[Texas] opinions of the Teach-In approach

[Chris Austin]

I thought that the Koans was pretty effective with the beginners at the
meeting last weekend.  I don't know if an hour or even two would be
enough to cover it all especially if 'off track' questions come up or if
there is a person or two that really want to delve into things.

I am a little concerned about having a 'traffic jam' since most likely
the learners will not be coming in all at once and most likely in small
groups.  Any ideas on how long we should spend with these folks?

On Wed, 2010-08-18 at 11:13 -0500, Brad Allen wrote:
> I haven't gotten much feedback on the Python Teach-In concept. A few
> experienced Pythonistas I spoke with seemed excited about and think it
> could work, but Ralph mentioned that he thought I was overoptimistic
> in thinking we could get enough tutor volunteers for one-on-one
> tutorials with beginners.
> 
> However, most of our local Python community has not spoken up about
> it. All along in organizing PyTexas, I've been advertising that we
> will teach beginners at PyTexas, acting on faith that our community
> could rise to that challenge.  However, most of our community members
> have proven too busy to prepare for that in the traditional Python 101
> style, so I wanted to devise an approach that would minimize the
> required preparation time, based on the assumption that most of our
> skilled Python community members would be generous enough to donate
> two hours of their time at PyTexas helping newbies get started.
> 
> Is that too presumptous on my part? I'd like to hear some community
> feedback. Please feel free to respond to this thread with your
> opinions, or email me directly.
> 
> Please bear in mind that I don't expect every last attendee to
> participate in the Teach-In. Many will be driving to Waco in the
> morning, and the drive from Houston takes several hours. I wanted the
> main part of the conference to start late in the morning (11am
> keynote) to give everyone time to arrive.
> 
> P.S. We have currently have six beginners registered for the Teach-In,
> and four tutor volunteers. When university students find out about
> PyTexas next week, via their professors and flyers around the
> campuses, I expect those beginner numbers to rise.
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