[Edu-sig] PyCon Education Summit Update
Nicholas H.Tollervey
ntoll at ntoll.org
Wed Sep 5 17:52:29 CEST 2012
-----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 at ntoll.org <mailto:ntoll at 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 at gmail.com <mailto:vceder at gmail.com>
> <mailto:vceder at gmail.com <mailto:vceder at gmail.com>>,
>> vceder at dogsinmotion.com <mailto:vceder at dogsinmotion.com>
> <mailto:vceder at dogsinmotion.com <mailto:vceder at dogsinmotion.com>>
> The Quick
>> Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
>
>
>
>
>> _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing
>> list Edu-sig at python.org <mailto:Edu-sig at python.org>
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>
>
> _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing
> list Edu-sig at python.org <mailto:Edu-sig at python.org>
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>
>
>
>
> -- Vern Ceder vceder at gmail.com <mailto:vceder at gmail.com>,
> vceder at dogsinmotion.com <mailto:vceder at dogsinmotion.com> The Quick
> Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
>
>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://www.enigmail.net/
iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJQR3U9AAoJEP0qBPaYQbb6UkYIAJdJP/3hnOwH76WaTr8S+F4X
WG67JeME2bJZuoo5tIB7m88JlzEnFHomNRoakIZl9/hSWx5F/YXo1kO4WGhcS4hV
NC+u3h79hUXHQwiA/wpYxe0Bq/pRrO9VydfqE5f0tnfeUfblw0hRiD4s1qC59hSq
3QIXKW4v7R1oihHeSmgqH2qaFwpDC3kFaug7NLKx2mjfwEcIvrODNuI69wFmLtkT
TEs/MQicUiX6foX3X+xSRq6kjk2/yz9ksrvXMCaAvC7SR9kqBOSqT+E7lapai93l
qPe6yRtOTFQNBhsfGAmcLxWawH1086NcnhEreEunFyEq3+IB/Dnpd5U2lPe8wDM=
=bidA
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
More information about the Edu-sig
mailing list