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User talk:Leightwing

Welcome
Hello, welcome to Wikibooks!

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Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or you can contact me personally on my talk page. Just hit the "+" sign on the top of either page, and enter your question! Urbane  (Talk)   (Contributions)  21:37, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

re: Questions Regarding Pre-university courses
Hi Leightwing,

Thanks for you message. This series of books is not one with which i have had previous experience, however i believe that, having looked at the scopes and aims of the two books, you have made correct assumptions.

The High School Mathematics book looks to be a self-help guide, for students to use themselves whereas the Primary School Mathematics book looks to be aimed exclusively at parents, to help them teach their children maths to aid their school work. The High School Mathematics book will focus more tightly on the actual mathematics, looking in depth at mathematical technique and teaching it to the reader. The Primary School Mathematics book will focus heavily on the methods used to teach mathematics to the young, expecting the reader to be generally competent with maths, but not so much with teaching.

It is unusual for books in a series to have such different purposes, but not unheard of.

I hope this clears things up, if not please don't hesitate to send me another message and I will take another look at it for you.

Urbane  (Talk)   (Contributions)  22:17, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

I have had a look through the edits that you have made to the series so far and they are of high quality. Keep up the good work!

Image copyright problem with Image:3puppiesonly.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:3puppiesonly.jpg. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikibooks because of copyright law, and requires that we maintain a strict copyright policy. The image that may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and status.

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikibooks are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this:.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information or giving false information can be deleted by an administrator. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or ask another Wikibookian at the help desk. Thank you. Webaware talk 05:06, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

 * Please also check your other image uploads; they will be deleted in about a week if no license info is provided.  – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 22:36, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Formulas and images
G'day, you might be interested in the MathML markup support in Wikibooks. This allows you to insert properly formatted maths formulas without having to upload an image. For example, I've replace your image of the five puppies formula with this:

$$P = 2 \left ( \frac{1}{2} \right ) ^n$$

See m:Help:Displaying a formula for more details.

Can I also suggest that when you create an image for upload, consider formats other than JPEG. JPEG is really good for photographs, but not very good for line art and mathematical graphing. Anything that is made up of mostly lines is better as either SVG (vector art) or PNG. If your graphics package supports those, your images will come out cleaner and clearer than they would as JPEG. cheers, Webaware talk 05:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikiversity course?
The pages you have been working on, the "Primary Mathematics" pages appear to be more of a wikiversity course then a wikibooks textbook. The wikiversity project moved off this server some time ago, although some old pages still remain here that have not been completely deleted.

There are two options for you, if you want to continue work on this book:
 * 1) We can try to reformat these pages to be a "textbook" and not a course. In this case all the pages can stay on wikibooks, but it will take a little bit of formatting work to make everything correct.
 * 2) We can move your work to Wikiversity. You won't need to change the format or layout of your work, but you would need to create an account on that server to continue working on it.

Please let me know what you would like to do. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 14:51, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

 * Your confusion is understandable, this is a confusing situation. The way to progress right now really depends on what you want to do. Do you want to write a textbook or do you want to write a course? That decision will determine which environment you work in (wikibooks or wikiversity, respectively). Let me know what you would prefer to do, and I can go about fixing some of the links and moving the pages to where they need to be. I would much rather that you got off to the right foot then if you tried to work from a bad starting point and get very frustrated.
 * Let me know what you want to do. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 15:06, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

 * Okay. Let me look around at Wikiversity, see what needs to be moved and who I need to talk to about doing it. I'll let you know as soon as I have some results for you. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 17:04, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

All the pages from the Primary Mathematics course have been successfully imported to Wikiversity. The new page for you to edit is: v:Topic:Primary School Mathematics. The versions of the pages here on Wikibooks are going to be changed into book pages. Let me know if you have any questions. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 20:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

 * These kinds of things happen, unfortunately. Here is what you can do:
 * Copy + paste the text of the pages here to the pages at Wikiversity. This will update them to reflect the work you have already done.
 * Upload all your images to Wikimedia Commons. Commons is an image repository that is shared among all the projects, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikipedia, etc.. If you upload images to commons, they will be visible from Wikiversity and Wikibooks. If you upload them to commons, all the image links will "find" the images again.
 * I'll get the "overview" page imported, I didnt realize I missed it. That should take care of the problem. If you have any other questions, or if you need help with any of this, let me know. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 21:29, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

 * If there appears to be a discrepancy, make sure you are always logged in! Follow the steps I outlined above to resolve the problem permanently. I still have not been able to get your overview page imported. I don't have the ability to import pages myself, I have to request it from other users (who may or may not be too busy to handle all my requests immediately). Copy+Paste all your changes from Wikibooks to Wikiversity, and then upload all of your images to commons. By the time you are done that, hopefully the overview page will be imported and you will be in business. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 00:03, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Some comments on your edits
While I appreciated your additions to Primary mathematics:Negative numbers, particularly the graphics, I do have some suggestions:

1) Please add a comment with each edit (the comment box is right below the edit box) so we know why a change was made. In the case of new materials or additions, it's fairly obvious that you added it because you thought it would be a good addition.  However, in the case of changes to existing text or deletions, some explanation is needed as to why you feel the changed text (or no text at all) is better than the old text.

2) Specifically, I wonder why you blanked out the sections I wrote on multiplying and dividing negative numbers. I've restored the material, because surely anything on this subject is better than nothing.

3) I feel we should have sections for each of the four basic mathematical operations to be done with negative numbers, although a case could be made for combining addition with subtraction and multiplication with division.

4) I wrote my material for students and you wrote for teachers and parents. Perhaps we eventually need to split into two lessons for each topic, with these different audiences in mind.  However, in the meantime, we should avoid deleting each other's material simply because it's written with another audience in mind.

5) I believe section titles are typically written with only the first letter and any proper nouns capitalized, not using mixed case (I actually prefer mixed case, but that's not what I've seen here).

6) I'd avoid using terms like "manipulatives", without defining them, as many parents and teachers may not understand this term, not to mention students.

StuRat 19:48, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

 * OK, thanks for your reply. I have a somewhat different background, coming from teaching some rather remedial adult education students.  It may be difficult to believe, but there are many adults who lack the ability to do math with negative numbers, then need to pick up this skill to take their high-school equivalency test, pass a test to get a promotion at work, etc.  It sounds like we are going to split the lesson into two, one for parents and teachers (yours) and one for students, be they children or adults (my version).  Can you please provide a link to your new location ?  I'd like to take a look (I probably won't edit it unless I find a spelling error or something like that).  Also, you mentioned not knowing how old the existing page was.  You can use the "history" tab at the top of any page to find out how old the page is (first edit, at the bottom) and how recently it was changed (last edit, at the top).  The summary provided with each edit is also listed there, as are links to the user and talk pages for each editor.  You didn't say you would start providing edit summaries, but I hope you will, as that's a valuable way for the various editors to communicate the reason for each edit.  As for spelling, I always try to cut and paste my edits, then spellcheck them on a word processor or e-mail program before saving them.  I only found one spelling error in your material, but that might be enough to make it worth your while for you to do the same. StuRat 14:05, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Thanks, I changed the student oriented version back to include my content, but also retained some of your content, such as the illustrations. I noticed that the 3 pluses in the answer for the last illustration are not in an oval like the first two; does this have any meaning ?  I also suggest you use the "Show preview" button to see what each section looks like before you pick "Save page", as that means fewer edits and edit summaries are required. StuRat 17:01, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

I've now added "cross-dabs" to the top of our two lessons, so readers can jump between the two. One hint on cutting and pasting, I use CONTROL A (select all) followed by CONTROL X (cut) to cut the entire page, then paste (CONTROL V) it into a word processor for spellchecking. It's easy to recall the cut sequence, because you "AX" the contents out. StuRat 17:36, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

 * OK, I added cross-dabs at the top level now, too, and hope to eventually add them for every other subject. You might want to create an "Introduction" or "Theory of learning" topic and move some of the material you have on the top page there.  (Those looking for a specific lesson have to scroll through a lot of text to find them, at present.)  Thanks for adding that new illustration.  It seems to be a bit fuzzy with a couple red splotches, though, do you have a cleaner copy ?  One thing we apparently agree on is that there is no need to teach the names of the subtracthend, multiplicator, divisor, and all those other silly names.  I recall wasting quite a bit of time trying to memorize those in school. StuRat 01:31, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Leightwing


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CAT-Tools/SDL Trados/Forcing Segmentation

Workbench does not allow users to select where segmentation should occur. This is often a problem. Uwe Sprengart has kindly provided a solution to this important functionality issue and given permission to post it. It is a macro as below. If you do not know how to add a macro to Word, www.nla.gov.au/kinetica/download/requestmacro.doc will help with Word 2003 and earlier.

Sub DefineAndOpenSegment ' Macro by Uwe Sprengart ' If Selection.Range = "" Then Exit Sub Application.Run MacroName:="TemplateProject.tw4winProtection.tw4winKeyEditCut" With ActiveDocument.Bookmarks .Add Range:=Selection.Range, Name:="Start_TU" .DefaultSorting = wdSortByName .ShowHidden = True End With

Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("tw4winMark") Selection.TypeText Text:="{0>" Application.Run MacroName:="Normal.EditPaste.MAIN" Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("tw4winMark") Selection.TypeText Text:="<}0{><0}"

' Selection.Find.ClearFormatting ' With Selection.Find ' .Text = "{0>" ' .Replacement.Text = "" ' .Forward = False ' .Wrap = wdFindAsk ' .Format = False ' .MatchCase = False ' .MatchWholeWord = False ' .MatchWildcards = False ' .MatchSoundsLike = False ' .MatchAllWordForms = False ' End With ' Selection.Find.Execute Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="Start_TU" ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("Start_TU").Delete

Application.Run MacroName:="TemplateProject.tw4winOpenGet.Main" Application.Run MacroName:="TemplateProject.tw4winGetTranslation.Main" End Sub

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Cookbook talk:Undhiyu (Gujarati Mixed Vegetables)

Recipe info
If you have any questions or comments about the recipe, just ask here. Emanla Eraton 23:52, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

 * G'day, and thanks for the offer! Are you able to fill in the two missing details, papdi and ajwain? It would be great if you could. Let me know if you need a hand. cheers, Webaware talk 07:25, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Picture
This is very regular dish of South Gujarat, I expect it to be cooked this winter. I will surly upload the picture along with the pics of ingredients especially the papdi. cheers. (Yndesai (talk) 09:56, 18 December 2010 (UTC))

If anyone can find a free picture of undhiu and upload it, that would be good. Siddharth Patil (talk) 01:18, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

This recipe relesed into the public domain
Siddharth Patil (talk) 18:03, 6 November 2009 (UTC)


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Talk:Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python 2.6/Intro

The words "type in code" in first paragraph presumes we know where to type the code into. Into a web browser? A terminal window?
 * In IDLE after going to new file, as described later on in the page. Jrincayc 14:37, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

I know that some python programmers probably wrote this but this line clearly is wrong. "for example, that programming is often referred to as hacking"
 * Hm. I would consider writing code in python hacking.  I do realize that this definition is different from the typical definition of hacking that is used in the media. Jrincayc (talk) 15:30, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

In the part of this article where it tells you how to install python onto Windows computers it says "To check if you already have it installed, open command prompt (cmd in run menu) or MS-DOS and type python. If it says "Bad command or file name" you will need to download the appropriate Windows installer" I have Python 2.6, not the newly released 2.6.6, and I opened cmd and typed in "python" and it said "'python' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file". This leads me to believe that this section of this article is wrong. If it's not actually wrong I wouldn't be surprised though, cause my computer isn't the sharpest tool in the shed

 * Hm. That could also mean that it isn't in the path.  Yes, the text needs fixing.  Jrincayc (talk) 02:44, 25 September 2010 (UTC)


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HyperText Markup Language/Tag List/button

Use
This tag is used for declaring a button on the HTML page. The ../input/ tag is more common in declaring a button.

disable
Used to disable the button.

name
Names the button. Used for pages with scripts on them.

type
Declares the type of the button. The user has three choices:
 * button: Standard button
 * reset: Resets the form that the button is in.
 * submit: submits the form to a page specified.

value
Declares a value in the button. Used with scripts.

Standard attributes

 * id
 * class
 * title
 * style
 * dir
 * lang
 * xml:lang
 * accesskey
 * tabindex

More info
w3school button tag


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Guitar/Cables

Since you are likely to encounter cables at some point in your guitar playing career, it is important learn about them. This is especially true if you play the electric guitar. With the electric guitar, the use of an amplifier is essential and the cable is the only connection that links the two together. So in order to ensure a good sound, you need to use the proper cabling, unless using wireless connectivity.

Jack Plugs
Plugs and Jacks are one style of connector used to connect audio equipment together. Jacks are the "female" side of the connection into which Plugs - the "male" side of the connection - are inserted. Anyone who has ever used a set of headphones is familiar with at least one type of jack. A jack is simply the end of a cable that lets it connect to another audio device. They come in many different sizes, but for guitarists the most important ones are these:

 * 3.5mm mono - small microphones and LINE Out or LINE In small audio devices (z. B. sound map)
 * 3.5mm stereo - headphones and LINE Out or LINE In small audio devices (e.g. sound map).
 * 6.3mm mono - LINE Out or LINE In larger audio devices (guitar amplifier, mixers, etc.), e-guitar, Send or Return of effects equipment, microphones and loudspeakers.
 * 6.3mm stereo - combining Send and Return with effects devices, Stereo microphones and headphones.

Plugs and Jacks are often referred to among audio professionals as "tip-sleeve" or "tip-ring-sleeve" connectors. If one looks closely at plug at the end of a typical set of headphones, one will note that there are white or black plastic rings separating metal surfaces. Each of those metal surfaces is connected to a wire that is used to send audio from one side to another. The notch found in the tip of the connector is used to give the connection some resistance to being inadvertently disconnected (though it hardly compares to the positive locking of the XLR connector following).

The 6.3mm (or 1/4" as it's commonly referred to) mono connector is commonly used for connecting a guitar to an amplifier. Since a guitar, from an audio point of view, really has no sense of left-to-right difference, only two wires are needed, so this mono or "tip-sleeve" connector is fine for the job.  The tip carries the audio signal, while the sleeve carries the ground side of the audio signal.

Looking at a pair of typical headphones for a portable music player, one finds three metal sections. The 3.5mm stereo or tip-ring-sleeve connector uses the tip for left-hand audio, the ring for right-hand audio and the sleeve for ground. Look further at a set of headphones for a smartphone like Apple's EarPods, and one finds four metal sections: tip for left-hand audio, ring for right-hand audio, little sleeve for control signals produced by the volume/play-pause controller, and big sleeve for ground.

Choosing Good Cables
Choosing the right cable for an electric guitar is all about preserving the tone that the luthier and you have worked so hard to create. Many different styles of patch cables are available in differing lengths and using different brands of connectors, cable and jackets. A good patch cable has been made with the rigours of guitar playing in mind: It will use high quality connectors (look for Neutrik or Switchcraft on the connectors themselves as two high quality brands), will be constructed using high quality cable, and will often offer some strain relief using a reinforcing sleeve or spring-type arrangement at the point where connector and cable meet. A good cable will lay flat when fully extended with no tendency to curl or twist. When connected between the guitar and amplifier, the connections should feel solid, with no excessive play or looseness. There should be no appreciable noise added to the sound of the guitar, and when the guitarist grasps the connector body while connected to the guitar and amplifier there should not be an increased hum heard.

Patch cords often come with rubberized jackets, fabric jackets or vinyl/polyvinyl jackets. The first two are particularly good as the main guitar-to-amplifier connection, while the third is more suited to use between effects units or from the effects units to the amplifier. The choice between rubberized and fabric jackets mainly comes down to personal preference, though, the rubberized cables are somewhat easier to clean off should they come in contact with sticky or damp substances common in some performance locations.

Good patch cables will be priced in the US$20-40 range for a 3-meter cable. A good quality cable will have a lifespan of five to ten years if properly cared for.

XLR plugs

These plugs are very durable and they are the plug of choice for professional recordings, and non-professional recordings. Nearly all professional stages and sound studios are equipped with XLR connections... some home studios have XLR connections, thanks to the invention of retail outlets. Loudspeakers and mixers are also often connected with these cables too

The plugs have a catch mechanism, which prevents inadvertent separation of a patch cord. In order to be able to pull a XLR plug from the socket, you have to press the release mechanism. A XLR connection always consists of 3 phases. One phase transfers the mass while the other two transmit the audio signal. Usually one of the two audio signals is misphased in transfer, in order to remove any effects from signal distortion.

MIDI Cables

Right now, the 5 pronged MIDI cable are always used for data transfer, but originally they were intended for use with high quality stereo equipment. At that time this 5- pronged cable represented a variant to Stereo, which existed beside the identical, 3 pronged mono execution.

Today these cables are used almost exclusively for the transmission of MIDI control signals between MIDI capable music instruments, amplifiers and computers. Since it does not depend on fast data transmission rates, shielding of the individual wires inside the cable is not necessary.

Polyphonic or Hexaphonic Guitar Cables
In order to transfer each string to a guitarsynth, polyphonic guitar effect or guitar2MIDI, a few different connectors have been used, but the one introduced by Roland/BOSS in 1989 has clearly turned into a standard. Its a DIN 13pin as it has been used in car radio before and apart from the 6 strings (pin 1...6) it contains the standard mono output (pin7), a volume control (pin8), an up/dn switch (pin10/11) and +-7V (pin 12/13). A problem is that ground flows only through the weak housing contact.

Other polyphonic connectors:
 * 7pin Lemo, used by ARP Avatar guitar synth (1977)
 * 24pin rectangular used by Roland before the 13pin DIN (1977-88)
 * Neutricon used by Paradis Guitars (1985-96)
 * subD used by Photon (around 1984)
 * multiplexed stereo 1/4" used by Shadow GTM (around 1984)
 * RJ45 Ethernet style used by Gibson Digital Guitar (since 2005)

Power Cables
Warning: All these cables and connectors are intended for a high supply voltage! Changes or repairs to such cables can be dangerous! Power cables for music equipment are commonly called "jug cables" in New Zealand, because they were the same as the power cord for an electric water jug!

Mains Power Cable
A three slot conductor plug designed to International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) specifications. Sometimes called a "kettle plug" or "kettle lead". The kettle lead is designed for use with mains power outlets.

title: Guitar/Cables


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Cookbook:Lemon Pickle I

| Cuisine of India

Lemon pickle is a traditional condiment used with Indian food. Many pickle recipes from India have oil to help preserve the pickle, but this recipe uses no oil.

Ingredients

 * 12 small or 6 large lemons (thin skins preferred)
 * 1 large or 2 small lemons, juiced
 * ½ cup salt
 * ¼ cup red chile powder
 * ½ cup sugar
 * 3 tsp turmeric powder
 * 1 tsp fenugreek seed
 * 1 tsp black mustard seed
 * ¼ tsp asafoetida powder (omit for gluten-free version)

Preparation

 * 1) Wash the lemons and dry them well, leaving no water on the lemons. Trim off the stalk and any odd bits.
 * 2) Cut the lemons in to small pieces about 2 cm (¾ inch) on each side, and place in a bowl.
 * 3) Dry-roast the fenugreek, black mustard, and asafoetida together in a pan on a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Don't burn them!
 * 4) Grind the roasted spices in a grinder or a mortar and pestle.
 * 5) Add the ground spices, turmeric powder, salt, sugar and chili powder to the bowl and mix together well.
 * 6) Pack the mixture into a 2 litre (2 quart) jar, or use a couple of smaller jars. Don't fill quite to the top—allow at least 1 cm space.

Fermentation

 * 1) Sit the jar where it will get the heat of the sun. Bring the jar inside in the evening, and put it back out in the morning. Do this for at least a month in summer, two months in winter. The warmth of the sun will help the pickle to ferment.

Notes, tips and variations

 * Don't worry about the amount of sugar in the recipe, because it will be fermented away over time.
 * Asafoetida powder generally has wheat flour added to it to help it flow well. You can omit this ingredient if you want to make it gluten-free.

title: Cookbook:Lemon Pickle I


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User talk:Veganlover

Welcome message
Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally.

You might also be interested to read our Cookbook policy page and talk to other Cookbook editors. Webaware talk 06:20, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Veganlover


text:
User talk:Yangjustinc

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Webaware talk 09:28, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Yangjustinc


text:
User talk:Masoris

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Webaware talk 09:29, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Masoris


text:
User talk:V2alexthebetter

G'day and welcome aboard. I just saw your page on Physical Activity/Planche, and it strikes me that it would be perhaps better to start a book on Gymnastics and have planche as one page of that book. What do you think?

I could help you get started, but please note that I can't contribute to a book on gymnastics as I know nothing about it!

Now, here's our standard welcome message:

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Webaware talk 09:34, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:V2alexthebetter


text:
User talk:Nancy Lucia Lopez

Welcome message
Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Webaware talk 09:35, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Nancy Lucia Lopez


text:
User talk:Zamphonica

Welcome message
Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Webaware talk 09:36, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Zamphonica


text:
User talk:Lpacer

Welcome message
Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Webaware talk 09:36, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Lpacer


text:
User talk:God33

Welcome message
Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Webaware talk 09:37, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:God33


text:
User talk:Lucius Antonius

Welcome message
Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Webaware talk 09:38, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Lucius Antonius


text:
Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 6: Student Motivation/Expectancy-Value Theory

Expectancy x Value: Effects on Students’ Motivation
As we have explained in this chapter, motivation is affected by several factors, including reinforcement for behavior, but especially also students’ goals, interests, and sense of self-efficacy and self-determination. The factors combine to create two general sources of motivation: students’ expectation of success and the value that students place on a goal. Viewing motivation in this way is often called the expectancy-value model of motivation (Wigfield & Eccles, 2002; Wigfield, Tonk, & Eccles, 2004), and sometimes written with a multiplicative formula: expectancy x value = motivation. The relationship between expectation and value is “multiplicative” rather than additive because in order to be motivated, it is necessary for a person to have at least a modest expectation of success and to assign a task at least some positive value. If you have high expectations of success but do not value a task at all (mentally assign it a “0” value), then you will not feel motivated at all. Likewise, if you value a task highly but have no expectation of success about completing it (assign it a “0” expectancy), then you also will not feel motivated at all.

Expectancies are the result of various factors, but particularly the goals held by a student, and the student’s self-efficacy, which we discussed earlier in this chapter. A student with mastery goals and strong self-efficacy for a task, for example, is likely to hold high expectations for success—almost by definition. Values are also the result of various factors, but especially students’ interests and feelings of self-determination. A student who has a lasting personal interest in a task or topic and is allowed to choose it freely is especially likely to value the task—and therefore to feel motivated.

Ideally both expectancies and values are high in students on any key learning task. The reality, however, is that students sometimes do not expect success, nor do they necessarily value it when success is possible. How can a teacher respond to low expectations and low valuing? We have offered a number of suggestions to meet this challenge throughout this chapter. In brief, raising low expectations depends on adjusting task difficulty so that success becomes a reasonable prospect: a teacher must make tasks neither too hard nor too easy. Reaching this general goal depends in turn on thoughtful, appropriate planning, selecting reasonable objectives, adjusting them on the basis of experience, finding supportive materials, and providing students with help when needed. These teaching strategies are so important that we return to them in Chapter 8, which is called “Instructional Strategies.”

Raising the value of academic tasks is equally important, but the general strategies for doing so are different than for raising expectations. Increasing value requires linking the task to students’ personal interests and prior knowledge, showing the utility of the task to students’ future goals, and showing that the task is valuable to other people whom students’ respect. Some of these strategies were discussed earlier in this chapter, but others (e.g. linking new learning with prior knowledge) are discussed in Chapter 2, which is called “The Learning Process.”

(back to Chapter 6...)


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Talk:Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 6: Student Motivation

Basics of this chapter are now complete, except for the usual missing elements of tables, figures, and any "pedagogy" features that are truly essential. As of this posting date, Chapters 1-7 inclusive are all posted to this extent. What remains are Chapters 8-13. KelvinLeeSeifert 13:07, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Motivational Operation or Motivation (MO)
Congratulations on putting this book together! 1 suggestion: Modern radical behaviorist define motivation as "any stimulus, event, or condition that (1) increases the probability of a previously learner response (also called the EVOCATIVE effect of MO) and (2) establishes (albeit temporarely) the reinforcing effectiveness of another stimulus (also call the REINFORCER ESTABLISHING EFFECT). For a contemporary treatment of the topic see Jack Michael "concept and principles in behavior analysis"


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Technology Supported Learning & Retention

Technology Supported Learning & Retention (TSLR) wikibook is the "textbook" to help faculty apply the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education to their teaching.

In 1987, Chickering & Gamson published the now famous “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” These principles are based on the perspective that the goal of a proper undergraduate education should be active, cooperative, and challenging.

Technology Supported Learning & Retention (TSLR)
Each section looks at one of the best practices in higher education instruction, and then considering technologies that support those practices.

 * /About.../
 * /Introduction/
 * /1. Student-faculty contact/
 * /2. Cooperation Among Students/
 * /3. Active/Engaged Learning/
 * /4. Prompt Feedback/
 * /5. Time on Task/
 * /6. High Expectations/
 * /7. Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning/
 * /Course Evaluation Checklist/
 * /Resources/
 * /Instructional Technology Literacy Rubric/
 * /Students say.../
 * /Advanced Topics/
 * /ePortfolio/

TSLR Topics Overview
Faculty are asking for information and help using technology to support student learning and retention. We have packaged everything into one place. We provide the "guide on the side" and maximum flexibility to meet faculty needs within their time constraints.

 * Overview - Introduction to Technology Supported Learning & Retention (TSLR) - guided tour of technology, tools, functions, discussions, participate as a student in discussions, assignments, quizzes

 * Basics - Learning Support - Introduction, develop samples within own course shell, emphasis on application of technology to support learning objectives, access to a course shell on the development system for building course content activities

 * Course Management - Teaching and Learning - TSLR Introduction, Learning Support, further development of own course to address broader needs of students in a hybrid and fully online learning environment, emphasis on course management and pedagogy, special topics - importing quizzes, content, previous experience with learning support technologies

Formerly known as TEI - Technology Enhanced Instruction
The name change to Technology Supported Learning & Retention (TSLR) from Technology Enhanced Instruction (TEI) better reflects the focus on student learning rather than faculty teaching - an important distinction. The Technology Enhanced Instruction (TEI) was the name of the original project groundwork done in 2003. However, as the basis for curriculum for 2008 and beyond, a more student-centered title is appropriate. It isn't about us (faculty and course designers), it is about all of us (students and instructors as learners). Interestingly, little needed to be changed beyond the title, as the students' learning was the primary focus of the course materials.

.. may be useful if we decide to expand offering for K-12 teachers
 * Program Standard 16: Using Technology to Support Student Learning


text:
Primary Mathematics/General Overview of the Teaching of Mathematics

The face of the teaching of mathematics is in constant flux. This course, therefore, is an attempt to stay in step with the current pedagogy(s) used in the teaching of mathematics to the primary grades. While educators should find this book helpful in learning or reacquainting themselves with some of the methodologies currently used, this course attempts to use as much lay language as possible to also be helpful to parents who, in looking over the shoulders of their children, are sometimes baffled by the "New Math". Those who perhaps might find the most value from this course would be those who wish to home-school their child(ren). It is hoped that teachers of mathematics will continually make updates to this course as these changes inevitably occur.

What This Book is Not
This book assumes that the reader has reached some level of competency with the topics it covers. As such, this book is not designed to teach math to the reader. Rather, it is meant to give the reader insight into how and why mathematical core understandings and skills are taught the way they are. Activities will be suggested that will present teachers and prospective home-schoolers with ideas for their own course content. A basic mathematics background should be all that is needed to find value in this course. Often times parents (and even teachers) only understand a topic in the way they were taught it, but modern math curriculums are often constructed in such a way that topics are covered in many different ways in order to accommodate the different learning styles of students. By way of example, this course will not teach the reader in step by step fashion how to multiply two large numbers, but the various building blocks and algorithms that students are introduced to in the process of learning this skill will be explained.

Connectedness
One of the overarching ideas that is highly valued in the teaching of mathematics in the primary grades involves the connections students make in their learning. All of our mathematical understandings are intertwined. For this reason, different skills such as multiplication and understandings like those learned from the study of geometry are not taught separately. Rather, they are taught together, in such a way as to reinforce each other. Students should be encouraged to make connections by looking for patterns, exploring extremes, and forming and testing conjectures. Teachers and parents should refrain from simply "telling them how to do it." Letting student "guess at" and then check their work, learning from their mistakes as they go, leads to much stronger mathematical understandings. It also leads them to form mathematical habits that make future mathematically based explorations more efficient.

Primary and even upper school teachers recognize that understanding mathematics in the abstract is not the goal of most students. They need to see connections to the real world that inspire their learning. For this reason, teachers prefer to use real world problems that require the need for mathematical models (see below). Teachers prefer not to "teach". They prefer to "guide". Modern Educators realize that students gain true "ownership" of their understandings through, inasmuch as it is possible, making connections on their own - by way of their own work and explorations. Internal links in this course, when found in this course will purposefully be placed there to emphasize what should be an ever-present concept of the connectedness of mathematical understandings.

Manipulatives and Models
One very important component of the contemporary methods used to teach math is the use of manipulatives (such as toys) and models (visual representations) to give added dimension to students' understandings. In each chapter of this course, the reader will find various examples of models used to teach different mathematical understandings. Often, they will find that these models serve to make connections to material covered in other sections. Keep in mind that teachers in the classroom tend to be very creative and resourceful. Often, the models found in this course have many possible permutations, and can come in various shapes, sizes, and guizes. They are purposely presented here in simple forms to facilitate for the reader their identification.


text:
US History/Vikings

Who were the Vikings?
The Norsemen (Norwegians) who lived around the beginning of the second millennium are today more commonly known as Vikings. The Vikings were farmers who "traded" during the slow months. Now, "trading" doesn't mean "I'll give you five sheep for that cow." It means "I'll give you five sheep for that cow. If you don't want to trade, I'll kill you." These people loved to travel in boats from one place to another, and this led to the second discovery of North America (Native Americans first, Vikings second, and Columbus third). Although Irish monks, most famously Brendan, and other European explorers had voyaged in the western waters, the Vikings established a settlement, the remains of which can be seen today at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland.

Proported Ancestry and Descendants
The Norse are believed by some to have descended from the Huns, a people of uncertain ancestry. The Norse are believed by some to be the ancestors of the Goths and of modern Germans. There is no proof for these claims.

Eric "the Red" and his Children
Eric "the Red" fled Norway to Iceland to avoid facing a murder charge, and later was banished from Iceland for yet another murder. His children would have great impact on the discovery and explorations of North America.

Bjarni Ericson
Bjarni travelled around trading in his little knarr. A knarr is a small Norwegian boat that only fits about three to five people. Bjarni sighted Vinland (modern Newfoundland).

An interesting fact is that Leif Ericson bought Bjarni Herjólfsson's boat about ten years later, in about 995 C. E. This is the same boat in which Lief had discovered Vinland. Leif Ericson was about thirty years old (or thirty three, depending on whether one follows the "Eiríks saga rauða", i.e. the Saga of Eric the Red, or the "Grœnlendinga saga", or the Greenlanders Saga).

Thorvald Ericson
Explored from 1004 to 1005 AD.

Thorfinn Ericson
Traveled from 1008-1009 AD. He bravely took cattle with him on his knarr, hoping to settle in Greenland. "Greenland" is a misnomer, since it's covered in ice; his cattle died.

Freydis Erikidottir
Freydis was Eric's daughter, his fourth child. Since Freydis was a woman, there were many restrictions put upon her, but she wanted to make a name for herself. In 1013 AD, she explored with 2 Icelandic men, and killed them and their men upon arriving in Vinland (North America).

Leif Ericson
Leif Ericson did further exploration of Vinland and settled there. In 986, Norwegian-born Eirik Thorvaldsson, known as Eirik the Red, explored and colonized the southwestern part of Greenland. It was his son, Leiv Eiriksson, who became the first European to set foot on the shores of North America, and the first explorer of Norwegian extraction now accorded worldwide recognition.

The date and place of Leiv Eiriksson's birth has not been definitely established, but it is believed that he grew up on Greenland. The Saga of Eric the Red relates that he set sail for Norway in 999, served King Olav Trygvasson for a term, and was sent back to Greenland one year later to bring Christianity to its people.

title: US History/Vikings


text:
Technology Supported Learning & Retention/About...

For the Facilitated online course, students enrolled in the cohort work through the modules together, with predefined deadlines for completing individual lessons. The cohort provides a significant interactive learning experience. The facilitator monitors the progress. The facilitator is available to moderate discussions that go off track and to answer questions as they arise.

Cohorts are scheduled. Registration is required. Participation in discussions is expected. Activity completion is self-paced, but there is considerable advantage to working within the cohort schedule.

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education
In 1987 Chickering & Gamson published the now famous “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” These principles are based on the perspective that the goal of a proper undergraduate education should be active, cooperative, and challenging.

 * 1) encourage student-faculty contact
 * 2) encourage cooperation among students
 * 3) encourage active/engaged learning
 * 4) give prompt feedback
 * 5) emphasize time on task
 * 6) communicate high expectations
 * 7) respect diverse talents and ways of learning

Modules and activities
Course modules address each of the seven principles. Each module contains activities grouped for building blocks for learning.

 * Learn - notes, reading, discussion about concepts associated with the Practice theme of the module, introduction to the technologies that support this module's Practice
 * Explore - as a "student" use the tools and participate in demonstrations of the Practice
 * Apply - from the instructional perspective, observe and/or implement the Practice tools
 * Evaluate - reflect on the Practice, implementation process and student outcomes

Just want the overview? Complete the activities within the course identified as components of the Introduction. You will see that there are many other activities listed and tagged for Student Learning Support or Teaching and Learning. You are welcome to do any or all of these as your time and interest permit.

If you are planning to supplement an existing classroom course, you should work through all the activities tagged Introduction and Student Learning Support.

Experienced technology using faculty planning to use the course management tools are to review and participate in all activities.

Course Completion
How do you know when you are done? Rubrics are provide to check your work. If you would like academic credit for the work, a formal registration and review process is being considered.

There are no "grades" for the course - just assessment of Completion. As a participant in the TSLR course, you are NOT working for actual course grades. All the assignments and quizzes are hands-on learning experiences - show and tell, only. With that in mind the grades are meaningless.

Did you do the assignment - yes/no? Do you have a student experience with various Catalyst options? Did you get something to think about, discuss and/or add to your own course? That is the ONLY objective for including graded assignments in this course.

Grades are not important, other than to see the ranges and how they work from a student perspective. The "course" is about personal learning experience, professional development, community building, and working toward providing more options for students.

Resources
The material in the Technology to Support Learning & Retention course is intended to serve as a stand-alone self paced course as well as an ongoing reference for any faculty interested in learning more about the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education and their application to courses via technology.

Self-paced study - Work through the lessons and activities in the order presented. Engage colleagues in discussion, review of course development. Available anytime. May request review for credit upon successful completion.

Group Project
Rather than a course, think of this a group project. That is a better model for this learning experience. We are all in this together. I changed the Catalyst course Settings to say Facilitator and Participants, because this more accurately represents our respective roles.

As a graduate and occasional instructor in the CSUEB MS Ed Online Teaching and Learning program, I thought the group project process was an extremely valuable learning experience. In fact, that was the subject of my Masters project (most of which is available from my DeAnza web page).

Group Project Project http://faculty.deanza.edu/taylorvalerie/groupproject/index.html

Please contact me if you have questions of suggestions.

Enjoy!


text:
User talk:Vtaylor

Welcome message
G'day, welcome to Wikibooks. Subpages of a book can be references by a shorthand notation:
 * /subpage/

Now, here's our standard welcome message:

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Webaware talk 14:41, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Formatting
G'day, thought you might be interested in this little titbit. For a number list of points, you can start each like with a "#" and the wiki software will automatically number the points for you. Sub-points are supported too. Click "edit" next to this section to look at the wiki markup for this example:

 * 1) First point
 * 2) Second point
 * 3) Third point
 * 4) Third point's first sub-point
 * 5) Third point's second sub-point
 * 6) Forth point
 * 7) * Bullet on forth point
 * 8) * Another bullet on forth point
 * 9) Fifth point

cheers, Webaware talk 04:42, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

WB:AA
I have replied to your query on the Administrative Assistance page. If you need more info, feel free to ask again there, or on my talk page. When you leave message for people, you can use your watchlist to be notified when the page changes, so you can easily tell when you have a reply. To do this, click the watch tab at the top of the page. Then, you can click my watchlist at the top right corner of the screen to see the recent changes to pages on your watchlist. Hope that helps! – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 19:04, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Moving pages
Please be careful when moving pages. If you move them twice, then it leaves behind a double redirect. Every time a pages is moved, a redirect is created at the old location which points to the new location. If you move a page twice, then there will be redirects from A-->B-->C (but only the B-->C redirect works). That means that all the A-->B redirects need to be updated by hand. I've already cleaned up all the double redirects you made, but in the future try not to create them in the first place. Happy editing! – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 23:50, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Vtaylor


text:
Talk:Primary Mathematics/General Overview of the Teaching of Mathematics

= Beginning =

I have added this chapter in part because I think parents using this book need to understand what their children's learning environment is like. For this reason, each chapter in this book needs to give examples of manipulatives and/or incorporate the use of models in every chapter. Additionally, because the web of mathematical understanding is rather complex, a good deal of thought must be given to how to make the various "connections" that the different models support apparent, without too much confusion for the reader. Hopefully, editors will begin to develop a "format" for each chapter that can be outlined and explained in this "Overview" chapter. I'm not sure if this approach puts the cart before the horse or not, but after a few chapters (that address these issues) have been written, someone should come back to this chapter and updated it to serve as a guide to understanding those chapters, as well a serve as a template for editing of other chapters. Leightwing 01:51, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

It occurs to me that if this becomes a Course rather than a textbook that it might make sense to approach it as if it were an overview of Teaching Primary Mathematics for someone that wants to home-school their child(ren). In this way the focus would still be on the pedagogical approach, but the language would be directed at the "lay"-educator. Leightwing 16:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

= July 2010 =

I see the last edits were a while ago. There is a Wikiversity project now that is distinct from this Wikibook. I will attempt to edit both during the next few months, adding to this Wikibook as a readable book on primary mathematics for self-learners of all ages and to the Wikiversity topic as a guide to teaching primary mathematics for both homeschooling parents and classroom teachers. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk) 19:47, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

Navigation Templates
Hey anyone, I'm adding navigation to these pages and I'm basically using the same template as on another page. I'm new to this so I'm still figuring out the coding and whatnot. I can't seem to find any reference on how to make the Previous link take the user back to the main page of this book. Help? Sheppard (talk) 04:08, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

 * Hmm... probably the template isn't robust enough to do this. I came up with a rather kludgey fix.  I created a redirect page, and pointed it to the main page.  Then I put this as the link to point to in the navigation template.  The only downside is that, when you follow that link there will be in small print at the top of the page "Redirected from ..."  Try it out and tell me what you think. Thenub314 (talk) 04:58, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

 * I think it's a worthwhile workaround until something more fluid can be figured. I'm going to start reading through this book; see what I can do to make it better. Sheppard (talk) 15:11, 3 December 2010 (UTC)


text:
Mathematica/Polar Surface Plots

There is no built in function to make a polar 3D surface plot (that is, height governed by radius and angle). However,a small amount of code allows us to draw one using the identities between Cartesian and polar coordinate systems:

 * $$x=r \cos \left( \theta \right) \,$$
 * $$y=r \sin \left( \theta \right) \,$$

How we will do this is to construct a table of values corresponding to the height for a range of angles and radii. Let's us use the function below as an example:

 * $$f\left( r, \theta \right) = r \sin \left(\theta \right) \, $$

The first step in constructing our table is to define the function and to state the distance between plot points we would like:

dtheta = Pi/20;                         (*Give a radial gridline spacing of Pi/20 radians*) rmax = 1;                               (*Define the maximum radius*) dr = rmax/10;                           (*Give 10 circumferential grid lines*)

f[r_, theta_] := r Sin[theta];          (*This is the function definition*)

Now, we construct our table of height values according to the information above:

data = Table[ f[r, theta],                      (*This is the function giving the value in the table*) {theta, 0, 2Pi, dtheta},          (*This is the increment for theta*) {r, 0, rmax, dr}];                (*This is the increment for r*)

At this point, we can plot the table of data in Cartesian coordinates by using ListPlot3D, with r on on the x-axis, θ on the y-axis and f(r,θ) on the z-axis. This gives an ordinary SurfaceGraphics output.

gr1 = ListPlot3D[ data,                               (*The array of height values*) DataRange -> {{0, rmax}, {0, 2*Pi}}];(*The range that this array covers*)

The image below shows the SurfaceGraphics output, gr1. Note that in this example, the image has been antialiased. Please see the image page for the antialisaing code.

We now convert the SurfaceGraphics object to a Graphics3D object, gr2,:

gr2 = Graphics3D[gr1];

This is the point at which we transform our Cartesian plot into a polar plot using the relations above. We first define a rule to perform the transformation on a point given by a list of three numbers in the form {x,y,z}. We shall call it "substitution":

substitution = {r_, theta_, z_} -> {r Cos[theta], r Sin[theta], z};

Now, we use the ReplaceAll function to go through the Graphics3D object, gr2, and find every polygon point. We set polygon points (a list of three numbers) to be a pattern object using the ":" operator and assign it the name "p". Now we use RuleDelayed (:>) to perform the transformation above on each point. We cannot use Rule (->) as that would only evaluate when it was entered, not when it was used, and would not transaform the points.

gr3 = ReplaceAll[gr2, p : Polygon[pts_] :> ReplaceAll[p,substitution] ]

The last step is to show the resulting polar plot, gr3:

Show[ gr3, AxesLabel -> {"", "", z}]            (*Retitle the axes*)

As we are no longer working in the Cartesian coordinate system, we cannot name the horizontal axes x and y, however, we did not alter the value of z so we can leave that as the name of the vertical axis.

For Mathematica 6.0, please use the next code:

MyListPolarPlot3D[data_, rRange_, thetaRange_, zRange_] := Module[ {}, gr1 = ListPlot3D[ data, DataRange -> { { rRange1, rRange2}, { thetaRange1, thetaRange2} },   DisplayFunction -> Identity, ColorFunction -> "SolarColors", ColorFunction -> Automatic, MeshFunctions -> {Function[{x, y, z}, x*Cos[y]], Function[{x, y, z}, x*Sin[y]]}, BoundaryStyle -> None, ColorFunctionScaling -> True, Mesh -> 30 ]; substitution = {r_, theta_, z_} -> {r Cos[theta], r Sin[theta], z}; gr2 = gr1 /. GraphicsComplex[p_List, rest__] :> GraphicsComplex[ReplaceAll[p, substitution], rest] ; (* * Retitle the axes and show final graph  *) Return[ Show[ gr2, AxesLabel -> {"X", "Y", "Z"}, DisplayFunction -> $DisplayFunction , BoxRatios -> {1, 1, 0.8}, PlotRange -> { {-0.65*rRange2, 0.65*rRange2}, {-0.65 rRange2, 0.65*rRange2}, {zRange1, zRange2} }   ]   ] ;    ]

This is an example

Fun[r_, t_] := 0.632 (0.710 \[ExponentialE]^(-1.166 (0.492+ r^2 -         1.403 r Cos[t])) +      0.710 \[ExponentialE]^(-1.166 (0.492+ r^2 + 1.403 r Cos[t]))) ;

dataPlot = Table[ Fun[r, t], {t, 0.0, 2.0*Pi, 2*Pi/100}, {r, 0.0, 4.0, 0.08}] ; MyListPolarPlot3D[ dataPlot, {0.0, 4.0}, {0.0, 2*Pi}, {0, 0.55}]

title: Mathematica/Polar Surface Plots


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Technology Supported Learning & Retention/Moodle FAQs

Moodle FAQs represents a collection of questions that have come up during the Technology to Support Student Learning & Retention (TSSLR) course that are related to the Moodle technology itself, rather than directly relating to instruction practices.

Catalyst / Moodle

Catalyst is the local name for our course management system which is actually Moodle. This is in line with our view that learning and instruction are key, technology is simply a catalyst.

cat·a·lyst     /ˈkætlɪst/ –noun 1.	Chemistry. a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected. 2.	something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being affected. 3.	a person or thing that precipitates an event or change: His imprisonment by the government served as the catalyst that helped transform social unrest into revolution. 4.	a person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic.

[Origin: 1900–05; cataly(sis) + (-i)st] Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Frequently Asked Questions

 * General functions - discussions, resources, wiki
 * Student functions - assignments, quizzes, grades
 * /Administration functions/ - course structure, appearance, student tracking, grading

General functions
General functions - discussions, resources, wiki

Student functions
Student functions - assignments, quizzes, grades

Administration functions
/Administration functions/ - course structure, appearance, student tracking, grading


text:
User talk:Vitalij zad

help requested
I have recently finished to write a book on m:b:en:Philosophy of Science in Russian wikibook Философия науки. I want to find somebody to translate it to English. Can you help me with this? P.S. I am interesting to write some books on math and computer science. On math I am currently working on m:b:ru:Знакомство с методом математической индукции and on computer science on Object oriented, m:b:en:Computer programming/Procedural programming and m:b:en:User:Alexsmail/Computer programming/How Objects should be correctly compared in Java (all this is on currently on hold). In my English texts I have a lot of grammar mistakes, so I need somebody to correct one. I want that all that I am writing will be on English. It can be translating of written on another language text or original text.

P.P.S. I have some material on math in Hebrew. Also hebrew wikibook has some material. It can be nice, while not mandatory, if you will know Hebrew too.

Я недавно закончил писать книгу в русском викиучебнике Философия науки. Я хотел бы найти кого-то ктобы перевёл бы его на английский m:b:en:Philosophy of Science. Не могли бы вы мне в этом помочь? P.S. Я хочу написать пару книг по математике и компьютерным наукам (программированию). По математике я начал работать над m:b:ru:Знакомство с методом математической индукции, а по компьютерным наукам над Object oriented, m:b:en:Computer programming/Procedural programming и m:b:en:User:Alexsmail/Computer programming/How Objects should be correctly compared in Java (пока я оставил это). Я пишу на английском со многими грамматическими ошибками, мне нужен кто-то, чтобы их исправлять. Я хочу, чтобы все мои книги были на английском. Это может быть как перевода с другого языка, так и оригинальный, изначально написанный на английском текст. P.P.S. По математике, у меня часть материала на иврите, да и в ивритском викиучебнике можно взять. Было бы прекрасно, если бы вы владели также ивритом. Но вовсе не обязательно. alexsmail 16:00, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Please do not blank pages
Please take care not to replace Wikibooks pages with blank content. Blank pages have a tendency to confuse readers and may be mistaken for vandalism. If it is a duplicate page, please redirect it to an appropriate existing page. If the page has been vandalised, please revert it to the last legitimate version. If you feel that the content of a page is inappropriate, please edit the page and replace it with appropriate content. If you believe there is no hope for the page, please see the deletion policy for how to proceed. If page is no longer useful, insert to its top. Thanks for contributing to Wikibooks! – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 15:20, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

A scientific perspective of science and A scientific perspective of philosophy
Which one is part of the book you're contributing to? The proper way to get content deleted is not to blank the page, but rather to tag it for deletion using. Please let me know which one to delete, if any.  – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 15:23, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

 * I've deleted it for you; only administrators can delete pages. If you create a page with the wrong name, consider using the move tool. At the top, to the right of the edit tab is the move tab. Just enter the new name, and there it goes. You'll want to move the associated talk page as well, so make sure the appropriate boxes are checked. As a final note, most users prefer to keep discussion on-wiki; please leave messages at my talk page. Only for important and urgent matters should email be used. If you need any further help with this book, or anything else, use my talk, or WB:SL. Have a good day!  – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 16:54, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Vitalij zad


text:
Technology Supported Learning & Retention/Introduction

Technology Enhanced Instruction Technology Enhanced Instruction (TEI) Revisited 2007

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education
In 1987 Chickering & Gamson published the now famous “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” These principles are based on the perspective that the goal of a proper undergraduate education should be active, cooperative, and challenging.

 * 1) encourage student-faculty contact
 * 2) encourage cooperation among students
 * 3) encourage active/engaged learning
 * 4) give prompt feedback
 * 5) emphasize time on task
 * 6) communicate high expectations
 * 7) respect diverse talents and ways of learning

The TSLR course is structured to apply these good practices to technology enhanced instruction using the Catalyst / Moodle course management system.

 * apply the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education to a specific course
 * evaluate instructional technology functions provided within the Catalyst course management system for current and improved curriculum delivery and learning activities
 * review assistive technology implications
 * use the Catalyst technology to enhance instruction
 * discover open source / open course resources for enhancing instructional practices
 * build a community of technology using educators within the DeAnza CIS/Business Division (some revision required for public course offering)

This course has been developed to serve a range of faculty course development needs and learning schedules

 * facilitated cohort - online (Summer 2007) or hybrid (Fall 2007)
 * instructor lead - classroom or hybrid
 * self-paced / self-study
 * reference / resource

The course draws on the rich and varied resources available via the web. Our goal is to introduce these to support course development and implementation activities, as well as ongoing instruction enhancement. Course resources include

 * TSLR notes, assignments, discussions, quizzes, collaborative writing activities
 * Catalyst resources for faculty on the DeAnza Catalyst server (http://catalystdev.deanza.edu) - Catalyst Up-And-Running for Faculty at De Anza College, Catalyst Student Guide = For Faculty Viewing
 * Catalyst resources for DeAnza students (http://catalyst.deanza.edu) - Catalyst Student Guide
 * Moodle resources - Moodle.org (http://moodle.org)
 * Technology Enhanced Instruction (TEI) project 2002
 * general online teaching and learning resources

The course is evolving as we discover more about making online teaching and learning better. If you have questions or comments about the objectives or the implementation, please let me know. I appreciate your feedback.

Outline
1. Student-faculty contact - discussions, assignments, quizzes, resources

 * Learn - participate in all forms of student-faculty contact offered through Catalyst, discuss applicability of functions to traditional expectations for student-faculty contact, identify differences, and suggest new learning activities

 * Explore - discussion - introductions, experience with enhancing instruction with technology, expectations

 * Apply - as a student, work through each activity as described in the module notes, participate in facilitated discussion of practices, explore own course shell, populate a resource and an assignment

 * Evaluate - discuss grading, feedback from instructor

2. Cooperation among students - discussions, wiki, collaborative learning

 * Learn - participate in activities as students that require cooperation, assess the challenges and benefits of technology in student cooperation

 * Explore - discuss role of group projects learning in higher education

 * Apply - choice for group selection, group projects - small group discussions, introduction to the wiki for collaborative writing, introduction to the Online Writing Center

 * Evaluate - discuss peer review process and applicability

3. Active/ engaged learning - project based learning, application to specific course objectives and outcomes

 * Learn - develop activities for inclusion in own course

 * Explore - discuss problem-based learning in higher education

 * Apply - discuss implementation of one activity that requires new approach to instruction of curriculum content, add activity to own course

 * Evaluate - discuss assessing student performance

4. Prompt feedback - quizzes, assignments, chat

 * Learn - review issues of plagiarism, intellectual property, cheating, investigate tools for assessing student learning

 * Explore - discuss cheating and plagiarism

 * Apply - complete quizzes, develop quiz questions and quizzes in own course, complete assignments with feedback, add activity with feedback to own course

 * Evaluate - discuss appropriate level of control and feedback response for learning being assessed

5. Time on task - research, collaboration, presentation

 * Learn - review types of media

 * Explore - discuss use of media in course work

 * Apply - access media types, locate and include media appropriate for own course, explore other activity types and suggest suitability - books, workshop, etc.

 * Evaluate - discuss accessibility issues, adaptive and assistive technologies

6. High expectations - evaluation, communication, modeling

 * Learn - review communication tools, understand grading options and displays, review tracking features

 * Explore - discuss student expectations and instructor's role in setting course expectations

 * Apply - participate in communication activities - asynchronous and real-time, explore grading options and setting in own course

 * Evaluate - discuss student participation and performance

7. Diverse talents and ways of learning - learning styles, modality, cultural influence

 * Learn - review learning styles, learning modality, cultural differences

 * Explore - discuss impact of technology and learning styles

 * Apply - take learning styles quiz, plan and add activities to own course to address learning modality differences

 * Evaluate - discuss implications for student / instructor learning style differences

Using this wikibook
Self-paced

Work through the lessons and activities in the order presented. Engage colleagues in discussion, review of course development. Available anytime. May request review for credit upon successful completion.

Facilitated online course

The cohort of enrolled students work through the modules together, with predefined deadlines for completing individual lessons. The cohort provides a significant interactive learning experience. The facilitator monitors the progress. The facilitator is available to moderate discussions that go off track and to answer questions as they arise.

Cohorts are scheduled. Registration is required. Participation in discussions is expected. Activity completion is self-paced, but there is considerable advantage to working within the cohort schedule.

Credit

 * Introduction to Technology Enhanced Instruction (1/2 unit) - guided tour of Catalyst functions, discussions
 * Enhanced Instruction (2 units) - Introduction, develop samples within own Catalyst course shell, emphasis on application of technology to support learning objectives .. each student has a Catalyst course shell on the development system for building course content activities
 * Teaching and Learning (3 or 4 units) - Introduction, Enhanced Instruction, further development of own course to address broader needs of students in a hybrid and fully online learning environment, emphasis on course management and pedagogy, special topics - importing quizzes, content .. students must have previous experience with technology enhanced instruction

Other Technologies

 * Photo formatting and editing (Photoshop, Irfanview)
 * podcasting
 * video preparation for youTube

Learn more ...
Technology Enhanced Instruction - Online Teaching and Learning

Technology Enhanced Instruction http://faculty.deanza.edu/kodaann/

Group projects http://faculty.deanza.edu/taylorvalerie/stories/storyReader$134

Wikis for knowledge http://faculty.deanza.edu/taylorvalerie/stories/storyReader$422

@ONE courses - podcasting


text:
Zulu/Lesson 3

=How many years=

In this lesson, we learn how to say how long we've been working for, how old we are.

Ngineminyaka engu-5 ngisebenza

 * uNandi: Sawubona Philani!
 * uPhilani: Yebo sawubona Nandi!
 * uNandi: Unjani?
 * uPhilani: Ngisaphila, wena unjani?
 * uNandi: Nami ngikhona.
 * uPhilani: Uneminyaka emingaki, usebenza?
 * uNandi: Ngineminyaka engu-5 ngisebenza. Wena, uneminyaka emingaki ufunda eWits?
 * uPhilani: Ngineminyaka engu-2 ngifunda.
 * uNandi: Sala kahle.
 * uPhilani: Hamba kahle.

"Nginonyaka ngisebenza eKPMG" is used for one year. As said before this has the same pattern as the other verbs. To express how old we are, we use the same construction but with no verb after it or 'ubudala' may be used, which means years since birth. Note on the numbers, engu-5 should be read as engu-'five'. So the number is read as it would be in English. Thus engu-10 would be read as engu-'ten'. This is done because Zulu numbers are cumbersome particularly for numbers above 5.

Uneminyaka emingaki ubudala?

 * uNandi: Sawubona Philani!
 * uPhilani: Yebo sawubona Nandi!
 * uNandi: Unjani?
 * uPhilani: Ngiyaphila, wena unjani?
 * uNandi: Nami ngisaphila.
 * uPhilani: Uneminyaka emingaki ubudala?
 * uNandi: Ngineminyaka engu-25. Wena, uneminyaka emingaki?
 * uPhilani: Ngineminyaka engu-22 ubudala. Usebenzaphi?
 * uNandi: Ngisebenza eNedbank. Ubhuti wakho uyasebenza na?
 * uPhilani: Yebo, yena usebenza eCrispy Chicken. Umama wakho usebenza kuphi?
 * uNandi: Yebo, yena usebenza eChris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
 * uPhilani: ungudokotela?
 * uNandi: Cha, yena ungunesi. Umama wakho uneminyaka emingaki?
 * uPhilani: Uneminyaka engu-37.
 * uNandi: uMama wami uneminyaka engu-41.
 * uPhilani: Sala kahle!
 * uNandi: Hamba kahle!

Here wakho means your again. The interrogative suffix -phi can also easily be used with sebenza. The characters inquire about age with or without ubudala. Notice how simply a question about someone else's age can be formed.

uGogo uya eKhaya
Remember these nouns from last lesson. We are going to make simple sentences with them. In Zulu, the subject has to provide a concord that is attached to the beginning of the verb. The words in the table below all belong to the first noun class. Unlike many other languages that just use the verb conjugated in the third person all the time. Ironically, this would be the case if all the nouns belonged to the first class. But this is not the case. The noun always determines the concord that the verb has attached to the front of it.

Examples

 * Udokotela usebenza eChris Hani Baragwanath.
 * Ugogo uya ekhaya.
 * Umngane wami usebenzela eWits.
 * Umpheki usebenzela iMacDonalds.
 * Umfundi ufunda eGoli.
 * Umyeni wami usebenza eNedbank.
 * Umkhulu uhlala eNaturena.
 * Uthisha uya esikoleni.
 * Nina nisebenza eStandard Bank.
 * Thina sihlala eHoughton.
 * Wena usebenzela iDeloite.
 * Yena ufunda eWits.

So if we look at the sentences, we can see that all the nouns use the subject concord 'u'. This is the same subject concord that is used by 'yena' and 'wena'. The formation of one of these sentences can be summed up as follows: Umyeni u + sebenza eNedbank. So all we have to do is attach 'u' to the front of various verbs. Take note of the fact that the 'e' to form places is not used with sebenzela but it is always used with sebenza.

Summary

 * We can tell people how old we are. Nginemiyaka engu-31.
 * We can say how long we have been working. Nginemiyaka engu-11 ngisebenza.
 * We can form simple sentences with nouns as the subject. Ugogo uhamba eKhaya.
 * We have further illustrated the use of pronouns and their subject concords.

Next Step
Try the Exercise or go the next Lesson. Or alternatively, go back to the Index.

title: Zulu/Lesson 3


text:
Technology Supported Learning & Retention/1. Student-faculty contact

Bus/CS Project - Technology Supported Learning & Retention (TSLR) 2007

1. Student-faculty contact

In 1987 Chickering & Gamson published the now famous “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” These principles are based on the perspective that a proper undergraduate education should be active, cooperative, and challenging.

For the Technology Support Learning & Retention (TSLR) course, each module addresses one of the seven principles and the good practices that support it. The first principle, in this module, Student-Faculty Contact is characterized by instructional tools where the instructor is in charge of the interaction with students.

Learners interact directly with the instructor for questions, comments and evaluations. The instructor may interact with learners as a group in a lecture hall, classroom or online lecture (one-to-many) or individually (one-to-one).

Technology functions available to support student-faculty contact include discussions, assignments, quizzes, and course resources.

Learning outcomes

 * participate in several forms of technology enhanced student-faculty contact
 * discuss applicability of functions to traditional expectations for student-faculty contact and identify differences
 * suggest new learning activities

Introduction
For most of us - both as students and faculty, when we think of instruction, we think of an instructor-led course - the "sage on the stage" model. Somewhere along the line, we have had teachers or mentors available to help but allowed or required us to direct our own learning within some framework - the "guide on the side" model. Both instructional models can be enhanced with technology.

Adding technology to support student learning covers a broad spectrum of enhancements. For the classroom instruction (face-to-face or f2f), providing online resources rather than paper handouts is often the first foray into enhancing instruction with technology. At the far end of the range of possibilities, are totally online courses with automatic quiz grading and course presentation individualized by student progress monitored by the course management system.

Seven Principles
Based on each of the "Seven Principles" we will look at how instructional practice can be enhanced using technology.

The "text" for this module is online.

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education http://web.archive.org/20040118192529/honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm

Instructional Immediacy and the Seven Principles: Strategies for Facilitating Online Courses http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall63/hutchins63.html Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Volume VI, NumberIII, Fall2003 State University of West Georgia, Distance Education Center

As a study guide, here are a few questions to think about as you read the "text" and work through the activities outlined below.

 * The Seven Principles were written in 1987. Instructional Immediacy and the Seven Principles: Strategies for Facilitating Online Courses was written in 2003. Why are they still relevant today?
 * Has technology changed the interpretation of some of these Principles?
 * Have students and their expectations changed since the Principles were written?
 * What challenges does today's higher education environment place on faculty and students?

Chickering & Gamson provided a good framework for teaching and learning in higher education. Now there are technologies available that they could only imagine. In this course, using their model, we are going to look at each Principle and see its applicability in technology-enhanced instruction.

Student-Faculty Contact
First up - Student-Faculty Contact. In a traditional classroom, faculty are at the forefront. Students wait for the instructor to arrive before anything happens in the class. The instructor talks, students listen, take notes, and participate in question / answer sessions overseen by the instructor. Students can speak with the instructor after class or during office hours - still with the instructor controlling the time and place for the contact.

As technology is added, students have more opportunity to initiate contact - send emails, ask questions in an online forum. The instructor is still essential to the dialog, but students now play a more active role in the contact. More student interaction, greater responsibility for learning, empowering students in ways not previously available to them.

 * One : Many - Communicating with students can be provided to all students at once with web-based course materials, online lectures - text, audio or video. Other technologies for one-to-many communication include email lists, and discussion forums where only instructor posts, forums that allow students to reply, or discussion forums set to allow students to initiate topics.

 * One : One - Email is an alternative to in-person or phone conversations to communication with individual students. Some instructors are using instant messaging as well.

Student-Faculty Contact is easily added to any traditional course delivery. Students appreciate the flexibility and the immediacy of these enhancements.

Students say...

 * I can ask questions whenever I think about it, rather than having to wait for the next class. Some times that might be a whole week from when I have a question.
 * I am an international student. It really helps me to have email from the instructor so I can read the answer again if I don't understand.
 * I hate to have a lot of papers from all my classes. It is better to have links to web sites to find the homework assignment information.

Overview
DeAnza's Catalyst is the Moodle course management system. If you are new to Catalyst or course management technology, start with the Moodle basics.

 * About Moodle http://docs.moodle.org/en/About_Moodle

 * Moodle Teacher Documentation http://docs.moodle.org/en/Teacher_documentation

Student Learning Support
When we were planning this course, we wanted to emphasize the idea that introducing technology could be a progression of enhancements made over time. There are no absolutes, no "gotchas" in the process. Just as each course is different, so too is the path to using technology to support student learning.

What is offered in this course, are opportunities to see what is possible and consider what might be applicable to your own courses now and in the future. This is a smörgåsbord approach. We have put a lot of different things on the table. We encourage you to sample everything, but it is ok if you don't want to dig in. Perhaps later, you will see a need or an opportunity to put some of these "dishes" into your practice of instruction.

If you are ready to implement the functions, guidelines are provided as well as a forum for discussing strategies, questions, problems, suggestions with peers.

Some of the advantages of using technology in student-faculty contact

 * any time, anywhere communication - not limited to class time or office hours e.g. email, online discussion forums, chat / instant messaging

 * record of contact - no more "gee, I wish I could remember exactly what I told that student" as there is a copy of the conversation with its time and date.

 * repeatable - once you work out great instructions for a lesson, that exact same information can be given to students in all sections this quarter and in the future. Allows for "refinement" as students identify new concerns or areas of difficulty.

 * it just gets better - revising and improving material over time helps keep the course material relevant and students engaged

Lectures
The primary means of presenting information to the whole class is via resources. There are a number of different types of resources - text pages, web pages, links to other web sites. Resources are the simplest form of passive, or push communication available.

Document repository
It isn't fancy but it works. Catalyst can be used as storage and presentation for course documents that are only available to enrolled students. Files of all types, links, course notes, lists of assignments, class schedules... can be managed and displayed within Catalyst. Limiting access to this information may be a requirement for "publishing" copyright or proprietary information ensuring strict educational "fair use" compliance.

Blogging
Have you considered blogging? Some faculty are "pushing" regular notices, comments and course updates to their students in blog (weB-LOG) format. Short postings displayed in reverse date sequence - newest at the "top" along with links to course materials, other resources and important bloggers in the topic area, along with links to "archived" copies of older posts.

Blogging: The Solution to (most) of Your Classroom Needs http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/?p=183

Warm-up activity
Online discussions, practice quizzes, minute essays are activities that can be used for "warm-up" to a lesson.

 * Question or activity to remind you of what you already know about the topic
 * List of questions to start thinking about the topic
 * List of goals and objectives for the topic to help focus the learning

Top 10 Tools
There is always some new and interesting technology coming along. Finding email news, blogs or other sources of information are useful for staying current. Some examples

 * Top 100 Favorite Tools http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html

Teaching and Learning
A recent EDUCAUSE article, Top-Ten Teaching and Learning Issues, 2007 identifies a number of issues applicable to this course - assessment and best instructional practices, changes in student, faculty, and institutional expectations, collaboration, work together, ethics, privacy, and data stewardship. http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm07/eqm0732.asp?bhcp=1

This big-picture overview of teaching and learning is helpful, and demonstrates the need for all instructors, particularly those in higher education, to acquire instructional technology literacy.

As the focus of learning support technology shifts from instructor-led teaching to student-directly learning, Student-Faculty Contact takes on a new role - that of managing the course resources and ensuring that students are able to take advantage of this new way of interacting with the instructor.

Understanding and using the student-faculty contact tools - either stand alone or within the course management system, is important.

 * encourage students to communicate with you early and often
 * model desired contacts using the available communication tools
 * make it easy for students to select from several forms of contact - email, messaging, discussion forum
 * establish limits and expectations for your availability and speed of response

News Forum
The NEWS forum is special forum for sending information and updates to students. Only the instructor can post to this forum. There is an option to have summaries from the News forum appear on the main course page.

Student questions
Although Catalyst doesn't have an internal e-mail system like WebCT, it does have several options to keep student-faculty communication within Catalyst, that can be used for clarification on the forums and discussions and the communication tools.

Check your profile and the messages you are getting - it may be set up so your get email when a student sends a message from inside Moodle, but there should be information in the email so you know where it originated.

Do you have a Questions? forum where students can add discussions and post? I encourage students to ask their questions there. Unless it is personal, I often just copy the student's email into the question forum and answer it there for all to see.

Introducing new technologies
You may be surprised to find that your tech-savvy students need some time to come up to speed using technology for formal learning. Students instant message with their friends whenever, but using the same technology to work with four complete strangers (class mates) on a group project is a completely new experience.

Consider introducing the technology in several low-risk activities - introductions in a discussion forum. As students become more comfortable with the educational use of the technology, add the critical thinking, graded analysis component that the technology supports.

Learn more...

 * Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education http://web.archive.org/20040118192529/honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm

link to PDF doc
 * "Development and Adaptation of the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson. How the seven principles were developed and uses made of them in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

 * Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html

 * Blogging: The Solution to (most) of Your Classroom Needs http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/?p=183

 * Top 100 Favorite Tools http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html

 * What Makes a Successful Online Student? http://www.ion.illinois.edu/Resources/tutorials/pedagogy/StudentProfile.asp


text: Category talk:Book:Puzzles

title: Category talk:Book:Puzzles


text:
Technology Supported Learning & Retention/2. Cooperation Among Students

Bus/CS Project - Technology Supported Learning & Retention (TSLR)

2. Cooperation Among Students

The next of the Seven Principles is Cooperation Among Students that provides students with the opportunity to work together in groups, usually under the direction of the instructor. Discussions, collaborative learning, share writing in a wiki are all examples of technology enhancing cooperation among students.

Students often resist working in groups for fear of having their grades pulled down by the least effective member of the group. In practice, students working in groups learn more about the content area and are more engaged in the activity than working individually.

In the "real world" people rarely work alone. Learning to work collaboratively in an online environment is an important life skill.

Learning objectives

 * participate in activities as students that require cooperation
 * assess the challenges and benefits of technology in student cooperation
 * discuss the role of group projects learning in higher education
 * use choices and surveys for group selection work on group projects, small group discussions, introduction to the wiki for collaborative writing, introduction to the Online Writing Center
 * discuss peer review process and applicability

Introduction
There are many ways that students can use existing technologies to cooperate and collaborate.

 * email communication to one or more students
 * online discussion where all posts can be viewed
 * instant messaging with archiving to permit review and access by student not participating in real-time
 * online conferencing for live participation or archived for later viewing
 * collaborative writing using a shared writing area, e.g,, wiki

Students say...

 * I am an international student, and this is the first time that I have ever discussed questions in class.
 * I have always hated group work, but this was different. I learned so much more working on the group project.
 * I have to work with other people in our company offices all over the world. Working on the group project in this class has helped me a lot with my job and my coworkers.
 * After three weeks, I feel like I know my classmates better in this online class than in any on-campus class that I have ever taken. I love it.
 * I am really happy to be in my group that we work together as a team, help each other, understand our strengths and weaknesses. For example, I let my group acknowledge that I am not familiar with computers and group online, so I need them to remind if I make mistakes. In addition, they would always be there for me, such as posting their suggestions or thoughts. I am proud to say that our group was able to work together to produce a good report.

Learning Support
Even if some or all of the course work is not face-to-face, students appreciate a sense of community. Working together, sharing information builds connections between students and makes the learning experience more personal.

Students with limited language skills, fears of speaking in class, find great empowerment in finally being able to participate in a class discussion. They can formulate their thoughts, edit, look up words, use spelling and grammar checking software.

Meeting classmates
Having students introduce themselves, along with sharing some personal information, is a time-honored classroom "ice-breaker" which works well in an online discussion environment. Students get to "know" one another, and can build lasting friendships based on "meeting" someone in an online class.

Writing Effective Online Discussion Questions
The paper CREST+ Model: Writing Effective Online Discussion Questions provides a model for writing effective online discussion questions, covers the cognitive nature of the question, the reading basis, any experiential possibility, style and type of question, and finally ways to structure a good question. This model encourages students to participate in online forum discussions, provides a template for online faculty to use in creating effective discussion questions, and promotes a higher level processing of the material. http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no2/akin.htm

Grading discussion participation
Students need to be reassured that you are looking for a demonstration of reasonable effort. Even if the student posts a great discussion question or makes a significant contribution, it doesn't necessary follow that other students will interact in some interesting meaningful way. Students need to know their efforts will be taken that into account. It is important to require so way to track the participation and contributions of individuals for grading.

Grading discussion participation is recommended. Individual posts can be graded as mini-essays. Counting discussion postings, assessing posts for substantial contribution (not just "I agree" posts) ensure that students take an active role in discussions.

Collaboration forum
For student collaboration, provide a separate forum and encourage students to to use the forum (rather than email) for project communication. This ensure that there is a record of the interaction and all students have the opportunity to read the information. All the posts are linked and automatically collected together. This is great for students and for faculty.

Teaching and Learning
Monitoring and managing student cooperation in an online environment requires some planning. Making use of the tools available for recording and tracking "conversations" can be a significant benefit. All interactions are available for student and instructor review. This provides a more accurate insight in to group dynamics and workload sharing, than is possible in a classroom setting.

Managing Discussion Displays
For large classes with a lot of postings, managing the quantity of information can be challenging. Learn to use the different discussion display formats - available in a pull-down menu near the top of the topic display page. Highlighting new posts in context is helpful. Displaying new items at the top of the page provides a quick way to see new posts to a topic thread.

Facilitating Discussions
Most students are willing to participate in well designed discussions. Several open ended prompt questions are often enough the get the conversation going. Instructions about participation expectations - number of posts, some indication of depth of discussion, help students determine how much is "enough" contribution.

Some instructors find it helpful to guide the discussion with feedback, follow-up questions and summaries of points made. In some cases, it may be necessary to address issues of inappropriate posts - personal attack, inappropriate language. Functions are provided deleting or editing offensive posts. However, these should be used sparingly.

Sometimes, discussions without instructor intervention can be more spontaneous and surprisingly insightful. Without a visible authority presence, students are more willing to express themselves, ask for help and provide assistance to classmates.

Others say...

I read every comment I get. I don't always reply because I prefer to allow readers to have the last word - though at the urging of some readers I've tried recently to be more forthcoming in my replies. -- OLDaily, Aug 07

Online Group Projects
One of the most difficult aspects of group project work is often scheduling. Most students have many demands on their time. Surprisingly, being able to work asynchronously is a good alternative, once the initial resistance is overcome.

Encouraging students to work on a single shared document, such as a wiki eliminates the need to track versions of the product as it develops.

Grading group projects
Grading group projects is "fairer" if there is a published grading rubric. In that way, everyone in the group can assess how the group submission is measuring up, and can take action to ensure the final product meets the published standards.

Support for online students
The De Anza Online Writing Assistance Center (OWAC) provides online help for De Anza students enrolled in targeted courses. Students post requests and essays to the OWAC, and tutors respond with suggestions for improving content, organization, and grammar, and links to online explanations and exercises for the most important areas where improvement is needed. Our philosophy: "Help the student, not the paper." http://faculty.deanza.edu/alvesdelimadiana/stories/storyReader$331

Learn more...

 * Group Projects and Online Collaboration http://faculty.deanza.edu/taylorvalerie/groupproject/index.html

 * CREST+ Model: Writing Effective Online Discussion Questions http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no2/akin.htm

 * 2. Cooperation Among Students :: Activities