Sorry for my late response as well. I'm here. --- On Sat, 1/31/09, Albyn Jones <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Albyn Jones <[email protected]> Subject: [R-sig-teaching] [[email protected]: Re: Who is the list for?] To: "r-sig-teaching list" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, January 31, 2009, 3:46 PM Ooops, I failed to respond to the list. Here it is... albyn ----- Forwarded message from Albyn Jones <[email protected]> ----- Hi Robert That's a good question, and clearly the boundary is fuzzy. I was inferring from the form of the question that the poster was a random person learning R, rather than someone using R to teach courses. I may have been in error, in which case I apologize to all for jumping to a conclusion. I don't have a list of topics that are appropriate or inappropriate, rather a notion that this list is not the same as the R-help list, but is for discussion of issues related to teaching R or with R. In any case, anyone teaching with R should be aware of the R-help list. albyn On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 05:47:27PM -0500, Robert W. Hayden wrote: > Forwarded message: > > From: Albyn Jones <[email protected]> > > > > You should post basic R questions to the R-help list; > > this list is intended for discussion of the use of R in > > teaching. > > Albyn, could you tell us more about what is on that list? > > Some time ago I raised the possibility of an email list for those who > want to use R in teaching introductory courses. The idea was passed > on and within a couple days this list was born. (I assumed causality, > but it may have been coincidence;-) I would have made the list open to > any question from anyone using R in an introductory course. Perhaps > there is a problem due to bimodality in the potential audience. Some > are old hands at R and now want to use it in the classroom. Others > may have never used it before and are now trying to teach with it. I > am not on the R-help list but wonder how much of the content there > overlaps an introductory statistics course? Or how much would be over > the head of a beginner? (I think most of the R documentation is well > beyond the level of an introductory course, and pretty overwhelming > and incomprehensible to a beginner, so I am hoping there is SOME place > where beginners can get simple answers to simple questions without > becoming Unix gurus or programmers first.) > > For anyone wondering why a non-R-guru such as myself might be on this > list (or have suggested its creation)... I teach online in a context > where we cannot buy a site license to provide each student with > software. They have to either use whatever their employer provides > (if anything), or pay for software out of their own pocket, normally > at full single-copy prices. R is attractive because it is free. It > also makes sense because our introductory courses (at least > originally) only exist to prepare students for more advanced courses > where R is preferred for its power or programmability. So, having > created the introductory courses themselves, I then created student > manuals for Minitab (because I already knew it), Data Desk (because it > comes with the textbook), and R (for reasons already given). In > creating the R materials, I encountered others trying to get started > with R while using it in an introductory course, and hence this list. > > -------> 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) > > _______________________________________________ > [email protected] mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching > ----- End forwarded message ----- _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching [[alternative HTML version deleted]] _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching
