9 ms·

Without having looked at the text in depth, I applaud the idea here - I'm convinced the web browser can help us improve upon maths textbooks printed on paper, b

Without having looked at the text in depth, I applaud the idea here - I'm convinced the web browser can help us improve upon maths textbooks printed on paper, but there aren't many 'hypertextbooks' like this in existence (partly, I think, because most people positioned to author a maths textbook want to use latex; and most people who are able to develop a web app aren't positioned to author a maths textbook). I'm interested to know how the authors funded this, and if they have any data about the impact it has had.

throwawaymath 8y ago
> partly, I think, because most people positioned to author a maths textbook want to use latex; and most people who are able to develop a web app aren't positioned to author a maths textbook Luckily we have interactive notebooks (like Jupyter) and MathJax for LaTeX. You can have all the beauty of LaTeX typesetting in your browser and make it highly pedagogical with interactive computation.
- 0x8BADF00D 8y ago
  +1 for Jupyter and Miniconda. I was at a Python meetup recently and one of the seminars was intro to deep learning. It is very easy to setup and quite seamless. Great learning tool as well, because you have output side by side with the teacher’s code. Many modern IDEs still struggle with this (Lighttable being a notable exception).
- jononor 8y ago
  Most notebooks have Python code in them. How to make that interactive in browser? Are there smooth solutions out there, be it client-side or some hosted service? Or does one have to write all the code in JavaScript?
ai_ia 8y ago
>I'm convinced the web browser can help us improve upon maths textbooks printed on paper, but there aren't many 'hypertextbooks' like this in existence (partly, I think, because most people positioned to author a maths textbook want to use latex; We have much better tools right now such as Jupyter notebook which as accessible to everyone. However, your concept of hyper textbook is intriguing. What do you mean by that? Can a webpage be an hypertextbook? Then aren't all online books already hypertext books? Anyways, I am working to build a different medium of learning called Primer. The courses on Primer are basically books that teaches you through conversation. It offers much more than that though. Creates latex pdf, generates flash cards , implements SRS etc. Can you check if Primer matches your description of Hypertextbook. www.primerlabs.io
- jonsen 8y ago
  Interesting concept, Primer. Just a note: Scrolling is rather erratic on my iPad.
  - ai_ia 8y ago
    I am aware of that issue. I added parallax and regretted it. I will change the front page once I launch in March. The website works well in Dekstop only. Thanks!
- nimonian 8y ago
  I saw the word hypertextbook somewhere online once and it just stuck in my head. For me, it has come to mean a textbook (so, beautifully typeset, well organised and written, easy to tell where I am, distraction-free) enhanced with code (keep track of learning, tasteful interactives, maybe video, a smattering of ai perhaps). A webpage/app lends itself to this nicely. If I'm honest, the idea is a little inchoate but my instincts tell me there's something to it. Primer looks like an interesting system - I'm on the mailing list, good luck!
jimhefferon 8y ago
For my Linear Algebra (http://joshua.smcvt.edu/linearalgebra/ http://joshua.smcvt.edu/linearalgebra/), the thing that has held me back has been that the tech changes every few years. I can't keep revising something that I give away for free. In contrast, the LaTeX in which I wrote the book is 98% unchanged since the early 90's. Perhaps the tech is settling down, I'm not sure.
- throwawaymath 8y ago
  Wow! Your textbook looks phenomenal. Eyeballing the table of contents and a few chapters, this arrangement of material looks exactly like what I'm advocating throughout this thread. Gaussian elimination and systems of linear equations before vector spaces, a coverage of fields in tandem with vector spaces, some treatment of sets and functions in appendices, generous usage of matrices to supplement theory... And you include solutions for your exercises? This is fantastic! Do you have any plans to write something like this for functional analysis?
  - jimhefferon 8y ago
    Thank you, that's very kind. Working on Theory of Computation. Don't know any functional analysis, sorry.
    - dexter_t 8y ago
      This is great news. Please model the Theory of Computation book after your Linear Algebra book (by including full solutions). This is an excellent resource for self-learners. Do you have a timeline for the release of the book? Would you have any interest in writing an Abstract Algebra text?
      - jimhefferon 8y ago
        > Do you have a timeline for the release of the book? Several years. I have a very early draft, no doubt full of errors, that I am teaching from. It is linked-to from the linear page. > Would you have any interest in writing an Abstract Algebra text? Sorry, no. But all my stuff is Free and you could take the .cls file, etc. Go nuts.
zardas 8y ago
Two of the authors, Kalle and Tomas, are at Lund University, in sort of the perfect fields for this project - Computer vision and computer graphics (Tomas wrote _the_ book on real-time rendering). I think Jacob is a graphics guy as well. My guess on the funding is spare time and spare university resources.
WallWextra 8y ago
The only reason I was able to learn any math in college is because you don't need a computer to do it, so you can avoid the distractions. A browser, the source of all the distractions, seems like a really bad place to learn math.
- matt-snider 8y ago
  I think it's also the greatest tool for learning there is, so it's worth it to over come that tendency and develop discipline when using it for learning.
- anonymous5133 8y ago
  Just because some people choose to get distracted doesn't mean the whole technology is worthless.
- artiste 8y ago
  I mean there are a million and one useful resources on the internet that enhance learning and just ot getting distracted is also an option
- ehavener 8y ago
  as an undergrad who's currently downloading mathematica to play with .cdfs instead of actually studying them, this hits home
- nimonian 8y ago
  I see your point! There is something very focused and calming about having a book open with no screens around. I hope it is possible to recreate this flow state in a browser (because I plan to try over the next few years). I'm imagining a very minimal UI, 66 characters per line typeface, a distraction free mode (full screen kiosk, a la Sublime Text), a 'dusting' of gamification maybe. I have spent hours on Project Euler before without switching tabs so I believe it's possible to focus at a computer, though I agree that a lot of the positives of the textbook experience don't easily translate; but I still believe that, with respect for the learner, their working memory and attention, a great in-browser learning experience can be achieved.
jovas 8y ago
You can write texts in LaTeX, and post them online using Ximera! https://ximera.osu.edu/mooculus https://ximera.osu.edu/mooculus
- krapht 8y ago
  You can also literately program in Lean, and get out math theorems like http://pat.perso.ens-lyon.org/M1P1/ http://pat.perso.ens-lyon.org/M1P1/
foxes 8y ago
To an extent I disagree. Yes, drawing diagrams can be useful, but simply solving lots of problems is honestly the best way to learn maths. I also much prefer reading from a physical book. Im not sure simple animations will improve things massively. I don't mind if a book skips some details and I have to fill it in myself, for example drawing a diagram to help understand a key point. Perhaps in school most people treat maths more mechanically, and exploring requires more mathematical maturity. I don't think some basic animations will improve that directly. That being said, people like 3b1b on YouTube are in the intersection of people who can animate and know the maths. They certainly produce things which spark the imagination.
- mhh__ 8y ago
  I think examples rather than problem solving is the way to go. Some very advanced topics are arcane enough that they really do need hand holding. Compare Dirac's book on general relativity with one people actually read(To learn from) and you'll see why hand-holding and diagrams are helpful
anonymous5133 8y ago
I'm also working on an education related project. With projects like this....the truth is, it is mostly a labor of love or passion for the subject that drives you. There isn't much money to be made (even to just support yourself) in creating free courseware. If you want to make money you are better off just working for a traditional university. You can even see it for yourself. This guy started this project 3 years ago. Fast forward to today we can see that his youtube channel has 500 subscribers and most of his videos have around 1k views...this is after 2-3 years of each video being uploaded. Basically, no one is using this site. It is no surprise that we see so many of these education type projects being half built. The developers eventually toss in the towel. Personally I think we need a combination of both to really change education though - open educational resources and the associated tools to learn the subject better. Preferably free but also low cost might work or supported by donations. Right now the big publishers pretty much control the entire market. They own the content and they create the tools. Then they spoon feed it to university faculty (by making tools to basically "drag and drop" the content for teachers) and the student/taxpayers ends up footing the bill for it.
- stared 8y ago
  This resonates with "There are no projects like side projects" https://crastina.se/theres-no-projects-like-side-projects/ https://crastina.se/theres-no-projects-like-side-projects/ I wrote a few years ago (and it is still my credo). Since I create educational projects (luckily, Quantum Game with Photons http://quantumgame.io/ http://quantumgame.io/ was partially supported by an outreach grant; all other writings and stuff - not so much), I would love to see some way to support such endeavors.
  - anonymous5133 8y ago
    Yup, that write up definitely hit the nail on the head. I could work on more lucrative side projects but there are just some side projects that you have to do because it just has the potential to be great and do real good in the world. Mostly what I see these days is a void in the educational market - you have a traditional educational system practically resistant to changing and then you have all of these emerging technologies. The emerging technologies go on to change other industries....but education, nothing changes, or very slowly. That's where my side project ideas some into play. I'm working on making a course right now in a traditional college level subject then adding a bunch tools (student data analysis, simulation games, interactive lectures etc.) to help students learn the subject better. Simply put, I want to take traditional college courses and then apply the latest technology to teach that subject. Let's create the world's best online course, create a bunch of really useful tools to learn the subject then scale it up and give it away to everyone for free. Also I looked at your game and I really love it. It is so much fun (even though I don't know much about quantum physics). Now just imagine if we have a traditional college-level subject, such as quantum physics, and then use tools like your game to help people learn better. You still learn all the usual topics but the overall learning experience is made SIGNIFICANTLY better by having these extra tools to use to learn. Your game is an educational game but using the same technology used to create that game could also be used to create all sorts of things - experiment simulation, interactive graphics etc.

throwawaymath 8y ago

> partly, I think, because most people positioned to author a maths textbook want to use latex; and most people who are able to develop a web app aren't positioned to author a maths textbook Luckily we have interactive notebooks (like Jupyter) and MathJax for LaTeX. You can have all the beauty of LaTeX typesetting in your browser and make it highly pedagogical with interactive computation.

0x8BADF00D 8y ago
+1 for Jupyter and Miniconda. I was at a Python meetup recently and one of the seminars was intro to deep learning. It is very easy to setup and quite seamless. Great learning tool as well, because you have output side by side with the teacher’s code. Many modern IDEs still struggle with this (Lighttable being a notable exception).
jononor 8y ago
Most notebooks have Python code in them. How to make that interactive in browser? Are there smooth solutions out there, be it client-side or some hosted service? Or does one have to write all the code in JavaScript?

ai_ia 8y ago

>I'm convinced the web browser can help us improve upon maths textbooks printed on paper, but there aren't many 'hypertextbooks' like this in existence (partly, I think, because most people positioned to author a maths textbook want to use latex; We have much better tools right now such as Jupyter notebook which as accessible to everyone. However, your concept of hyper textbook is intriguing. What do you mean by that? Can a webpage be an hypertextbook? Then aren't all online books already hypertext books? Anyways, I am working to build a different medium of learning called Primer. The courses on Primer are basically books that teaches you through conversation. It offers much more than that though. Creates latex pdf, generates flash cards , implements SRS etc. Can you check if Primer matches your description of Hypertextbook. www.primerlabs.io

jonsen 8y ago
Interesting concept, Primer. Just a note: Scrolling is rather erratic on my iPad.
- ai_ia 8y ago
  I am aware of that issue. I added parallax and regretted it. I will change the front page once I launch in March. The website works well in Dekstop only. Thanks!
nimonian 8y ago
I saw the word hypertextbook somewhere online once and it just stuck in my head. For me, it has come to mean a textbook (so, beautifully typeset, well organised and written, easy to tell where I am, distraction-free) enhanced with code (keep track of learning, tasteful interactives, maybe video, a smattering of ai perhaps). A webpage/app lends itself to this nicely. If I'm honest, the idea is a little inchoate but my instincts tell me there's something to it. Primer looks like an interesting system - I'm on the mailing list, good luck!

jimhefferon 8y ago

For my Linear Algebra (http://joshua.smcvt.edu/linearalgebra/ http://joshua.smcvt.edu/linearalgebra/), the thing that has held me back has been that the tech changes every few years. I can't keep revising something that I give away for free. In contrast, the LaTeX in which I wrote the book is 98% unchanged since the early 90's. Perhaps the tech is settling down, I'm not sure.

throwawaymath 8y ago
Wow! Your textbook looks phenomenal. Eyeballing the table of contents and a few chapters, this arrangement of material looks exactly like what I'm advocating throughout this thread. Gaussian elimination and systems of linear equations before vector spaces, a coverage of fields in tandem with vector spaces, some treatment of sets and functions in appendices, generous usage of matrices to supplement theory... And you include solutions for your exercises? This is fantastic! Do you have any plans to write something like this for functional analysis?
- jimhefferon 8y ago
  Thank you, that's very kind. Working on Theory of Computation. Don't know any functional analysis, sorry.
  - dexter_t 8y ago
    This is great news. Please model the Theory of Computation book after your Linear Algebra book (by including full solutions). This is an excellent resource for self-learners. Do you have a timeline for the release of the book? Would you have any interest in writing an Abstract Algebra text?
    - jimhefferon 8y ago
      > Do you have a timeline for the release of the book? Several years. I have a very early draft, no doubt full of errors, that I am teaching from. It is linked-to from the linear page. > Would you have any interest in writing an Abstract Algebra text? Sorry, no. But all my stuff is Free and you could take the .cls file, etc. Go nuts.

zardas 8y ago

Two of the authors, Kalle and Tomas, are at Lund University, in sort of the perfect fields for this project - Computer vision and computer graphics (Tomas wrote _the_ book on real-time rendering). I think Jacob is a graphics guy as well. My guess on the funding is spare time and spare university resources.

WallWextra 8y ago

The only reason I was able to learn any math in college is because you don't need a computer to do it, so you can avoid the distractions. A browser, the source of all the distractions, seems like a really bad place to learn math.

matt-snider 8y ago
I think it's also the greatest tool for learning there is, so it's worth it to over come that tendency and develop discipline when using it for learning.
anonymous5133 8y ago
Just because some people choose to get distracted doesn't mean the whole technology is worthless.
artiste 8y ago
I mean there are a million and one useful resources on the internet that enhance learning and just ot getting distracted is also an option
ehavener 8y ago
as an undergrad who's currently downloading mathematica to play with .cdfs instead of actually studying them, this hits home
nimonian 8y ago
I see your point! There is something very focused and calming about having a book open with no screens around. I hope it is possible to recreate this flow state in a browser (because I plan to try over the next few years). I'm imagining a very minimal UI, 66 characters per line typeface, a distraction free mode (full screen kiosk, a la Sublime Text), a 'dusting' of gamification maybe. I have spent hours on Project Euler before without switching tabs so I believe it's possible to focus at a computer, though I agree that a lot of the positives of the textbook experience don't easily translate; but I still believe that, with respect for the learner, their working memory and attention, a great in-browser learning experience can be achieved.

jovas 8y ago

You can write texts in LaTeX, and post them online using Ximera! https://ximera.osu.edu/mooculus https://ximera.osu.edu/mooculus

krapht 8y ago
You can also literately program in Lean, and get out math theorems like http://pat.perso.ens-lyon.org/M1P1/ http://pat.perso.ens-lyon.org/M1P1/

foxes 8y ago

To an extent I disagree. Yes, drawing diagrams can be useful, but simply solving lots of problems is honestly the best way to learn maths. I also much prefer reading from a physical book. Im not sure simple animations will improve things massively. I don't mind if a book skips some details and I have to fill it in myself, for example drawing a diagram to help understand a key point. Perhaps in school most people treat maths more mechanically, and exploring requires more mathematical maturity. I don't think some basic animations will improve that directly. That being said, people like 3b1b on YouTube are in the intersection of people who can animate and know the maths. They certainly produce things which spark the imagination.

mhh__ 8y ago
I think examples rather than problem solving is the way to go. Some very advanced topics are arcane enough that they really do need hand holding. Compare Dirac's book on general relativity with one people actually read(To learn from) and you'll see why hand-holding and diagrams are helpful

anonymous5133 8y ago

I'm also working on an education related project. With projects like this....the truth is, it is mostly a labor of love or passion for the subject that drives you. There isn't much money to be made (even to just support yourself) in creating free courseware. If you want to make money you are better off just working for a traditional university. You can even see it for yourself. This guy started this project 3 years ago. Fast forward to today we can see that his youtube channel has 500 subscribers and most of his videos have around 1k views...this is after 2-3 years of each video being uploaded. Basically, no one is using this site. It is no surprise that we see so many of these education type projects being half built. The developers eventually toss in the towel. Personally I think we need a combination of both to really change education though - open educational resources and the associated tools to learn the subject better. Preferably free but also low cost might work or supported by donations. Right now the big publishers pretty much control the entire market. They own the content and they create the tools. Then they spoon feed it to university faculty (by making tools to basically "drag and drop" the content for teachers) and the student/taxpayers ends up footing the bill for it.

stared 8y ago
This resonates with "There are no projects like side projects" https://crastina.se/theres-no-projects-like-side-projects/ https://crastina.se/theres-no-projects-like-side-projects/ I wrote a few years ago (and it is still my credo). Since I create educational projects (luckily, Quantum Game with Photons http://quantumgame.io/ http://quantumgame.io/ was partially supported by an outreach grant; all other writings and stuff - not so much), I would love to see some way to support such endeavors.
- anonymous5133 8y ago
  Yup, that write up definitely hit the nail on the head. I could work on more lucrative side projects but there are just some side projects that you have to do because it just has the potential to be great and do real good in the world. Mostly what I see these days is a void in the educational market - you have a traditional educational system practically resistant to changing and then you have all of these emerging technologies. The emerging technologies go on to change other industries....but education, nothing changes, or very slowly. That's where my side project ideas some into play. I'm working on making a course right now in a traditional college level subject then adding a bunch tools (student data analysis, simulation games, interactive lectures etc.) to help students learn the subject better. Simply put, I want to take traditional college courses and then apply the latest technology to teach that subject. Let's create the world's best online course, create a bunch of really useful tools to learn the subject then scale it up and give it away to everyone for free. Also I looked at your game and I really love it. It is so much fun (even though I don't know much about quantum physics). Now just imagine if we have a traditional college-level subject, such as quantum physics, and then use tools like your game to help people learn better. You still learn all the usual topics but the overall learning experience is made SIGNIFICANTLY better by having these extra tools to use to learn. Your game is an educational game but using the same technology used to create that game could also be used to create all sorts of things - experiment simulation, interactive graphics etc.