In this paper, the authors discuss the need to maintain the relevant balance between innovative contemporary approaches and methods, and classical methods of teaching higher mathematics at technical universities. Over recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to the question of using innovative approaches to teaching mathematics at schools and higher education institutions, while classical teaching approaches and methods are often considered boring and uninspiring for students. However, numerous recent articles in the field of educational psychology, show that excessive emphasis on digitalization of the teaching-learning process while ignoring the more classical teaching methods, negatively impacts the process of perception of material by students. In the article, the qualitative and quantitative research is based on reviews of articles in psychological science in the field of education, on surveys for students and mathematics professors at Riga Technical University (RTU), and the professors’ experience gained both during classroom teaching and emergency remote teaching enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic