A video has been added to the page at Futurelab, so you can see Newtoon being used/played by students – and being discussed by the developers. I have to say that I’d still be more tempted to use Phun based on what can be seen here. Phun looks far more powerful, and based on open-ended play. Newtoon somewhat simpler, but can run on (some) phones and based around using the physics to create ‘micro-games’.

But you can download both if you want to compare – Newtoon from here.

(I wonder why Futurelab don’t also post their videos on YouTube… would allow me to embed it here at least!)

Check out the Phun and Crayon Physics Deluxe videos below… then go download ‘em and try ‘em out!

Phun:

Crayon Physics Deluxe (A better, not yet available, version of Crayon Physics!):

Newtoon is a mobile phone and web activity which aims to embed physics learning in mobile game creation and play. It enables young people to create microgames via a web interface on a PC in a 2D world consisting of balls and springs. The games can be trialled and edited on the PC, and various physics principles regulating the movement of objects can be manipulated via the interface.

More here. The full report looks like a worthwhile read – with some very strong apparent outcomes. A very limited discussion below.

As with many other GBL studies, this one also emphasizes the need for teacher intervention (although with a more ‘dialogic’ pedagogy than the traditional):

However, the trials indicate that interventions from the teacher are not only possible, but essential for all students to learn science from Newtoon. (Newtoon report, p26)

And:

Science Talk Starts with the Teacher

… emphasises the important role of the teacher in opening a dialogic space and presenting learners with scientific language and tools to continue their own conversations about science. (p33)

Some good quotes to back up the claim that it encouraged a more positive attitude to science in school (p24):

“Some parts of science can be fun. I always hated science in primary school but obviously secondary school science is a bit funner… if that’s a word.”

It is not a magic bullet. High-ability students gained some benefit, but already understoond most of what Newtoon attempted to teach. Middle-ability students gained the most, while:

Lower ability students had patchy understandings to begin with, but there was evidence to suggest that Newtoon had helped them to some degree. Some students answered questions with greater confidence and accuracy after the trials, but misunderstandings persisted. (p21)

 I haven’t read the report fully yet… so apologies if I’ve missed a vital key point!

I think I’ll try and take Peter Norvig’s comments at ALT-C (see Tale of Two Keynotes, below) to heart and see to what degree I can cut down on the lectures and use tutorials instead. After all, there is already a full set of notes, and students can read – can’t they? And as Peter pointed out, with some of the world’s best experts posting podcasts and videos of their lectures online, why should I subject my students to lectures from me? I’ll have to also monitor this carefully as whether or not students will read or download and listen/watch is another question.

But meantime, I need to drastically build up my resource bank. Some first finds:

• Introductory Physics podcasts at UCBerkely (current class). Suspect that this covers quite a different curriculum, but should be useful.
• Physics 10 at UC Berekely. Seems like a very good course, but relatively little of use for my own class. Good use of live demos in class…
  Can access this from here and here!
• While you are there, why not see what other classes Berkeley have put online.
• There must be some good stuff on iTunesU, but I’ll need to install iTunes first. (Yes, I don’t have iTunes, or an iPod. So sue me!)
• FutureLab funded a games-based learning demo called ‘Racing Academy’. Certainly relevant, but I’ll need to create some kind of complementary worksheet to use with it – it’s a little too easy to just play the game without really thinking very hard about what you are actually doing.
• The Institute of Physics has a lot of teaching resources for schools and colleges.
• Very focussed exercises and examples at Bitesize exam revision from BBC Education Scotland.
• Brian Beckman: The Physics in Games – Real-Time Simulation Explained. A great video where Brian covers some of the history of physics in computer games and goes into a fair amount of detail into creating realistic tyre-models for current generation racing games. Great, and to my mind entertaining. Downside: quite likely to scare off my students with the fairly high-level maths and physics involved. Far more advanced material than my undergraduate class will cover.
• I haven’t had much time to check it out yet, but there must be some good resources on MIT Opencourseware. This one looks good. As far as I know, classical mechanics hasn’t changed much since 1999!
• Perhaps the UK’s Open University OpenLearn has resources I can use, though it seems a bit light in Physics content.

I welcome any suggestions for additions to this list.