Want to teach geeky tourists calculus? If we made math tourism a thing, teachers in host countries could skill up pretty fast as well.
Want to teach geeky tourists calculus? If we made math tourism a thing, teachers in host countries could skill up pretty fast as well.
If I’m going to travel all the way to a stunning vacation destination, I’m probably going to want to drink a beer on the beach instead of trying to focus on a class.
Idea is ~2-3h interactive lecture session in morning by interesting prof, ideally with no electronics, an optional recommended and personalized TA tutorial in the afternoon to catch anyone up, some fun activities like watching sunset on a sailboat and then using celestial navigation to find your way back, some partnerships with locals on regular stuff like surf lessons, musical performances, etc. Priced at a small premium to whatever all inclusives are.
It's not for everyone, but the people it's for, it's really for. It's good for solo travellers, can qualify as business job training, or employee rewards/incentive/teambuilding. A way for poorly paid TAs to make some money and get a paid trip. Any product manager working in the ML space would need to do it. Developing local teaching talent could become a significant industry as well...
There goes my day, anyway.
I will say that I have experience teaching academic subjects in exotic locations including some of those mentioned (Semester at Sea/Abroad type programs) and it is HARD to effectively teach somewhere that isn't a classroom. A boring/utilitarian classroom (the room itself) is a feature, and classrooms the world over look the same for that reason..
If my company is paying for it though...
Are you genuinely envisioning this math/physics beach vacation as "mostly homework"? Because if it's not going to be a completely surface-level experience, it's going to be "mostly homework". :)
That's what I was envisioning. Homework with an onsite PhD for when I get stuck or find an interesting tangent to go on.
At 32, this is literally how I prefer to spend my vacations now anyway. It's just hard to find time when I can focus and don't have to watch the kids.
I'd ask, would you pay $5k to hang out in a yurt on Anegada for a week and learn an undergrad intro to category theory?
This: https://anegadabeachclub.com/
Plus this:
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-s097-applied-category-theory-...
Equals...awesome?
Other appealing ones to me would be from a selection of:
https://ocw.mit.edu/search/?l=Undergraduate&q=geometry
https://ocw.mit.edu/search/?l=Undergraduate&q=proofs
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-781-theory-of-numbers-spring-...
Machine Learning Summer School (MLSS) used to have some nice locations, don't know what it's like these days.
You could go with a name brand, Brian Greene type. Like a "MasterClass Live" type thing.
I could completely picture even hiring locals who speak good English in these places to do the job being a thing to get around having to wrestle with stuff like visa requirements. Costa Rica for example has a law where if the job can be done by someone in Costa Rica, you need to hire them - But the country also has an enormously well educated talent pool (They abolished their military in the 40's to put it in on education), so there's no shortage of that at all.