Technology-enhanced instruction:
The Calculus series courses at the University of Michigan have a significant
computer-based component. This includes web-homeworks as well as "Gateway tests"
that evaluate the students' basic differentiation and integration skills.
In addition, Calculus-3 course has Maple labs, with four projects during the semester.
I helped to develop Maple-based tutorials for the projects as well as a discussion
web site where student can share and resolve technical difficulties with Maple.
Distance learning: The Computational Finance Program course was offered to
local students as well as students in New York, Frankfurt, and London. Communication
with the remote students was organized by a video-conference connection. This allowed the
remote students to ask questions in real time (I could see the person asking a question, not just
hear) and see the response on the video screen. Video could be switched from instructor to
the overhead or to the instructor's computer screen. The content of the whiteboard was
simultaneously transmitted and recorded; the students received it on their computer screens.
Computers in the classroom: One of the goals of Maple Course during the Center for
Non-linear Analysis Summer School is to solve mathematically meaningful and challenging
problems using the powerful software of Maple. I developed example problems that were
solved during the course:
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Cryptography: implementation of the RSA encryption scheme
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Population dynamics modeling (using the linear algebra approach)
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Fractals
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Bases in function spaces