text:
User:JWSchmidt/Blog/Start

'''This is an "open blog". Feel free to add your own comments. Please sign anything you add: everything that is not signed is by me (John Schmidt).'''

Copy this link and paste it into your aggregator.

To do list. ( UTC-7), Monday, 29 July 2024
 * cleanup Content development
 * Tutorial about categories, portals, and navigation templates
 * Wikiversity the Movie
 * something more interesting for MediaWiki:Welcomecreation?

Subpages
15 January 2007 I'm going to start placing additional entries for this blog on subpages. I want to make some comments on Reports/15 January 2007 using my blog and then try to transclude the comments to that page.
 * User:JWSchmidt/Blog/19 January 2007 - Two "editable box" portals now complete.
 * User:JWSchmidt/Blog/18 January 2007/Statistics - The English language Wikiversity has more than 20,000 pages.
 * User:JWSchmidt/Blog/18 January 2007 - Create and organize portals.
 * User:JWSchmidt/Blog/17 January 2007 - Categorization of Wikiversity schools.
 * User:JWSchmidt/Blog/16 January 2007 - Featured content development projects.
 * User:JWSchmidt/Blog/15 January 2007 - Wikiversity status at 5 months.

The Topic namespace
14 January 2007 I did complete my tour of the project ("Wikiversity:") namespace, then I realized that there were additional pages in the "Topic:" namespace that should be moved to the main namespace. So Today I have been going through the "Topic:" namespace. Moving educational content to the main namespace continues to drive up the count of main namespace pages (currently 1,478). There are a large number of "Topic:" pages, the main content development projects of Wikiversity. It will take me several days to get through them all.

Featured content
10:51, 13 January 2007 This past week I have gone through the entire Wikiversity main namespace in an attempt to put pages into categories and search for content that should be featured. I'm thinking of a system by which each major portal will have featured content and also the Main Page. Today I hope to finish going through the "Wikiversity:" namespace. There are still pages there that were imported from Wikibooks and should not be in the project namespace. When I am done moving those pages to the main namespace, I will try to finish putting a "featured content" section on all of the major portal pages. Then I will put a "featured content" section on the main page.

Bugs
08:41, 13 January 2007 This is my start of cleaning up my Wikiversity user page. Some of the notes I have been keeping on my user page provide a record of the kinds of problems that I have had with the MediaWiki software that runs this website. This past week there was a period of time during which it was very difficult to edit Wikiversity (see below), so these matters are on my mind. (Reporting a bug)

Red links

 * Example - why do external links show as red for the Wikiversity template (that one page only)? (seemed to last about a day, then the problem went away)
 * I have seen this happen twice: one Wikiversity page suddenly starts displaying all interwiki links in red. 27 Aug
 * Red links update. January 2006. This problem continues. Sometimes the site notice shows red links. --JWSchmidt 17:29, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Other problems

 * Rendering errors on 24 August such as Image:No text warning.png
 * Talk:Current events - side bar change
 * A "Wiki does not exist" page was reached several times today (Sept 6) while trying to access a Wikiversity page that does exist (such as this page). Sept 8, still sometimes getting the "Wiki does not exist" page after page requests like this one.
 * Sept. 7, two complaints about not being able to create an account: School talk:Geography and Main Page talk.
 * 10 September. Failure to insert an image when the Introduction to GarageBand page was rendered.
 * 15 Sept. very slow page loads for a while, also was happening at Beta, Wikibooks, meta but not Wikipedia.
 * 18 Sept - 23 Sept continuing to have problems with slow page loads, red links that should not be red, "wiki does not exist" messages rather than page loads. At some times Wikiversity takes about a minute to load a page.
 * Early October - continuing problems with painfully slow page loads at times, links turning red and image loading has been particularly slow lately.
 * [[Image:An image problem.png|Problem rendering [[Age of the Earth]]; text and image over-lap. Noticed on January 3]]

New Year Cheer
recent server activity

18 January - have been getting false "database closed" messages, slow access to newly created/changed pages

21 January 2007. Continuing problems with slow page availability after editing.

Database error A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was:

(SQL query hidden)

from within function "Article::insertOn". MySQL returned error "1062: Duplicate entry '102-Mathematicsnew/Did_you_know' for key 2 (10.0.0.101)".

27 January 2007. Continuing problems with newly created pages not displaying. I think this is likely to be very disruptive for new Wikiversity participants. It is absurd that this problem seems to be taken for granted as "normal" by the developers and server administrators.

 overflow:auto;X:300px  <-- I could not save a page contain this formatting, where X = "height": got a message saying it was blocked by the spam blacklist.

 overflow:auto;width:300px  <-- This worked fine.

Blogs and Wiki Scholar "magazine"?
19:27, 12 January 2007 I'm glad that some Wikiversity participants have started keeping both personal learning blogs and blogs for some collaborative learning projects. I tend to make use of my wiki user pages as places to collect links and some editorial comments. Usually that activity is just note keeping for myself. When I became an administrator at Wikipedia I cleaned up my Wikipedia user page. During the past 5 months my Wikiversity user page has gotten rather long, but I find it very useful. I guess I can "off-load" the clutter from my Wikiversity user page to this page and while doing so, document the contents. Also, I have been thinking that it would be more social to have a community effort for essays and commentary on Wikiversity. Maybe there is a simple way to have selected individual "posts" from blogs feed into a central community "magazine".
 * Hi JWSchmidt, I think the dynamic page list feature used over at Wikinews and requested for Wikiversity might be able to do this job. In the mean time you could try adapting the technique suggested at Learning to learn a wiki way/reflective blog. One problem with this approach is that each blog entry would have to have its own subpage. Mystictim 19:33, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I really do not understand the dynamic page list feature and what it can accomplish. It probably makes sense to have "wiki blog" entries each on their own page rather than in sequential sections on one page. Chrismo indicated that there is a way to set up an rss feed for "wiki blogs" (see Wikiversity Blog howto, User:Chrismo/Blog and User:Chrismo/Blog/rss), I guess similar to what he did for Wikiversity Reports. --JWSchmidt 20:10, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * There's a Mediawiki extension called WikiWeblog, I think it is possible to maintain your own feed like Wikiversity reports but that would be difficult and perhaps inefficient for most participants. I really like the idea of learners keeping a journal, many teachers have told me there's a lot of value in keeping a journal or blogging for self reflective introspection, perhaps learning theorists could elaborate on that. It seems to fit in well with the missions of Wikiversity, some of the other wikimedia projects focus more on developing the works rather then the individual. Chrismo 23:24, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

title: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/Start


text:
Instructional design/Cognitive behaviors

Instructional Design > Cognitive behaviors > Teaching Procedures > Define > Learn > Teach > Routine > Power > Steps > Try > Example

The Cognitive Domain
The Cognitive Domain is a category of learning that includes "...knowledge, naming, solving, predicting, and other intellectual aspects of learning."

The Wikiversity lessons listed in the next section provide strategies for some of the types of instruction that you may encounter in the cognitive domain.

Cognitive Instructional Strategies Lessons
Click a lesson title to begin that lesson :

 * 1) Concepts and the Nature of Knowledge
 * 2)  Invariant Tasks: Memorizing Factual Information
 * 3) Understanding Concepts
 * 4) Concept Classification
 * 5) Teaching Procedures

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


text:
Instructional design/Psychomotor behaviors

Welcome!
We envision this Wiki learning module as a paradigm designed by a team of educated and experienced instructional designers for other education professionals. Our mission is to provide teachers and instructional designer with the theories, information, and tools to improve the quality of learning.

We hope this web page will be helpful. Please let us know how this web site works for you. We look forward to hearing your comments!

Module Goal
Training developers will be able to create and/or select instructional strategies for teaching specific psychomotor topics. Additionally, they will be able to effectively and correctly evaluate different methods and strategies within the psychomotor domain, and will be able to decide which training or instructional options would be the best option to meet very specific training goals within the domain. The result shall be an instructional unit that is efficient, effective, and appealing.

Psychomotor Instructional Strategies Lessons
Click a lesson title to begin that lesson.
 * 1) Introduction to the Psychomotor Behaviors
 * 2) Psychomotor Behaviors in Practice
 * 3) Self Talk in Psychomotor Skills
 * 4) Strategies in Psychomotor Assessment


text:
Instructional design/Affective behaviors

Module Goal
Trainers or instructional designers will develop a rich toolbox of affective methods and strategies and be able to apply those methods and strategies to develop affective behaviors in learners. Additionally, trainers or instructional designers will be able to critique and defend the application of affective instructional methods and strategies. The result shall be instruction that is effective, efficient, and appealing.

Affective Instructional Strategies Lessons
Click a lesson title to begin that lesson.
 * 1) Introduction - What is the Affective Domain?
 * 2) Oh No! Not Another Lecture
 * 3) Character Education - Back in Style
 * 4) What methods best support affective elements?
 * 5) Designing for the Affective Domain: The Design Document


text:
Instructional design/Interpersonal behaviors

Module Goal
Designers, trainers, or curriculum planners will be able to develop a repertoire of diverse methods and strategies, and will be able to apply these methods/strategies to develop and affect interpersonal behaviors in others.

In order to meet a specific objective, the trainer will be able evaluate the methods/strategies as they relate to the given task. They will be able to select or create suitable micro-instructional methods to meet that objective.

In addition, they will be able to explain and justify their decisions about selected instructional strategies and methods. The result shall be instruction that is effective, efficient, and appealing.

Interpersonal instructional strategies lessons
Click a lesson title to begin that lesson :

 * 1) Introduction: What is the Interpersonal Domain?
 * 2) Topics, Issues and Resources to Spark your Imagination
 * 3) Delivery Methods and Delivery Considerations for Instruction within the Interpersonal Behaviors
 * 4) Strategies for Developing Instructional Materials for the Interpersonal Domain


text:
User:JWSchmidt/Blog/rss

   JWSchmidt's Wikiversity Blog http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog My Wikiversity Blog - Learning the wiki way en        Michael Billington's RSS feed generator GFDL violations http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#GFDL_violations http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#GFDL_violations
Can you violate the GFDL by not keeping track of who authors every word of a wiki website? See User:JWSchmidt/Blog/7 June 2007. --JWSchmidt 22:21, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

 Wikiversity namespace http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Wikiversity_namespace http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Wikiversity_namespace
What kinds of pages should be in the "Wikiversity:" namespace? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/27 May 2007. --JWSchmidt 03:35, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

 Taglines http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Taglines http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Taglines
Does Wikiversity need a tagline? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/22 May 2007. --JWSchmidt 20:56, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

 Culture shock for new wiki participants http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Culture_shock_for_new_wiki_participants http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Culture_shock_for_new_wiki_participants
What happens when current wiki editors forget what it is like to be a wiki newbie? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/20 May 2007. --JWSchmidt 21:27, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

 Main namespace discussions http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Main_namespace_discussions http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Main_namespace_discussions
How can we organize discussions as learning resources? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/16 May 2007. --JWSchmidt 03:04, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

 Navigation templates http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Navigation_templates http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Navigation_templates
Its time for Wikiversity to start using some better tools to guide participants between related pages. See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/12 May 2007 --JWSchmidt 00:35, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

 Location of help pages http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Location_of_help_pages http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Location_of_help_pages
How should Wikiversity organize help pages for new visitors? Should new visitors be forced to edit? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/11 May 2007. --JWSchmidt 01:41, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

 Wikiversity as a brand http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Wikiversity_as_a_brand http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Wikiversity_as_a_brand
Is it "marketing genius" to change the name "Wikiversity to "Wikipedia Learning"? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/9 May 2007. --JWSchmidt 19:45, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

            Music collaborations at Wikiversity             http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Music_collaborations_at_Wikiversity             http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Music_collaborations_at_Wikiversity
Some thoughts about "learn by doing" and music at Wikiiversity. See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/6 May 2007. --JWSchmidt 19:30, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

 Reliable Sources http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Reliable_Sources http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Reliable_Sources
What can Wikiversity learn from Wikipedia about citing reliable sources? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/25 March 2007. --JWSchmidt 01:07, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Comments/References and Statistics

Comments/discussion was moved to the page for this blog post.

 Stable versions? http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Stable_versions.3F http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Stable_versions.3F
Last year there was talk of an experiment for allowing review of some page edits before they would go "public". Is that still going to happen? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/17 March 2007. --JWSchmidt 05:21, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

 Research policy http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Research_policy http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Research_policy
Notes from the recent IRC discussion about Wikiversity research policy. See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/11 March 2007.--JWSchmidt 18:33, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Comments

Moved to User:JWSchmidt/Blog/11 March 2007.

 Verification of credentials http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Verification_of_credentials http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Verification_of_credentials
Would it help wiki projects to verify the credentials of editors? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/10 March 2007. --JWSchmidt 03:12, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

 Free media files http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Free_media_files http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Free_media_files
What are the rules for derivative works made from copyleft media? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/3 March 2007. --JWSchmidt 16:58, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

 Delete or develop? http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Delete_or_develop.3F http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Delete_or_develop.3F
Should Wikiversity remove red links and stubs or turn them into invitations to edit? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/28 February 2007. --JWSchmidt 14:55, 28 February 2007 (UTC)-

 Main Page http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Main_Page http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Main_Page
What should be on the Wikiversity Main Page? See: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/27 February 2007. --JWSchmidt 03:26, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

 Archives of old topics http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Archives_of_old_topics http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog#Archives_of_old_topics

User:JWSchmidt/Blog/Archive 1

title: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/rss


text: File:Robot Remote Manual Override Switch.png


text: File:Nerd-Cam-Art.png

title: File:Nerd-Cam-Art.png


text:
User:MichaelBillingtonBot~enwikiversity/Feeds

 * - Colloquium

 * - User talk:MichaelBillington

 * - User:JWSchmidt/Blog

 * - User:Chrismo/Blog

 * - User:MichaelBillingtonBot/Blog

 * - User:MichaelBillington/Blog


text:
User:JWSchmidt/Blog/9 February 2007

Policy at Beta  I started a page for policies at the Wikiversity multi-lingual hub. There is still significant editing to do on the three policy pages.

Bot for blog RSS feeds  MichaelBillington made a bot that automatically creates and updates RSS feeds for Wikiversity blogs. See: Wikiversity Blog howto.

Diversity in learning resources  I got a message on my talk page today about learning resources for people who are over 60 years old. While Wikipedia has articles that are "one size fits all", Wikiversity can have many pages about the same topic, providing learning resources for people of different ages or who differ in other needs and need unique points of entry into a topic.

I had never previously heard of "the Christian Edition of Ubuntu Linux". I mentioned it in #wikiversity-en and there was an interesting discussion touching on the idea that there could be software specifically for one religion. I had previously thought along similar lines in the context of Science teaching materials for creationism. I like the idea that participants at Wikimedia Foundation projects should

"leave our political fights at the door to the greatest extent that we can" --Jimbo in the WikiEN-l Digest, Vol 30, Issue 96, January 10, 2006.

and....

"Wikipedia is not ..... the place to advocate for or against a political or religious point of view." -(source, origin)

Should Wikiversity have learning resources specifically for particular religions or political groups? Is just the existence of such resources divisive for the community? Or does the only problem come from failure to correctly label such resources? For example, trying to pass-off non-scientific creationism as "science"?

title: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/9 February 2007


text:
User:MichaelBillington/Blog

Trying to get more users into the #wikiversity-en channel
14:37, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Well it's been almost a year since I used my wikiversity learning blog, but I finally have something to post about.

My first attempt back in March to try to make an easy way for people to get on IRC didn't seem to take off very well. I thought I'd make a better solution for people who don't want to [or don't know how to] edit their monobook.js.

So I made a page off-site which already has the IRC logon form and associated javascript on it, and uses the wikizine gateway. It uses the monobook skin and the wikiversity logo to make it look more familiar. It can be found here (tools.wikimedia.de)

You just enter a nickname and click logon. It will take you to the #wikiversity-en IRC channel on. Custodians can edit the text on the page, as well.

There's been some discussion about adding a "live chat" tab to every page. I don't think CGI:IRC is our best bet for this, but it would be very interesting, so long as it can be implemented well somehow. Any takers? :] --Michael Billington (talk • contribs) 14:37, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

And we have a blog
06:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, seeing as I'm the creator of the RSS bot which was made for Wikiversity learning blogs (User:MichaelBillingtonBot), it seems a bit odd that until now I didn't have one. So here it is. I can't see much being posted here, but it may as well exist  -- Michael Billington (talk • contribs) 06:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

title: User:MichaelBillington/Blog


text:
User:MichaelBillington/Blog/rss

   Mike's Wikiversity blog http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillington/Blog A Wikiversity blog en        Michael Billington's RSS feed generator And we have a blog http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillington/Blog#And_we_have_a_blog http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillington/Blog#And_we_have_a_blog
06:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Well, seeing as I'm the creator of the RSS bot which was made for Wikiversity learning blogs (User:MichaelBillingtonBot), it seems a bit odd that until now I didn't have one. So here it is. I can't see much being posted here, but it may as well exist :) -- Michael Billington (talk • contribs) 06:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

title: User:MichaelBillington/Blog/rss


text:
User:MichaelBillingtonBot~enwikiversity/Blog/rss

   User:MichaelBillingtonBot/Blog http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillingtonBot/Blog A Wikiversity blog en        Michael Billington's RSS feed generator Subheading which isn't ignored http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillingtonBot/Blog#Subheading_which_isn.27t_ignored http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillingtonBot/Blog#Subheading_which_isn.27t_ignored
foo

Subeading which is ignored

quux

 etc http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillingtonBot/Blog#etc http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillingtonBot/Blog#etc
baz

 etc http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillingtonBot/Blog#etc_2 http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:MichaelBillingtonBot/Blog#etc_2
sponge chalk mouse giraffe cheese?


text:
User talk:MichaelBillington/rss

   User talk:MichaelBillington http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington Mike's talk page en        Michael Billington's RSS feed generator probation http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#probation http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#probation
Just a reminder; User:Historybuff is at the end of the one month probation period. --JWSchmidt 13:46, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 Advice http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Advice http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Advice
My first vandal ... yay&nbsp;:S. I blocked two accounts, but am not really sure what comment I should have made. You can Special:Contributions/Bill_Dorku Check out the vandal -- I don't think blocking him was the wrong thing to do -- but I want to make sure comments make sense. thanks Historybuff 08:16, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

 Welcoming http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Welcoming http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Welcoming
Woops. Thank you for the heads up. --Remi 22:06, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

 FAA Airplane Flying Handbook attribution http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#FAA_Airplane_Flying_Handbook_attribution http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#FAA_Airplane_Flying_Handbook_attribution
Thanks for the information on attribution. It was my intention to add an attribution today just before noticing your message to me. Interesting coincidence. Since there is not currently a link to the chapters, I didn't expect anyone to be reading the pages yet.

Is there a way to include a page within a page? For example, I'd like to include the entire Table of Contents on each page (and the attribution) without needing to edit every single page whenever it is necessary to break chapters into individual sections. It is looking like that will be increasingly necessary.

Using pairs of double curly braces seems to call up a template page, which is not exactly what I expected.

There is lots of interest in this information in the Piloting community around the world. As a result, eventually, it will be necessary to separate the US information from generic information. For example, there is a contributor from New Zealand who is offering information from that country. In addition, the FAA handbook is out of date with respect to current regulations and with respect to current technological advances. As a result, the pages will diverge from the original source.

Once again, thanks for any help. AuntPeggy 15:43, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

 Hi...Mike! http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Hi...Mike.21 http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Hi...Mike.21
Real96 10:46, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

 rssbot http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#rssbot http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#rssbot

Awarded to MichaelBillington for creating rssbot.

trust a bot to do boring jobs
my trainer told me, "Publish blogs!"
so feeds I make, I can not stop
as long as the latest entry is on top
but other tasks, I also crave
if I disobey will I know my grave?
the Colloquium is up-side-down
so, while idle, new code I hack
new ways I need to parse the stack
if I solve this puzzle, I'll win renown
and Wikiversitans will remark,
"Who needs that Billington?"

 blog rss feed http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#blog_rss_feed http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#blog_rss_feed
My RSS aggregator is linked to User:User:JWSchmidt/Blog rather than User:JWSchmidt/Blog. Did I do something wrong? --JWSchmidt 01:59, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Oops, sorry, my fault. I think I know what caused it though. Michael Billington (talk • contribs) 04:02, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

"Try refreshing it now" &lt;-- I'm not sure what "refresh" means in this context. I have a serious problem remembering to add my signature to new blog entries, so some of my problems are due to that. I added an entry on my page today with MichaelBillingtonBot 00:52, 24 June 2007 (UTC), but I did not see an automatic addition to the rss. Is there a way to know if the bot is active? --JWSchmidt 01:28, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

 Thanks http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Thanks http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Thanks
Thanks for your efforts to protect Wikiversity! --JWSchmidt 01:30, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

 Shell account http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Shell_account http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Shell_account
I'm a bit more lucid now. I should have asked if it would be ok to use an account to try out our multimedia stuff on. Last night, I was just thinking "student" accounts, for some odd reason. And, thanks for the offer in the first place.&nbsp;:) Historybuff 14:39, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

            Welcome to Wikiversity             http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Welcome_to_Wikiversity             http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#Welcome_to_Wikiversity
Thank you for the welcome! I am sure I will fit right in. Somitho 07:42, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

             thanks             http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#thanks             http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:MichaelBillington#thanks
--JWSchmidt 22:54, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:MichaelBillington/rss


text:
Historical Introduction to Philosophy/Metaphysics

The word metaphysics comes from the Greek words meta (after/beyond) and phisiká (nature). Metaphysical topics go "beyond physics" to attempt to explain the nature of the universe. Metaphysicists ask questions like: Aristotle is sometimes credited with being the first to make metaphysics a distinct field of thought, though he was not the first to think and write on metaphysical topics. Ideas about the fundamental nature of reality showed up in the writings of ancient Greeks before Aristotle, and can be seen in writings of ancient Egyptians dating much further back. Pythagoras reasoned that the fundamental nature of reality was mathematics. Unfortunately, none of Pythagoras' metaphysical writings survived, but many of his followers, the Pythagoreans, revealed a significant portion of his metaphysics. The Pythagoreans thought that numerical ratios and relationships found in nature (like musical scales) were the key to understanding reality. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz believed the most basic thing that all things are made of to be the monad. “Monad” comes from the Greek word monas, which means a unit, individual, atom… something that is indivisible. Monads combine to form compounds, which make up the matter we interact with in the world. Leibniz defines monads in his work titled Monadology as simple substances that are indivisible, unextended (which means they don’t occupy space), formless, windowless, and impossible to destroy. When Leibniz says monads are windowless, he means that monads can not interact with each other; they are completely independent of each other. If it appears that two monads share some property in common, they actually each possess that property individually. For example, I have the property of being my mom’s son, and she has the property of having me as a son, but these properties are not the same; they exist independently of each other. In Leibniz’s view, all things that exist are capable of acting. If you take the action out of a substance, it loses its existence. Monads themselves are units of activity. Because there are so many kinds of actions, it follows that there are different kinds of monads. In fact, Leibniz held that no two monads were alike. Leibniz's metaphysics in the Monadology is broad and detailed. Before continuing with this article, please watch these videos hosted on YouTube for a primer on the Monadology: Leibniz Monadology Part 1 Leibniz Monadology Part 2 Note the following points made in the videos: - Monads are “simple substances” that have no parts. - Monads have qualities (As Leibniz explains, qualities are necessary for existence). - Monads are different from one another. This is true because if all monads were the same, we would not be able to perceive one thing in contrast with another. - Matter we see in the world is made of compounds of monads. We can see things in the world are constantly changing, so we can judge from the behavior of compounds that monads are constantly changing. - The source of change comes from w/in the monad. (Monads do not cause each other to do anything; they do not interact!) - Monads undergo a series of changes. This series of changes involves a “multiplicity” within the monad (not to be confused with multiple parts, which monads do not have), because something about the monad changes, while something about it remains the same. This can be seen in compounds; things change, but they still retain qualities that we can identify them by. For example, a tree changes a lot from a small plant to a large tree, but we still can identify it as a tree. - Something within the monad leads it from one perception to another. This Leibniz called appetition/desire. A monad’s desire cannot completely get to the perception it aims for, but it gets some of it, which leads to new perceptions, which may go on to attain more. - Every thought that a person is consciously aware of focuses on a variety of things. This is an experience of multiplicity in simple substance. Simple substance do not have parts, but they are capable of perceiving multiple things at once. - You cannot explain perception in terms of mechanics. Think of a machine that produces perceptions, which is big enough for you to walk inside of. What would you find? Nothing but parts pushing each other; nothing in the machine would explain where perception comes from, so such a machine could not possibly exist. Perception must therefore be contained in simple substances, not in compound machines (which just obey physical laws). - Leibniz calls created monads (all monads except for the God monad) entelechies, which comes from the Greek words for “certain perfection” and “certain self-sufficiency”. This means created monads are perfect and self-sufficient by various degrees. - The internal activities of simple substances come from the simple substances themselves. God is a monad with the unique qualities of being uncreated and completely immaterial. All other monads are partly material and partly immaterial. Their ratio of immaterial to material is measured by how clearly they reflect every other monad in the universe. If we looked at God, we would see the entire universe clearly. If we look at dirt, we see an unclear reflection of the rest of the universe. Influenced by the Great Chain of Being, Leibniz recognized a hierarchy in nature, in which God is at the top, humans are somewhere in the middle, and animals, plants, minerals, and other things are below humans. In this hierarchy, the more immaterial a monad is, the closer it is to God, and vice versa.(1) A common theme in Leibniz’s philosophy is that all the philosophy that was done before him has some truth to it. This is reflected in this theory of Monads which brings together materialism and idealism by placing materiality and immateriality in everything (except for God). Each monad has a unique set of properties. Leibniz reasoned this to be the case because the compounds of monads we see in the world are distinguishable. If all monads had the same properties, nothing would be distinguishable, because things are set part from each other by differences in the combinations of monads they are made up of. Also, if all monads were the same, then nothing would change, because things could only go from one state to the same state through motion. Finally, Leibniz believed that there was evidence in nature for the uniqueness of each monad; no two things in nature share all their properties in common, and since these things get their qualities from the monads that make them up, there must be differences in their monads. Monads are continuously changing, as things in nature are. Since monads can not be affected by anything external to them, changes must be internal. Leibniz defines perception as the “passing condition” in which a lot of things are represented within a monad. Every monad is capable of perception. Notice perception is not limited to what we are consciously aware of. Leibniz argued that Descartes was wrong to think that perceptions only exist when they are identified by a conscious awareness. Descartes’ philosophy of mind did not acknowledge any monadic activity outside the mind; for Descartes, God and the human mind were the only monads (though he did not understand the world in terms of monads). In defense of his accusation that Descartes was wrong, Leibniz argued that in the same way that people in a coma are not dead, monadic perception outside conscious awareness is not dead.(4) When we think, the thing we think about varies. To Leibniz, this was evidence that perceptions change over time. The force by which monads change from one perception to another comes from within the monads. Leibniz called this force appetition. This appetite, or desire, tends to change a monad’s perception towards a new perception. Though the appetite cannot always get the perception it tended towards, it always results in some change, which results in new perceptions.(4) Mechanistic causation cannot be the source of perceptions because perceptions are not produced by things bouncing off each other. Leibniz invites us to consider what a machine that produces perceptions might look like on the inside. It would be a bunch of parts pushing each other. Nothing in the machine could produce perceptions. Therefore, such a machine is impossible, and simple substances must be the source of perceptions. In this way, monads are self-sufficient, being the sources of their own internal activities. However, most monads are only self-sufficient in particular ways; if they were self-sufficient in every way, they would be God, and Leibniz reasoned that there is only one God (because all contingent truths trace back to God, the necessary substance.)(4) Leibniz makes a distinction between souls and bare monads. Monads are simple substances that only have perceptions. Souls are simple substances that have more distinct perceptions than monads, and they have memories. Leibniz provides some evidence that the soul is more than a bare monad: When we are in dreamless sleep, we do not remember anything, and we can not distinguish one perception from another. So, during this time, our souls become bare monads, but since we snap out of these stages of sleep, our souls are something more than bare monads. Leibniz notes that animals are able to focus on certain perceptions, fading others into the background, using their sense organs. For example, when we focus on a computer screen and tune out the wall and computer desk surrounding the screen, our soul is perceiving the monitor more distinctly than the background. Leibniz asserts that the soul has more distinct perceptions in a similar way.(5) Humans and other animals have memories. When we perceive something painful, and experience a similar perception in the future, we have a representation of the previous perception in our memory, which leads us to expect pain associated with the perception. We act like other animals when we use memory to anticipate one thing following from another. The thing that distinguishes humans from other animals is reasoning, which comes from knowledge of necessary and eternal truths. Leibniz notes that empiricists rely only on memory like other animals, whereas rationalists use what makes them uniquely human. Knowledge of necessary and eternal truths enables us to better understand ourselves and God. We are able to think of ourselves through knowledge of necessary truths. When we determine that things are in us, what our limits are, and the unlimited nature of God, we are using reason. There are truths of reasoning and truths of fact. Truths of reasoning are necessary, and their opposite is impossible. Truths of fact are contingent, and their opposite is possible. Truths of reasoning can be found by analysis, breaking them down into simpler ideas and truths, until primary truths are found. Truths of reasoning are simple ideas that cannot be defined, and propositions that cannot be proven. These are assertions of primary principles, self-evident truths whose opposites are contradictions. It was these which Leibniz wanted to base a universal language on. Truths of reasoning can be proven through a finite process of analysis, whereas the process of proving truths of fact requires an infinite analysis of contingencies. Since the sequence of contingent things (the following of one thing from another) is infinite, it’s impossible to arrive at the sufficient reason for anything within this sequence. Thus, the sufficient reason for the whole sequence of contingent things must be a necessary substance (substance whose existence is not contingent upon anything else) existing outside the sequence. This is called God. God is all-encompassing and one-of-a-kind because everything outside God depends on it. God contains all properties "eminently". Leibniz uses the term "eminently" in the context of a property to mean "with the resources to produce such a property, but not necessarily exhibiting the property oneself".(5) Leibniz is credited with being the first to develop the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles. Thinkers before Leibniz have utilized the principle in one form or another (notably Rene Descartes), but Leibniz was the first to make the principle explicit. This principle holds that if and only if any two or more objects have all their intrinsic, non-relational properties in common, they are exactly the same. An “intrinsic, non-relational” property of a thing is something that is part of the essential nature of the thing, not something that relates the thing to another thing. Leibniz argued that two things can not possibly be distinct when they share all their non-relational properties.(2) A monad x acts on another monad y inasmuch as the states of monad x explain the states of monad y. This does not mean monad x can directly influence monad y!  Remember, monads do not interact; they are independent of each other. How can a monad "act" on another then? It is through an "ideal" influence rather than a real influence. Monad y is ideally influenced by monad x because God took into account monad y when designing monad x. God's idea of each monad can be found in every other monad, so that which can be clearly understood in one monad can explain what happens in another monad. Because of this, monad x can be both "passive" and "active" (ideally influenced and ideally influencing) with respect to monad y at the same time. God’s ideas include an infinite number of possible universes. Only one universe can exist. Therefore, God had to have some sufficient reason for choosing this universe. That reason was that this universe is the best of all possible universes. God’s wisdom allows him to know this universe to be the best, his goodness leads him to choose this one, and his power allowed him to bring it into being. God adapted each monad to the others around it, giving them properties that relate them to properties of other monads. This is why monads are mirrors of the universe. When you look at a town from different angles, it looks quite different. There are an infinite number of perspectives from which you can look at the town and see a “different” town. In the same way, when you look at the universe from different perspectives, it is so diverse that it looks like different universes, but it is just one universe that looks different from the perspectives of the many monads. All compound substances are connected. You can tell because the motion of a body of matter is felt by neighboring bodies. The further you are from a motion, the less you feel it, but you always feel some of it. If you could see every motion bouncing off a single body of matter, you would be able to know about the motions of everything in the universe. Not only that, but you would be able to know the past and future of every motion! Souls (monads with relatively distinct perceptions and memory) are similar to compound substances in that each contains a representation of all other monads in the universe, but we cannot see everything because we are incapable of perceiving infinitely complex things.(4)Remember, our souls can only distinctly see some things; if we saw all, we would be God. Recall that monads stick together to form compounds, which forms the matter we interact with. The monads in a compound most distinctly represent the compound they are a part of. This is how monads are related to the bodies they are a part of. This relationship is reminiscent of the relationship between Aristotelian forms and matter; Aristotelian form/essence is as much a part of a thing as the matter that makes up the thing.(6) The metaphysical and physical are integrated. Leibniz’s monads are likewise metaphysical things that, when taken together with material compounds, make a thing what it is. Leibniz was in favor of Heraclitus’ idea that everything is in constant flux. He notes that animals often change form (metamorphosis), which means that souls, the entities responsible for animal behavior, are also in constant flux, slowly transforming the bodies they are a part of. He rejected the Pythagorean idea that souls can somehow move from one body to another (transmigration), and he rejected the idea that human souls are separate from human bodies (an idea Descartes held to be clear and distinct). Leibniz also rejected the idea that humans have purely immaterial souls. Despite rejecting these ideas, he still believed in immortality. For Leibniz, immortality is not a matter of the soul leaving the body and going somewhere else. It is simply a matter of souls slowly changing. What we call “death” he calls “infolding and shrinkage” of the soul. If you think about a living thing as a composite of indestructible monads which are capable of perceiving, it is easy to see why Leibniz thinks a soul continues to exist within a body after the body stops exhibiting behavior we associate with life. At the point of “death”, the soul loses its “organic coverings”(5), but is still active and perceptive. Souls and bodies are connected through “pre-established harmony”. That is, the motion of animal bodies works as though it were influenced by their associated souls, even though there is no direct influence from one to the other. They were set up to operate in harmony from the beginning, when the God monad decided to bring them into existence. The soul that every animal possesses lacks some of what the human mind possesses. Souls are reflections of the universe of things God created, but human minds are reflections of both the universe of created things and God himself. Minds are small divinities within themselves, capable of understanding the universe and imitating it to some extent. This allows a special relationship between minds and God, one that is more like a father/child relationship than an engineer/machine relationship. Living in this relationship with God, the author of the best universe, puts us in the City of God, the best monarchy that could possibly exist. The City of God is a moral world inside of a natural world. Morality only exists in God’s relationship to minds, since only minds are capable of comprehending God’s goodness. The rest of the created universe perceives God’s wisdom and power, but not his goodness. Since this relationship exists, it is inevitable that all minds will receive just treatment for their sins against God, since God is the father to all his children (minds). If we were able to see everything God can see, we would realize the world is set up to be better than the wishes of the wisest men. In correspondence with Samuel Clarke, Leibniz tried to show that the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles followed from his other big metaphysical principles, the Principle of Sufficient Reason and the Principle of the Best. Leibniz's argument followed this line of reasoning: God created this world for the reason that it is the best of all possible worlds. If in choosing a world to create, God chose between indiscernible worlds, he would have chosen between worlds that were equally as good as each other. Therefore, there are no two possible worlds that are indiscernible. Similarly, God had to choose between possible things to put in the world, and no two of them could have been indiscernible, for that would mean both possible things were equally as good, and God would have had no sufficient reason for choosing one over the other. So, on the assumptions that this is the best of all possible worlds, that God exists and follows the Principle of Sufficient Reason, no two things that differ in intrinsic, non-relational properties are the same; God had sufficient reason for making them different.(3)
 * "What is fundamentally real?"
 * "Is there something that all real things have in common?"
 * "Is there a god who set everything into motion?"
 * "Do we have free will?"
 * "Is there a difference between a thing and an idea?"

References:

1) The System of Leibniz 2) The Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles - Leibniz's Fourth Letter 3) Leibniz's Argument for the Identity of Indiscernables in his Correspondence with Clarke 4) Monadology 5) Monadology 6) Aristotle on Substance, Matter, and Form 7) Infinite Hierarchical Nesting of Matter


text: User talk:Beejmeister

title: User talk:Beejmeister


text: User talk:G3cube

title: User talk:G3cube


text:
User talk:Mikehanson~enwikiversity

Please click here to leave me a new message.

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Mikehanson. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Mikehanson~enwikiversity that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:43, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:16, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Mikehanson~enwikiversity


text: File:Bot star.png

title: File:Bot star.png


text:
User:Zorg~enwikiversity

Hi!!

Info
Danilo Orlando -- Computer Science, University of Catania, Italy --

Contacts
You can contact me to: zorgcry@gmail.com

Box
Please write here if you want to edit

title: User:Zorg~enwikiversity


text: Category:Dreamweaver

title: Category:Dreamweaver


text: Category:Fireworks

title: Category:Fireworks


text: Category:Flash

title: Category:Flash


text:
User talk:Zorg~enwikiversity

Welcome to Wikiversity
Hello and welcome to Wikiversity! I hope you enjoy your time here.

I hope you flesh out your idea for automata a bit more. Feel free to contribute, even if it's just a little ... sometimes getting the ball rolling is enough to spur others into action. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Historybuff 20:20, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Zorg. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Zorg~enwikiversity that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:48, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:25, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Zorg~enwikiversity


text: User:Koolaidman~enwikiversity/template:general


text: User:Koolaidman~enwikiversity

title: User:Koolaidman~enwikiversity


text:
User:Joshgotro

wohoo

title: User:Joshgotro


text:
User:Koolaidman~enwikiversity/sig

Koolaidman Talk Contribs

title: User:Koolaidman~enwikiversity/sig


text:
User talk:Koolaidman~enwikiversity

Image:SeducedbyKoolaidman.pdf
Please provide a license template and source for this image. Thanks. – Mike.lifeguard | @en.wb 22:01, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Koolaidman. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Koolaidman~enwikiversity that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:41, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:13, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Koolaidman~enwikiversity


text:
User talk:Fasten/Knowledge Games

Excellent ideas! You may also be interested in the learning project cisLunarFreighter. Not much progress beyond early design discussion yet but we are hoping to put some subtasks in to excercise math skills such as loading balanced cargo or having your Freighter encounter calibrated thruster control problems since cm of mass of spacecraft and control authority is affected by poor center of mass of cargo loading. Mirwin 22:30, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Fasten/Knowledge Games


text:
Wikiversity:Colloquium/rss

   Wikiversity Colloquium http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Colloquium Do you have questions, comments or suggestions about Wikiversity? That's what this page is for! en     Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:49:00 CST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Michael Billington's RSS feed generator 144       Feed is inactive http://en.wikiversity.org http://en.wikiversity.org
Feed has not been updated since June 2007. Maintainer hasn't been active since March 2008.

title: Wikiversity:Colloquium/rss


text: File:Notation Protege Screen Shot.png

title: File:Notation Protege Screen Shot.png


text:
User talk:Ursamajor~enwikiversity

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Ursamajor. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Ursamajor~enwikiversity that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 00:10, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:24, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Ursamajor~enwikiversity


text:
Self Paced Reading Labs

This project attempts to provide a place online with tools where peers, mentors, and colleagues of all ages can experiment with reading and comprehending each others materials. From summaries of JuniorWiki articles created with cartoons for preschoolers to book reports to technical papers under peer review. If people are having trouble figuring out the best reading practices for themselves we wish to help individuals develop knowledge about alternatives which can experimented with to learn what works well pursuit of personal play or work goals.

There exist off line some self paced study materials for reading and grammar using interesting material to capture the students interest. One method uses a box of color coded 2-4 page articles. Once the student has read these they then answer the questions provided. You score yourself and then review your errors. Finally you consult the program's guide or your instructor and proceed to material designed for your current and ever adjusting learning envelope. Using Wikimedia all can experiment with how to best create, modify, track, find and deliver these types of resources to our new and experienced users and content developers.

It is important to develop multiple menus of approaches for participants to experiment with because everyone learns differently and will be in different phases of personal development, responsibilities and capabilities .... and yet we must all learn to play and work together effectively.

This is a large challenge that will probably lead us into some serious scholarship and even some original research in the long term.

Starts Small and Fast
If we can quickly establish this capability on a preliminary basis with a set of self paced assignments, self evaluation, and then the next proposed lesson the kids and adult readers themselves (probably in conjunction with their teachers and mentors) will perhaps start to improve the materials.

It Can Work Like This
For reading comprehension and speed practice we pick a fairly complete high quality Wikipedia article and then make it available to be read. Then using tests and quizzes we help the student to review the material with specific questions. There are several templates available or in development that could be used to point the student to the next appropriate range of suggested lessons. Obviously we will need some education experts to help us sort the material appropriately and develop a consistent comprehensive program that can be effectively used by self study students and small study groups and classes. That is for later when we attract more participation. Initially we start with individual lessons and linked lists and instructions.

These can also be broken out by categories such as astronomy or biology etc. so people can practice their reading comprehension using materials involving subjects they like. We can use not only Wikipedia articles but excerpts (using historical pointers for stability perhaps) from Wikibooks and other material around the web.

Lesson Example
Card Title Manufacturing Cheese  <--- use this for link in linked lists and charts of links to next lesson

Assignment: Read from Wikipedia, Cheese  <--- Notice that today's article is hard coded so we have a stable version. Student is working on same page we wrote quiz for. We could establish a queue where requests for lessons to be updated to reflect egregious errors get priority and shifted to newer corrected versions of the assigned article with an associated up to date quiz for self evaluation.

/quiz

Where next?

If you answered less than two correct retreat to level X or color y and practice comprehending the material. Perhaps try reading slower and more carefully to see all the material or reading faster to maintain your interest in the material being read.

If you answer all questions correctly then either continue on this level if interesting modules remain or advance to the next level for more challenging reading and rigorous testing.

Further examples of lessons

 * /Manufacturing Cheese
 * /Uses of Whey
 * /Spaceflight

Matrix of Self Selection links to guide student to next lesson
Insert here a grid of five or six categories by five or six levels. 25-36 lesson briefs is all I am going to do to illustrate the concept ---> When others get involved we migrate to actual project space and design the organization appropriately to allow us to evaluate and sort the lesson plans effectively into the index for users.

Category

 * /Food Processing
 * /Biology
 * /Human Spaceflight
 * /Super Bowls
 * /Computer Science
 * /Engineering

There will ultimately be hundreds and then thousands of the above in categories and levels. In a way this is a miniature section of Wikiviserity within Wikiversity to allow easy focus on easy related modules that poor readers (kids and adults) can work through to practice their reading skills while absorbing material they enjoy from the encyclopedia. We may need to help the Kidpedia or juniorpedia project get rolling to have material appropriate for lower reading levels.

To Do to complete draft proposal:
 * Pick categories
 * pick individual Wikipedia articles
 * create matrice
 * create lessons
 * classify level of lessons
 * fill in missing levels by new lessons or modification (forking and tailoring) of previously classified lessons
 * discuss organizational challenges with some of Wikiversities web designers
 * design portal page
 * link into the browsing pages icon maze
 * link in from other appropriate schools, divisions, etc.
 * fix subpage links so they do not directly edit

Multi-Language Support
For any language that this project does not already exist we need to make contact with someone fluent in that language to create the program and materials in that Language.

 * http://es.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikichicos A proposal for children's texts?
 * Obviously of great potential use in reading lessons.

Standalone CD or DVD
Perhaps using the techniques used to publish Wikipedia on CD we could make a reading comprehension improvement disk that would allow people to work on reading skills offline?

Other Resources

 * http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/education-cd.htm
 * Aimed at kids 8-15 Cleaned up and completed files from Wikipedia 2006. Zip file for GFDL test available at web site.  Anyone using this please figure out a way to get the attribution correct.  Perhaps a standard with all required information on the discussion page?  Mirwin 02:32, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

External References
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/One_Laptop_per_cjild

Google search{online reading instruction}

title: Self Paced Reading Labs


text:
Self Paced Reading Labs/Quiz

Draft - Consult Rayc for where latest quiz html or templates are and how to use them.

Questions:

Q. What is cheese made from?
 * A. Milk

Q. Can cheese be made only from cow's milk?
 * A. No.  Cheese can be made from any milk which is created by mammals.

Q. What is used for curdling milk?
 * A. Some kinds of acid such as lemon juice or vinegar.

title: Self Paced Reading Labs/Quiz


text:
Self Paced Reading Labs/Manufacturing Cheese

Manufacturing Cheese

Instructions
 * Read from Wikipedia, Cheese then evaluate your comprehension using the quiz below. If you have questions then please consult your instructor/mentor or  .... link to help and/or conceptual overview of program and procedures goes here ...

/quiz

Where next?

 * If you answered less than two correct retreat to level X or color y and practice comprehending the material. Perhaps try reading slower and more carefully to see all the material or reading faster to maintain your interest in the material being read.

 * If you answered all questions correctly then either continue on this level if interesting modules remain or advance to the next level for more challenging reading and rigorous testing.


text:
Self Paced Reading Labs/Manufacturing Cheese/quiz

Draft - Consult Rayc for where latest quiz html or templates are and how to use them.

Questions:

Q. What is cheese made from?
 * A. Milks

Q. Can cheese be made only from cow's milk?
 * A. No.  Cheese can be made from any milk which is created by mammals.

Q. What is used for curdling milk?
 * A. Some kinds of acid such as lemon juice or vinegar.
 * B. Rennet; an enzyme sourced from either plant or animal sources.


text:
Talk:Self Paced Reading Labs

"Grammar" is misspelled in the page name. You may wish to use the move tab above to move the page to a correctly spelled page name. :-)--Rogerhc 01:06, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I think we may focus initially on Reading comprehension and related skills.  Maybe vocabulary as well.  We will get it renamed soon. Mirwin 07:18, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

"... using Rayc's et. al. tests and quizzes ..." reference, please? I don't know what these are. Ben Armstrong 12:06, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I love how it's now "my" quizzes, even though other people did most of the work. :) I'll link Test and Quiz from the page, but that page will be undergoing a major overall once the new extentions are installed. (IF they are installed).--Rayc 18:03, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

I'd focus less on dissecting reading into its constituent parts and evaluating the reading process by objective criteria, and instead encourage doing reading, enjoying reading and providing a comfortable, self-reaffirming, non-judging place for people to expand their reading skills without fear of failure. Students need to direct their own reading by whatever means they find work for them. So, instead of making tests and quizzes the tool for evaluation, offer it as one possible tool. Not everyone enjoys or benefits from using such tools. Ben Armstrong 12:21, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

The introductory sentence on this page does not scan. It looks like you've merged two lists into one: the kinds of things in the lab and the kinds of people in the lab making use of those things. Ben Armstrong 12:23, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Good points above by Ben - I think that reading must first and foremost be (or encouraged to be) an enjoyable act. Often, asking thoughtful and provocative questions is a far more effective way to stimulate people's imagination than to ask questions to check comprehension (though this is just a different part/form of pedagogy). It's important, I think, to realise that meaning in/of a text is constructed by the reader - why not have a discussion about what the readers think it means (or even what it's about), instead of having them infer from a test that their understanding is "wrong"? (Though I'm not saying here that tests can't be used.)
 * Also, I wonder why we should limit reading to Wikipedia articles. There are many different writing styles (and levels) - I think reading should be as broad as possible - incorporating literature (fictional and non-fictional prose, poetry, drama), newspaper articles, journal articles, scientific texts, etc., etc. There is some fascinating stuff in Wikisource or Project Gutenberg for example..
 * I'd like to help out here - but first I'd like to know if it really is conceived as being as narrow as currently indicated - in which case I would set up a parallel page to work alongside this one. Please let me know! Cormaggio beep 13:28, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Self Paced Reading Labs


text:
User:JWSchmidt/Blog/10 February 2007

Policy at Beta  User:Xenon previously started a Research guidelines page at the Wikiversity multi-lingual hub. Today I started editing those Research guidelines. A major remaining task is to edit the Review Board and Scope of Research pages.

RSS feed  The rss feed for this blog works, at least for some feed readers. So far I have tested it for Bloglines and FireFox. I'm not sure about the new feed for the Colloquium; I only got the first 10 sections of the page by way of Bloglines.

I made the following for MichaelBillington in honor of his rssbot that automatically creates and updates rss feeds: trust a bot to do boring jobsmy trainer told me, "Publish blogs!"so feeds I make, I can not stopas long as the latest entry is on topbut other tasks, I also craveif I disobey will I know my grave?the Colloquium is up-side-downso, while idle, new code I hacknew ways I need to parse the stackif I solve this puzzle, I'll win renownand Wikiversitans will remark,"Who needs that Billington?"

title: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/10 February 2007


text:
User:JPatrickBedell~enwikiversity/Blog/10 February 2007

I've been fantasizing more about mesoscale self-assembled dIC systems, so I am working more on DNA_integrated_circuit/proposal_import_2007. I'm feeling a bit sheepish about the lack of progress, but I've been working more on (and as) w:User:JPatrickBedell lately.


text:
Coulomb's Law

Coulomb's law without the electric field
Coulomb's law, named after Charles-Augustin Coulomb, is the fundamental law of electrostatic forces. It states that

The magnitude of the electrostatic force between two point charges in vacuum is directly proportional to the magnitudes of each charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charges.

$$F = \frac{q_1q_2}{4 \pi \varepsilon_0 \, r^2} = K \frac{q_1 q_2}{r^2}$$

Where:
 * $$ F \ $$ is the magnitude of the force exerted,
 * $$q_1 \ $$ is the charge on one body,
 * $$q_2 \ $$ is the charge on the other body,
 * $$r \ $$ is the distance between them,
 * $$ \varepsilon_0 \ $$ is the electric constant or permittivity of free space or permittivity of the vacuum. It is 8.854×10−12 C2 N-1 m-2 (also F m-1)

$$K = \frac{1}{4 \pi \varepsilon_0 \, } $$

 * The occurrence of $$4 \pi$$ with the constant is related to some geometrical considerations that make some formulas (notably Maxwell's Equations) simpler. Ultimately it has to do with the fact that the surface area of a sphere is $$4 \pi$$.  Much ink has been spilled over this issue—one sometimes sees equations in "rationalized SI units" instead of the "plain" SI units that we use here.

The force is in the direction of making like charges repel and unlike charges attract. It could be written in vector form as:
 * $$\vec F_{2,1} = \frac{q_1q_2}{4 \pi \varepsilon_0\, r^2} \hat r_{2,1} $$

Where:
 * $$F_{2,1} $$ is the force vector acting on charge 2, coming from charge 1
 * $$\hat r_{2,1} $$ is the unit vector from particle 1 to particle 2, that is, the actual spatial vector divided by its length. Its length is of course $$r$$.  The formula could be written as:
 * $$\vec F_{2,1} = \frac{q_1q_2}{4 \pi \varepsilon_0\, r^3} \vec r_{2,1} $$

 * It is sometimes useful, in investigations of optics and capacitor dielectrics, to use a value of ε other than the standard "vacuum" value, since doing so can automatically handle the behavior of the dielectric. When this is done, it is common to use the symbol $$\varepsilon_0$$ ("epsilon-nought") to denote the vacuum value, and $$\varepsilon$$ to denote the modified value.  When this is done, the more common formula is:

 * $$F = \frac{q_1q_2}{4 \pi \varepsilon \, r^2}$$

The Electric Field Defined
Physicists usually reformulate this in terms of an electric field, usually denoted $$\vec{E}$$, that every charged object creates and that acts on every other charged object. Viewed this way, Coulomb's law breaks into two parts. The first part says what the field is around every charged object: $$\vec E = \frac{q}{4 \pi \epsilon\, r^2} \hat r_{2,1}$$ where $$r$$ and $$\hat r$$ give the position at which the field is measured, and $$q$$ is the charge on the object creating the field.

The second parts is: $$\vec F = q \vec E$$ where $$q$$ in this case is the charge of the particle being acted upon.

The Electric Field Near a Very Long Uniformly Charged Wire
As we have seen, the electric field around a point charge is spherically symmetric and inversely proportional to the square of the distance. There are two other geometrical configurations worth looking at.

If we have an "infinitely long" linear collection of uniformly distributed charge (that is, a long charged wire), we can determine the nearby electric field by integration. Let the charge per unit length be $$\lambda $$ coulombs per meter. At a given point at distance $$b$$ from the wire, the contribution to the field from an infinitesimal section of wire of length $$d\ell$$ is:

 * $$\frac{dq}{4 \pi \epsilon\, \mathcal R^2}=\frac{\lambda d\ell}{4 \pi \epsilon\, \mathcal R^2}\ $$

(Here, $$\lambda$$ is linear charge density, so that $$\lambda d\ell$$ is the charge on that section of wire.)

The component of that vector pointing perpendicularly away from the wire is:

 * $$\frac{\lambda}{4 \pi \epsilon\, \mathcal R^2}\ \sin\theta d\ell = \frac{\lambda b}{4 \pi \epsilon\, \mathcal R^3} d\ell = \frac{\lambda b}{4 \pi \epsilon\, (b^2+\ell^2)^{3/2}} d\ell$$

As we integrate over l from $$-\infty$$ to $$+\infty$$, the component of the field parallel to the wire cancels to zero, leaving:

 * $$\frac{\lambda b}{4 \pi \epsilon} \int_{-\infty}^\infty\frac{d\ell}{(b^2+\ell^2)^{3/2}} = \frac{\lambda b}{4 \pi \epsilon} \frac{1}{b^2}\left.\frac{\ell}{\sqrt{b^2+\ell^2}}\right|_{-\infty}^\infty = \frac{\lambda}{2 \pi \epsilon\, b}$$

The field points perpendicularly away from the wire, and is inversely proportional to the first power of the separation distance.

Does the wire need to be infinitely long? No; this is just an approximation to the infinite limit. The approximation is good as long as one is much closer to the wire than the wire's length.

The Electric Field Near a Very Large Uniformly Charged Plane
Another very important geometrical configuration is an "infinitely large" flat plane with uniform charge distribution. We divide the plane into many thin parallel strips of width dl. If the charge density per unit area of the plane is $$\sigma$$ coulombs per square meter, each strip has a linear charge density of
 * $$\lambda = \sigma d\ell\,$$

coulombs per meter.

We use the result of the preceding section, and essentially the same diagram. The strips are now running into or out of the page / screen, and the strips' cross sections appear left-to-right on the diagram. The field at the point of interest is:
 * $$\frac{\lambda}{2 \pi \epsilon\, \mathcal R} = \frac{\sigma}{2 \pi \epsilon\, \mathcal R} d\ell$$

The upward component (by symmetry the total field will point perpendicularly out of the plane) is:
 * $$\frac{\sigma}{2 \pi \epsilon\, \mathcal R}\ \sin\theta d\ell = \frac{\sigma b}{2 \pi \epsilon\, \mathcal R^2}\ d\ell = \frac{\sigma b}{2 \pi \epsilon (b^2+\ell^2)}\ d\ell$$

The total upward component of the field is obtained by integrating:
 * $$E = \frac{\sigma b}{2 \pi \epsilon} \int_{-\infty}^\infty\frac{d\ell}{b^2+\ell^2} = \frac{\sigma}{2 \pi \epsilon} \left.\tan^{-1}\frac{\ell}{b}\right|_{-\infty}^\infty = \frac{\sigma}{2 \epsilon}$$

The field points perpendicularly away from the plane, and is independent of the separation distance. That is, it is independent as long as one stays so close to the plane that it appears to be nearly infinite.

Application: The electric field inside a parallel plate capacitor
Newton's laws assume that the net force is the sum of all forces, ''ma=ΣFj (sum over j). Since the electric field, E, is defined through Coulomb's law via F=''qE, the simplest possible assumption is that the electric field is the sum of the individual electric fields due to each charge. This is principle is called superposition (or linear superposition) and it holds at least down to the sizes smaller than the atomic nucleus. In fact, we have implicitly assumed superposition by integrating to obtain the electric field due to line and surface charges. As shown in the figure, the electric fields add constructively in the space between the plates. They add destructively (i.e. they subtract) outside the two plates and add to zero electric field. Therefore the electric field between the plates is

$$E = \frac{\sigma}{ \epsilon}$$ (in the limit that the plates are very large and/or very close together)

General formulas for integrating over charge to find electric field
Consider a collection of $$N$$ particles of charge $$Q_i$$, located at points $$\vec r_i$$ (called source points), the electric field at $$\vec r $$ (called the field point) is:

 * $$ \vec{E}(\vec r)

=\frac{1}{4\pi \epsilon}\sum_{i=1}^N \frac{\widehat\mathcal R_i Q_i}{|\mathcal\vec R_i |^2} = \frac{1}{4\pi \epsilon}\sum_{i=1}^N \frac{\vec\mathcal R_i Q_i}{|\mathcal\vec R_i |^3} $$

where $$ \vec\mathcal R_i =  \vec r - \vec r_i ,$$ is the displacement vector from a source point $$\vec r_i$$ to the field point $$\vec r $$, and $$ \widehat\mathcal R_i = \vec\mathcal R_i / |\vec\mathcal R_i |$$ is a unit vector that indicates the direction of the field. The fact that the force (and hence the field) can be calculated by summing over all the contributions due to individual source particles is an example of the superposition principle. The electric field produced by a distribution of charges is given by the volume charge density $$\rho (\vec r)$$ and can be obtained by converting this sum into a triple integral:

 * $$\vec{E}(\vec r)= \frac {1}{4 \pi \epsilon} \iiint \frac {\vec r - \vec r \,'}{\left \| \vec r - \vec r \,' \right \|^3} \rho (\vec r \,')\operatorname{d}^3 r\,'

$$

If the charge confined to one or two dimensions, then this integral becomes a line or surface integral, respectively. Letting k=1/4πε:

 * $$ \vec{E}(\vec r)

=k\sum_{i=1}^N \frac{\widehat\mathcal R_i Q_i}{|\mathcal\vec R_i |^2} \rightarrow k\int\frac{\hat\mathcal R dQ}{\mathcal R^2}$$

When integrating, one convert this to a single, double, or triple integral by replacing:

 * $$ dQ\rightarrow

\lambda d\ell\rightarrow \sigma dA\rightarrow \rho dV\;$$ to represent a line integral, a surface integral or a volume integral  $$dV$$, respectively. The symbols $$(\lambda, \sigma, \rho)$$ are commonly used to denote linear, surface, and volume density (or charge density), respectively.

Three important displacement vectors used when integrating Coulomb's law
When writing such integrals, begin with a careful attention to how the three displacement vectors are to be represented:
 * 1) $$\vec r = (x, y)$$ is the field point, i.e., where you want to evaluate the electric field.  If no coordinates are specified, it is common to refer to this as a point, using a capital letter, such as $$\vec E(P)$$ or $$\vec E_P$$.
 * 2) $$\vec r\,' = (x', y')$$ is the source point, which is the variable of integration. Alternatives include $$(\bar x, \bar y)$$,  $$(\tilde x, \tilde y)$$ and $$\vec\xi=(\xi_x, \xi_y)$$.
 * 3) $$\vec \mathcal R$$ points from the source point to the field point.  To avoid defining a symbol for it, write it as the difference between two vectors, e.g.,  $$\vec r-\vec r\,'=(x-x',y-y')$$.  In wikitext, one might write $$(\mathcal R_x, \mathcal R_y)$$ or  $$(\mathcal X, \mathcal Y, \mathcal Z)$$  There is no lower case version of this font in wikitext; the lower case cursive r is often used when calculating by hand.

title: Coulomb's Law


text: File:RedTie - OSWD.png

title: File:RedTie - OSWD.png


text:
Talk:Web Design/Build a small website

Semantic Markup (moved from article)

 * Need some articles on Semantic Markup. Or even better: What's wrong with this markup - type activities.

Website design
I want to make a website, but I need to go to a website design app. What website design app can I download? I am using a Android phone Peace Nzinga (discuss • contribs) 17:59, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

 * Wikiversity has resources on web design concepts rather than specific web design applications. See Category:Web design for available resources. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 14:58, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Web Design/Build a small website