Monday, November 8, 2010

Math: The Power of Video

I've talked about the power of video in education before. It's amazing how watching a good teacher can made things seem so much easier. Here's a couple of example dealing with calculus.

Let me start with the absurd. All of Calculus in 20 minutes. Yes it's a promotional video for a calculus course but don't let that bother you too much. I'm certainly not endorsing this as the way to embrace powerful new ideas. Still it's fun to watch so much crammed into a few minutes.

A much more useful introduction to the ideas behind calculus is from MIT's Open Courseware. Professor Gilbert Strang put together a few short videos to introduce the big picture behind calculus. There is also an entire calculus textbook he wrote available.

Unlike calculus in 20 minutes that makes things almost impossible to follow I find that Professor Strang makes it seem that it will be easy to learn. Which is all I ever asked for from a teacher.

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