Visualizing Electricity & Magnetism The collaborative development of a multimedia text Jennifer George-Palilonis George & Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Multimedia Ball State University

 John W. Belcher: Class of 1922 Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology  Research: space plasma physics, outer planet magnetospheres, solar wind in the outer heliosphere, and astrophysical plasmas  Projects: Co-investigator on the Plasma Science Experiment on board the Voyager Interstellar Mission; Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) includes efforts to convert freshman physics instruction at MIT from a lecture-based passive environment to an active learning environment. ABOUT THE AUTHORS

 Jennifer George-Palilonis: George & Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Multimedia Journalism, Ball State University  Research: visualization as a teaching & learning tool, information graphics reporting, visual rhetoric, multimedia storytelling  Projects: Ball State Digital Publishing Project focused on the development and research of electronic texts; iMedia focused on the design of interactive news and advertising applications for television & mobile devices.

HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? Physics + Journalism =

NATURE OF COLLABORATION  TEAL sims lacked narrative thread, cohesive path control and the opportunity for interactivity in their original presentation.

NATURE OF COLLABORATION  Authors joined forces to create Flash-based digital text that provides student learners with two important features that dramatically improve comprehension, understanding and overall experience:  Nonlinear path control  A visual and textual narrative  Interactive Exercises

ELECTRONIC TEXT

INTERACTIVE EXERCISES

COLLABORATIVE PROCESS  One face-to-face meeting to discuss philosophical approaches and collaboratively build interactive exercises.  All remaining development was done from a distance.  Physicist would embed the content and storyline he imagined for a particular topic in a Power Point presentation with appropriate graphics and links to visualizations.  Multimedia journalist used Power Point as a guide and embedded content in a Flash framework as well as consult on storyline.  They would then iterate the content until they arrived at a presentation they were both satisfied with, and then  proceed to the next topic.

CHALLENGES & TRIUMPHS  Learning to speak the same language  Articulating ideas from a distance  Making consistent progress  Overcoming technical limitations  Convincing others of our vision  Getting out of university silos  Using journalistic skills for non-journalistic purposes

SINCE WE LAUNCHED  Module is used in freshman physics courses that deal with E&M at MIT  Module has been presented at American Association for Physics Teachers & Course, Curriculum, and Learning Conference  Paper presented at the International Conference on the Future of the Book and published in The International Journal of the Book.

SINCE WE LAUNCHED  Usability tests and informal focus groups with MIT students show high levels of engagement and enjoyment of the etext experience.  One year after taking a course in electromagnetism, average students do not remember the details of textual explanations and hard equations. However, if they have “seen” the visualizations, they continue to have a mental model as to why compasses “work” this way.

OUR FUTURE TOGETHER  Currently developing a similar module for advanced E&M, a course Belcher will begin teaching on a four-year rotation.  Submitted a $3 million NSF grant to develop a 3D virtual world for E&M.

OUR FUTURE TOGETHER

THANK YOU!