51–60 of 126 posts
My Hagoromo chalk and eraser notes: https://www.math.columbia.edu/~bayer/LinearAlgebra/Video/Cha... CNN is doing a short web video on this chalk, and I was interviewed last week. They particularly liked my custom attache case for carrying all my colors to teach. When I drew diagrams revealing Catalan number correspondences, they were quite worried that these pictures "weren't math" and I might be hoodwinking them. Th…
Mirroring some other comments here, my best experiences were with overhead projectors and document cameras. My high school math teacher would sit on his desk at the front of the classroom and use an overhead projector with transparencies on a roll so he could just roll up as he wrote. In college a lot of professors used document cameras for basically the same approach. I think it was by far the most effective way to…
Porcelain whiteboards are, in my opinion, far superior to chalk. Color, distinct lines, easy to clean with just water (completely with no marks). Those who complain about whiteboards usually are only familiar with melamine boards. I got a big porcelain board for 5 bucks on eBay because one corner was dented. Best purchase of my life.
The problem I have with whiteboards, and especially porcelain ones, is that they are too slippery. Writing on a chalkboard offers a certain amount of resistance and texture that just feels better than on a whiteboard. This is also something that you really need a high-quality board to experience. The texture of cheap chalkboards is not very pleasant either.
I had one lecturer in my 4 years at university that only used a chalkboard, and most pupils despised him because the pace as which he wrote far surpassed the rate at we we could sensibly copy notes. We wrote it out, but it gave little time to actually consider the concept we were learning. The rest of my lecturers all used PowerPoint presentations for the most part, in conjunction with print-outs so we could follow a…
I found the exact opposite when learning math. I need to write it down, and when presented with Power Point I have to transform it into something I can understand, and that means I don't have enough attention left to really listen to the lecturer. On the other hand, the lecturers that used a blackboard at my uni all had prepared the lecture, what they wrote was meant to be written in a notebook. They wrote it at a pa…
1.Elementary Reading 2.Inspectional Reading 3.Analytical Reading 4.Syntopical Reading
The first 2-3 are covered in the lecture. The time at home can then be spent putting it to paper, applying it in practice (usually in MatLab or some other form of programming), then summarising. That's why I like the lecturers electronic hand-outs, as it can fill the gaps of knowledge that have formed between lecture and study. My background is in EE however, so assumedly this type of learning might not apply as well to pure Math/Physics!
I had one lecturer in my 4 years at university that only used a chalkboard, and most pupils despised him because the pace as which he wrote far surpassed the rate at we we could sensibly copy notes. We wrote it out, but it gave little time to actually consider the concept we were learning. The rest of my lecturers all used PowerPoint presentations for the most part, in conjunction with print-outs so we could follow a…
Hands-down, the best presentation and note-taking math class I recall in college (discrete mathematics, a graph theory course, heavy on drawings) was run through a Wacom pen display on the lectern, linked to a projector. The professor could accurately and cleanly draw the required notation with his hand flat. Why erase when space is infinite, just scroll and/or zoom in the desired direction. A full color spectrum was…
That sounds similar to the approach my Prealgebra teacher used in 1994. She had an overhead projector with a roll of plastic transparency sheet attached. She wrote across the bottom of the projector and then rolled it up as she went along. Different color pens were available. You could follow along and understand the process, and there was plenty of time to take notes as the material rolled up the screen.
I hadn't given it thought before, but I assume transparencies weren't as present in college because the room a given college class will be is essentially random. It's not an environment controlled by the person teaching. in high school and middle school, that was the teachers' classroom. The teacher stayed in their room, and we moved around. Projectors require more maintenance (bulbs going out!), and the college teachers would need to lug around their transparencies and pens. But all college classrooms have blackboards and some chalk.
Hands-down, the best presentation and note-taking math class I recall in college (discrete mathematics, a graph theory course, heavy on drawings) was run through a Wacom pen display on the lectern, linked to a projector. The professor could accurately and cleanly draw the required notation with his hand flat. Why erase when space is infinite, just scroll and/or zoom in the desired direction. A full color spectrum was…
In my opinion (which seems to mostly be shared by other mathematicians), the quality is quite good -- approximately comparable to the Japanese original. Also the price is cheaper, $17.00 for a 72-piece box.
We chalk snobs have breathed a collective sigh of relief.
I studied physics and this at a time when faculty gradually changed from blackboard-based lectures to powerpoint. The blackboard-based lectures were far superior to any other way of lecturing (in my view). Main benefit was in the speed of presentation. Writing on a blackboard takes some time, the lecturer is slow enough in presenting that you can really follow along, while not "standing still". What a contrast to pow…
> Main benefit was in the speed of presentation. Writing on a blackboard takes some time, the lecturer is slow enough in presenting that you can really follow along, while not "standing still". While I love chalk, and miss it since my current university uses whiteboards (actually stupid @#@#* WallTalkers, despite our pleas), it's hardly the case that the two options are 'chalk' or 'Powerpoint'. Also, Powerpoint slide…