Developing tools for remote teaching

For obvious reasons, all of my class lectures are now given remotely. I use Zoom, set the share screen, and then use a variety of tools.

One of those tools is my Chalktalk drawing program. But this use case is different from my usual use case.

Usually I use Chalktalk to give invited talks. In those cases there is relatively little back and forth with my audience.

But teaching a class is different. There is a lot more room for surprise, for sudden shifts in topic and focus.

Which means that in my class lectures, I do a lot of improvising. And that means I need tools that are amenable to improvising.

And so I notice that Chalktalk itself is evolving. After every lecture, I add some features to it that will make it easier to improvise during the lectures that follow.

By the end of this semester, I suspect that Chalktalk will be a much better tool for improvisational off-the-cuff lectures. And I am very happy about that.

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