{"id":3625,"date":"2018-05-28T11:23:42","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T15:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/?p=3625"},"modified":"2018-05-28T11:23:42","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T15:23:42","slug":"teaching-offline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/2018\/05\/28\/teaching-offline\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Offline"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

The campus at Marian University College (Maruco) in Bagamoyo.<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m in Bagamoyo, Tanzania<\/a> at the moment teaching two summer courses to a group of undergraduate students at Marian University College. This experience is different from my typical teaching experience along several dimensions. I am teaching Complex Analysis to a group of 150 students. This is a course I’ve never taught, and it’s a group of students 5 times the size of my typical class. In order to deliver a message to the entire class at once, I need to write the message on a piece of paper and pin it to the main bulletin board. Moreover, this is an entire room full of non-native english speakers learning a subject full of technically dense jargon. And to take my challenge to the next level, I have one whiteboard that’s roughly…well, it’s small (it’s about the size of what I would have in my office). <\/p>\n

As a blogger the internet is obviously critically important to my productivity, and so much of my teaching and blogging inspiration comes from the #MTBoS<\/a>. And as a professor I am naturally pre-occupied with using technology in the classroom. This is such a hot topic, anyone who has ever applied for a job, or tenure has given it at least passing thought. The AMS blog PhD Plus Epsilon<\/em> has featured several posts on technology for teaching<\/a> and here we’ve done a couple of posts on teaching with technology<\/a>. But this visit has got me thinking about teaching without<\/em> technology. What does a technology-less classroom look like, and what are the advantages? <\/p>\n

\"\"

Getting ready to learn some Complex Analysis.<\/p><\/div>\n

While tech resources some almost impossible to get away from in US schools, a few years ago the New York Times profiled a screen-free school in Silicon Valley of all places<\/a> So it must be possible. Several years ago the Chronicle of Higher Ed published an article about efforts to “teach naked.”<\/a> That is, to teach without have the power of machines to lean on and hide behind and how this stands to benefit students. <\/p>\n

One important incentive for pumping our classrooms full of technology is that technology is like a language and it’s important that students be fluent its the language of technology by the time they graduate. To this important point, the Remind Blog<\/em> has a post about teaching digital literacy without actually using technology<\/a>. Students can learn about blogging, commenting, and online etiquette through well moderated discussions, and hashtags on the blackboard can actually work just like #hashtags. <\/p>\n

The Flip’d Blog<\/em> gives several good suggestions for using a technology-less environment to capitalize on student engagement<\/a>, including several links to studies supporting the merits of good old fashioned pen-and-paper note taking. <\/p>\n

I gave my first quiz today in Complex Analysis and without any prior discussion, each student showed up with a pencil, a ruler, and a scientific calculator. I have to say, this warmed my heart, since straight lines make graphing so much lovelier and I often find myself smh<\/a> at the primacy of the TI-83<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I hope they learn so much! Wish me luck! <\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m in Bagamoyo, Tanzania at the moment teaching two summer courses to a group of undergraduate students at Marian University College. This experience is different from my typical teaching experience along several dimensions. I am teaching Complex Analysis to a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,3],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-3625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues-in-higher-education","category-math-education","tag-teaching-with-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3tW3N-Wt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3625"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3637,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3625\/revisions\/3637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}