At UCSF, we teach full 2 day workshops and also teach the sessions individually as stand-alone workshops throughout the quarter. The workshop material is the same, but the big difference is that the stand-alone workshops may be taught by a single instructor (without helpers). While this arrangement isn't ideal, in my experience it can work for Python and Unix, but breaks down for Git and Github.
I find that the Git and Github sections of a workshop generate a lot of technical questions and errors, notably more than the other sections. It's really easy to miss a git command or enter git commands out of order, get behind or ahead of remote in the commit log in the local repository, end up with unexpected "out of sync" issues, get stuck in vi if you haven't specified how to manage commit messages, and so forth. This is a big part of why it's important to me to cover git and GitHub in the 2-day workshops. It's not easy to get a group of people together who can help everyone work through the problems that come up, so when we have that opportunity, I definitely want to cover git and GitHub. I also think it's one of those technologies that is unusually helpful to learn in a workshop setting, where there are people around who can help you work through technical issues. -Geoff ________________________________ From: Karen Cranston <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2019 9:40 AM To: discuss <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [discuss] Insight on Data Carpentry and Git? As I remember it (and other early DC-ers should chime in here), we didn't choose not to teach git because git is hard, but rather prioritized the skills we thought were necessary for better data management, and version control wasn't close enough to the top to warrant an episode in a two-day workshop. Note also that the early DC curriculum included bash and bash scripting (see the blog post [1] and first course website [2]), which we later removed in favour of episodes on spreadsheets and open refine [3]. So, I can't corroborate the statement that DC doesn't teach git and GitHub because they are hard. Cheers, Karen [1] https://software-carpentry.org/blog/2014/05/our-first-data-carpentry-workshop.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__software-2Dcarpentry.org_blog_2014_05_our-2Dfirst-2Ddata-2Dcarpentry-2Dworkshop.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=Q_pBdLHhhUp0OqzfxNl3r-LdrHtmJ6fOs6omQGdSysA&e=> [2] http://nescent.github.io/2014-05-08-datacarpentry/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__nescent.github.io_2014-2D05-2D08-2Ddatacarpentry_&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=YVud9d-_MdpvnxrsrNm72ylS7gPxi-8JM-C4KitiSnE&e=> [3] https://datacarpentry.org/lessons/#ecology-workshop<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__datacarpentry.org_lessons_-23ecology-2Dworkshop&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=Ibr3et35uLr1LfTD78Zl7mdQ4uHM4D3Cqx1EtXzVEok&e=> On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 12:22 PM Brooks Kieffer, Elizabeth Jamene <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hi everyone, I’m reading the Baker et al article about the initial instance of Library Carpentry (Baker, J., et al, (2016). Library Carpentry: Software skills training for library professionals. LIBER Quarterly, 26(3), 141–162. https://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10176<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__doi.org_10.18352_lq.10176&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=M-OVmpRclhMp9jvpClKOdQxjzqQtL0Rlv_JNbZWlwbs&e=>). In the Next Steps section, the authors mention learners’ struggles with Git during this workshop, and note that other curricula exclude Git because of its difficulty. Specifically: “…this is a finding of comparable training programmes and is a reason for Data Carpentry not teaching Git and GitHub” (p. 158). There isn’t a citation for the information about why Data Carpentry doesn’t teach Git and GitHub, and the Teal et al article describing Data Carpentry doesn’t mention Git (Teal, T. K., et al, (2015). Data Carpentry: Workshops to Increase Data Literacy for Researchers. International Journal of Digital Curation, 10, 135–143. https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v10i1.351<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__doi.org_10.2218_ijdc.v10i1.351&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=rI2XxiqydJTuCYXjEEMWGXREvKUgBUHmsR078uipRuI&e=>). I would appreciate any insight and/or links to discussions specifically about this decision to exclude Git from Data Carpentry. I’m not interested in debating the decision. Rather, I’m working on a paper on teaching Git; documentation of this discussion would be helpful supporting information for the paper’s opening contention that Git is difficult to both teach and learn (something that’s not news to this group!). Thanks very much in advance, Jamene Jamene Brooks-Kieffer Data Services Librarian University of Kansas Libraries 785-864-5238 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> she/her/hers -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> kcranston.github.io<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__kcranston.github.io&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=c8NchB3NPXpDMruRD2pqmw4e2yCkgIXeFuy63YYwnIA&e=> @kcranstn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Carpentries<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__carpentries.topicbox.com_latest&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=Bvv6wNEGsaq1XKfLzXKSum77zW7QgpKzpP2G-pu1hzk&e=> / discuss / see discussions<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__carpentries.topicbox.com_groups_discuss&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=-7CZef2VH0osdb4KSzYpVlm2YAY0ara2I-DpQVHs1lA&e=> + participants<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__carpentries.topicbox.com_groups_discuss_members&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=0TvSRY3uRTuwcGVeBNgtjcwwnH4D8Aq48r3ax8zRYk0&e=> + delivery options<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__carpentries.topicbox.com_groups_discuss_subscription&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=2AKAzuXzDEs2aa8vD1mLv6XqiQ8Rjj2BNTTs0QtRgHk&e=> Permalink<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__carpentries.topicbox.com_groups_discuss_T914cb72e74e12319-2DM388c8792d2085f1e44cb664b&d=DwMFaQ&c=iORugZls2LlYyCAZRB3XLg&r=Q-6hoF1vd97RqH-Igobh8H7PQ8JKQKkUdCjM9VQHkCI&m=U7dqQgGQTiCkw-efd2lxRAiN3x0DSBOVNkTxGgFmpJ4&s=5zojhWvjFcDvGODNWXXY6O-doqKxZRh-kGgmG4ZRy-A&e=> ------------------------------------------ The Carpentries: discuss Permalink: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/T914cb72e74e12319-M351267a2d0662ab1c5f32baa Delivery options: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/subscription
