Oxford Lecturers on How to Make Maths Seem Boring

Thirty five years ago I sat in on some Cambridge undergraduate veterinary medicine lectures and it was like this: the lecturer writes on the board as he speaks. In those days students spent the whole time copying down what he wrote long-hand.


Here's a clue for motivating students to actually think about what they're learning: it is not very interesting watching someone write out in long-hand everything that they are saying. Does anybody actually believe that, when students are given boring presentations like this, they think more about what is being said? See Walter Lewin on Moments of Inertia and Coefficients of Friction. I watched a little over thirteen minutes, and I can't bear any more!

Here's an example of a good lecture:


And here's how I know it's a good lecture:



And if you're wondering what this has to do with teaching calculus, and what is the difference between a right and a wrong way to calculate integrals, you could start here: Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, Functional Differential Geometry - MIT (or buy the book here: Functional Differential Geometry) and here Clifford algebra, geometric algebra, and applications.

See the bit about New Oxford University, written almost 124 years ago by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson here, on pages 27-29: As Easy As 1-2-3-4-5:





See also On Progressive and Degenerative Research Programs.

Now listen David Lynch on falling in love with an idea, and making movies: at 3 minutes 16 seconds.


And when thousands of people all over the world fall in love with the same idea? You're in deep trouble! Because you're going to be starved to death, for some reason! See What is the Sixth Estate? The reason is the one Lynch explains at 3 minutes 43 seconds. When cinema is abstract, there are too many different possible concrete interpretations. That is why The Sixth Estate was going to be a series of factual documentaries about real events, and not merely a never-ending series of B-movies full of coded nonsense!

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