Wikipedia editor
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My name is Scott Alberts, and I teach statistics and interdisciplinary studies at Truman State University. My research focuses on quantitative methods for measuring group behavior and decision-making, and the general process of data collection as a part of real-world projects. After serving as a college administrator for a while, I have (mostly) returned to the classroom, and I've been learning Data Science to keep relevant. My current research looks at how students learn through work as part of a statistical consulting team, and how a Liberal Arts-driven Statistics major might be successful in producing modern statisticians.
Older research projects have included statistical applications of voting theory and a [study] of mathematics anxiety, a study of cheating on campus and a study of attitudes regarding experiences watching pornography in groups. [1]
I am also the Music Coordinator and Choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church (Kirksville, Missouri)
I like UserBoxes, Proposed deletions, and Deletion Debates.
You can find my non-wiki page here.
Dr. Alberts' Courses that used Wikipedia
[edit]For a while, I was using Wikipedia as a way for students to learn about crticial thinking. There was even a couple of mention in articles and books, back in the day.
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About once per year, I teach an interdisciplinary studies class for Junior-level students. The goal of the class is for students to gain an understanding of and appreciation for the use of various disciplines on a variety of subjects. These classes use Wikipedia in a very similar way to my fall classes, but to a lesser extent. User:GumbyProf/Spring08 has the work for the Spring 2008 semester.
I am teaching "Why You're Wrong." The course catalog description of this class is, "This course focuses on the way attitudes, opinions and policies change in the face of collected data, and how this can influence public policy. We will examine several specific examples where bad science drove public policy, and where good science change the world. We will explore the nature of truth and knowledge from both a philosophical and applied point of view, as well as the history of statistics, statistical inference, and the use of statistics in decision making."[5]
From 2007 through Spring 2011 or so, these classes learned how to do edits on Wikipedia. They improved on the Blink page, a book by Malcolm Gladwell, the Mindset page, a book by Carol Dweck, and the Truman State University page. They either did or not. I haven't done this in a while, but I might be ready to come back to the idea.
From Fall 2006 through 2008, I used Wikipedia as part of my class on interdisciplinarity. It's either a really cool idea, or not. We'll share what we find at the page for School Projects. You can see what they did on their Lab 2 Assignment.
I tried to do a better job the following fall. I either did or not. Their stuff has all been moved to a separate page IDS175
While in the classes, students added their name to the table below, following the template in the table.
| its | This user understands the difference between its (of it) and it's (it is or it has). |
their
there
they're | This user thinks that there are too many people who don’t know that they're worse than their own children at spelling! |
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you're | This user thinks that if your grammar is incorrect, then you're in need of help. |
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A and B | This user prefers to use the serial comma only when its omission can be confusing. |
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