This site was created by Craig L. Zirbel to help new college math teachers improve their skills with technology, to improve their teaching, to advance their careers, and to save them time in working with technology. The site is used as part of a course for graduate students, so many of the materials below are assignments for the course and so may give directives to do this and that. Whether you are in the course or not, I hope you find these resources useful!
Touch typing and keyboard shortcuts
Everything you do on a computer will be faster if you learn to type without lifting your hands and without looking at the most common keys as you type them. This is called "touch typing." Use one of the sites below to learn. Work at it until you can consistently type above 60 words per minute.
- https://www.typingclub.com/ looks to be excellent. The first video has good advice! (2020)
- https://www.livechatinc.com/typing-speed-test/#/ lets you check your typing speed. Just start typing. (2020)
- Learn to use these keyboard shortcuts on the PC. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 for Mac.
- Ctrl-S to save
- Ctrl-C to copy
- Ctrl-V to paste
- Ctrl-X to cut
- Ctrl-Z to undo
- Ctrl-F to find text in a page
- Ctrl-O to open a file from the disk
- Ctrl-N to start a new file in an editor
- Alt-Tab changes from window to window. Learn to use it, it saves loads of time.
- Alt-= to insert a new equation in Word
- Ctrl-T to open a new tab in a browser
- Ctrl-Shift-T to open a browser tab that was just closed
Microsoft Word for making handouts with math expressions and images
Making graphs and animations
- GeoGebra
- GeoGebra lets you make graphs, save them in your account, view them later in class, and output graphics files in unlimited resolution .svg format. You can also make animations.
- See the sub-page about GeoGebra
- Desmos
- Set up an account so you can save your graphs. I suggest making up a username and password that you can easily remember and type when you go to class, and not linking to your google account or using the same password that you use for more sensitive things.
- Desmos only allows you to export a file in PNG format. It's a good format, but limited resolution.
- PowerPoint
- Matlab. See an example from RNA bioinformatics.
- Start programming is a web page with basic programming exercises, including examples in Python and R.
- Math 5920 LaTeX road map (2020)
- LaTeX basics gives a very short introduction to LaTeX (2020)
- Overleaf is an online LaTeX editor, which makes everything easy including collaboration. I suggest you set up an account.
- LaTeX reference documents:
- 1.tex is a very simple LaTeX source file, without much formatting. See the output in pdf.
- 2.tex has large fonts, paragraph spacing, and line spacing. See the output in pdf.
- 3.tex shows how to type mathematics and how to display equations. See the output in pdf.
- 4.tex is a complete homework assignment, with many equations, fonts, and tabs. See the output in pdf.
- 5.tex is most of a sample exam set in two columns with the paper in landscape orientation. See the the source file and the output in pdf.
- spacing.tex gives examples of centering, flushing, and spacing (also download this graphic file). See the output in pdf.
- article.tex is a sample article with sections, equation references, and bibliography. See the output in pdf and this reference for the hyperref package.
- See the page about BGSU thesis and dissertation templates which links to a Github repository with a LaTeX template (2020)
- Incorporating graphics into LaTeX documents (2009)
- Download and install MiKTeX for the PC (2009)
- Download and install the LaTeX Editor (LEd) for the PC (2009)
- Using the LaTeX editor (LEd) for the PC including how to use the spell checker (2009)
- Editing your LaTeX source code to remove errors (2009)
- Where to store files needed for MiKTeX (2008)
- Macintosh instructions for LaTeX
- Using OzTeX to create pdf output on the Macintosh (2002)
- Use Beamer to produce high-quality presentations with LaTeX (2008)
- There are several "front ends" for typing in LaTeX. They make it easy to find the symbols to use, and make it easy to process, preview, and display LaTeX files.
- Configure MiKTeX for the PC (2008)
- Configure MiKTeX to run on the PC's in Hayes 025 (2008)
Canvas course management system
Javascript code on web sites to bring mathematical analysis to the public
View the page source to see the JavaScript code. You can use the page as a model to make your own page.
- Coin flipping and long-run proportions. Flip coins repeatedly and see how the proportion heads changes, then see the variation in proportion heads across many samples of a given size. Flip a mystery coin and try to determine the probability that it lands heads. (2015)
- Confidence intervals for coin flipping. Generate a sample of, say, 50 coin flips and calculate a confidence interval for the true probability of heads. (2015)
- Investment return calculator. Calculate the overall rate of return on a series of investments. (2013)
- Car cost analyzer. Spreads out maintenance and repair costs so you can think of those as accumulating at a variable rate per mile, which varies as the car gets older. (2011)
Send a text to one of your students (at BGSU)
Instructions. This applies to the Navigate system at BGSU. Students can reply, the email subject line will be "Text message from [student]" and the email will come from @bgsu.campus.eab.com
Scanning documents with your camera
- Microsoft Office Lens is a free phone app that allows you to make a black and white PDF
- CamScanner is a free phone app, with ads, that allows you to make a black and white PDF
- Adobe scan did not have black and white functionality in February 2020
Make the graph of an arbitrary function
Some class examples are best when we can sketch a generic function having certain properties, without having an algebraic representation of the function that we could graph with a graphing program. I have made a PowerPoint with instructions for producing a graph, which will help you produce an unlimited resolution version of such a graph.
The material below dates from 2010 or before, so use with care
Editing web pages on a Macintosh
Editing web pages on a Windows machine