MERLOT Classics Series

MERLOT and Elluminate are coordinating a MERLOT Series on Steve Hargadon’s Future of Education site: http://www.FutureofEducation.com. The series will feature MERLOT Classic Award winners from the 2008 and 2009 MERLOT International Conferences. The authors of these exemplary materials will describe their sites and the rationale for developing the site. The event will be co-hosted by Cathy Swift (MERLOT Director of Academic Partner Services) and Steve Hargadon (Elluminate Social Learning Consultant). The webinars are live and interactive, and typically are one hour long--allowing for a live Q&A after the presentation. All of these will be at 8 PM Eastern/ 7 PM Central/ 6 PM Mountain/ 5 PM Pacific.

View the Elluminate Live Recording of this event.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Demos with Positive Impact - Mathematics Classics Award

This site is a collection of quick classroom demos that enhance the learning of mathematics content through animations, experiments etc. Each demo comes with stated objective, prerequisites, instructor notes and platform info, plus the level of the demo and credits. This setup appears conducive to quick inclusion into a class.

David R. Hill is a Professor of Mathematics in Temple University’s College of Science and Technology. He came to the Temple University in 1973 after earning a B.S. Ed, Mathematics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a M.A. in Mathematics from SUNY Buffalo, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh where his thesis was in numerical analysis. Between the M.A. and the PhD. he worked for a diversified manufacturing company as a computer analyst. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of the Virgin Islands.

Dr. Hill has taught a wide variety of graduate and undergraduate mathematics courses including numerical analysis, linear algebra, differential equations, calculus, and general education mathematics. He started developing and using instructional technology on an Apple II and has subsequently used a variety of technologies including MathCAD, Excel, Flash, and in particular MATLAB for instruction. He has co-authored books on linear algebra which incorporated technology in several different formats and has emphasized the use of MATLAB in upper divisional courses. He has also given a number of invited talks and contributed to conference proceedings on topics involving the integration of technology in teaching mathematics.

Lila F. Roberts is Dean of the College of Information and Mathematical Sciences and Professor of Mathematics at Clayton State University. Although most of her time these days is spent with academic administration, she enjoys investigating the use of various technologies for teaching and mathematics, including handheld devices such as iPods and iPhones. While she was a faculty member at Georgia Southern, she received an Award for Excellence in Contributions to Instruction.

The Demos with Positive Impact project has received recognition from the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse’s Digital Dozen, the MAA MathDL Digital Classroom Resources, the UK-based EEVL Internet Guide to Engineering, as a partner in the MAA’s Math Gateway NSDL project, and from MERLOT as the 2008 Classics Award as an Exemplary on-line Model for Mathematics.