Monthly Archives: February 2010
Is Khan Academy the future of education?
Salman Khan is a former financial analyst who quit his day job so that he could form Khan Academy — a venture in which he makes instructional videos on mathematics topics and puts them on YouTube. And he has certainly done a … Continue reading
Filed under Education, Educational technology, High school, Higher ed, Linear algebra, Math, Screencasts, Social software, Technology, Web 2.0
Five reasons you should use LaTeX and five tips for teaching it
Over the weekend a minor smack-talk session opened up on Twitter between Maria Andersen and about half a dozen other math people about MathType versus . Maria is on record as being pro-MathType and yesterday she claimed that is “not … Continue reading
Filed under LaTeX, Math, Profhacks, Social software, Teaching, Technology, Twitter, Uncategorized
And so it begins: Lab #1 in the MATLAB course
The MATLAB course began in earnest on Monday this week with our first full-length lab activity session. This was the second overall meeting, the first one being some organizational stuff and a lengthy fly-through of the main features of MATLAB. … Continue reading
Filed under Education, Educational technology, MATLAB, Teaching, Technology
Must the tenure process really be like this?
Like a lot of people in higher ed, I’ve been following Friday’s deadly shooting at the University of Alabama-Hunstville. (Click the link for background in case you missed the story. I have no idea how much press it is or … Continue reading
Filed under Education, Higher ed, Life in academia, Tenure
Resources for the MATLAB class
Image via Wikipedia We’ve had one full meeting of Computer Tools for Problem Solving (the MATLAB course I’ve blogged about). According to the survey I’m having students fill out on our Moodle site, it went pretty well, even if it … Continue reading
Filed under MATLAB, Python, Teaching, Technology, Textbook-free, Textbooks
How to memorize the value of e to 15 decimal places
I learned the following trick for memorizing the value of e from my colleague, Gene White. It never fails to impress calculus students (given a wide enough definition of “impress”). Start by carefully looking at this picture: That’s a 20 … Continue reading
A simple idea for publishers to help students (and themselves)
Image by Getty Images via Daylife I’m doing some research, if you can call it that, right now that involves looking at past editions of popular and/or influential calculus books to track the evolution of how certain concepts are developed … Continue reading
Filed under Apple, Life in academia, Profhacks, Teaching, Technology, Textbook-free, Textbooks
Handling the opening moments of a course
Classes started for us this week. It’s gotten me thinking about what profs do on the first day of class and their overall concepts for how to approach the first few days of a class, where students form those crucial … Continue reading
Filed under Education, Life in academia, Profhacks, Teaching
Friday Random 10: 2/5/2010
Friday music time again, and just about the only thing I’ve had time to post this week due to classes starting back: Texas Flood (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, Greatest Hits) 40 Days (Third Day, Come Together) Who’s Been … Continue reading
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Filed under Friday Random 10, Music, Uncategorized, Weekly features
12 videos for getting LaTeX into the hands of students
There seem to be two pieces of technology that all mathematicians and other technical professionals use, regardless of how technophobic they might be: email, and . There are ways to typeset mathematical expressions out there that have a more shallow … Continue reading
Filed under LaTeX, Linear algebra, Math, Problem Solving, Technology
