textbook
rallain | April 8, 2010I have made some small changes to my physics textbook. Basically, I have been updating all my old posts so that you can find stuff. What I did was include tags for each topic. For instance, suppose you are looking at projectile motion. Well, I include a link to examples with projectile motion.
Some of the examples may not be the best for that topic, but it is better than nothing. Really, what I need to do (other than finish tagging all my old posts) is to pick one good example for each topic. There is always tomorrow.
rallain | February 5, 2010The following is a collection of some of my posts that can be put into a simple and quick textbook-type thingy. I am not really sure you would call this a textbook, but maybe you would. This does not include everything you would normally find in a traditional textbook, but clearly it is not traditional. I tried to keep it to just the fundamental ideas. As I write more stuff that is appropriate, I will add it.
In terms of the level of this material, I would think it would be appropriate for advanced high school physics or introductory college-level physics.
I plan to update this list with…
bioephemera | December 11, 2009The National Library of Medicine's "Turning the Pages" gallery lets you turn the virtual pages of classic science/medicine manuscripts. Check out Hieronymus Brunschwig's Liber de Arte Distillandi de Compositis (1512):
Note that the NLM's copy is hand-colored; uncolored copies also exist, such as this copy at ECHO. Comparison with the images of the ECHO copy show that NLM has elided the boring, text-only pages from their animation.
I'm not usually a big fan of animations that try to replicate the tactile experience of books, but given that you aren't usually allowed to touch manuscripts of…
rallain | February 17, 2009I previously talked about textbooks and how there is clearly a problem. The CK-12 Foundation is trying to do something about this problem with the flexbook. Basically, the flexbook allows teachers to create their own text by combining different free content. You can customize a book that closely meets the needs of the class.
I think this is a great step in the right direction. One problem that immediately popped into my head was "how would a high school teacher get this approved?" Someone at the conference (he didn't have a name badge on) said "well, I am old enough, I just do whatever I…
rallain | February 4, 2009Not sure if you know what Jump the shark means. I figured it was a common term. Here is the wikipedia entry. Or maybe you would like a graphic explanation. Here it is:
So, why the attack on textbooks? The main reason is that I just posted a rant about forces (or abuse of the word force) and I am going for the combo attack (more points that way). Actually, this has been in my mind for quite some time. There was a post on Uncertain Principles that started me thinking about it again.
I have been afraid to really speak my mind on this issue because I don't want to completely enrage the…