User talk:King Bee

Help!
What exactly can be done here? I'm kind of lost as to how/what to edit. I want to edit/create mathematics (particularly calculus) articles. Where can I start?


 * Hi King Bee! Nice to have you around. Well, Wikiversity is still in its infancy but the idea is to create sustainable online learning communities around online learning resources. It is very flexible at the moment. For example, you could create tutorials for various mathematics subjects, "formula sheets" for topics. We have goodies like Test and Quiz too...hope this helps, and have fun! :-) --HappyCamper 12:10, 8 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi King Bee - I think quite a number of people are lost when they first come to Wikiversity - though I'm curious if it's about wikis in general or Wikiversity in particular. Are you familiar with other wikis like Wikipedia, for instance? What confuses you most? In any case, we're here to help - please don't hesitate to ask anything on my talk page or the Colloquium (the general community discussion page). I'm adding some links below that might also be useful - see you round. :-) Cormaggio beep 12:55, 8 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the reply - and yes I suspected that it wasn't the use of wikis that was your problem, but more related to how Wikiversity works or is structured. You said: "I was looking at some of the "articles" (I guess they're called "lessons" here), and they are written in a very conversational tone. Is that normal?" --> well, I'm not sure what "normal" is on Wikiversity - there deliberately isn't a pedagogic style - what you see is simply a reflection of some people's materials. In fact, I think there's a lot more diversity of material around - that is one thing that I hoped to gather at pages like Examples or Featured, but these pages have still to be improved considerably. "Should I write as though I standing in front of my class? Can I upload the quizzes I've given in my Calculus courses throughout the years? If so, where? If so, would they even be the type of thing we're going for here?" --> Many questions - but there's really only one answer: "it's up to you". ;-) You can definitely upload the quizzes you've created and you can integrate them however you like with existing materials or with new materials that you want to create. We are building a repository of materials here on Wikiversity that could be used in the widest possible sense - but we are also trying to treat it as a big experiment - learning about how to provide for active learning within this wiki context/medium. You're very welcome to join us in either activity, or both! If this is still unclear, I'd really appreciate it if you tell me how - in order to help newcomers like yourself get a grasp on what we're doing here and what it's all about, and how they can participate. Thanks. Cormaggio beep 18:54, 8 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Hey there...just came across your query on Cormaggio's page. From my perspective, the emphasis is on content right now, and not so much on the form. We do have a preliminary set of naming conventions, but they are rather flexible. Some Wikiversity participants have found it easiest to simply add content wherever they please, and wait for others to put them into learning modules and such. I don't think we have built up a critical mass of users where uniformity and standardization are essential. Simply put, develop content which you will enjoy working on, and hopefully others will notice and share in the fun. A page on Wikiversity can be an overview of a topic, it can have multiple subpages...it can have anything really. I think the rule of thumb is simply that it should present information clearly and in a useful way. Don't worry too much about doing things "incorrectly". Think of Wikiversity as a platform where you can share your learning experiences with others. You want to do things which help exchanging ideas easily. There is no "wrong" way of doing this. If it's starting a page on Integration by parts, or organizing people around School:Mathematics, or something else in your imagination, feel free to go ahead and experiment. I'm sure Cormaggio will have other suggestions as well. That's all for now :-) --HappyCamper 05:23, 9 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the clarification - and thanks to HappyCamper too. :-) My suggestion would be that pages related to calculus would be listed at Topic:Calculus, as well as be categorised appropriately. There's no compulsion for you to edit any preexisting page (though you can do this of course!) - instead, if you like, you can make a page about Sequences and Series that corresponds with your own pedagogical framework, and have these two (or more) pages working side by side. Think of it like this - in Wikipedia there is one article about a particular topic (hyperlinked to many related pages), but on Wikiversity there may well be several pages on a particular topic. While collaboration and collaborative learning through creating materials is encouraged, you are free to develop materials that reflect a different methodology, philosophy, pedagogy, style, level, focus etc as the ones that already exist. Does this make sense? Cormaggio talk 15:01, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I just saw your reply on HappyCamper's talk page - yes, that's exactly right - content goes in the Main namespace - other namespaces are for content development (ie Topics and School) and "findability" (ie Portal and Category). Bring on the content! Cormaggio talk 15:11, 9 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Personally, I find the editing environment here very refreshing. It's much more relaxed. There is something to be said about a growing Wiki! Actually, I see on your user page that you're into combinatorics. I'd be interested to learn about generating functions and such. I'd like to see if I can use it for some things in chemistry!! Be sure to browse around for resources already available on Wikibooks and Wikipedia. I think another goal of Wikiversity is to be able to create communities around resources there, but this is probably a lower concern at the moment. Anyway, see you around the Wiki :-) --HappyCamper 17:25, 9 March 2007 (UTC)