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Teaching maths

Here is a 5 min video: "Doodling in Math Class"

It is entertaining. But what does it say to me about how to teach, how to lecture?

• Finally a demo of why writing equations on the board in real time is really not always the right thing. Because of how it uses speeded up video to show how a process goes on.
• It shows a sharp division between the tone of a presentation, and its pedagogical strategy: about what can be understood by the learners, what to mention and what not, ....
• It has considerable word play in, independently (mostly) of technical term usage, and of the fact that the topic is maths and in particular geometry i.e. NOT a linguistically-centered subject matter. I.e. the subject is essentially independent of language (unlike say literature, or history which is at bottom story-telling). You could imagine it taught without speech at all.
• The pace: it is well designed to grab the attention of an audience not predisposed to find it interesting. On the other hand: there is not time to think, I couldn't learn from it in real time. But then: this is video; it comes with a replay button. Is this then a lesson as well to Broadcast documentary makers, who typically take 50 mins for 5 mins worth of ideas and information? Perhaps they should do 1 minute, and make us replay it to "catch" the ideas.

Web site logical path: [www.psy.gla.ac.uk] [~steve] [localed] [this page]
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