Type Math on a Mac—Remapping My Keyboard

I use LaTeX to type mathematical documents. However, I often want to type mathematics when LaTeX is unavailable—for instance, in an email to a student, in a social media post, etc. To do so, I typically go to one of the many websites that offer “copy-and-paste” mathematical symbols, Greek letters, or subscript/superscripts. It is do-able…

Make a “Magic Eye” image using Excel

I’ve been on a weird kick lately making images using Excel. [Here’s one post. I hope to post more soon.] If you add a background color to each cell in a spreadsheet and resize the cell widths to make each one square, then you can zoom out so that each cell acts like a pixel…

Math class technology policy: Fall 2023 edition

I decided to address the use of technology—especially generative AI and large language models like ChatGPT and Bard—in the syllabi for my classes this fall. Here’s the current draft of my technology policy for my upcoming calculus classes. If you have thoughts or observations, leave them in the comments below. Also, feel free to copy,…

Technology of today’s students

Amherst College has over 1680 students.  Of them, only 14 have desktop computers and 5 have landline telephones.  Here is an interesting list of IT related facts about the college and their students. [via]

Student podcasts in a history of mathematics course

I would like to take this opportunity to showcase some of my students’ work from last year.  I taught a class called “Great Theorems and Ideas in Mathematics.”  It was an upper-level history of mathematics course with a focus on some of mathematics’ greatest theorems.  I used William Dunham‘s Journey Through Genius for a good…