lo tech

Nine years ago, in what seemed like a good move at the time, I bought a BIG box of "overhead transparencies"

These are intermediate technology presentation tools; sort of like a keynote slide on transparent paper, "projected" through an analog display system. Post-blackboard tech, barely. Contemporaneous with the short-lived and tremendously annoying "whiteboard" fad of the 80s. 1980s.

Turns out it was a good thing I did, 'cause today I need one (1).
I'll have the other 97 remaining used by the fourth millennium, at this rate.

However, the primary tool for editing these "transparencies" are analog media called "markers" (the "printable" versions are rare, precious and don't generally take analog markers well - mode incompatibility, the "printable transparencies" do work with laser or ink, or "wax" printers, but are generall printer specific, not intercompatible, and of course ye' olde printers like that were long since junked).
Yes, there were such things as wax printers. They cost several times more than a fully loaded quad processor Mac desktop with 30" display and 2 Tb disk.

Markers, it turns out, "dry out" when not used. This is another of these quaint analog machinery failure modes.

I have now thrown out several, fortunately, for some ineffable reason, my pre-packed travel pouch has a medium point black marker permanently in it.
Don't know why, with the new Macs it doesn't even matter if you drop them, they'll still display, or so I discovered.
They don't work during power outages, so that can't be it either.

Somewhere I also have a compass and straight edge.

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How about a slide rule?

I have a large (~30 cm) slide rule designed give useful quantities based on blackbody radiation, inherited from my father. I keep hoping it will be a valuable antique some day.

I have two sets of drafting tools (including pens), a tee-square, lots of triangles, french curves, and many specialized drawing templates. And two drawing boards.

xeroxable transparency paper is great for demonstrations of the expanding universe...

Ah, I remember the wax printers. I used to pay money to print out art I scavenged online to decorate the lab where I did my undergraduate honours research. I'm rather a fan of anachronisms, myself; I use a fountain pen and inkwell, religiously, and many antique FILM cameras :)

I am ashamed to say that I lost "my" slide rule (ok, it is my mother's - plain log/trig slide rule, very neat).
I need another one.
Our draft table is folded up in the basement, but we have a lot of ye olde drawing tools, including the invaluable IBM issue fortran flowchart template!

I happen to know that an assistant professor is giving a course to grad students using overheads.

Amazing technology that stuff. Not so good for color, though.

By Brad Holden (not verified) on 16 Oct 2007 #permalink

I sub-taught a class for my boss a year or so ago and used overheads. We had some figures to show that were photocopied out of a book (Howell's CCD book) and it's just easy to slap the book on the copier. Yeah, you could scan the figure and put it on your computer and so on, but come on.

I have all the photocopied overheads from the ISM class I took from Bruce Draine and they're information packed and far more useful as a reference than any existing ISM text. It would be difficult to get that density of information onto a legible powerpoint slide.

What you really need, though, are a box of overheads suitable for running through your typewriter.

I have never taught a class using powerpoint and don't ever intend to.
Far too low information density and not flexible enough a medium.
Even keynote is not adequate...

I have complete overhead sets for a couple of my classes and sometimes dive into them, including for figures that I photocopied back when.
But, I now tend to do classes partly on the blackboard - for derivations, and examples - and partly using web pages - for key points, figures and animations/movies.

PDF notes, on web, for review (and read-ahead if I am organized). More fool the student who relies exclusively on the web notes.

simultaneously using computer projection (for images, visualizations, interactive data analysis; not powerpoint), whiteboard (for impromptu sketches, derivations), and projected/scanned notes (for more methodical derivations with lots of math, etc) have worked well for me.

*multi*media, in other words.