Dear Bob,
Thank you for your question to the list. I'm using R to teach
courses on Computing with Data. I am in the Department of Statistics at
Purdue University (in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA), although of course
my opinion does not represent our entire department.
I believe that R is a great tool for teaching undergraduates and
graduate students. I teach these Computing with Data classes at both
levels. As you might guess from the title, I do not focus on
statistical methods, but instead I focus on the ability to manipulate
data that is very large and thus cannot be handled by less-powerful
software.
It might be helpful to note that I teach R alongside other
technologies (in the same course), including UNIX tools, bash shell
scripting, regular expressions, SQL, XML, and a brief introduction to
Perl.... although R remains the main topic in my course. I spend about
1/3 of the time in the course on R.
Our students are fortunate to have access to other software,
including (for instance) S-PLUS, but I really enjoy using open source
technologies in my classes to the greatest possible extent.
I hope that helps give a perspective about one use of R in the
classroom.
Mark
Robert W. Hayden wrote:
I had some minor role in the creation of this list. At times I have
complained that members have been too harsh in redirecting queries
whose proper home seemed to me debatable. But as time has gone on I
have to admit that too much (most?) of the traffic on this list is
about how to make R work rather than how to use it in education. So,
trying to think positively, let me toss out some general EDUCATIONAL
questions. How are people using R for educational purposes? What do
people think of the various GUI or alternate (e.g., spreadsheet)
interfaces? Is there anything that makes R as easy to use for
beginners as, say, Minitab? What about using R for educational
simulations? Is R the tool for replacing what George Cobb calls a
"Ptolemaic curriculum"?
http://repositories.cdlib.org/uclastat/cts/tise/vol1/iss1/art1/
If anyone wants to respond it might help to briefly describe your
student audience. While I am attracted to the power of R, many of the
folks who ask me about R are attracted by the price. That is
especially important in a number of contexts I work with:
my own online courses where we have no computer labs for
students who must get their own software, often paying full
single-copy prices
public high schools in the U.S. where student computer access at
school is limited and it is very helpful to give students something
they can install on a computer at home
people teaching in less wealthy nations
On 6/29/09, Martin Maechler <maech...@stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
Wrong Mailing List !!
Please use R-help for R questions!
<skip>
AA> Assume I have the following data sets:
Also, please send reproducible code with dummy data. Assuming the data
is too abstract to think of a solution; and you haven't even mentioned
the exact R function that you wanted to use.
Best regards,
Liviu
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-------> First-time AP Stats. teacher? Help is on the way! See
http://courses.ncssm.edu/math/Stat_Inst/Stats2007/Bob%20Hayden/Relief.html
Robert W. Hayden in the old library at 212 Main Street (P. O. Box 450)
North Troy, VT 05859 phone (802) 988-2587 web site http://statland.org/
email bob statland.org (add your own "@" and save me some spam)
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