Overview
Project context
Even though a training on teaching effectiveness has been provided for around 70% of high school teachers in Kosovo, the classroom methods are still regarded as traditional ones, which mainly includes simple oral narration of lessons without practica demonstration.
A solid progress has been made by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology towards equipping the high schools with physics laboratories. Nonetheless, the majority of schools, especially in remote areas, are still without a proper physics laboratory where students can practice the knowledge gained through theoretical lessons.
Implementation
The Virtual Physics Lab is an online, user-friendly, interactive platform which features interactive Flash files that simulate animated 30 physics situations. Users can manipulate a variable and observe the outcome of the change on the animated physics situation.
The 30 applications developed by a young programmer, under the supervision of a Physcis consultant are aligned with the official Physics Books for high school, certified by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Applications have been developed by using Adobe Flash programme, considering its high performance for web interface. Packages of lessons are available to online users via internet connection, as well as to offline users, who can download the applications for free and use them at home or classroom.
The main goal of the project is to substitute the lack of the physics laboratories in early education, by using digital tools and providing a user-friendly and interactive Physics Lab, and to increase awareness of both teachers and students about the use of the advantages of technology as a supportive technique to achieve significant results in the subjects of their interests – in this case the Science of Physics.
Currently, the platform is only available in the Albanian language.