Author: Paul Kates

Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Liaison to the Faculty of Mathematics (pkates@uwaterloo.ca)

Presenting lectures with iPad and 2Screens — Paul Kates

Please visit the Presenting lectures with iPad and 2Screens page to learn about combining the ability of the iPad app 2Screens to make presentations to students in the classroom with the iPad’s ability to capture handwriting with a stylus.

Display, annotate, browse, or write-freehand with 2Screens on an iPad tablet. Using files from Microsoft Office or Apple iWorks; or files (pdf), images and video from the web you can present to your students or audience through the lightweight iPad with a VGA adaptor. With an additional pen stylus, pages can be annotated or new pages written, live in class. Files in 2Screen are displayed on tabs, so it is easy to switch among different content pages, jumping from a slide tab to a whiteboard tab for example, to work on a problem or exercise.

Paul Kates
Mathematics Faculty CTE Liaison
pkates@uwaterloo.ca, x37047

Writing Math: MathJax and Desire2Learn — Paul Kates, Oct 18, 2012

Please visit the MathJax and Desire2Learn page to read about writing mathematics using MathJax in the Desire2Learn course management system here at the University of Waterloo.

Paul Kates
Mathematics Faculty CTE Liaison
pkates@uwaterloo.ca, x37047

Simulation Modelling Tool EJS — Paul Kates

Simulation Modelling Tool EJS

EJS (Easy Java Simulations) is an active, open-source software project designed for instructors and students to graphically model differential equations.

It allows selecting graphical display elements like graphs, input elements like sliders and parameter variable boxes and output animation elements
to build a simulation of a differential equation model with little to no programming. Equation solvers are built in, as are the basic user interface elements that can be so time-consuming to add into programs.  Should you wish to go beyond the basic features of the software, optional programming in Java can be added. Continue reading Simulation Modelling Tool EJS — Paul Kates

Piazza – web-based discussion forums for university courses — Paul Kates

Piazza.com offers students and professors a smart-looking , easy-to-use discussion forum for question & answer communication in university and college courses. It is free to use and free of advertising. and is proving popular enough to use at some of the technical schools in the USA (e.g. Stanford, Berkeley, Georgia Tech) and Canada (e.g. University of Waterloo, University of British Columbia, University of Toronto). Continue reading Piazza – web-based discussion forums for university courses — Paul Kates

The High Cost of Intellectual Poverty: How Myths About Intelligence and Talent are Slowing Human Progress, 2010 Hagey Lecture by Dr. John Mighton – Paul Kates

We had the pleasure of two fine speakers last week at UW, John Mighton and Eric Mazur.  Both had a good deal to say about what they discovered while teaching.  You can read about Professor Mazur’s talk Memorization or Understanding: are we teaching the right thing? in a recent posting on this site.  Today I’ll spend time with Dr. John Mighton, mathematician, playwright, author and founder of JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies, grades 1-8). Continue reading The High Cost of Intellectual Poverty: How Myths About Intelligence and Talent are Slowing Human Progress, 2010 Hagey Lecture by Dr. John Mighton – Paul Kates