Re: Mathematics and Powerpoint

From: Herman Rubin (hrubin_at_odds.stat.purdue.edu)
Date: 08/04/04 

Date: 4 Aug 2004 09:54:53 -0500

In article <ceql2i$7oi$1@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>,
Nath Rao <nXatTHEhraCAPSo@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Herman Rubin wrote:

>> In article <pan.2004.07.30.17.34.10.841620@lamboy.nospam.com>,
>> Lance Lamboy <lance.lamboy@lamboy.nospam.com> wrote:

>>>On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 09:37:57 -0700, David Bandel wrote:
>>>>well i can tell you're driven by emotion instead of logic but i'll try
>>>>to make one more appeal to that small shriveled section of your brain
>>>>used for rational thinking. when i said powerpoint slides take less
>>>>time. i meant over a period of 2 or 3 semesters in the ong run it will
>>>>save time. no writing on the chalkboard for all those 2 or 3 semesters,
>>>>so more time to talk and answer questions. maybe instead of trying to
>>>>be imaginative you should go post in sci.idiot.. where you might be
>>>>respected for having realistic points and proofs.

>> That is assuming that you will give the same lectures in
>> the same order time after time. If you are planning to do
>> that, videotaping might be even easier. That is NOT the
>> way I teach, but this is what the students now want, to be
>> spoonfed into acting like robots.

>I have come to the conclusion that students are actually being very
>rational, given their starting assumption, they don't care about
>learning, but a college degree has become essential to most good jobs,
>coupled with the fact that a degree must be from someplace where
>learning concepts are thought to occur, as seen from the fact they
>give non-trivial tests. For calculus, tests of the familiar kind will
>do, and students just want a good GPA.

This is a case of the inmates running the asylum, or other
similar cases. If there is a claim that learning concepts
occurs in cookbook courses, we, and all who believe that
there is a point in learning concepts, should object.

The tests being given are trivial.

Some GOOD high schools are refusing now to give a GPA or
class ranking, on the grounds that it hurts their students.
We need to get rid of the grade-credit system; some time
ago, I taught a probability class in which there were 21
undergraduates, probably all planning to become high school
teachers. Few were able to use calculus on an in-class exam,
and on a take-home part of the final, only 5 of these 21
understood calculus well enough to set up problems like those
gone over in detail in homework assignments. Those who taught
the calculus courses were not surprised. 

-- 
This address is for information only.  I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@stat.purdue.edu         Phone: (765)494-6054   FAX: (765)494-0558

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