Teachers take note: this is what we love!

Doesn’t matter if you are a kid or a grown up, this is cool. I wish my teacher did this when I was young. Granted, he wasn’t actually teaching but just entertaining class after a long sessions. But damn, this looks awesome.

His previous project:

Some comments about the video from Matt Weathers (the teacher) himself:

Math: No, I wasn’t actually trying to teach anything with the video – it was just for fun. This was the last 5 minutes of a 75 minute class – I actually taught real math for the first 70 minutes. And yes, I love teaching this class, and I try to keep it lively by doing little fun things like this once in a while.

Software/Camera: I used Pinnacle Studio Ultimate, version 12.1 – the “picture-in-picture” feature for the special effects. I filmed it with a simple Panasonic PV-GS35 MiniDV camcorder.

Idea/Time: I did this last semester as an April Fool’s joke. New class, new year, I decided to try it again, with a few more twists. It took me about 45 minutes to film the video, maybe 2 hours to edit and refine it, then I practiced the interaction with the video a couple times.

Class: This was filmed with a video camera on a tripod in the back of class, with about 80 people in class that day. Those are real people, not a laugh track. The class is called “Nature of Math,” and is a general education class for non-math people. We do some basic math and study the history and philosophy of math. Yes, that’s Edwin Abbott’s “Flatland” I mention – students have to read it for the class.

Biola (biola.edu) is a private Christian university located in a Los Angeles suburb. I don’t place much significance in Halloween, but I don’t mind trivializing the day, and making it just about candy and costumes. The disclaimer at the end of version 2 is an imitation of the disclaimer Michael Jackson put at the beginning of his “Thriller” video. (BTW, Biola grad Judith Hill sang the last song at his funeral. Yeah, Biola!)