JaeWeb

understanding society

Daniel Little, the author of a textbook of which I use a couple of chapters in my research design course, has a very interesting blog about the philosophy of social science. As he puts it himself: “The blog is an experiment in writing a book, one bite at a time.” A nice blog to keep an eye on for any social scientist …

Add comment November 16th, 2008

drawings

I have always been of the opinion that math cannot be taught without a blackboard. Or a whiteboard - it’s not the color I’m talking about. But slides or powerpoints etc. just do not really do the job. Students can see the results of your descriptions, but not the action - you need to see math happening to get it, usually. And you also need to be able to answer questions that come up.

My statistics teaching takes place in a computer lab, since I combine lectures and tutorials in one. In the lab, there is a projector for the PC, but only one tiny whiteboard, stuck in the corner of the room. Of no use, really. So I’m searching for solutions.

Last night I watched a - for absolute nerds like me very interesting - lecture by Donald Knuth on “platology” (you can find it on iTunes U, which is a brilliant facility anyway). In the lecture, he has a camera on his paper in front of him, so he just writes with pen on paper and gets it projected on a screen. That’s pretty nice. But it of course requires technology not currently in the computer lab.

So now I wonder whether a site I stumbled on just now, Dabbleboard, is the solution. It seems like a very nice tool to use the normal projector to draw things and explain. It helps with the issue of not being able to draw straight lines with a mouse. It bags for a proper digital pen, though. In any case, I think it is a cool site, and it also allows for collaboration, so it makes discussions easier when you’re trying to discuss mathematical things on MSN or Skype.

Other suggestions are definitely welcome (just email me, as comments on the blog have been disabled). I found the page through DemoGirl.com, which is quite interesting as well.

Add comment August 18th, 2008

berkeley lectures

This post is as much a note to myself as anything else, but this looks really cool: Berkeley Webcasts. Entire lecture series in video for free online! Including cool ones in computer science and electronic engineering (oh, yes, and in political science).

I stumbled on this through iTunes U, which are podcasts of lectures, including these. So if you have iTunes, check that one out as well - many more universities put entire lecture series online. So far I have only listened to one on Byzantine emperors, but there is far more out there.

Add comment June 6th, 2008