User talk:JWSchmidt/November 2006 discussions

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Gnacademy
I'm actually much more interested in moving all of the contents on the www.gnacademy.org site over to wikiversity and eventually closing the gnacademy.org site. There's a small and established community on wikiversity which can make use of the material on gnacademy.

Roadrunner 19:48, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Sign your posts on talk pages
This page seems to be somewhat of a duplicate in intent, if not content, to Signature. What do you think of expanding that page instead? sebmol ? 22:59, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Question regarding Learning Projects page
I'm writing a Newcomer introduction to the overall structure of Wikiversity. (And in prepping that, I'm myself attempting to learn just what the current structure actually is. ;-)

Major_portals lead me to Portal:Learning_Projects.

I'm unclear on the intent or functionality of the "Learning Projects" page. Would it be fair to say it's intended to be a "cross discipline" compendium of online courses? Such a cross discipline page would be very useful in helping would-be learners to select something they might be interested in.

If so, is there a mechanism in place to keep this page relatively current? I greatly suspect the answer is "No". It would be useful to give this page some prominence, especially for newcomers. And find some way to raise it to the awareness of those introducing a "Learning Project". Prime the pump, as it were.

Let me know your thoughts. Cheers.

morley 00:49, 5 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your feedback. I've only just stumbled on the Learning Materials/Learning Projects terminology. I like it and will integrate into the Newcomers page.


 * At the same time I'll give a nudge on that page (and anywhere else I see an opportunity) to urge users to add worthwhile pointers to the Learning Projects and Learning Materials pages.


 * I also very much like the articulation of objectives on the Education page. I'm thinking of quoting some of it and adding pointers to that page. Cheers.


 * morley 16:31, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Predictor@Home
Hi JW, I have established wikiversity.org projects at einstein@home and rosetta@home. If you have BOINC running on a system and working with http://predictor.scripps.edu/ you could establish a  wikiversity team there. I think this might tie in well with your phage learning portal. Certainly we need the advertising we can get if we can get tens or hundreds to sign up and climb over the next few months in the ratings. People actually look at those once a while. I have at seti@home. (We also need a team there my acccount is messed up so I cannot reestablish another till I change email addresses I will drop a copy of this note at the collquium there are a lot of projects to cover, eight or ten listed at Berkely, google seti home takes you there)  With a team name of wikiversity.org we should certainly get some exposure. Also if you are serious about establishing a wikiversity supercomputing project (great idea! I think I mentioned a couple of times and nobody was interested) in the long term then we need people to start using the software and getting familiar with it. If we have a lot of users some of the free software folks crave useful popular work. No fun to write software nobody uses. Mirwin 05:27, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

re: Templates
Hi JW

I've been coming across the effects of a template, in many pleaces but most recently seen at School of Math Course Catalog.

To my eye, the content comes across as actively discouraging the creation of online Learning Projects — as frowned on or banned by The Board. Which is unfortunate, and given the overall purposes of Wikiversity and the many pages encouraging on site Learning Projects, possibly misleading.

I'm hesitant to barge in and re-write. Yes, I know that's the "wiki way", but in policy-related stuff I'm cautious. From a newcomer's point of view, I'd much prefer text which points to the Learning Project and other pages, and possibly the Newcomers page as well. Give positive guidance rather than warning and "danger" stickers. If The Board really means to ban on site Learning Projects, then not only the template should stay as is, but all Learning Projects and pages offering guidance in setting up Learning Projects should be shut down as well. Clear unambiguous direction one way or the other.

What do you think?

morley 15:52, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
 * My problem with the text is that it's unclear. It points to limits but doesn't articulate what those are and is vague about their resolution. I fully recognize this isn't your intention, but I submit this is its result.


 * Currently it reads like something written by a lawyer, like a warning label.


 * The problem seems to revolve around what's meant by a "course", and an assumption that all courses include an exam and an award of some kind. I do not share that assumption.


 * Rather than tangle further over that loaded terminology, may I suggest the template speak instead about "online learning projects" wherever one might otherwise use the word "course". And avoid the words "non-traditional" simply because that requires another discussion of what "traditional" means in this case.


 * To me the Wikiversity is about learning, pure and simple. Credentials, degrees and all that stuff is about status, who gets it and the control of its privileges. I believe the Board was quite right in focusing on the learning.


 * Do I have your support for a rewording of the Template? I recognize within wiki permission to edit is not required. But I ask anyway.


 * "I am an advocate of placing "featured content" on the main page and having a well-organized system for bringing the best examples of Wikiversity content to the attention of visitors." <-- as am I. "Most people seem to feel that there is still no real content at Wikiversity worth featuring." <-- too early to say. Right now I'm trying to see if I can tease out some examples of good downloadable coursework and good online learning projects. It's my intention to place some of them on the Newcomers page so as to give newcomers a sense of what's possible in this environment and a direction for editors to strive towards. At least that's my hope.


 * I'm really enjoying the work I'm doing on the Wikiversity. But the way wiki software is currently structured, a back-and-forth dialogue such as this one isn't really comfortable. Needs a forum structure — but that's a different conversation.


 * Kind regards, best wishes.


 * morley 19:51, 6 November 2006 (UTC)


 * The news about Liquid Threads is very welcome indeed! It will greatly enliven and enrich Wikipedia (make it visibly dynamic, reduce its static feel). But its greatest utility will be in Wikiversity, especially online learning projects.


 * morley 20:04, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Basic Science
Hi, thanks for explaning that to me and I'll look into it now. Thanks! Think outside the box 7 November 2006 (UTC)

History of Wikiversity formation
Is there a page on how Wikiversity came to be? Don't want to start one if such already exists.

morley 00:44, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

links in Spanish sidebar
Hi JWSchmidt, in your user page of es:v, do you mean at the Main page?, if so, then the link to the German Wikiversity is also fixed. --Javier Carro 07:25, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

re: eMail
Hi

A couple of weeks ago you made the following comment in the Colloquium — "I suspect that many Wikiversity participants may not know how to activate the email feature and may not understand the advantages of doing so. We could make a little tutorial about this."

I'm one of those (probably many) who don't know about the eMail feature within Wikiversity (other than including my address in Preferences, which I've done). Is there more to eMail than just listing it in Preferences? Let me know and I'll add some notation on User Page and at the same time amplify that page as well.

While I'm at it. It would be a good idea, by default, to add a link to User_talk:UserName on the User:UserName page when created. I find myself on many user pages having to edit the URL in order to get to that person's Talk page.

Kind regards, morley 20:27, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
 * On the same point, I have changed my address here as per your suggestion. Best wishes. Andrew massyn 21:34, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Custodian Requirements
Is there an accessible list of requirements, or guidelines, by which someone may become a custodian. For instance, x number of edits to y number of namespaces. I think that this would be of use to the community. -- J.Steinbock 02:41, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Wikiversity reports
My link to Wikiversity reports doesn't work anymore. Did you close the website? It would be a pity, they were phantastic advertisement for this project, something we really need. --Javier Carro 22:39, 22 November 2006 (UTC)


 * It was a link I have in my blog. I'll update it immediately. I'm very glad to know that the content isn't lost. Regards. --Javier Carro 20:09, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Mentorship?
Would you mind being my mentor as a custodian? I wish to become a custodian to further my contributions on Wikiversity and to improve this project. To tell you a little about what I have done so far, I have set up the Spanish Language Division and am the instructor of the Spanish I and Spanish II courses. I have also done some work on templates such as talk header, Spanish language, to do list, and others. -- J.Steinbock 00:03, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Okay. :) -- J.Steinbock 03:16, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
 * As it is now December, I wish to ask for your mentorship. Of course, you may still have a few days with Rayc. If you finish within the next few days, will you be my mentor? -- J.Steinbock 19:32, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Sure, sounds great! Saludos. -- J.Steinbock 23:12, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I have planning my schedule until next Friday and have realized that midterms are comming up. With that in mind, I think that begging the mentorship on December 15 would be better than starting right away. I am flexible for whatever you find convenient. -- J.Steinbock 17:53, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Learning to learn a wiki way
Hi JWSchmidt I'd like to invite you to join the Learning to learn a wiki way project. I've recently updated the project page and initiated a discussion on the scope of the project on the talk page. Looking forward to your contributions. Also I noticed you had a chat with executivezen about poststructralism. I've updated the Department of Continental Philosophy but haven't had time to do Poststructuralism for Beginers yet. However I've launched a Michel Foucault reading group which you might like to join. Mystictim 12:40, 28 November 2006 (UTC)