Hi all, OK - those are some good points surrounding accessibility of instructor training, and not putting too many hurdles and requirements in the way. A few tasks and roles have come out of this that make some sense to pursue if people are interested, that don't conflict with anyone's concerns:
- Clear guidance for instructors in the form of a short, useful Instructor Handbook, that guides the process of setting up & preparing for a workshop. This should be short, practical, and complete - feel free to continue brainstorming at https://etherpad.mozilla.org/newInstructorWelcomePackage, and perhaps we can write up a first cut based on your ideas there in the new year. - A more structured mentorship model. Greg has hopes to pursue this in concert with the Steering Committee in the new year. In the meantime, more community brainstorming is always better: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/SWCmentorsGuide - A video maintainer role, to help organize and maintain a collection of videos that will bring examples of teaching to the community, without the overhead of actually attending events. In 2015, I'll be continuing to work from the Mozilla Science Lab to help train instructors (big thanks to Greg for his awesome mentorship here over the past few months), and to support instructors after training, first by working on that road from Instructor Training to the first workshop, and more broadly by investigating what we can offer to support the heroic efforts of the instructor community, both within Software & Data Carpentry, and beyond. You all do amazing work, thanks for jumping in with your thoughts and please be in touch with any ideas, concerns or questions on how I can support you! On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 3:29 AM, Scott Ritchie < [email protected]> wrote: > > Hey all, > > I actually ran my first full 2-day workshop last week, and agree with > Bill's points on the blog post. Luckily I had a good mentor to help me > through the process (thanks Damien Irving), but even then it was a steep > learning experience, even though I've helped at bootcamps before and run > smaller components. > > Here are some of the major things I found challenging: > > - Existing instructions are out of date, and not kept all in one > place. Luckily I was able to bug Damien to find out the correct and current > process. > - Pacing issues. All of the lessons took much longer than expected, > which I suspect in part was due to me talking too much. It's hard to get a > feel for how long lessons take just by reading through the material, and I > just didn't have time to do a trial run beforehand. > - Recommendations for instructor notes and multiple screens. Where do > instructors keep them during the bootcamp? How do you keep track of the > etherpad while the lesson material is on the screen? > > Plus some miscellaneous advice for other new instructors: > > - Standing up in front of a room for two days instructing was > surprisingly exhausting > - Bring a large bottle of water, as talking leaves you dehydrated very > quickly. > - If you're going to remember anything, get the intro right. It's much > easier to instruct if you're mentally in the right place. > - Last helper to arrive buys the instructor coffee if they're late ;) > > Running your first workshop is incredibly overwhelming so I completely > agree with the strong mentoring suggestions. On the other hand I realise > that's also a big ask on the mentors time so may not always be possible. > > > On 15 December 2014 at 08:20, Karin Lagesen <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> Personally, I did attend a workshop before instructor training and >> subsequently teaching my first workshop. But, I do not think that this >> should be a requirement, just recommended. However, I think it somehow >> should be a requirement that the person has taught before, although I am >> not certain how this could be implemented. >> >> I also think that we should go heavier on mentoring first time >> instructors, either online or in person, and (perhaps this goes without >> saying) make sure that every new instructor teaches with a more experienced >> instructor for their first workshop. I also think it should be made clear >> that the more experienced instructor should get in touch with the newbie >> instructor well in advance to discuss lessons and teaching. In hindsight, I >> know that I should have prepared better before my first workshop, but I >> didn't know that at the time. >> >> Karin >> -- >> Karin Lagesen, Ph.D. >> Department of Medical Genetics >> Oslo University Hospital >> http://blog.karinlag.no >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists. >> software-carpentry.org >> > > > -- > ---- > Scott Ritchie, BCompSci, MSc, > Ph.D. Student, > Medical Systems Biology Group, > Department of Pathology, > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences, > The University of Melbourne > Parkville, Victoria, Australia > W: http://www.inouyelab.org > P: +61 3 9035 8916 > E: [email protected] > > Research Community Co-ordinator for the Life Sciences & > Software Carpentry Instructor for R and Data Science. > Department of Research Platforms, > The University of Melbourne. > W: http://resbaz.tumblr.com/ > W: http://software-carpentry.org/ > > President, > Bioinformatics Graduate Student Association (BGSA), > The University of Melbourne. > W: http://bioinformatics.asn.au/bgsa/ > F: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BGSA.melbourne/ > E: [email protected] > > General Committee, > COMBINE: The Regional Student Group (RSG) Australia; > for the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) > W: http://combine.org.au/ > http://www.iscb.org/ > ---- > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org > -- Best Regards, Bill Mills Community Manager Mozilla Science Lab
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