Catching Up On a Few Thangs

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

An eclectic potpourri of links to get 2013 underway….

1) Last week, American Radioworks had a wonderful (hr.-long) show on the varieties of online higher education (not restricted to math education, but in general), entitled "Keyboard College." A highly worthwhile listen, if you missed it:

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/keyboard-college/

2) The Indian prodigy mathematician Ramanujan continues to amaze long after his death. Fascinating piece on mystical deathbed conjectures the young Indian made (inspired by a Hindu goddess) that have been proven true 90 years later:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2254352/Deathbed-dream-puzzles-renowned-Indian-mathematician-Srinivasa-finally-solved--100-years-died.html

...also, apparently a film of Ramanujan's life, "The Genius of Ramanujan" is due for release next March.

3) For William Thurston fans (of which there are many), a quite long read here on Thurston and the Haken conjecture:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=getting-into-shapes

4) The below site, I only recently learned of, may appeal to young math problem solvers and contestants out there:

http://blog.brilliant.org/

It offers up (level-appropriate) 'challenging' problems to participants on a weekly basis. Be sure to read the "FAQ," "How It Works," and "Blog" sections.

5) I remember Tom Lehrer as a satirical singer-songwriter in the 1960s when I was growing up. A recent post from another blog though reminds/informs? me that Lehrer was actually a professional Harvard-trained mathematician before he found entertaining on a stage more lucrative.
Anyway, as a victim of the 60's 'New Math,' this is how I remember him:



6) I haven't posted a puzzle on the blog for awhile, but here's a beautiful geometry one recently posted at "Futility Closet":

http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/12/23/belt-loop/

7) And, in case that was too easy for you (though I doubt it) you can always download this PDF to learn about "the hardest logic puzzle ever" (originally stemming from Raymond Smullyan, and involving asking questions of gods):

http://www.snsanalytics.com/ask7y0


...and next up will be the first brand-spanking Math-Frolic interview of 2013... introducing someone most of you likely don't know.

Potpourri #2

Another mixed potpourri of schtuff today:

Many of you may have already seen this, but I just recently came across MathMama's (Sue Van Hattum) 2+ year-old post, "Sue's Top Ten Issues In Math Education" which are worth passing along if you've not seen them (several interesting comments follow it as well):

http://mathmamawrites.blogspot.com/2010/02/sues-top-ten-issues-in-math-education.html

Next, a great long-read on the work of popular mathematician/topologist and Fields Medalist William Thurston, who just died a couple of months ago:

http://tinyurl.com/8gl555p

There's a remembrance page for Thurston, by the way, from the Cornell Dept. of Mathematics here:

http://www.math.cornell.edu/News/2012-2013/thurston.html

Lastly, to some lighter reading, Norman Wildberger (who I've previously written about/linked to) recently notified me that he has a blog as well:

http://njwildberger.wordpress.com/

The blog is more commentary than mathematics, but I did find his Sept. 29 post interesting in that it echoes the same sense I've had about the onslaught of digital learning opportunities and decline of traditional university settings.
In fact, I'm surprised at the extent to which many universities (including in my area) continue to rapidly physically expand (at great cost) when it seems clear that fancy brick-and-mortar buildings and student attendance on-site, will be far less necessary in the decades ahead (especially for non-technical fields). Indeed, I've previously mused that the time will come when many students won't matriculate at a single university for a degree at all, but take courses from a schmorgasbord of schools.

Anyway, several excerpts from Wildberger:

"One of the momentous waves of change which is just now starting to roll over universities and academics around the world is a whole new online way of learning, accessible from essentially anywhere, for free. This will have a deep and profound effect on academic life…
"Increasingly you can log onto YouTube, or iTunes U, or other repositories, and start learning about anything you want. While in many areas the offerings are still in a scattered and embryonic form, the amount of material and resources is increasing exponentially, and the process seems clearly irreversible. More organized courses called MOOCS are using platforms such as Coursera, EdX, Udacity and others to train tens of thousands of students (how successfully is still a question)…

"No amount of feet dragging by academics, textbook publishers, college administrators, and other entrenched interests will likely stop this trend. The reality is that universities as sole repositories of high-end knowledge and learning is coming to an end. Academics like myself will have to adapt or be prepared to go the way of the harness and carriage-makers a hundred years ago with the advent of the motor car...

"The teaching role of universities, especially for large popular subjects, will inevitably change from providing primarily learning content to providing primarily assessment, support and certification. People will pay to get a certificate of achievement. They will no longer be so willing to pay to get instruction that they can easily get for free online…

"The current technology supports a massive expansion of knowledge into the third world, as well as empowering ordinary people, young and old, rich or poor, to learn, learn, learn, as long as they want to! It will be one of the really big game-changers in the brave new world of tomorrow. Education is a killer application for the internet."

I love that closing line, 'Education as a killer app for the internet'! (even if its fulfillment is still a ways off).  And while Wildberger acknowledges the "social" role universities can play in people's lives, he essentially argues it won't be enough to outweigh the costs and inefficiencies involved in on-site higher ed. instruction.

William Thurston R.I.P.

Math circles this week have been noting the death of outstanding and influential mathematician/topologist (and Fields Medalist) William Thurston on Tuesday at age 65.
Terry Tao's obituary to him here:

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/bill-thurston/

A famous essay Thurston wrote entitled "On Proof and Progress In Mathematics" is available online here:

http://tinyurl.com/8symrpq

(or you can google it if you prefer it in pdf form)

ADDENDUM: just adding a couple more links (to Scientific American and the NY Times) from the many memorials to Thurston : 

http://tinyurl.com/dyyf8nc

http://tinyurl.com/c3lbkmg