Re-examining the power of video motion analysis to promote the reading and creating of kinematic graphs

One essential skill that students who learn physics should possess is the ability to create and interpret kinematic graphs. However, it is well documented in the literature that students show lack of competence in these abilities. They have problems in connecting graphs and physics concepts, as well as graphs and the real world. The present paper re-examines the yet unexploited potential of video analysis technology to help students in 'reading' and 'writing' kinematic graphs. It thoroughly discuss the following advantages of video analysis technologies: Video analysis a) encourages students to connect school and out-of school experiences, b) enables students to better connect graphs to the real world, c) provides opportunity to construct “bodily” knowledge, d) enables teachers to increase student awareness of the impact intuitive rules may have on their graph reading and creating skills, e) promotes know-how of constructing a physics entity’s graph from another given graph, and f) promotes the understanding of scales and frames of reference. The paper also provides a detailed example and show how the above benefits are expressed in the example. The paper ends with a look at the future of video analysis and recommends some new directions for development.