Rationale for using mobile apps in Physics education

Mobile technology is used daily by a majority of students in high school. They have spent time familiarizing themselves with the possibilities and limitations of their devices, and use them to express themselves and connect with others. These devices, as such, are valued highly by the students who use them. It makes sense for educators to take advantage of these powerful tools that students are familiar with and which they highly value by incorporating them into the classroom environment. So, I teamed up with Jimmy Zhang and Arshbir Bhullar to look into the question: "How might math and science mobile apps serve as engagement and motivational tools for students?"

Of course, the power of mobile devices as useful tools is rivaled by their power as distractions. However, we don’t ban pencil and paper because students can use these to doodle. Embracing technology, and finding ways to work around the drawbacks, can help address the changing needs of students growing up in a digital world as they seek relevance in their education.

There are many benefits we can expect when incorporating mobile devices into Physics activities. In situated learning theory, there is reason to believe that “the learning success of the learners with regard to experimentation in physics lessons is greater, if a physical phenomenon is explored with experimental tools used every day.” (Kuhn and Vogt 2013). Right away this gives impetus to at least explore what opportunities are made available by mobile devices.

 

Mobility

The classroom cannot be fully defined by its physical location any more. Online learning and flipped classrooms have given students the option to work on their education wherever they want. They can watch a lecture on the bus, access a free digital textbook on vacation (it’s possible), and, as shown in this blog, they can even perform sophisticated experiments in their own home, by repurposing equipment they already own. They are not limited by the amount of in-person face time they have with their teacher.

Cost

Schools will never have to pay for accelerometers again -- students bring them in every day for free. Not only that, but because a cell is the property of a student, he or she might treat it with a touch more care than the school-issued lab equipment. In school districts where the funds are available, students can be issued devices in a one-to-one basis, but this is not required.

Variety

Smartphones and tablets are typically equipped with an array of sensors: microphones, light intensity detectors, accelerometers, magnetic field detectors, and GPS. These allow a large variety of experimentation using just one piece of equipment. In addition, the picture and video capture capabilities provide opportunities for analysis.

Agency

Doing physics with smartphones shows students that they have the power to explore the world in a scientific way, on their own time, according to their own fashion. Curious about the acceleration of your car? Want know how loud the skytrain gets when it turns a corner? Just interested in learning how your phone works? It’s all possible, and students can come up with their own ideas too. Students take the physics lab home with them. Not only that, but the New Media Consortium, in their 2013 Top Ten Trends Impacting Technology Decisions, number 4 reads: “Increasingly, students want to use their own technology for learning. Utilizing a specific device has become something very personal — an extension of someone’s personality and learning style…”

Concerns

As with any new technology, or any new technique in education, there are some things we have to watch out for if we want to conscientiously do smartphone Physics. Not least among them is access; many students own smartphones, but not every student comes to school every day with a charged cell phone. Students can work through activities in pairs or groups to avoid excluding anyone.

For the students that do bring their phones and allow them to be used in activities, great care needs to be taken during activities that use expensive devices. Sometimes a device needs to be put in motion, or otherwise endangered, and students need to understand the risks and how to alleviate them. They must be given the option to opt out of using their device in a hazardous lab, or any lab for that matter.

Concern has also been expressed that in order to fully understand a data set, you must understand how that data was obtained. Secondary students are unlikely to understand, for example, how a phone’s accelerometer arrives at it display value. We should be careful not to turn these devices into inscrutable “black boxes.” We can do this by explaining the inner workings of the sensors, or at least providing heuristic analogies.  

The purpose of my inquiry was to explore the ways in which I can incorporate mobile apps into my Physics classroom. During this investigation, I found so many different ways that it was hard to keep track. I decided to narrow down my search to areas specific to Physics education. These can be categorized as either data collection apps, or as experiment documentation. The ones I found particularly exciting were the data collection apps, so I decided to compile a list of labs or activities that are possible with students’ mobile devices. This has largely been accomplished already in the column iPhysicsLabs by the American Association of Physics Teachers, but I have included descriptions and several new activities. In addition, so that this blog might be useful as a resource, I compiled a list of mobile apps that Physics teachers and students can install on their device that turn it into a scientific instrument. These lists are expected to grow as I explore this exciting new area.

References

Countryman, C. L. (2014). Familiarizing Students with the Basics of a Smartphone's Internal Sensors. The Physics Teacher., 52(9), 557-559.  

Kuhn, Jochen and Vogt, Patrik. (2013). Applications and Examples of Experiments with Mobile Phones and Smartphones Physics Lessons. Frontiers in Sensors. 1(4)

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Martín, S (2013). Technology Outlook for STEM+ Education 2013-2018: An NMC Horizon Project Sector Analysis. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.