[Texas] opinions of the Teach-In approach

[Jason Galyon]

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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As I mentioned on IRC, I am a big fan of this approach.

I do wonder if it is possible to decrease the ratio of teachers to
students...

Jason