Presentations

Effective Remote Teaching, at SAIP2021 South-African Institute of Physics Conference, North-West University, South Africa, Friday, July 30, 2021:
saip2021_remote_teaching.pdf
The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. What may have seemed like a challenge, is a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.
 
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Innovating educators to educate innovators, at Apertura Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción, Chile, Thursday, May 6, 2021:
innovating_education_ucsc.pdf
Can we teach innovation? Innovation requires whole-brain thinking — right-brain thinking for creativity and imagination, and left-brain thinking for planning and execution. Our current approach to education in science and technology, focuses on the transfer of information, developing mostly right-brain thinking by stressing copying and reproducing existing ideas rather than generating new ones. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to team work and creative thinking greatly improves the learning that takes place in the classroom and promotes...
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Innovating education to educate innovators, at NMES Faculty Education Network – Distinguished Speaker Series, KIng's College, London, UK, Friday, June 25, 2021:
kings_college.pdf
Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in large introductory courses -- instructors present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and for students the main purpose of lectures is to take down as many notes as they can. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information delivered to them. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important -- and most elusive -- aspect of education. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to...
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Remote Teaching was a Disaster. Was it?, at LInc Exchange, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Monday, May 17, 2021
Emergencies have a tendency to fast-forward societal processes. The pandemic catapulted schools and universities into online teaching, causing instructors and students to struggle to adapt to a new reality. By the end of 2020, the public opinion on remote teaching and learning soured. The verdict in the media was crystal clear: remote teaching was a disaster. Is it really that bad? Join me in analyzing how I transitioned my team- and project-based course to remote teaching and discovered some surprising results.
Remote Learning was a Disaster. Was it?: Reflections on a year of remote teaching, at UNC Higher Education Flipped Learning Conference, Thursday, June 3, 2021
The pandemic catapulted schools and universities into remote teaching, forcing instructors and students to scramble to adapt to a new reality. By the end of 2020, public opinion on the remote teaching and learning “experiment” had soured. The verdict in the media was crystal clear: remote teaching is a disaster. Is it really that bad? Join me in analyzing how I transitioned my team- and project-based course to remote teaching and discovered some surprising results. And learn why I might not go back.

 
Getting every student ready for every class: How to make your pre-class assignments more socially engaging, at UNC Higher Education Flipped Learning Conference, Friday, June 4, 2021
Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. The coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving some tasks to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. Through Perusall, Eric Mazur will demonstrate how to move information transfer and sense-making online and make it interactive, promoting social interactions between students. In addition, he will discuss how the platform promotes intrinsic and extrinsic... Read more about Getting every student ready for every class: How to make your pre-class assignments more socially engaging
Interactive Learning, online and in-person, at IAP Symposium on Innovative Leadership: Transforming Higher Education in the Digital Age , Monday, June 21, 2021:
iap_workshop.pdf
Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. The coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving some tasks to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. Eric Mazur will demonstrate how to move information transfer and sense-making online and make it interactive, promoting social interactions between students. In addition, he will discuss how the use of an online platform can promote intrinsic...
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Promoting self-directed learning in a remote teaching setting, at Educamp 2021 Conference, UTEC, Peru, Tuesday, July 13, 2021:

educamp_remote_teaching.pdf

The pandemic catapulted schools and universities into remote teaching, forcing instructors and students to scramble to adapt to a new reality. By the end of 2020, public opinion on the remote teaching and learning “experiment” had soured. The verdict in the media was crystal clear: remote teaching is a disaster. Is it really that bad? Join me in analyzing how I transitioned my team- and project-based course to remote teaching and discovered how promoting ownership of learning and self-directed learning can yield surprising results. And learn why I might not go back.

Implementing self-directed learning online and in-person, at EduCamp 2021 Conference, UTEC, Peru, Tuesday, July 13, 2021:

educamp_workshop.pdf

Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. The coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving some tasks to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. Eric Mazur will demonstrate how to move information transfer and sense-making online and make it interactive, promoting social interactions between students. In addition, he will discuss how the use of an online

Remote Learning was a Disaster. Was it?: Reflections on a year of remote teaching, at Sthem Brasil — Formação de Gestores, Wednesday, June 16, 2021:

brasil_sthem.pdf

The pandemic catapulted schools and universities into remote teaching, forcing instructors and students to scramble to adapt to a new reality. By the end of 2020, public opinion on the remote teaching and learning “experiment” had soured. The verdict in the media was crystal clear: remote teaching is a disaster. Is it really that bad? Join me in analyzing how I transitioned my team- and project-based course to remote teaching and discovered some surprising results. And learn why I might not go back.

Getting every student ready for every class: How to make your pre-class assignments more socially engaging, at PAEE/ALE 2021 International Conference on Active Learning in Engineering Education, Wednesday, July 7, 2021:
paee_ale_conference.pdf
Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. The coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving some tasks to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. Through Perusall, Eric Mazur will demonstrate how to move information transfer and sense-making online and make it interactive, promoting social interactions between students. In addition, he will discuss how the platform promotes intrinsic and extrinsic... Read more about Getting every student ready for every class: How to make your pre-class assignments more socially engaging
Metamaterials for extreme optics, at SAIP2021 South-African Institute of Physics Conference, North-West University, South Africa, Tuesday, July 27, 2021:
extreme_optics_saip.pdf
Nanotechnology has enabled the development of nanostructured composite materials (metamaterials) with exotic optical properties not found in nature. In the most extreme case, we can create materials which support light waves that propagate with infinite phase velocity, corresponding to a refractive index of zero. We have developed a variety of in-plane metamaterial designs that permit obtaining a refractive index of zero in the optical regime. We will report on some of the exotic physics of zero-index metamaterials, including strong enhancement of nonlinear optical phenomena. We can also...
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Lessons from a year of remote teaching, at X Lean Six-Sigma Congress (Virtual), Friday, July 30, 2021:
x_lssc_remote_teaching.pdf
The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. What may have seemed like a challenge, is a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.
Transform your teaching with Perusall, at Waseda University, Tuesday, May 10, 2022:
transform_teaching_perusall.pdf
Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. The coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving some tasks to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. Through Perusall, Eric Mazur will demonstrate how to move information transfer and sense-making online and make it interactive, promoting social interactions between students. In addition, he will discuss how the platform promotes intrinsic and extrinsic... Read more about Transform your teaching with Perusall
Flipping your class and never looking back, at AVID at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, September 15, 2021:
flipping_avid_vic_u.pdf
Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in classrooms -- teachers present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and for students the main purpose of classroom instruction is to take down as many notes as they can. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information delivered to them. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important -- and most elusive -- aspect of education. I will show how shifting the focus in classroom learning from delivering information...
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The Moral Dilemma of Going Back: How the Pandemic Changed My Teaching, at Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, Saturday, September 25, 2021:
rotary_eclub.pdf
The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. What may have seemed like a challenge, is a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.
A Moral Dilemma: How will we teach after the pandemic?, at 33rd International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics (ICTCM) 2021, Friday, October 8, 2021:

ictcm2021.pdf

The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. What may have seemed like a challenge, is a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.

Workshop on Peer Instruction, at Becas Santander Skills | Innovation in Teaching- Laspau, Wednesday, December 1, 2021:
peer_instruction_santander.pdf
Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. Since I introduced Peer Instruction three decades ago, there has been a concerted push away from passive lecturing to active engagement in the classroom. A successful implementation of the so-called flipped classroom requires students to come to class prepared either by reading the textbook or watching a pre-recorded video. A variety approaches have...
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Breaking down the classroom walls: Engaging student teams across time and space, at ENLIGHT Teaching and Learning Conference, University of Ghent, Belgium, Thursday, November 18, 2021:
1._enlight_keynote.pdf
As teachers within the ENLIGHT network and beyond are driving an educational innovation in which diverse, interdisciplinary and international teams of students collaborate to solve complex, real-world problems, the reality of everyday teaching and learning within university walls pose certain challenges. While project- and team-based courses usually take place inside the classroom, ENLIGHT is creating blended opportunities in which students work together online and on...
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Optical Metamaterials and their Index of Refraction, at University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium, Friday, November 19, 2021:
3._zim_lecture.pdf
Nanotechnology has enabled the development of nanostructured composite materials (metamaterials) with exotic optical properties not found in nature. In the most extreme case, we can create materials which support light waves that propagate with infinite phase velocity, corresponding to a refractive index of zero, and materials where waves stop propagating, yielding extreme localization of light. In this lecture we will (interactively!) explore some of these unusual phenomena.

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