[Blindmath] I'm Dying Here

[John Gardner via Blindmath]

Andrew you say: " Not only do I think it good pedagogically but as a
mathematician then it's how I think so why would I want to deprive the
students of that insight?"
JAG: First of all Andrew, you are incorrect that it is good pedagogically.
A large minority, sometimes estimated at 40% of the population are primarily
audio learners.  So while your pedagogy is good for 60% of your class, it is
bad for the rest.  I presume you want to use good pedagogy for the whole
class. If you are following maureen's advice, you are making your lecture
accessible to both visual and audio learners.  And while this may be the way
you think as a mathematician, not all mathematicians think alike (God
knows!). I suspect that there are even mathematicians who do not instantly
grasp everything visually.

In my experience since losing my sight, I can easily distinguish excellent
lecturers from the others.  The excellent lecturers unconsciously make the
lecture accessible to everybody.

Except for visual jokes.  

Just trying to help.

John


-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Andrew
Stacey via Blindmath
Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2014 11:38 AM
To: Blindmath
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] I'm Dying Here

On Sat, May 17, 2014 at 06:16:27AM +0100, Blindmath wrote:

> Just could not miss a comment on what Maureen said with regards the 
> communication. I seriously can not stand when some of the lecturers 
> are saying especially my favourite 'You move this guy here upstairs.'. I
mean...
> come on!
> If you are a researcher you could really put the effort in saying 
> substitute the variable x, y into the expression in the numerator...

I'm not letting that go!

I will accept the point that if there is a blind person in the lecture hall
then I should be more careful about explicitly naming things.  But if there
isn't, then I'm going to thump the board and say things like "Now take this
<thump> and put it there <thump> and see what happens".  Not only do I think
it good pedagogically but as a mathematician then it's how I think so why
would I want to deprive the students of that insight?

Andrew

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