[python-advocacy] [Texas] [dfwPython] brainstorming new ways to teach Python 101

[Arthur Aguirre]

I pulled the latest survey results - there are 41 confirmed attendees 28 of
which are advanced/intermediate pythoneers - that is then 2:1 ratio.  There
are 35 folks who are a DK to show but the ratio is the same.

Arthur

On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 9:50 PM, Kevin Horn <kevin.horn at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 10:33 PM, Brad Allen <bradallen137 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> A couple of days ago we learned that our PyTexas 2010 volunteer teach
>> Python 101 had to drop out. Since the event is on Aug 28, we don't
>> have much time to find an instructor, or for that instructor to
>> prepare. We know students and other beginners are coming, so how can
>> we avert disaster?
>>
>> Maybe it's time to come up with a different approach. Having an
>> instructor speak in front of a class has never sensationally
>> effective, anyway. Students often have trouble paying attention and
>> retaining lecture material, even when starting class with the best of
>> intentions. So why not risk trying something different?
>>
>> I'd like to call for some new ideas, and to offer one for
>> consideration. Here goes:
>>
>> Instead of burdening one volunteer to be the single teacher, let's
>> schedule one or two hours at the beginning of the day for *all
>> attendees* to be involved in the Python introduction for beginners.
>> The entire lot of experienced PyTexas attendees could act as tutors
>> simultaneously in an ad-hoc arrangement. Sound crazy, a recipe for
>> chaos? Maybe...but if we could figure out the right structure to make
>> it effective, everyone would be challenged and have fun.
>>
>> According to our survey, over half of the respondents are experienced
>> Python developers, most of whom I think are capable of teaching, if
>> asked to explain a particular topic or faced with a chance to answer
>> specific student questions.  Those who can't be bothered to volunteer
>> can just show up late, but I would expect most of the attendees to
>> step up to the challenge.
>>
>> One idea for making this work would be to develop a strategy for
>> pairing up the students with the teachers who can explain what the
>> student needs to know. Here's how it might go:
>>
>> 0. We define a loose curricula in advance, listing all the core
>> fundamentals a student needs to understand. We can reference the
>> wealth of existing tutorials to build this curriculum.
>> 1. This curriculum could be divided up into variously colored paper
>> tickets, each representing important learning milestones (red tickets
>> for installation basics, green tickets for how to run scripts, white
>> tickets for language fundamentals, blue tickets for collections,
>> etc.).
>> 2. At the beginning of class, each student would pick up a ticket of
>> each color for the part they needed to learn.
>> 3. During class, students raise their hands waving a colored ticket in
>> the air to attract a tutor to come by and help them learn that
>> specific curriculum item.
>> 4. When a student is satisfied they understand that item well enough,
>> the ticket is given to the tutor to keep, like a trophy.
>> 5. At the end of class, success is gauged by how many tickets the
>> students still have. If any are left over, maybe time later in the day
>> can be found to resolve the remaining tickets.
>>
>> This plan assumes that all the students bring a laptop, but I am not
>> sure that is going to be possible. We might have to ask tutors to use
>> their own laptops for teaching students who don't have one.
>>
>
> I think a lot will depend on what the ratio of beginners to experienced
> pythoneers is.
>
> Did the survey tell us that?
>
> Kevin Horn
>
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