Archive for the ‘How to’ Category

Someone at the conference asked me how to get ahold of this resource. This is my reference guide to doing math on text-based message boards. The first page is all about doing algebra on message boards. The second page includes calculus.

Certainly, I have not thought of everything and I welcome suggestions for improvement on this one. Comment or email and I will continue to modify and repost this file. I am a little bit nervous, actually, about the ones involving less-than or greater-than symbols, since those are in standard html tags. Anyone got any alternative suggestions for those?

With any luck we will only have to use it for a little while longer (I suspect that the next great innovation in message boards will be to have decent and easy-to-use math editors). However, for now, it helps if all the students (and you) use the same notations on the message boards.

Just a little ironic note… this was the first post I created for this blog, but I never got around to adding the file link, so I never posted the entry. So, somehow, the first post became the 68th post.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Announcing the 2012 MCC Math & Technology Workshop
• Abandon the Red Pen!
• Podcast Interview about Teaching Online Calculus
• A Recipe for Free Range Learning
• Math Technology to Engage, Delight, and Excite

Last year I created a six-lesson series for learning how to use MathType better, faster, more efficiently.

This is Lesson 1: Creating the Ctrl-E hotkeys to open and close MathType with a keyboard shortcut. This is on Windows XP with Office 2003.

This is something you only have to set up once on your computer. Once you’ve got the macros and hotkeys built, it’s done and you can use it until you have a computer crash or get a new computer.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Open and Close MathType Equations Quickly
• A Recipe for Free Range Learning
• Transforming Math for Elementary Ed
• Max-Plus Algebras
• Impact of Wolfram Alpha on Math Ed

I use a hotkey to open new equations when I am typing in Word. The hotkey I use is Ctrl+E (E for equation). This will be fine for you too as long as you don’t already use it for it’s assigned purpose, which is centering paragraphs.

This means that as you are typing a document… like a test, worksheet, handout, etc. you do not have to reach for your mouse to open an equation, you just type Ctrl with E and MathType opens automatically.

I have had a few people ask me how to create this hotkey on a machine running Vista and Office 2007. As I am not running Vista yet, my new assistant, Jill (who IS running Vista on her laptop), has created instructions (with screenshots) for creating the Ctrl+E hotkey in Word 2007 in Vista.

NOTE: The first time you use Ctrl+E in any document, it takes a couple seconds… after that it is very quick!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Open and Close MathType Equations Quickly
• A Recipe for Free Range Learning
• Transforming Math for Elementary Ed
• Max-Plus Algebras
• Impact of Wolfram Alpha on Math Ed

Sometimes, you don’t want to run a PowerPoint presentation in “full-screen” mode. For example, when I record Camtasia videos, I want the animations to run on the PowerPoint, so I have to “run” the presentation, but I want to be able to easily pull other resources into the Camtasia video (web browsers, TI-SmartView, SnagIt, etc.). You may have thought (as I did) that your only solution was to “escape” the presentation and go to the other resource, then rerun the presentation and go to the correct slide (repeating this process over and over).

But there is another way. Go into the PowerPoint Slide Show Set Up (see below).

Once in Set Up Show, make these two changes…

• Browse by an individual (window)
• Advance Slides Manually

Now when you run the presentation, it will run in a resizable window instead of full screen. NOTE: Mouse clicks will no longer advance the slides when you are running the show in a window, you must use Page Up and Page Down keys on your keyboard instead.

Possibly Related Posts:

• What if you don’t have enough whiteboards?
• What does the classroom say?
• Announcing the 2012 MCC Math & Technology Workshop
• Abandon the Red Pen!
• Keeping the Same Instructor

What’s a mouseover? It’s when you hover your mouse over an image, and text appears that is associated with the image. Technically, you could also call these “interactive hotspots.”

Here is a simple example I made to tell my students what the various links in WebAssign do. Hover your mouse over the links at the top (Home, My Assignments, Grades, Communications, Calendar) and you will get a description of what each one does… and a few other spots on the page.

I’ve just discovered (read your SnagIt emailed newsletters) that SnagIt can create Flash-based image files (swf files) with mouseovers. Watch the Techsmith screencast to see how.

I think I will begin using this for graphs… you know, when you write (a,f(a)) or (x,f(x)) or (x+h, f(x+h)) to go with a point? Well, I could make the points interactive hotspots and have the text associated with that point pop up! Cool!

I’m sure there are actually better uses… I just haven’t thought of them yet… got any suggestions?

Possibly Related Posts:

• Announcing the 2012 MCC Math & Technology Workshop
• Abandon the Red Pen!
• Podcast Interview about Teaching Online Calculus
• A Recipe for Free Range Learning
• Math Technology to Engage, Delight, and Excite

Since this little program has generated so much discussion today (mostly via email), I thought I’d share how I used Jing tonight in a Virtual Office Hour…

This is right from my live chat tonight in my calculus class (my response to this problem is to follow up the 12 or so student posts)… the “cut and paste” part is because URLs are not “live” in the chat room. Plus I don’t want them to get accidentally booted out of “chat.”

me: The problem is to find the values of a and b in order to make the piecewise function continuous. Here’s the function (cut and paste URL into separate browser window) http://screencast.com/t/bbjcb3nrf

me: The only piece that you know for sure is the first one. Where is the problem value for the first piece?

student: at x=2 The first part is equal to x+2

me: so when x=2, what is y?

student: 4

me: So now, in the second function we know it has to go through the point (2,4) or it won’t be continuous.

me: So, using y=ax^2-bx+5, substitute x=2 and y=4. You should end up with an equation that still has a and b.

student: 4a-2b=-1.

me: Okay… now… the last two equations must also intersect at x=3. So we set these equal to each other and use x=3 because that’s where the last two pieces switch. http://screencast.com/t/ezrIzNJeDJ

student: why is it that we use x=3?

me: because that is where the function jumps from one piece to another and the functions must be equal at their endpoints to be continuous.

student: okay

me: Now we solve the system of equations…
http://screencast.com/t/zxloCbrM

And that… is how you use Jing in a math chat! Each video took about 1 minute to upload… (but I’m on satellite high-speed internet, so probably it would be faster for most people with regular high-speed internet)

Please post your comments in the “comments” area (instead of in email) so that all readers can get the benefit.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Register for the 2012 MCC Math & Tech Workshop
• Announcing the 2012 MCC Math & Technology Workshop
• Abandon the Red Pen!
• Hard-learned Tips on Screencasting
• Custom Stamps in Adobe Acrobat for Digital Grading

First let’s address the function of an instructor web page vs. an online learning platform, just to make sure all of our readers are aware that there is a difference.

If you want to host discussions, put up notes, worksheets, or grades, then you really want an online learning platform (Angel, BlackBoard, etc.). Typically each college or University pays for hosting by one of these companies and all the instructors on campus are instructed to use it for online learning purposes

That said, what should an instructor web page have, how often should it be updated, and how do you set one up?

• Name of instructor
• Contact info (email, office phone, office hours, office location)
• Educational background (degrees received, special training, etc.)
• Recent publications or collaborations
• Photo of instructor (preferrably not the “stock” photo from your campus… I think it’s nice for students to see their instructor out in the “real” world)
• Current list of courses you are teaching and a link to the syllabus for each
• What will you be teaching next semster?
• What is it like to take one of my classes? (Why might a student be visiting your website in the first place? They are probably trying to decide which instructor to take the class from. Tell them what their experience in your class will be like.) I think it is especially important to tell students about the online experiences that they will have if you are teaching hybrid or online courses.
• Links to some of your favorite websites (again, this tells the students a little about you)

If this is the type of information you post, then you should only have to update your website about three times a year (when there is a change in semesters or quarters).

Now the nitty gritty… how?

You’ve probably got about three options:

1. Use the website-building software that your campus uses (on our campus, this is a program called SiteBuilder Toolkit). You may need to track down the campus webmaster in order to get a username and password (yes, another one) and to get a short tutorial on how to use the software, but it’s usually not too hard.
2. Use your own website building software and FTP client to load the webpage on the campus site. This means purchasing your own software, learning the software, and then getting the directions for FTPing to the campuse website. (really, if all you’re doing is a simple web page, go with option #1)
3. Purchase your own domain name, website software, and FTP program. My site’s domain name, http://www.teachingcollegemath.com/ is purchased through http://www.godaddy.com/, built using a software package called Open Mind (from Matchware), and FTP’ed with a free program called Core FTP Lite, through my godaddy account. I still have a simple campus webpage, but on this page is a link to the secondary (much more complex) site. By hosting the rest of this material off campus, I am not subjected to the changing whims of our web design committee or left high and dry when the campus changes website software. However, this does cost me approximately $100 per year for the hosting and domain name, so there are tradeoffs.

Possibly Related Posts:

• A Recipe for Free Range Learning
• Google Sites and Page Creator
• How to replace a Screencast file without losing the URL
• Nudging Text in MathType
• How to Build Animations in PowerPoint

There is now an RSS feed for this website. This means that you can add the blog to your iGoogle page and it will show the three most recent blog posts as clickable links. Just click “Add to Google” and choose “Add to Google homepage.”

For any of you that might want to offer this option on your own blog, here are the rough instructions:
1. Register for a Feedburner account and make sure you are logged in.
2. “Burn” the blog with Feedburner by giving it the URL.
3. Choose the RSS feed option.
4. Activate the feed.
5. In the Publicize tab, go to the Chicklet Chooser.
6. Click the radio button that says “Add to Google.” At the bottom of the page, use the drop down menu to “Use as a widget in Blogger” Then click on Go!
7. This should open a Blogger window called “Add Page Element.” Make sure the correct blog is selected (for those of you with multiple blogs). Click on Add Widget.
8. You can repeat steps 5-7 to add other subscription possibilities to your blog.

Possibly Related Posts:

• A Recipe for Free Range Learning
• How to replace a Screencast file without losing the URL
• Nudging Text in MathType
• How to Build Animations in PowerPoint
• Creating an Assignment in WebAssign