I noted when coaching my step-daughter with her high school and
college work (only did a little of the latter, via email) that
we could have used more teacher-guidance re how to footnote web
pages. I would encourage her to use search engines e.g. for a
paper on Hobbes and Locke, but wasn't sure how to advise on
citing i.e. is the URL sufficient or semi-irrelevant (as when
quoting from Locke's original, but transcribed to the net)?
On the math front, I encourage students to absorb some HTML and
start learning how to present their ideas as web pages --
projects need to be "turned in" via the school intranet or on
CD (e.g. Scott Childs is doing stellar work in this mode).
To this end, I encourage scouring used book stores for old
math texts (cheap) and cannibalizing them for pictures and
diagrams -- easier to scan pictures of crystal lattices (a hot
topic in my curriculum) than trying to draw them from scratch.
Basically, I want my students to realize they can achieve the
"look and feel" of a published text book using the resources at
hand. This removes some of the "mystique" associated with
seeing slick, graphical presentations and thinking "slickness"
somehow means "credible" or "right" -- really it's just as easy
to package bogus information and make it "look good" as it is
to offer the "real McCoy" and sometime the glitz is directly
proportional to phoniness, i.e. the authors are compensating
for lack of substance with style. Students with experience
creating their own media tend to be less gullible I think,
because they realize how easy it can be to "wag the dog"
(i.e. fool all of the people some of the time, and some of
the people all of the time).
This year, my hope is to move into television production and
share more mathematics by this means. Students will be
involved in the production, screening and editing of clips,
perhaps undertaken in collaboration with sister institutions
with likewise well-endowed math departments (the Portland AFSC
uses local cable access facilities, which are above average I'd
say). As many of you know, my focus is synergetic geometry.
The blurb attached below is what I put out in newsgroups some
weeks ago. Feel free to circulate it further, including
among your students.
Kirby
=========
ANNOUNCEMENT RE THE VIDEOGRAMMATRON
(repost/forward OK, kill date Dec 31, 1998)
FR: Kirby Urner, 4D Solutions
TO: Animators/Artists, Potential sponsors, Talent
RE: Business opportunity (Silicon Forest)
Those of you with animation skills, e.g. have produced shorts
for Childrens Television Workshop (CTW), animation festivals,
videos on technical subjects etc. might be interested in
sending samples of your work and/or brochures/URLs re your
firm to 4D Solutions.[1]
Our test pilot TV series, for possible syndication (after
screening for test audiences here in the Silicon Forest), is
now in storyboard phase. Entitled "The Videogrammatron"
(inhouse project name -- perhaps changed for release), this
math-science show will feature short clips (claymations,
animations...) spliced together from archives, with each
show a mix of new and old, ala the 'Sesame Street' model,
along with interviews of talent in the field, other live
action ('Bill Nye the Science Guy' an inspiration, also
MTV).
If you're interested in sponsoring the show i.e. have a toy,
kit or gizmo of math-science relevance which you would like
featured in an educational context (with web address), this
may be worth checking into as well.
The curriculum behind this series is custom-tailored to serve
a specific market niche and has a fairly tight focus, in the
interests of having the heterogenous clips from a variety of
artists/sources all interrelate (much as 'Sesame Street'
interrelates its clips around topics A-Z and 1-20). So of
course some criteria apply (preponderance of clips will run
for under 2 minutes).
Submitted materials not returned unless return postage/mailer
included. Do not send confidential or eyes-only segments
(that might come later, if we agree to nondisclosure in
writing). Do not expect immediate replies. And please,
DO NOT SEND LARGE FILES as email attachments (by pre-
arrangement, I can point you to my FTP site for uploading).
To get some idea of themes and threads we're following, and for
a peek at current sources of raw materials, check my website
(winner of the coveted Dr. Matrix award for science excellence):
http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/synhome.html and also links at
http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/links.html (e.g. Richard Hawkins
QuickTime archives and STRUCK animations).
Bottom line: if you produce relevant clips, we'd like to
collaborate and offer fair compensation for your time/energy.
We will hope to negotiate (usually nonexclusive) rights to
allow unlimited recycling of your contributions in our TV
series, with full attribution and contact information
(provided you wish this) available via the companion website
(not always practical to squeeze all credits into the show
itself).
Sincerely,
Kirby Urner
Principal
4D Solutions
PS: If your firm is a sophisticated computer graphics shop,
you might want to try taking on the challenge of producing some
prototypical hypertoons. For more on the hypertoons concept,
see my write-up at: http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/hypertoon.html
PPS: feel free to forward this message in its entirety
(kill date: December 31, 1998).
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