One Good Idea: WriteLatex

I don't know how the rest of the bloggers keep up, but here is my next post about my Advanced Calculus class this term.

One new thing I am trying this term is to have the students write up solutions to the questions they solve on WriteLatex.  I have a free account and I have shared the file with the class.  This is working well with the 8 students in my class, but I am not sure how well it would work with a much  larger class.  It has also completely changed the class dynamics.

Past: Students would volunteer to present solutions to problems in class.  They would write up their solutions on the board (chalk or white) and the other students would review their work.  A lot of time was taken writing on the board since they don't really know how to talk and write at the same time.  Not much work was actually written up and turned in.

Present:  Students are going on the web site and writing up the problems they can do.  Then, in class, they present their solution and talk through it.  I think the most disconcerting part is when they discover an error and they correct it using their own laptop.  Meanwhile words just appear and disappear on the projected document.  The biggest problem I am having is getting the students who feel behind to submit proofs.

Then, I can go into the document and write comments about their proofs.  I have even been known to substitute more elegant LaTeX code as an example of the power of the environment (did you know about the \tag command?).

We did have one day when the WriteLatex server went down in class, but the students all have printed copies of the questions and we just proceeded using the boards.  Another problem is that the chapters are starting to get unwieldy.  I went through and chopped up Chapter 1 with each section having its own file because it would take a while to find where we were in the document.  I have heard that Sage Math Cloud has backwards and forwards searching which would be nice, but I hadn't heard about that project until over a week into the term.  Boy, it can be hard staying on the bleeding edge of things.

Conclusions: I love that the students are learning to communicate mathematics in writing and that we do not need to take time for writing.  This was not something I was expecting at all.  The original plan had them presenting at the board and only writing up their work afterwards.  However, I do need to find a way to "reserve" problems for students who are behind.

#IBL #WriteLatex