Physics 6060

How Things Work II  —  3 Credits
A Distance Learning Course for High School Physics and Physical Science Teachers

 Spring 2012
For a sample of Video Lectures 1 and 9, click the radio button "Sample Lecture Video". Website is being updated for spring 2012 classes and is not yet finalized.

• Computer technology
  Computer (with CD-ROM drive) using any recent operating system and browser. A few of the operating systems that work for WebAssign are Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Macintosh OS 10.x
  
  
• Internet Connection
  Cable, DSL, LAN, or Dial-up.
  I use Firefox 9.0.1 as my browser and ComCast Cable provider with a MacBook Pro Laptop with a Zoom Cable Modem 3.0 and Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR3700. The router has four 50 GHz inputs for ethernet cable which gives me the speed to donwload videos in less than 2 minutes. This equipment is standard and you can buy it at BestBuy.
  
  
• Web Browsers
  Firefox 9.0, Explorer 9, Netscape 7.x, and Safari 5.0.
  
  
• Frequently asked questions about WebAssign and browsers, Java, cookies, etc.
  Click on http://webassign.net/user_support/student/student_faq.html
  Some homework questions on WebAssign may have HTML that requires additional programs, like Java or Flash. Your browser will indicate if it needs an additional program and will often point you to the URL where you can download the needed files.


• Software
  Microsoft Office (97-2004) or 2008 version - Primarily for reading Word and power point documents
  Adobe Reader 9.0 - for reading pdf files - Download Free at Adobe Reader
  
  Quicktime or Realplayer for viewing lecture videos in MP4 from course website COLLAB
  Quicktime comes with Mac OS
  For Windows or Mac Download Realplayer for Free at RealPlayer
  
  Saving videos on your computer
  Right click on mouse while hovering over the lecture video name on COLLAB and then click on Save Link As... Lecture video will be saved on your desktop. You may save all the videos on yur computer.
  You will find it valuable to have all the videos stored on your computer for subsuquent viewing.
  
  
• Hints on improving download speed. Wireless is slower than direct ethernet cable. If you are on wireless, it will take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes
  to download one 50 minute long video lecture file depending on the speed of your modem and router.
  If your router and modem are relatively new, then they are probably sufficiently fast enough or otherwise
  they will limit your speed. If you connect your computer to the modem directly with ethernet cable, then you
  can download much faster - maybe in 2-4 minutes. Direct cable is usually faster than wireless.