Timeline for What is Math.SE?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:22 | history | edited | CommunityBot | replaced http://math.stackexchange.com/ with https://math.stackexchange.com/ | |
| Dec 25, 2014 at 6:54 | comment | added | Brian M. Scott | @Bill: In fact I had never seen the term until Carl used it, and Google indicates that it’s rare; a quick look suggests that it was most common before MSE got a permanent name and used mostly by MO folks. | |
| Dec 25, 2014 at 3:27 | comment | added | Bill Dubuque | @CarlMummert There are only a handful of occurrences of "Mathoverflow" in said Area51 link, and they say nothing about MSE being a "Junior MO". fyi: some MSE users view "MathUnderflow" as derogatory. Though it may be used frequently by MO users, it is little used here. | |
| Dec 10, 2014 at 1:34 | comment | added | Brian M. Scott | @Carl: I don’t doubt you. I also don’t care: it’s quite clear that MSE has evolved in a somewhat different direction and had already done so when I first got involved three and a half years ago. | |
| Dec 10, 2014 at 1:31 | comment | added | Carl Mummert | I pulled up area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/3355?phase=definition again, to check that (1) the comparison with MathOverflow was there from the beginning, as was (2) the sense that blatant homework should be off topic | |
| Dec 10, 2014 at 1:28 | comment | added | Brian M. Scott | @Carl: Not as far as I’m concerned. | |
| Dec 10, 2014 at 1:26 | comment | added | Carl Mummert | Isn't the goal of Math.SE to be a certain kind of Junior MO, though? That is why it is called MathUnderflow, after all. The original goal for the site was to take the good aspects of MathOverflow and try to expand them to questions which were not necessarily at the research level. | |
| May 13, 2013 at 6:24 | comment | added | Jyrki Lahtonen | @GitGud: My approach to teaching here is under continuous evolution. But I always start by giving hints. On a sunny day that will do it. If not, then I start a dialogue and/or expand the hints. All depending on A) how responsive the student appears to be, and B) how large a time commitment I can make. So I can't do that too many times per day. Also, occasionally it happens that I leave a student stranded, because something else came up, or I got tired. The latter is common, because I'm 7 hours ahead of US East Coast. | |
| May 13, 2013 at 6:16 | comment | added | Git Gud | @JyrkiLahtonen but gaps in their understanding of some more elementary material. Granted, such a student will not benefit from the best of hints. I agree with (almost) everything and I'd like to emphasize that part. I also agree that giving a solution to the problem at hand is not going to help such a student understand either. most of the time, but I still think it's better to give the solution than some hints which the student can't work with. | |
| May 13, 2013 at 6:01 | comment | added | Jyrki Lahtonen | @GitGud: I realize that "lecturers don't even dream the kind of stuff the students don't know". I've been lecturing for twenty years and seen my share. More often than not the root cause of a student's plight is not with the current material, but gaps in their understanding of some more elementary material. Granted, such a student will not benefit from the best of hints. But giving a solution to the problem at hand is not going to help such a student understand either. Math.SE is relatively ill fitted a tool for filling in such gaps. Hints work much better with more advanced students! | |
| May 12, 2013 at 21:43 | comment | added | Brian M. Scott | @Hurkyl: If you’re talking about my data, I’m not comparing questions with answers; I’m looking at the observably different practices of different Math.SE users. At the other extreme you’ll find numerous users whose use is largely or wholly confined to asking questions. It is very obvious that some of us are here primarily to answer questions, others are here primarily to ask them, and yet others are here for both reasons. The User front page was an easy place to find members of the first group and incidentally to demonstrate their value to the site. | |
| May 12, 2013 at 21:33 | comment | added | user14972 | The table isn't really comparing apples to apples, since there are generally multiple answers per question, and greater reputation gains for answers. | |
| May 12, 2013 at 15:38 | comment | added | Brian M. Scott | @Jyrki: I stopped reading sci.math over ten years ago, I think about the same time that Ilias Kastanas mostly stopped posting. I first ran into Arturo in the two teaching groups that I mentioned, probably at about the same time. | |
| May 12, 2013 at 10:41 | comment | added | Git Gud | I’ve learned that problems are very often harder and hints less illuminating than one thinks - as a student I think this is something most answerers don't realize. I see the kind of stuff some of my class mates struggle with. Lecturers don't even dream the kind of stuff students don't know. | |
| May 12, 2013 at 7:25 | comment | added | Jyrki Lahtonen | I'm glad you brought up USENET groups. I was about to post an answer explaining that I would like Math.SE to be a modernized version of sci.math with the noise from cranks and trolls moderated out. I visited alt.algebra.help occasionally, but didn't like it. | |
| May 12, 2013 at 3:32 | comment | added | Brian M. Scott | @Alex: The two are not mutually exclusive: providing a complete answer is still teaching to anyone who learns from it. Sometimes it’s even the best choice, though this is easier to judge in person than here. I tend to give hints, especially for low-level questions, but my hints tend to be on the larger side: it took a while, but over the years I’ve learned that problems are very often harder and hints less illuminating than one thinks. And getting a student to fill even a small detail is definitely teaching. | |
| May 12, 2013 at 3:13 | comment | added | Alex Becker | A follow up question to your answer then is what constitutes teaching/tutoring and what constitutes doing students' work for them. | |
| May 11, 2013 at 23:13 | history | edited | user17762 | CC BY-SA 3.0 | added 13 characters in body |
| May 11, 2013 at 23:09 | history | answered | Brian M. Scott | CC BY-SA 3.0 |