PATHWAY: Physics Teaching Web Advisory [about]

The Physics Teaching Web Advisory (Pathway) is creating a proof-of-concept demonstration of a new type of digital library for physics teaching. Combining Carnegie Mellon University's digital video library technology, with pedagogical advances developed at Kansas State University and with materials contributed by master teachers, the Pathway concept goes beyond simply creating a collection of teaching and learning materials. It provides continuously improving assistance and expertise for teachers and students of all levels. Pathway builds on a unique collaboration between several longstanding research projects in digital video libraries, advanced distance learning technologies, collaboration technologies, and nationally known experts in physics pedagogy and high quality content.

Pathway will build on CMU's Informedia Digital Video Library, which is addressing the problem of information extraction from video and audio content, and Synthetic Interviews of expert physics teachers. Synthetic Interview is a technology that creates an anthropomorphic interface into video of a person responding to questions. With Synthetic Interviews developed for Pathway, teachers will be able to "converse" with knowledgeable experts on their classroom techniques and how those techniques are related to contemporary issues in physics teaching.

Pathway's goal is to develop a system that engages new and established physics teachers into becoming part of a dynamic digital library. In doing so, it will also offer advice and resources from peers and experienced teachers. The project will also work with several Pathway user/teachers to create personal Synthetic Interviews. In addition to providing a resource for other teachers, over time, a teacher's personal Synthetic Interview can become a virtual, anytime/anywhere tutor for their students. The result will be a state-of-the-art system in showing how teachers can interact, both virtually and directly with experts in physics teaching, cooperate to help each other become more effective teachers of physics, and develop advanced recourses for their students.

* Partial support for this work is provided by the National Science Foundation's National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library Program under grant DUE-0226219.

| Best View: 1024x768, IE 5.0 or better | Last Updated: 20031216 | Created and Maintained by Chih-yu Chao |