Think of a function

A few more of the Nottingham Core Topics in University Mathematics videos are now available on YouTube, including my video Think of a function. Unfortunately the printed text is a bit hard to read (small at normal size, fuzzy at full screen). Otherwise, I think that the University of Nottingham’s Video Productuion Group (led by Alan Mintey) have done an excellent job on these videos.
These videos are primarily aimed at first-year students, but in the past my second-year students have also had difficulties with “Think of a function”-style questions.
In this video I use the term range to mean image of the function here (this appears to be the Nottingham standard), not the codomain of the function. Some, including Tim Gowers, prefer to use range to mean codomain (this appears to be the Cambridge standard). Perhaps we should simply ban the use of the word “range”!
The blurb from the video says simply:

This video discusses how to choose a function with specified properties.

 

 

 

Using last year’s recordings

The Echo360 recording of my presentation on Using last year’s recordings from the third Nottingham METAL Workshop is now available from

http://uilapech01.nottingham.ac.uk:8080/ess/echo/presentation/08410f92-2340-426d-82b7-a438e365990a

To some extent this is a cautionary tale showing that innovations which are very popular with the students may not necessarily lead to the best exam results.

There were some problems with the lighting in the room, so I used some desk lamps to help. Unfortunately a further technical hitch which meant that there was some glare on the glass in front of the video camera at the back of the room.

I still feel that the footage of the speaker adds to the presentation, but the good thing about the Echo is that you can turn off one or both of the video streams if you want to!

I was pleased to see, at least, that the Echo360 recording did capture my large red pointer: this was a problem when I last tried Echo360.

Programme for the third Nottingham METAL (Media Enhanced Teaching and Learning) Workshop

METAL (Media Enhanced Teaching and Learning) Workshop III

Wednesday 11th January from 10:30-16:00

Keighton Auditorium, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD

The registration form is available at http://bit.ly/u3E57P (registration will close at 11:59PM on Sunday 8th January 2012).

Programme

10:30 Start and coffee

10:45 Workshop welcome – Joel Feinstein, Peter Rowlett and Claire Chambers

10:50 Interactive Teaching Rooms – Demonstration by Sally Hanford and Bill Vickers from Information Services at The University of Nottingham

11:10 Taking the ‘where’ out of Teaching – Paul Nathanail, School of Geography

The use of online lecturing, collaborative and tutorial environments to teach – illustrated with examples from the online MRes contaminated land programme

11:50   ‘Take the Floor’ session – Geoffrey Hulman

‘Pathology Mini Tutorial Video Podcasts to Supplement Medical Student Teaching’

12:00 ‘Take the Floor’ session – Guillermo Guzman Dumont, Department of Architecture and Built Environment

12:20 Lunch and coffee, followed by an opportunity to remotely participate in a live E-Learning Community event (Keighton Auditorium, 12:30–14:00) or to try out the METAL project software* and equipment (Keighton foyer area)

14:00 ‘Take the Floor’ session – Philip Ingrey, School of Mathematical Sciences

14:10 ‘Take the Floor’ session – Liz Mossop, School of Veterinary Medicine & Science

14:20 Video conferencing, web conferencing and associated technologies – Ian Pearshouse from Information Services at The University of Nottingham

14:40 Using last year’s recordings** – Joel Feinstein, School of Mathematical Sciences

15:00 Alternatives to lectures*** – Peter Rowlett, HE Curriculum Innovation Advisor for the Maths, Stats and OR Network

15:30 Coffee and Discussion/ feedback

16:00 Close

* If you want to try Camtasia, and you don’t have a licence yet, please bring a laptop with the 30 day trial installed. You can download the trial version from: http://www.techsmith.com/download/camtasia

** See also my first case study, Using a tablet PC and audio podcasts in the teaching of undergraduate mathematics modules, available at http://www.maths.nottingham.ac.uk/personal/jff/Papers/pdf/podcasting.pdf

*** See also the NPR item at http://www.npr.org/2012/01/01/144550920/physicists-seek-to-lose-the-lecture-as-teaching-tool?sc=fb&cc=fp (Thanks to David Hodge for spotting that item!)

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 25,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Are these questions unambiguous?

Here are two very similar questions for you.

• Is there a pair of positive integers m and n, both greater than 1, satisfying mn=9?
• Are there two positive integers m and n, both greater than 1, satisfying mn=9?

And here are some questions about these questions (“metaquestions”?).

• Is at least one of the questions above ambiguous?
• Do the two questions have the same answer?
• Might students be worried about whether or not m and n are allowed to be equal?

This issue has actually turned up in my teaching (though with a different question, and with other issues around that could cause problems).

Martin Feinstein discusses the Southbank Centre’s Bach Weekend 2012

Well, yes, it isn’t really maths. But there is a lot of mathematical structure in Bach, so that gives me an excuse to plug my brother’s Bach Weekend, Friday-Saturday March 23-25 2012.

See http://classicalmusic.southbankcentre.co.uk/2011/12/19/exclusive-interview-martin-feinstein-discusses-southbank-centres-bach-weekend-2012/
for an interview with Martin about this event.

See also http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/festivals-series/bach-weekend-2012 for more details (and a chance to buy tickets online!)

Simpson’s paradox

I just watched a YouTube video about Simpson’s Paradox at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud9wIyl-TQ8&feature=colike
In among the cricket shots, there is a nice vector representation of the maths behind this apparent paradox.
(Simpson’s paradox is also mentioned in my class on “Why do we do proofs?”.)

The London Mathematical Society’s Women in Maths Day 2012

Please see below for a message from Elizabeth Fisher about the London Mathematical Society’s Women in Maths Day 2012.

____________________________________________________

Dear All,

The London Mathematical Society’s Women in Maths Day 2012 will be held on Friday 27 April at De Morgan House, 57-58 Russell Square, London WC1B (Nearest tube: Russell Square).

For poster, see:

http://www.lms.ac.uk/content/forthcoming-women-mathematics-day

This annual event is aimed at bringing together women in all areas of mathematics for a day of talks and discussion groups – please note, men are certainly not excluded from this event.
The speakers this year are Jennifer Scott (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory), Rachel Camina (Cambridge) and Christina Goldschmidt (Oxford)
The day is particularly aimed at postgraduates, final year undergraduates and those who are an early stage in their career. It provides a valuable opportunity to meet and talk with women who are active and successful in mathematics. While women are especially encouraged to attend this day, men are certainly not excluded.
The event is free to all students and £5 for all others (payable on the day).
Please find attached a poster which gives further details of how to register for this event and I would be grateful if you could send the poster to any students and post-docs who you think might be interested.
With many thanks and best wishes,
Elizabeth
***************************
Elizabeth Fisher
Grants and Activities Administrator
London Mathematical Society
De Morgan House
57-58 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HS
United Kingdom

Invitation to third METAL workshop on January 11th 2012

Invitation to the third METAL workshop on January 11^th 2012

• Are you interested in creating and using media to enhance your teaching, or are you already doing so?
• Do you want to learn from what others are doing or share your experiences?

The METAL (Media Enhanced Teaching and Learning) project is a University of Nottingham school led project that aims to build and support the growing community of staff involved in creating audio visual teaching material.

This project is funded by the University of Nottingham Teaching and Learning Strategic Fund, with some additional support from the MSOR Network and the National HE STEM Programme.

The third project workshop will take place on Wednesday January 11th 2012 from 10:30-16:00 in the Keighton Auditorium, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD. Lunch will be provided, courtesy of the MSOR Network and the National HE STEM Programme.

At this free workshop you’ll be able to find out what facilities and support are available in Nottingham, try out some of the hardware and software, find out what others are doing and talk about your experiences and any concerns you have. We hope you can join us.

You can register here: http://bit.ly/u3E57P (registration will close at 11:59PM on Sunday 8th January 2012).

The first two project workshops were held in May and June 2011. The ‘Take the Floor’ sessions, in which people talk about their work, proved very popular. We hope to have more of these at the next workshop, so if you would like to give a short informal talk (1-10 mins) on the uses you have made or would like to make of media in teaching, please indicate this when you register.

For links to further information about these workshops, and some recordings from the earlier workshops, visit my blog page at http://wp.me/PosHB-el

50k views

Looks like we are about to break the 50k total views mark on this blog Currently the meter reads 49,997 views all-time (since December 2008).

It could be a while before we hit a million views!

 

HE STEM special issue of MSOR Connections

The latest edition of MSOR Connections was guest-edited by Peter Rowlett, and is an HE STEM special issue, with articles on all the special initiatives and projects. (See below for links to the online edition.)

In particular, there are two METAL-related articles, at

http://mathstore.ac.uk/headocs/Connections_11_3_Feinstein.pdf

and

http://mathstore.ac.uk/headocs/Connections_11_3_Rowlett_d.pdf

HE STEM special issue of MSOR Connections

• Download the full issue:
  http://mathstore.ac.uk/headocs/Connections_Vol11_No3.pdf
  Download individual papers:
  http://mathstore.ac.uk/node/1705

Young Functional Analysts’ Workshop and next NBFAS in Oxford 23-24 March 2012

Although I usually focus on undergraduate-level mathematics “Explaining Mathematics” is important at all levels of maths, including postgraduate level.

See the message from Joachim Zacharias below and the PDF poster concerning the Young Functional Analysts’ Workshop and next NBFAS in Oxford 23-24 March 2012

______________________________________

Message from Joachim Zacharias

______________________________________

Dear all,

Please find below an annoucement of the Young Functional Analysts’
Workshop (YFAW) send to me by David Seifert.

This workshop will be combined with the next NBFAS 23-24 March 2012 at Oxford. Speakers for the next NBFAS are

* Gilles Pisier and
* Mikael Roerdam

I have attached the poster for the YFAW which also mentions the NBFAS.

I think this `double’ meeting is very attractive in particular for
postgraduate students and should be publicised widely. Therefore I would like to encourage everyone to put copies of the poster on as many
notice boards and walls as possible and let people know about this
upcoming event.

Many thanks and best wishes,

Joachim

————————————–Dear all,This is to announce the next Young Functional Analysts’ Workshop (YFAW),
which will be held at the University of Oxford on 21 and
22 March 2012.  The workshop is aimed at early-stage researchers
(postgraduates and post-docs) in Functional Analysis and related
areas and has been running successfully for several years.  It offers
participants an opportunity both to present their own work
in front of a sympathetic audience and to get to know less familiar areas
of current research in Functional Analysis through talks
given by other young researchers as well as invited speakers.  Our line-up
of invited speakers is:

*  Prof. Charles Batty (University of Oxford, UK)
*  Dr Matthew Daws (University of Leeds, UK)
*  Dr Olga Maleva (University of Birmingham, UK)
*  Prof. Wilhelm Winter (University of Münster, Germany)

We are delighted to have been awarded a generous grant by the London
Mathematical Society, which will be put towards subsidising
the costs of travel and accommodation of UK-based research students.
Unless you would prefer to organise your accommodation
independently, we would be happy to provide you with a room in St John’s
College, Oxford, for the three nights of 20, 21 and 22
March 2012.  This will allow participants to arrive in good time for a
drinks reception in the evening of Tuesday 20 March and to
stay in Oxford following a Workshop Dinner on Thursday 22 March, both of
which will be paid for largely out our grant.  To cover
administrative costs there will, however, be a registration fee of £20.

Our workshop will be followed by a meeting of the North British Functional
Analysis Seminar (NBFAS), to be held in Oxford on 23
and 24 March 2012 with Gilles Pisier (Paris VI University, France, and
Texas A&M University, USA) and Mikael Rørdam (University of
Copenhagen, Denmark) as speakers.  Should you wish to attend this event,
too, we may be able to arrange for your stay at St John’s
College to be extended by a night or two (although the cost of this will
not be covered by our grant).

If you are interested in taking part in the Young Functional Analysts’
Workshop 2012, please visit the YFAW website at

https://sites.google.com/site/yfawuk/ [sites.google.com]

for further details, including information on how to register.  Even
though we strongly encourage participants to take advantage
of the welcoming environment and consider giving a talk, those who would
prefer not to give a talk are still very welcome to
attend.

We hope to see you in Oxford in March.  If in the meantime you have any
questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us
via email at david.seifert@balliol.ox.ac.uk or
matthew.tarbard@sjc.ox.ac.uk.

Best wishes,
David and Matt

Bluebeam PDF Revu menu icon size

I have just posted the following query at

http://communities.bluebeam.com/showthread.php?p=1621#post1621

But perhaps one of my readers can help?

Hi,
I am using Bluebeam PDF Revu on my tablet to teach maths. Unfortunately the only screen resolution setting I have which fits the actual screen proportions is 1280 x 800, and at this size the Bluebeam menu icons are rather small for my eyesight to cope with.
Is there any way to increase the menu icon size so that I can see what I am doing?
Joel Feinstein

Core topics in (Nottingham) university mathematics.

Hi everyone,

Just to prove that I am not the only one at Nottingham publishing maths videos on YouTube, if you visit

http://www.youtube.com/nottmuniversity#g/p

You will see that there is a new Playlist there called Core topics in university mathematics. (Two videos there so far, but more will appear there shortly.)

These short videos were recorded for us by the University of Nottingham’s AV team as part of my colleague Steve Cox’s project, funded by the University of Nottingham. (This collection does include one of my own videos, called “Think of a function”, which should appear in due course.)

Professional production of short videos is a tough process! We were in the studio for several hours each, and post-production (including special effects!) for this set of videos took a very long time.

By comparison, my Camtasia recordings are relatively easy to produce. But of course my videos are in a completely different style. I could not possibly produce comparable professional quality videos for my entire modules (at about 25-30 hours of video per module).

These short videos are intended to help support some core topics where we have detected that many of our first year students would benefit from such support. But perhaps others may find them helpful too.

Definitions, Proofs and Examples (2011) now complete

The fifth and final DPE session was today, so this collection is now complete.

See https://explainingmaths.wordpress.com/definitions-proofs-and-examples/ for links to all of the videos (streaming video, mp4 files, YouTube, iTunes …)

I was very careful to make sure my laptop was on mains power today, but the sound/video synchronization is still imperfect. I think it is pretty good until half way through, but drifts a little by the end. I don’t think this is a major issue, but I am puzzled by the cause. Perhaps I need a more powerful laptop to cope with the combined demands of Camtasia 7 and Bluebeam PDF Revu.