PyCon Education Summit Update
Hi everyone, I just wanted to bring you uptodate on where we're at with the Education Summit at the upcoming PyCon. This will be a "by invitation only" event, so if you are interested (and I haven't contacted you already) or know of someone who would be really good for and interested in this event, please let me know about that interest off list. One of our reasons for going with invitations is that we want to be sure that we get a fair balance between the various education constituencies in space available, so I can't guarantee that absolutely everyone who wants to come will be invited.... But I'll try. Also we're looking for a keynote and panelists for the topics below, so if you know of anyone that you think would be good, please email me off list. Also if you have any other suggestions or questions, please let me know. There is also a google group for announcements about the summit, so if you're interested, you should join that group - https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!forum/pycon-education-summit First of all, the summit blurb is the following: "In 2013, for the first time ever, PyCon will be holding a Python Education Summit. This summit will be a gathering of teachers and educators from the many venues that support the teaching of programming in Python - schools, colleges and universities, community based workshops, online programs and government. These constituencies differ widely in resources and constraints, in methods, and in goals and aspirations, yet are all working to address the same issue - a lack of coding literacy - with the same belief - that teaching programming is needed and that Python is an excellent way to do that. The goal of the summit is to bring together leaders from those diverse constituencies to learn more about each other's efforts and gain useful insight from them, to form connections that might foster future collaboration, to identify common issues and begin discussing ways to attack them, and to create an enhanced sense of unity, purpose and community among teachers of Python, wherever they might be. It is also our hope that the summit will serve as catalyst for the rest of PyCon to encourage even more interaction - hallway discussions, open spaces, lightning talks, and sprints. Anyone attending this conference will gain a broader understanding of approaches and issues in teaching Python, will have the opportunity to contribute to their discussion, and will make contacts with other teachers of Python from across the community. A high school teacher might make contacts that allow her to enlist the support of a community based program while a community volunteer might gain useful guidance on curriculum design. In addition to active involvement in the process of teaching Python, the only requirement of attendees is engagement. The morning sessions will include panel discussions that encourage participation and the afternoon will consist of unconference style breakout sessions that demand it. So please come willing to learn, to teach, and to participate." Also, I've developed a basic statement of the topics we'll be covering: "As I see it there are the three core issues that most impact Python education today: engagement, curriculum and teaching. So I'm proposing that we frame the topics for the summit accordingly. Engagement - By "engagement" I mean getting people involved - attracting learners and letting them know why they should be eager to learn Python, recruiting teachers, sponsors and supporters with the skills needed to facilitate that learning, and then keeping everyone involved in the community. You could also call this "outreach" or even "marketing". Whatever you call it, we need to attract people who want to learn Python and the people and the people to help satisfy that need. Topics: How are the various education communities attracting people to their programs? What things can each learn from other programs, particularly in terms of increasing interest and involvement in the Python language and community? Curriculum - The need for uptodate, accessible and appropriate curriculum is felt in all aspects of Python education. Community programs need free and flexible lesson plans and teaching materials, schools are often reluctant to offer a program without an established curriculum, and teachers in all areas are often desperate for curricula that can be leveraged with minimal time and effort. Topics: What curriculum materials are currently freely available for teaching Python? What means can be used to increase their quality, coverage and availablity? Teaching - Again, teaching is a universal issue. Schools often have experienced teachers, but ones who don't know Python. Community programs can find Python experts, but they frequently have little teaching experience or knowledge. Topics: what best practices might community programs follow to help volunteer teachers do a better job? Are there any teaching guildes or hints available now? What strategies might help schools qualify their current experienced teachers to teach Python? How might we increase the number of qualified teachers generally? Underlying themes: The two underlying and unifying themes for the summit are communication and collaboration." Thanks! Vern -- Vern Ceder vceder@gmail.com, vceder@dogsinmotion.com The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 8:06 AM, Vern Ceder <vceder@gmail.com> wrote: << snip >>
Also, I've developed a basic statement of the topics we'll be covering:
"As I see it there are the three core issues that most impact Python education today: engagement, curriculum and teaching. So I'm proposing that we frame the topics for the summit accordingly.
Engagement - By "engagement" I mean getting people involved - attracting learners and letting them know why they should be eager to learn Python, recruiting teachers, sponsors and supporters with the skills needed to facilitate that learning, and then keeping everyone involved in the community. You could also call this "outreach" or even "marketing". Whatever you call it, we need to attract people who want to learn Python and the people and the people to help satisfy that need.
Wow Vern, you've come a long way with this, good to see it's evolving into an event with a definite shape, size still unknown. I hope we might have a similar summit at OSCON with all interactive languages (those with an REPL) invited (if already in the OSCON subset which I'm well aware is Open Source only e.g. no Mathematica). The way I articulate my own position these days is that to learn mathematics the way it's needed in STEM, you need at least one computer language.** That computer language may well be Python but I'm in no way expecting or wanting some convergence to a single choice, as I think diversity is the only healthy response to complexity and "one language fits all" is of course a distopian ideology that must be countered wherever it surfaces. That being said, Python seems to be in high demand at my school and that's without much direct advertising or recruitment. Our logo (a Red Leaf) was nowhere at OSCON (somewhat ironically). Kirby
The way I articulate my own position these days is that to learn mathematics the way it's needed in STEM, you need at least one computer language.**
Oops, forgot my little footnote: http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7872776 Kirby
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, This sounds exactly like what we're doing at PyconUK (http://pyconuk.org) in a few weeks time: we have an "education" track full of talks, tutorials, discussion and even an "educational resources sprint" taking place on the Sunday. Our aim is simple: we expect interesting things to happen when we bring teachers and developers together in an event that is open to all. We're having a Google hangout next Tuesday evening (UK time) at which we'll be discussing / planning what's going to happen. My co-organiser Alan 'teknoteacher' O'Donohoe gives details here: http://teachcomputing.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/pyconuk-whats-in-it-for-me/ - From my point of view it is vital that we *don't* work in isolation and that good education-related stuff happening at the various Pycons around the world is shared far and wide. We, as a Python community, are an international bunch and I don't see why sharing educational resources and experience shouldn't be an international effort either (speaking from experience as a teacher in the UK, too often matters educational are only placed in a local [national] context - an attitude that needs challenging IMHO). As always, comments, suggestions and critique most welcome. Nicholas. On 22/08/12 16:06, Vern Ceder wrote:
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to bring you uptodate on where we're at with the Education Summit at the upcoming PyCon. This will be a "by invitation only" event, so if you are interested (and I haven't contacted you already) or know of someone who would be really good for and interested in this event, please let me know about that interest off list. One of our reasons for going with invitations is that we want to be sure that we get a fair balance between the various education constituencies in space available, so I can't guarantee that absolutely everyone who wants to come will be invited.... But I'll try.
Also we're looking for a keynote and panelists for the topics below, so if you know of anyone that you think would be good, please email me off list. Also if you have any other suggestions or questions, please let me know.
There is also a google group for announcements about the summit, so if you're interested, you should join that group - https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!forum/pycon-education-summit
First of all, the summit blurb is the following:
"In 2013, for the first time ever, PyCon will be holding a Python Education Summit. This summit will be a gathering of teachers and educators from the many venues that support the teaching of programming in Python - schools, colleges and universities, community based workshops, online programs and government. These constituencies differ widely in resources and constraints, in methods, and in goals and aspirations, yet are all working to address the same issue - a lack of coding literacy - with the same belief - that teaching programming is needed and that Python is an excellent way to do that.
The goal of the summit is to bring together leaders from those diverse constituencies to learn more about each other's efforts and gain useful insight from them, to form connections that might foster future collaboration, to identify common issues and begin discussing ways to attack them, and to create an enhanced sense of unity, purpose and community among teachers of Python, wherever they might be. It is also our hope that the summit will serve as catalyst for the rest of PyCon to encourage even more interaction - hallway discussions, open spaces, lightning talks, and sprints.
Anyone attending this conference will gain a broader understanding of approaches and issues in teaching Python, will have the opportunity to contribute to their discussion, and will make contacts with other teachers of Python from across the community. A high school teacher might make contacts that allow her to enlist the support of a community based program while a community volunteer might gain useful guidance on curriculum design.
In addition to active involvement in the process of teaching Python, the only requirement of attendees is engagement. The morning sessions will include panel discussions that encourage participation and the afternoon will consist of unconference style breakout sessions that demand it. So please come willing to learn, to teach, and to participate."
Also, I've developed a basic statement of the topics we'll be covering:
"As I see it there are the three core issues that most impact Python education today: engagement, curriculum and teaching. So I'm proposing that we frame the topics for the summit accordingly.
Engagement - By "engagement" I mean getting people involved - attracting learners and letting them know why they should be eager to learn Python, recruiting teachers, sponsors and supporters with the skills needed to facilitate that learning, and then keeping everyone involved in the community. You could also call this "outreach" or even "marketing". Whatever you call it, we need to attract people who want to learn Python and the people and the people to help satisfy that need.
Topics: How are the various education communities attracting people to their programs? What things can each learn from other programs, particularly in terms of increasing interest and involvement in the Python language and community?
Curriculum - The need for uptodate, accessible and appropriate curriculum is felt in all aspects of Python education. Community programs need free and flexible lesson plans and teaching materials, schools are often reluctant to offer a program without an established curriculum, and teachers in all areas are often desperate for curricula that can be leveraged with minimal time and effort.
Topics: What curriculum materials are currently freely available for teaching Python? What means can be used to increase their quality, coverage and availablity?
Teaching - Again, teaching is a universal issue. Schools often have experienced teachers, but ones who don't know Python. Community programs can find Python experts, but they frequently have little teaching experience or knowledge.
Topics: what best practices might community programs follow to help volunteer teachers do a better job? Are there any teaching guildes or hints available now? What strategies might help schools qualify their current experienced teachers to teach Python? How might we increase the number of qualified teachers generally?
Underlying themes: The two underlying and unifying themes for the summit are communication and collaboration."
Thanks!
Vern
-- Vern Ceder vceder@gmail.com <mailto:vceder@gmail.com>, vceder@dogsinmotion.com <mailto:vceder@dogsinmotion.com> The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
_______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
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Nicholas, I'd agree that we seem to be pretty much on the same page, right down to the basic rationale. While the summit itself is by invitation (due to space constraints, mostly) the rest of the events will be open and we are planning/hoping to have pretty much the same spectrum. I completely agree that communication and collaboration should be international. But I'm wondering how we might achieve that? I'd certainly be interested gaining whatever insight comes from your eperience and I'd love to reciprocate - I'm just not sure how we might do that. I'm afraid I can't make the hangout due to work schedules. So I hope we can figure out a way to collaborate. I'd volunteer to come to PyCon UK to be a liaison , but sadly that's not practical for a number of reasons... ;) But if any of you could get to our con, you'd be welcome! Cheers, Vern On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 5:53 AM, Nicholas H.Tollervey <ntoll@ntoll.org>wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Hi,
This sounds exactly like what we're doing at PyconUK (http://pyconuk.org) in a few weeks time: we have an "education" track full of talks, tutorials, discussion and even an "educational resources sprint" taking place on the Sunday.
Our aim is simple: we expect interesting things to happen when we bring teachers and developers together in an event that is open to all.
We're having a Google hangout next Tuesday evening (UK time) at which we'll be discussing / planning what's going to happen. My co-organiser Alan 'teknoteacher' O'Donohoe gives details here:
http://teachcomputing.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/pyconuk-whats-in-it-for-me/
- From my point of view it is vital that we *don't* work in isolation and that good education-related stuff happening at the various Pycons around the world is shared far and wide.
We, as a Python community, are an international bunch and I don't see why sharing educational resources and experience shouldn't be an international effort either (speaking from experience as a teacher in the UK, too often matters educational are only placed in a local [national] context - an attitude that needs challenging IMHO).
As always, comments, suggestions and critique most welcome.
Nicholas.
On 22/08/12 16:06, Vern Ceder wrote:
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to bring you uptodate on where we're at with the Education Summit at the upcoming PyCon. This will be a "by invitation only" event, so if you are interested (and I haven't contacted you already) or know of someone who would be really good for and interested in this event, please let me know about that interest off list. One of our reasons for going with invitations is that we want to be sure that we get a fair balance between the various education constituencies in space available, so I can't guarantee that absolutely everyone who wants to come will be invited.... But I'll try.
Also we're looking for a keynote and panelists for the topics below, so if you know of anyone that you think would be good, please email me off list. Also if you have any other suggestions or questions, please let me know.
There is also a google group for announcements about the summit, so if you're interested, you should join that group -
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!forum/pycon-education-summit
First of all, the summit blurb is the following:
"In 2013, for the first time ever, PyCon will be holding a Python Education Summit. This summit will be a gathering of teachers and educators from the many venues that support the teaching of programming in Python - schools, colleges and universities, community based workshops, online programs and government. These constituencies differ widely in resources and constraints, in methods, and in goals and aspirations, yet are all working to address the same issue - a lack of coding literacy - with the same belief - that teaching programming is needed and that Python is an excellent way to do that.
The goal of the summit is to bring together leaders from those diverse constituencies to learn more about each other's efforts and gain useful insight from them, to form connections that might foster future collaboration, to identify common issues and begin discussing ways to attack them, and to create an enhanced sense of unity, purpose and community among teachers of Python, wherever they might be. It is also our hope that the summit will serve as catalyst for the rest of PyCon to encourage even more interaction - hallway discussions, open spaces, lightning talks, and sprints.
Anyone attending this conference will gain a broader understanding of approaches and issues in teaching Python, will have the opportunity to contribute to their discussion, and will make contacts with other teachers of Python from across the community. A high school teacher might make contacts that allow her to enlist the support of a community based program while a community volunteer might gain useful guidance on curriculum design.
In addition to active involvement in the process of teaching Python, the only requirement of attendees is engagement. The morning sessions will include panel discussions that encourage participation and the afternoon will consist of unconference style breakout sessions that demand it. So please come willing to learn, to teach, and to participate."
Also, I've developed a basic statement of the topics we'll be covering:
"As I see it there are the three core issues that most impact Python education today: engagement, curriculum and teaching. So I'm proposing that we frame the topics for the summit accordingly.
Engagement - By "engagement" I mean getting people involved - attracting learners and letting them know why they should be eager to learn Python, recruiting teachers, sponsors and supporters with the skills needed to facilitate that learning, and then keeping everyone involved in the community. You could also call this "outreach" or even "marketing". Whatever you call it, we need to attract people who want to learn Python and the people and the people to help satisfy that need.
Topics: How are the various education communities attracting people to their programs? What things can each learn from other programs, particularly in terms of increasing interest and involvement in the Python language and community?
Curriculum - The need for uptodate, accessible and appropriate curriculum is felt in all aspects of Python education. Community programs need free and flexible lesson plans and teaching materials, schools are often reluctant to offer a program without an established curriculum, and teachers in all areas are often desperate for curricula that can be leveraged with minimal time and effort.
Topics: What curriculum materials are currently freely available for teaching Python? What means can be used to increase their quality, coverage and availablity?
Teaching - Again, teaching is a universal issue. Schools often have experienced teachers, but ones who don't know Python. Community programs can find Python experts, but they frequently have little teaching experience or knowledge.
Topics: what best practices might community programs follow to help volunteer teachers do a better job? Are there any teaching guildes or hints available now? What strategies might help schools qualify their current experienced teachers to teach Python? How might we increase the number of qualified teachers generally?
Underlying themes: The two underlying and unifying themes for the summit are communication and collaboration."
Thanks!
Vern
-- Vern Ceder vceder@gmail.com <mailto:vceder@gmail.com>, vceder@dogsinmotion.com <mailto:vceder@dogsinmotion.com> The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
_______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
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-- Vern Ceder vceder@gmail.com, vceder@dogsinmotion.com The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Folks, If you're interested, there's a video of yesterday evening's Google "hangout" meeting where I get to talk to a bunch of teachers (and even a couple of students) about what we're up to at this year's PyconUK in a few week's time. Many thanks to Alan 'teknoteacher' O'Donohoe for organising and hosting it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAqQklpZXGc I've been thinking about the international collaboration question and want to share some of these ideas if only to have them shot down and/or acted upon / developed: * I hope to organise a "show and tell" session at the end of the education sprint on Sunday 30th September at approximately midday UK time (see http://pyconuk.net/Schedule/). Assuming the time-zone dissonance isn't a problem, you would all be welcome to join us and take part in the discussions via a Google hangout or Skype (assuming conference wifi hasn't melted by then). If you're interested drop me a line. ;-) * Just naming an intention and pointing to it is often enough. There's a lot of interest from enthusiastic "can do" teachers and developers here in the UK and I guess the same is the case in the US and elsewhere. Publicly saying that we intend to co-operate and will do so via such-and-such mechanisms (e.g. wiki, IRC chan, Google group, hangouts, PyEdu conference etc... TBD) is an important first step that such colleagues can contribute to. * An audit of Pythonic educational efforts is crucial. Just getting people in touch with others doing similar things is an important service. By asking who is doing what and seeing what emerges is another relatively simple step we can all make. A case in point, yesterday evening on the Google hangout I first met Adam, a teacher who helps to organise a "Python Summer School" for teachers in the UK that I had *no idea existed*! * Assuming we try any of the above (and more) I think we should approach the PSF for support (grants and perhaps even hosting on the python.org "official" domain). Of course, part of the point of this email is an exercise in information gathering on my part in the hope that people come out of the woodwork and say, "we already do that... take a look at x, y and z" ;-) As always, comments, suggestions and critique are most welcome! Best wishes, Nicholas. On 30/08/12 17:48, Vern Ceder wrote:
Nicholas,
I'd agree that we seem to be pretty much on the same page, right down to the basic rationale. While the summit itself is by invitation (due to space constraints, mostly) the rest of the events will be open and we are planning/hoping to have pretty much the same spectrum.
I completely agree that communication and collaboration should be international. But I'm wondering how we might achieve that? I'd certainly be interested gaining whatever insight comes from your eperience and I'd love to reciprocate - I'm just not sure how we might do that. I'm afraid I can't make the hangout due to work schedules.
So I hope we can figure out a way to collaborate.
I'd volunteer to come to PyCon UK to be a liaison , but sadly that's not practical for a number of reasons... ;) But if any of you could get to our con, you'd be welcome!
Cheers, Vern
On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 5:53 AM, Nicholas H.Tollervey <ntoll@ntoll.org <mailto:ntoll@ntoll.org>> wrote:
Hi,
This sounds exactly like what we're doing at PyconUK (http://pyconuk.org) in a few weeks time: we have an "education" track full of talks, tutorials, discussion and even an "educational resources sprint" taking place on the Sunday.
Our aim is simple: we expect interesting things to happen when we bring teachers and developers together in an event that is open to all.
We're having a Google hangout next Tuesday evening (UK time) at which we'll be discussing / planning what's going to happen. My co-organiser Alan 'teknoteacher' O'Donohoe gives details here:
http://teachcomputing.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/pyconuk-whats-in-it-for-me/
- From my point of view it is vital that we *don't* work in isolation and that good education-related stuff happening at the various Pycons around the world is shared far and wide.
We, as a Python community, are an international bunch and I don't see why sharing educational resources and experience shouldn't be an international effort either (speaking from experience as a teacher in the UK, too often matters educational are only placed in a local [national] context - an attitude that needs challenging IMHO).
As always, comments, suggestions and critique most welcome.
Nicholas.
On 22/08/12 16:06, Vern Ceder wrote:
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to bring you uptodate on where we're at with the Education Summit at the upcoming PyCon. This will be a "by invitation only" event, so if you are interested (and I haven't contacted you already) or know of someone who would be really good for and interested in this event, please let me know about that interest off list. One of our reasons for going with invitations is that we want to be sure that we get a fair balance between the various education constituencies in space available, so I can't guarantee that absolutely everyone who wants to come will be invited.... But I'll try.
Also we're looking for a keynote and panelists for the topics below, so if you know of anyone that you think would be good, please email me off list. Also if you have any other suggestions or questions, please let me know.
There is also a google group for announcements about the summit, so if you're interested, you should join that group -
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!forum/pycon-education-summit
First of all, the summit blurb is the following:
"In 2013, for the first time ever, PyCon will be holding a Python Education Summit. This summit will be a gathering of teachers and educators from the many venues that support the teaching of programming in Python - schools, colleges and universities, community based workshops, online programs and government. These constituencies differ widely in resources and constraints, in methods, and in goals and aspirations, yet are all working to address the same issue - a lack of coding literacy - with the same belief - that teaching programming is needed and that Python is an excellent way to do that.
The goal of the summit is to bring together leaders from those diverse constituencies to learn more about each other's efforts and gain useful insight from them, to form connections that might foster future collaboration, to identify common issues and begin discussing ways to attack them, and to create an enhanced sense of unity, purpose and community among teachers of Python, wherever they might be. It is also our hope that the summit will serve as catalyst for the rest of PyCon to encourage even more interaction - hallway discussions, open spaces, lightning talks, and sprints.
Anyone attending this conference will gain a broader understanding of approaches and issues in teaching Python, will have the opportunity to contribute to their discussion, and will make contacts with other teachers of Python from across the community. A high school teacher might make contacts that allow her to enlist the support of a community based program while a community volunteer might gain useful guidance on curriculum design.
In addition to active involvement in the process of teaching Python, the only requirement of attendees is engagement. The morning sessions will include panel discussions that encourage participation and the afternoon will consist of unconference style breakout sessions that demand it. So please come willing to learn, to teach, and to participate."
Also, I've developed a basic statement of the topics we'll be covering:
"As I see it there are the three core issues that most impact Python education today: engagement, curriculum and teaching. So I'm proposing that we frame the topics for the summit accordingly.
Engagement - By "engagement" I mean getting people involved - attracting learners and letting them know why they should be eager to learn Python, recruiting teachers, sponsors and supporters with the skills needed to facilitate that learning, and then keeping everyone involved in the community. You could also call this "outreach" or even "marketing". Whatever you call it, we need to attract people who want to learn Python and the people and the people to help satisfy that need.
Topics: How are the various education communities attracting people to their programs? What things can each learn from other programs, particularly in terms of increasing interest and involvement in the Python language and community?
Curriculum - The need for uptodate, accessible and appropriate curriculum is felt in all aspects of Python education. Community programs need free and flexible lesson plans and teaching materials, schools are often reluctant to offer a program without an established curriculum, and teachers in all areas are often desperate for curricula that can be leveraged with minimal time and effort.
Topics: What curriculum materials are currently freely available for teaching Python? What means can be used to increase their quality, coverage and availablity?
Teaching - Again, teaching is a universal issue. Schools often have experienced teachers, but ones who don't know Python. Community programs can find Python experts, but they frequently have little teaching experience or knowledge.
Topics: what best practices might community programs follow to help volunteer teachers do a better job? Are there any teaching guildes or hints available now? What strategies might help schools qualify their current experienced teachers to teach Python? How might we increase the number of qualified teachers generally?
Underlying themes: The two underlying and unifying themes for the summit are communication and collaboration."
Thanks!
Vern
-- Vern Ceder vceder@gmail.com <mailto:vceder@gmail.com> <mailto:vceder@gmail.com <mailto:vceder@gmail.com>>, vceder@dogsinmotion.com <mailto:vceder@dogsinmotion.com> <mailto:vceder@dogsinmotion.com <mailto:vceder@dogsinmotion.com>> The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
_______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org <mailto:Edu-sig@python.org> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
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-- Vern Ceder vceder@gmail.com <mailto:vceder@gmail.com>, vceder@dogsinmotion.com <mailto:vceder@dogsinmotion.com> The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
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On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 11:52 AM, Nicholas H.Tollervey <ntoll@ntoll.org> wrote:
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Hi Folks,
If you're interested, there's a video of yesterday evening's Google "hangout" meeting where I get to talk to a bunch of teachers (and even a couple of students) about what we're up to at this year's PyconUK in a few week's time. Many thanks to Alan 'teknoteacher' O'Donohoe for organising and hosting it:
Quite an interesting video I'd say. I'm about half way through. Google Hangout is new in 2012. Growing up, we envisioned these talking head meetings (all the science fiction movies have them) but now that we really do, it's interesting to see the nuances. There's a sense of a movie director and editor, even through it's just software that detects who is making the most noise. That doesn't always work, so you'll hear one speaker will you're looking at another. That gives the sense of a director making editing choices, making POV shots and so on. It's also interesting to have all these talking heads lined up but not really looking into the camera, as they're looking at their own screens -- a different aesthetic from television, which wants to get the anchor person looking straight at the audience. To have the one guy ironing -- that's fantastic. Nice touch. Good ethnography, right at the interface between a teaching / classroom youth-focused group, and software developers, with basic namespace exchange going on, i.e. meanings of basic terms. What's a "Dojo"? What's a "sprint". When the word "fork" is casually used, as in "we forked the dojo pattern" (paraphrase) I wonder how many non-geeks miss the meaning i.e. "to fork" is said without 2nd thought by those who use version control, whereas in many walks of life it's like "what's version control?". Bravo in any case. Good video. Google Hangout is a great resource, I'm persuaded. Kirby
participants (3)
-
kirby urner -
Nicholas H.Tollervey -
Vern Ceder