Presentations

    Exclusively-visual analysis of classroom group interactions, at American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Conference (San Diego, CA), Sunday, January 4, 2015:
    Data that measures group learning are time-consuming to collect and analyze on a large scale. As an initial step towards scaling qualitative classroom observation, our team qualitatively coded classroom video using an established coding scheme with and without its audio. We find that inter-rater reliability is as high when using visual data only—without audio—as when using both visual and audio data to code. Also, inter-rater reliability is high even when comparing use of visual and audio data to visual-only data. We see a small bias that interactions are more often coded as group... Read more about Exclusively-visual analysis of classroom group interactions
    The Essence of Physics, at Instructional Technology Program Forum, University of California at Berkeley (Berkeley, CA), Thursday, February 1, 1990
    The Essence of Physics, at MacAdemia, University of California at Berkeley (Berkeley, CA), Saturday, September 1, 1990
    A Hypermedia approach to teaching Physics, at International IEEE/AP-S Meeting (London, Ontario, Canada), Tuesday, June 25, 1991:
    No abstract available.

    Note: This is my first ever computer presentation. It was given using HyperCard on an Apple Macintosh Portable (well, barely portable; it was not for another 6 months that Apple would ship the first PowerBook). The image was projected using an LCD-panel that had to be placed on an overhead projector.

    How I Got to Know My 200 Students (Almost) Overnight, at Seminar, National Science Foundation (Arlington, VA), Thursday, April 8, 1999:
    Direct interaction between students and their teacher is an essential component of effective teaching. Unfortunately, this component is often absent in large classes. On one hand, lecture periods and office hours offer insufficient opportunities to interact with large numbers of students. On the other hand, electronic communication, such as e-mail or web-based forums quickly become an intractable burden on the teacher. This past year, with the support from the NSF, we developed an effective and efficient system allowing asynchronous communication between students and teacher. The system helps... Read more about How I Got to Know My 200 Students (Almost) Overnight
    How To Get to Know 200 Students (Almost) Overnight, at American Association of Physics Teachers Winter 2000 Meeting (Kissimmee, FL), Monday, January 17, 2000:
    Direct interaction between students and teacher is essential to effective teaching. Unfortunately, it is often lacking in large classes. We have developed a system which facilitates efficient asynchronous communication between teacher and students. Students' questions are stored in a database, and the contents of the database are accessed via the Web in various forms. For example, the teacher can review all student questions on a particular topic, prepare a single answer to a common question, and store the answer in the database. Students' grades and pictures are stored with their questions (... Read more about How To Get to Know 200 Students (Almost) Overnight
    The Interactive Learning Toolkit, at Physics Colloquium, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) (Worchester, MA), Monday, September 8, 2003:
    Research into new approaches to undergraduate science education has led to significant changes in our understanding of how large classes should be taught. Instructors who have implemented these new research based techniques have experienced dramatic improvements in student understanding. We have taken two proven pedagogical methods, 'Just in Time Teaching' (JiTT) and 'Peer Instruction' (PI) and implemented them in our 'Interactive Learning Toolkit' (ILT). In developing ILT, our focus has been to save the instructor time and use technology to bring interaction in the classroom.
    Interactive Learning Toolkit: Tools for the Interactive Classroom, at Invited Talk, University of Limerick (Co. Limerick, Ireland), Wednesday, December 17, 2003:
    Research-based interactive learning techniques have dramatically improved student understanding. We have created the 'Interactive Learning Toolkit' (ILT), a web-based learning management system, to help implement two such pedagogies: Just in Time Teaching and Peer Instruction. Our main goal in developing this toolkit is to save the instructor time and effort and to use technology to facilitate the interaction between the students and the instructor (and between themselves). After a brief review of both pedagogies, I will demonstrate the many new exciting features of the ILT. I will show how... Read more about Interactive Learning Toolkit: Tools for the Interactive Classroom

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