Skip to main content

Timeline for What is Math.SE?

Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0

22 events
when toggle format what by license comment
Dec 25, 2014 at 4:37 comment added Bill Dubuque @Arkamis Sorry for the noise. My goal is sincere: to try to understand more precisely what it is about homework that leads CM to believe that this is not a site to "do math homework".
Dec 25, 2014 at 4:23 comment added Emily In fact, please take the discussion out of my answer, as tagging me or not makes no difference at all right here.
Dec 25, 2014 at 4:23 comment added Emily @BillDubuque If we're going to go down into mindless pedantry, please stop tagging me. It makes my phone buzz at 11:30 PM on Christmas Eve, and I'd really just prefer to finish this Christmas stout without debating the minutiae of crowdsourcing homework vs. collaborative learning.
Dec 25, 2014 at 4:21 comment added Bill Dubuque @Arkamis Ok, so if JDH's students are "doing math homework" then it seems that CM thinks this is not the site for that. I don't agree. But it's not clear that's really what CM means. That's why I asked for elaboration.
Dec 25, 2014 at 4:14 comment added Emily @BillDubuque Not really. It's still pretty clear: one is assigned by an instructor, one is not.
Dec 25, 2014 at 4:13 comment added Bill Dubuque @Arkamis So, to you, there is indeed, more to the distinction between the two than what you said above. Hence my question to CM.
Dec 25, 2014 at 4:10 comment added Emily @BillDubuque Yes, I am. And I encourage many students that I advise and tutor to do the same. And yet I encourage them to use the tool as a collaborative platform by expanding on the knowledge they have, and being clear about the knowledge they lack. I do not advise them to use the site just an exercise in re-typing the questions they have been given.
Dec 25, 2014 at 4:08 comment added Bill Dubuque @Arkamis Are you aware that some professors (e.g. JDH) encourage their students to use sites like MSE for assigments?
Dec 25, 2014 at 3:50 comment added Emily @BillDubuque I am not Carl Mummert, but I would wager that one is done for a grade in a class and prescribed by an instructor, one is not. This is among the least challenging distinctions to make.
Dec 25, 2014 at 3:49 comment added Bill Dubuque @CarlMummert So what precisely is your distinction between "doing math" and "doing math homework"?
Dec 10, 2014 at 1:33 comment added Carl Mummert In my mind, the key point is that this is a site to do math, not a site to do math homework. The main challenge with homework is that the askers are often not doing math in the sense I understand the term, even if they are doing their math homework.
May 12, 2013 at 15:46 comment added Brian M. Scott Going to the driving range and hitting golf balls is learning. It may be undirected learning, and you may be learning bad habits, but it’s still learning. More important, I don’t see that desire as any less specific than a desire to learn how to hit your fairway woods better. It simply serves a different end — fun, or working off steam, or whatever. Finally, no one has suggested that this ‘driving range’ should be just for learning.
May 12, 2013 at 14:03 comment added Emily @BrianM.Scott I respect that view, but I disagree in the sense that teaching and learning are more specific objectives. A metaphor: sometimes I want to go to the driving range to hit golf balls. This is not teaching/learning. This is just doing. Sometimes, however, I go to learn how to hit my fairway woods. This is doing and learning. If the driving range was just for learning, I would not be allowed to just go and whack at balls when I wanted to.
May 11, 2013 at 23:11 comment added Brian M. Scott Learning and teaching are no more (though also no less) individual objectives than is wanting to do mathematics in a more collegial fashion. And a question plus an answer in themselves constitute an interaction, irrespective of the quality (by whatever yardstick) of the question.
May 11, 2013 at 16:03 comment added Emily @AlexBecker Very well; I rolled back to my original answer.
May 11, 2013 at 16:02 history rollback Emily
Rollback to Revision 1
May 11, 2013 at 15:52 comment added Alex Becker I would prefer that answers not address PSQs because there are already two very well-exposed questions specific to them. I included PSQs to motivate the question, so people wouldn't ask "why should I care?" and "where is this coming from?"
May 11, 2013 at 15:44 comment added Asaf Karagila Mod Do you have a moral obligation to call the police when someone is robbing (or rubbing) a liquor store? Who is the police in this scenario, the lecturers? the university? the moderators? Do you agree that giving a ride to someone who just robbed a liquor store is against the law, assuming that you know what they did and they are not forcing you to help?
May 11, 2013 at 15:40 comment added Emily @Lord_Farin I wasn't really sure if the question could be taken with or without the background material separated. So I branched it off into separate sections. Take from it what you will; the original question is very broad, and these points, by their inclusion in the OP, are still germane to "What is Math.SE?"
May 11, 2013 at 15:07 comment added Lord_Farin +1 for the part assessing the actual question. As for the part of your answer on PSQ, I don't think this is the place for it. I liked your answer better when the last section wasn't there yet (regardless of my (dis/)agreement with it).
May 11, 2013 at 14:56 history edited Emily CC BY-SA 3.0
added 1947 characters in body
May 11, 2013 at 14:48 history answered Emily CC BY-SA 3.0