Setting up a home workspace

It seems unlikely that we'll be allowed to work in our offices for the rest of the semester (which is good, as far as the CDC recommendations go).  But that means carting home a bunch of stuff and setting up a comfortable (and cat-proof, and mostly partner-proof) workspace.

It will take some time to figure out how to rig up all the things I will be using -- microphone, webcam, iPad, dual monitors, possibly a really old pen-tablet, chalk board.  And then it will take time to fix up a few issues in my office (I need to hang up curtains so I can see my screens midday).

Meanwhile, in another reality, I would have been on a flight to Turkey right now, heading off to a vacation with a goal of flying back to the US with my sister and my niece.  With everything going on, I'm obviously not on a plane right now, but my sister and niece will be back in the US on Wednesday.  I'll head back to my hometown on Tuesday and help get her house ready for her, then pick her up Wednesday and help her get settled back in, and then Friday I'll head back to Clinton to keep prepping for remote classes.

Class Preferences

Today in our in-person Modern Algebra class, my students and I talked about our concerns moving forward and I solicited some student preferences that I found useful to rethink my delivery of course material in the coming weeks.

First, my students expressed a preference for lecture-length [50 minute] videos.  Color me surprised!  I (naively) thought the TikTok generation would prefer short videos.  I predict I will get overwhelmed with the creation and editing of 50 minute videos, so I'll do short edits. But I will probably use the YouTube playlist feature to put together 50 minutes of content that will autoplay for students.

The apps I'm most familiar with for pencasting (creating digital whiteboard lecture that you speak on top of, either as you create it or as you play back the penstrokes or both) are Doceri (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/doceri-interactive-whiteboard/id412443803, fairly simple to learn, direct post-to-YouTube option that's easy to use) and ExplainEverything (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/explain-everything-whiteboard/id1020339980, more [maybe too many?] features, a steeper for me learning curve, but it has an infinite canvas!) on an iPad.

I've also dug out my 2013 Wacom Intuos tablet, which still works with the latest Mac OS, for the Zoom whiteboard feature.  I know you can theoretically connect yourself and your iPad to Zoom, but I think the old-skool approach -- a specific pen-tablet that you plug into your computer as an additional input device -- will be easier to manage as I get used to Zoom.  I'm already familiar with how to use a pen-tablet from my math cartoonist days (ha!), so I'm feeling better about online office hours via Zoom than I was when I imagined figuring out how to manage multiple connections, etc.

I'm also cooking up a low-tech solution (h/t to @benblumsmith on Twitter, who seems to have a similar low-tech problem-solving strategy) of mounting a (physical) blackboard to my office bookshelves using pulleys so I can raise and lower it and still be in my "recording zone" with the current configuration of the old mic and webcams I dug out for better quality recording.

Okay -- time to draft out a first attempt at a plan for Modern Algebra done online!

Nothing ever happens on Mars

I woke up with the weird earworm "Nothing Every Happens on Mars" from the equally weird (and charming) Waiting for Guffman.



Why? I don't know, but in the cold light of day (literally -- it's cold and rainy here) it seems relevant.  Both for its contrast to the state of things: everything is happening all at once! and for its looming, stark relevance: social distancing is going to be, well, boring.*  I'm kind of a master of boredom that comes from not having a whole lot going on (as are many residents of more rural areas).** But I feel for those of you in (or about to be in) big cities who are (a) way more likely to be dealing with COVID-19 firsthand (a topic that's heavy on my mind but that I have no capacity to write about yet) and (b) further frustrated by the lack of normalcy.  No sports.  No concerts.  No museums.  Yikes.  At least here in Clinton I have a hill I can walk to, alone and without seeing anyone else, and from its top I can see the beautiful sunrise and sunset.



More thoughts more closely related to the challenge of changing to online courses with a widely dispersed audience later.  In the meantime, I'll be thinking about that poor Martian looking for a little excitement.  Right now, we have a little extra to share.



*And at the same time, absolutely necessary to save lives.  The latest UCSF report forecasts 1 to 1.5 million COVID-19 deaths.  Take all of this seriously, okay?  Even if you will be okay, you inevitably know lots of people who might not be.



*That's not totally fair to Clinton, NY, and the Utica area: there is a bunch happening, but it's not the same as living in a big city where there's a lot of stuff happening and you can just step outside and find it.

LaTeX in Blogger? Q.E.Done! \(\square\)

I think, my dudes, that I properly configured MathJax.  Let's see: \(\displaystyle \sum_{n=1}^\infty 2^{-n}\)

And Now for Something Completely Different!

There's no time like a global pandemic to (re)start a blog, right?

Hi! I'm Courtney Gibbons.  I'm an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Hamilton College, and I'm writing from within my own personal cloud of panic about the shift from traditional classes to remotely delivered content to students spread across multiple time zones.  When I glimpse a view of the horizon through the panic, though, I have to admit I'm a little bit excited by the challenge.

This blog, whatever it becomes, will be a place for me to record what I'm trying, how it's going, and -- inevitably -- some of the math we're doing along the way.

How to use Office Hours

My office hours, and generally those of the faculty in the math department, are drop-in. That means that you can show up and expect me to be there during my posted office hours (plus or minus five minutes if I’m running a little bit late). You don’t need to schedule an appointment to see me; I usually operate on a first-come, first-served basis.

How to Study for Exams

For math exams in general, it can be useful to form a study group to talk over problems and solutions before the exams. It’s also useful to retry problems you’ve seen on homeworks, quizzes, and writing assignments (without looking at your previous attempt or the graders’ comments) to figure out what you need to focus on studying.

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Prof. Gibbons’ Linear Algebra exams should take you about 90 minutes to complete. The format:

• First Page: “Example or impossible” and True False problems.
• Middle 2-3 Pages: Homework-like problems (~5 of them).
• Last Page: Writing Assignment-like problems (~2 of them).

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Studying for the First Page

• At the end of each chapter, the book has True of False questions and discussion questions. These are great problems to make sure that you have a handle on the theory in the class (meaning, literally, the theorems and other results that we have proved throughout the semester). If you are studying these and would like solutions, contact Prof. Gibbons.
• Try to read my mind! Make up questions for this page by looking at the theorems and examples in the notes and book and seeing if you can find good questions that seem to be like the quiz questions. Often the reason that something is impossible is that a theorem says it can’t happen.
• Come up with some examples that show lots of things. For example, the identity matrix and the zero matrix are great examples to keep in mind as you work these problems. The zero matrix works for all of the following statements:
• A matrix that is singular
• A matrix for which \(A\mathbf{x} = \mathbf{0}\) has infinitely many solutions
• A matrix row equivalent to a matrix with a row of zeros
  and others. The matrix \(\begin{bmatrix} 2& 6 \\ 3 & 1 \end{bmatrix}\) has already come up in class a few times as an example of: a singular matrix, a singular matrix without a zero row, a matrix that is not row equivalent to \(I_2\), a matrix that has a number other than one or zero in reduced row eschelon form, and so on.

Studying for the Middle Pages

• There are additional problems at the end of the chapter if you want a source of more problems. If you are studying these and would like solutions, contact Prof. Gibbons.
• There are no caluclators on exams, so practice to be sure that you can do a few simple steps (like row reduce or substitute) by hand. (Prof. Gibbons doesn’t want to check your arithmetic, so she might try to help you out with some row reduction, etc., already completed.)

Studying for the Last Page

• These questions will require you to form a Proposition (that is, a universally quantified implication:
• Proposition. For all …, if …, then … .
  and then to write a proof that starts with “Proof” and ends with an end-of-proof symbol like \(\square\) or QED. Your first and last sentences should conform to good style (state your assumptions in the first sentences, do the math, and then conclude what the proof technique you’re using requires you to conclude).
• One problem will come from a writing assignment or class groupwork, so you will have seen it before. Another problem will be new, but it will use the same techniques as in class and on writing assignments (like letting \(r\) and \(s\) be real numbers where \(r+s = 1\) in order to come up something new from two existing things, or using the logical equivalence \[p \implies (q \lor r) \equiv (p \land \lnot q) \implies r).\]