I think the kinds of confusions that prompted this discussion are
normal, and may not be something to fret over. That said, I support the
idea of another appropriate SIG. However, r-sig-teaching & r-sig-tutor
are going to elicit more of these same kinds of confusions. We should
use r-sig-forstatisticseducation and r-sig-fornovices, instead.
On 1/18/2013 11:08 AM, Christopher W. Ryan wrote:
I'd participate actively in an "R-tutor" mailing list.
--Chris
Christopher W. Ryan, MD, MS
SUNY Upstate Medical University Clinical Campus at Binghamton
425 Robinson Street, Binghamton, NY 13904
cryanatbinghamtondotedu
"Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity, or
evil intent, we can liberate ourselves from the impossible burden of
trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition
that we could be in error, without deeming ourselves idiotic or
unworthy." [Karen Schulz, in Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error]
R. Michael Weylandt wrote:
On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 3:32 PM, Monte Milanuk <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello Bob,
I'm one of those who follow the list mainly out of curiosity, not
because I have any connection with teaching stats. My goal was to
keep an eye out for some of the occasional posts where people post
useful links or material that they use in teaching... but I understand
the frustration with the frequent off-topic requests for help learning
R.
I don't know if yet another mailing list would be worth considering...
but for comparison, in the Python world there is a SIG for Education,
very similar to this one... and there is a SIG/mailing list called
'python-tutor', specifically for people asking beginner type
questions, or who maybe don't want to brave the 'main' list and its
denizens just yet because they still need/want some hand-holding.
There is very little off-topic discussion on the Edu list, and
neophytes have a kiddie pool that they feel welcome in.
I know the R community seems to kind of enjoy the occasional
snarkiness on the main list by certain posters, and I've certainly
been around the 'Net long enough to have developed a thick enough skin
myself, but for new users it may be a bit intimidating. Maybe an
'R-Novice' or 'R-Tutor' list would open up an intermediate ground for
beginners and reduce the 'pollution' of the R-Teaching list?
It's a topic that's been discussed many times before on R-help, with
the usual outcome being some feeling that it would lower the quality
of responses that newbies get. I'm not sure it's an argument I buy,
but if you want to raise the topic again, I can certainly promise to
be active (enough) on R-Tutor.
There might also be some value in thinking of an R-Statistics list
(though under a much better name) where statistical questions are fair
game -- it's always seemed odd to me that data munging is a fair topic
on the various R lists, while data analysis isn't.
Just throwing it out there,
MW
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