Jupyter notebooks are interactive documents that have a great potential to improve the learning process. If you have never used a notebook, have a look at Bret Victor's take on explorable explanations; you will get a feel of what notebooks can bring to the table.
Project Jupyter is the homepage of the non-profit behind the Jupyter Notebook.
The project provides Try Jupyter!, a perfect tool to get started with notebooks:
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It runs on your browser and it is hosted in the cloud (you don't have to install anything on your computer).
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It is free and doesn't require any registration.
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You can't break anything (or rather if you do, it doesn't matter).
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It doesn't keep your data.
The "document cells" of notebooks use the Markdown syntax. The site of CommonMark (a standard for this language) hosts:
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a Markdown Quick Reference: cheat sheet
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a Markdown Dingus: online Markdown editor
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a Markdown Tutorial: mini-course with exercises
Many types of documents can benefit from a "translation" into a notebook. For example, consider:
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How Hard Is It to Generate a 10X Return on an Investment? by Rob Go, "Better Everyday".
Essay on ROI computations in venture capital. -
Pour une Révolution Fiscale (in french) by Camille Landais, Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.
Essay about income tax in France; includes a simulator. -
Python Imaging Library tutorial, by Fredrik Lundh, http://effbot.org.
Software documentation.
Try to make notebooks out of these documents then think how you may improve on the originals!
Try Jupyter! is nice to get started but has many limitations (to begin with, when too many people are using it, you won't be able to start it!). If you get serious about this notebook thing, consider the following options:
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Install the Jupyter Notebook on your computer.
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Install JupyterHub on a server to support multiple users (or ask politely your favorite I.T. guy to do it).
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Try the Microsoft Azure Notebooks to host your Jupyter notebooks in the cloud; requires a (free) Microsoft account.
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Use Binder (beta): interact with notebooks stored in a GitHub repository; also in the cloud.
