I only realized recently that an edition of College Mathematics Journal dedicated to Martin Gardener is freely available for all rather than just subscribers. You can download it here: College Mathematics – Martin Gardner Special Issue. The issue is, as one might expect, a mixed bag. Of interest is a reprint of Gardener’s original article on Hexaflexagons (these were a childhood favourite for me); in the provocatively titled Martin Gardner’s Mistake Tanya Khovanova discusses the errors in solutions to Tuesday’s child problem (a problem which surfaced at Gathering for Gardner before ricocheting around the internet); Arthur Benjamin has a very simple (I mean that in a good way) article on Squaring, Cubing, and Cube Rooting. There’s also an article by Ian Stewart, who (I suppose it goes without saying) has a new book...

Over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about producing more videos. I’ve certainly fallen behind my planned schedule of producing them – too many other tasks get in the way! Anyhow, I have to produce some so that my school can complete a project for HE-STEM. As part of this I’ve had to consider what makes a good video and for me one of the most interesting debates about videos in education has been triggered by the huge success of Salman Khan’s video series. You can see him explain the history and the philosophy behind it in the following TED video: Looks good doesn’t it? However, his videos have been strongly criticized. This is not surprising, educators were always going to object to an ex-hedge fund manager – backed by Bill Gates and with no educational training – coming in and saying “This is how you do it”. Nonetheless, many of their criticisms have foundation. I’m particularly against the “gamification” of education. Whilst games can be a useful tool in education when you wrap all learning in a game, then students lose sight of the importance of education; they see it just as collecting points for their scorecard. Audrey Watters gives a good explanation of the arguments against Khan and various links in her post The Wrath Against Khan which arose as in response to an article in Wired on the Khan Academy. (Aside: I think that video’s threat to teaching jobs is greatly exaggerated. When the printing press was invented people probably said “No more need for teachers, you can learn from a book”. Every new technology is predicted to revolutionize teaching and to cause the disappearance of the bulk of teaching jobs. People said it about radio, they said it about...

Have you seen Maths Busking? I reported my experience of being a maths busker last year. Well, the concept has been entered for a pubic engagement award and, should you wish, you can vote for it here:...

Back from a long weekend holiday and, after spam removed, only 115 new emails to deal with! Here’s something I saw recently, which admittedly was quickly corrected. Still, it made me...

One for lecturers: I’ve been asked to speak at a free workshop entitled Teaching Introductory Mathematical Analysis. This HEA MSOR-funded event will take place at De Morgan House in London (home of the London Mathematical Society) on Wednesday May 2nd. Leaving aside this humble scribe it has a cracking line up: Lara Alcock (University of Loughborough), download her book with Adrian Simpson Camilla Jordan (The Open University), Joe Kyle (University of Birmingham), Chris Sangwin (University of Birmingham). Further details can be found at...