaching physics at university level – challenges and lessons learned
Abstract: The overview of the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning of physics will be presented with the emphasis on the developments in recent years.
The focus of the talk will be on the challenges we were and are confronted with (such as COVID-19 pandemic) and the lessons learned from the implementation of new technologies and approaches in university courses.
