Talk:Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War

Thucydides in school

I have just heard that in Greek schools Thucydides is read more often and probably in March we could get some more attention. Now we just need to contact somehow the pupils from Greece :-) ----Erkan Yilmaz (Wikiversity:Chat, wiki blog) 20:18, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Ideas for making the Thucydides reading group a bit better

moved from the talk page to here, was about this chat session

Hi Erkan,

You seemed to dislike the lack of debate on topic. I have figured out a few solutions for this problem. You wanted to have an agenda, which will be good, but i don't think it will be enough. It must be taken into consideration that those who join the conversation don't always read the text and thereby will either say nothing, or start talking off topic.

Possible solutions:

• Trying to stimulate that everybody reads the text.
  • This can be done by asking everybody to specificly figure a point or two about the text, he or she wants to talk about.
  • Another way could be that we have a chairman for every meeting, who will keep track of the agenda and will decide to move to the next point. The chairman will begin and end the meeting. If everybody is chairman in rotating fashion, than a sense of responsibility could emerge to discuss on topic.
• Suppose it doesn't work.
  • We could have two kinds of meetings, one level one meeting, for all those interested and open for everybody and a level two meeting which will be with an inner crowd of those who will always read the text.--Daanschr 17:33, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Allthough, perhaps only an agenda would be good enough. We have lots of time, so no need to rush. I really enjoyed myself today, so why a need for change.:-)--Daanschr 18:21, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

My fear was, that when we switch the topics too much/fast, the new "members" would lose the interest or keep reading the new info, instead engaging in talking with each other.

I like the idea of a rotating chairman. We should summarize from time to time during the chat what we discussed, so new people know where we are and we - ourselves - come back to the topic again.

meetings: I think atm to split our forces too much is not so good, so one meeting is enough. But e.g. for the de.WP-member we should make a separate meeting since he is not so good in the ENG language. With more members we could think of our options again.

I definitely liked this and the last chat. I think making the chat public had a positive effect on the group in whole. Also interested persons can see how we do the sessions and that everybody can participate (even with not reading previous texts).

Also: asking more around in IRC. Most of the people dropped by on a short invitation and I think at least two of them will stay for a longer period of time. So, wherever possible drop a msg about our group :-) ----Erkan Yilmaz (Wikiversity:Chat, wiki blog) 19:14, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

I will spread the message when i get the chance. Though, i am less online than you, i think.

I think an agenda would help at first. We can see what happens next.--Daanschr 19:23, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

next meeting ?

Hi, another interested person would like to join us on 2nd March - should we postpone from 1st to 2nd March at 12 o'clock UTC+2 ? For me this would be fine. ----Erkan Yilmaz Wikiversity:Chat 20:33, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

I will walk to practise for a walking holiday in Scotland. Perhaps we can do it somewhere in the evening next week?

Do you mean 12 o'clock UTC +1? Last times all participants came from UTC +1, so i thought we could best use that time zone. But, if there are multiple time zones involved, than we can better meet at UTC 0.--Daanschr 09:25, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I think it would be important to stimulate that participants read the text, otherwise they might not join the discussion and leave soon. Another solution: Not discussing the text directly, but themes from the text, so people will be able to join more easily without having to read the text. Or, we can keep on doing it as we are doing now and wait for participants who want to join and read the text as well.--Daanschr 09:28, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps we can chat about the time. We are both online at the moment.--Daanschr 09:30, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

short result from chat:

• either during week in the evening
• or Saturday evening

The other participants will be contacted to see when they can join themselves. ----Erkan Yilmaz Wikiversity:Chat 09:55, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Got feedback from 2 people: Saturday evening (1st March) is fine, also for me.

Is 18:30 UTC ok then ?

@Daan: I think having themes for the text is pretty good - and if the core team reads also the text, we could give the non-readers some more additional info and hopefully everybody stays in the boat. ----Erkan Yilmaz Wikiversity:Chat 12:31, 24 February 2008 (UTC)----Erkan Yilmaz Wikiversity:Chat 12:31, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I am in as well for march 1st.--Daanschr 15:49, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

short summary put on German Wikiversity

as discussed today in the chat: I put my notes while reading into the German WV: de:Benutzer:Erkan Yilmaz/Notizen zum Peloponnesischen Krieg, ----Erkan Yilmaz Wikiversity:Chat 20:39, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

available now at the project: de:Kurs:Der Peloponnesische Krieg/Notizen, ----Erkan Yilmaz Wikiversity:Chat 17:21, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

experimenting with an audio session ?

Hello, we talked about doing audio sessions (here): Would somebody take part in a test drive ? see actual discussion in colloquium - also see Wiki Campus Radio.

Would that decrease the attractiveness for outsiders ? Are they willing to listen to audio ? I sit good for us, when searching later on something ? What about later on with media and semantic web ? We could also experiment it like, that e.g. two persons use audio + type and read/comment what the others write ? Is this too much effort ? ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 22:41, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't have sound on my computer. And i don't earn much money, so a new computer will take some time. Perhaps you can test it with Pietro?--Daanschr 14:16, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

ok, I will ask in the next chat session, ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 14:23, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Postpone

Hllo all it is a pitty this talk has been postponed, I was looking forward to it. But when we resume I will be using the Penguin classics as a reference as reading on the net gives me saw eyes. Happy hunting till then. Enlil Ninlil 00:33, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Sorry Enlil, that we cancelled the meeting. Me and Erkan often were the only two discussing. Now, Erkan wanted a long break, so i agreed to stop as well. What i wanted with this reading group was to establish a large group of people discussing on several topics. Somehow, we stayed on two people discussing Thucydides.

Maybe me and Erkan discussed too little amounts of text per time. For the next it would be better to read a long amount of text and discuss it when the reading is done.

I don't know why Erkan wanted to quit exactly. For me, the lack of support for my ideas on Wikiversity is a major reason to agree with Erkan. My main problem with Wikiversity is the lack of commitment to make Wikiversity a success. There need to be a lot of organization to make courses work. Some management is needed. What we see here often is that some people have an enthusiastic idea and work on their own, or that a small group has an enthusiastic idea and works as a small group for a short while.

Erkan has tried his best to bring this course into attention, more than i did. But, i think we were with to small a group of people, which limits possibilities.

I like to regard Wikiversity as a television company, trying to make programmes, which differ widely from eachother, but all build upon a certain framework, infrastrucutre, organization. What we do here on Wikiversity is like making a television programme, without script writers, without camermen, without an editorial staff. What i learned here on Wikiversity and on internet in general is how difficult it is to create something in a group effort. I guess people don't realize how much effort is done in everything that is being consumed.--Daanschr 09:20, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes I understand about the support, generally you don't get any here. I hope Erkan can come back as I would be an active participant as I enjoyed the work Ancient Authors greatly. As you can see from my contributions I have done the Palaeontology topic all by myself, I wish there was other help as I would be greatly improved. Anyway good luck with your endeavour and I still am interested in a discussion. Enlil Ninlil 07:33, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

You could leave a message to the talk page of Erkan on when we can continue.--Daanschr 16:28, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

No need, I am reading here too, just need a little break, ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 16:38, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Okay, ;-).Daanschr 16:50, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

What is this?

Is this a class, a book group, is it active? I want to be a volunteer, but I don't know how to help --Crozztan (discuss • contribs) 14:59, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

@Crozztan: It's something created 15 years ago when Wikiversity was quite new and they weren't sure what direction it would take. It's not particularly active, but if you see ways to improve it, be bold. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 02:38, 2 November 2022 (UTC)