[WikiToLearn] Already existing texts

[Schremmer Alain]

On , at 2015 Nov 29,3:33 PM, Riccardo Iaconelli wrote:

> On Sunday, November 29, 2015 11:18:14 AM Schremmer Alain wrote:
>> Just spent an hour or so trying to see how already existing wikitolearn
>> texts look like. No luck. In Mathematics and in Physics, I just found
>> tables of contents but all pages were "does no exist yet."
> 
> Hi Schremmer!
> 
> Thank you for your mail. I am glad that you took some time to check out 
> WikiToLearn.
> 
> Unfortunately the English section is very novel, even more than the project 
> itself (which is just a couple of months old, since we started the real works 
> in September).
> 
> There is just a little English content for now, but much is being produced as 
> I write (e.g. the HEP software foundation, or the Plasma Physics book which is 
> being imported from the LaTeX sources). If you want to see some test content 
> in English you can check out for example this page:
> 
> http://en.wikitolearn.org/Electrostatics
> 
> ... or, maybe with the help of an automated translator, you can take a look at 
> the Italian part, where we got help from many students and it is already much 
> more complete, such as:

I had indeed noticed that there seemed to be a lot more in Italian than in English but after checking the English section, I forgot to go back to the Italian section.

> http://it.wikitolearn.org/Fisica_moderna

I just took a look at the above but I am only a mathematician and cannot judge Physics contents and the very few pages I looked at in Matematica were empty. 

Fortunately, by the way, I do not need a translator: While I cannot really write Italian, I often read Italian authors in the text for the very pleasure. 

> I took the liberty to check out your website, since the domain of your e-mail 
> made me curious. I must say that I really appreciate the work you've been 
> doing! I think it's precious to offer a new approach to Mathematics, which 
> doesn't scare away students, and your manuals offer a pretty complete view on 
> that.

I am not so sure about that but I am reacting to a tendency, here in the US, which you can well imagine given the current political climate. But, in fact, mathematics education in this country has been devolving for the last forty years or so. And, as you saw, I am addressing a population of raw beginners. Perhaps more to the point is that my insistence on the contents flowing from the real world and making logical sense, while in accord with what Hestenes (Of Geometric Algebra fame) said in his Oersted Lecture:

	"Course content is taken [by many] as given, so the research problem is how to teach it most effectively. This approach [...] has produced valuable insights and useful results. However, it ignores the possibility of improving pedagogy by reconstructing course content."

is totally out of favor at  the College introductory level in these days of Pearson totalitarianism in which "memorize" unrelated tidbits is the rule.

> Since I also saw that you are editing most of your work in LaTeX, I'd like to 
> pose you an interesting question... what do you think about joining forces? 
> Would you like to help us kickstart the English page by contributing with your 
> material? We have realized a LaTeX importer which should make the importing 
> almost painless. :-)

If your group is willing to do the translation, I would be most flattered but I am old (I just turned 79 a few days ago) and have gotten slow so that I am unwilling to take on more stuff than I am already facing, to wit:

1. Finish the Rewrite of Reasonable Algebraic Functions  
2. Rewrite the first two parts of Reasonable Basic Algebra. 
3. "Animate" mathematical exposition as in <http://freemathtexts.org/Practical/Sandbox1.php>. 

Not all the source is on the site but that is only a result of my laziness. I will upload it as soon as you want me to. Of course, I would also always be available for help with my LaTeX which, I should warn you, is a bit ad hoc, that is the kind that comes from "the end justifying the means".

> The only thing we would need is, of course, your permission,

That is the exact thing you do *not* need since the license is a GNU FDL But, if it makes you feel more comfortable, you hereby have it. :-)

> and eventually the relicensing of the material under CC-BY-SA.

As for this I don't know as I have no idea what a CC-BY-SA is. But I will look it up.

> I hope I have been explanatory and replied to your concerns!

I wast merely curious and you have been most helpful.

> Please let me/us 
> know your opinion about what we're doing. :-)

No matter what, I think that anything open source is worthwhile. But the little bit that I saw of the site seemed rather promising.

So, please let me know what you would want from me.

> Bye,
> -Riccardo

Best regards
--schremmer