I've taught workshops like this a few times, usually to scientists with no programming experience. In a 3- to 4-hour workshop, there is time to learn the basic syntax of the language, so people can start writing their own programs. This will take half of the time. The second half would focus in using code written by others in freely available libraries to do a small project, for example, get data from a website, analyze it statistically, and visualize the results.
The attendees should expect to leave the workshop with a working installation of python in their computer, a basic understating of how programming works, and ideas of what they can do with it. You can expect something similar to the materials in this website [1], with minor changes to make it (hopefully) more relevant to writers. Best, Ivan [1] http://software-carpentry.org/v5/novice/python/index.html El 20/01/2015, a las 11:22, Alan S Brown <[email protected]> escribió: > So what could someone who knows almost no programming learn in a 2 or 4 hour > course? Or is this better left to people with some programming experience? > > Alan S Brown > Smart phone/Dumb typos > On Jan 18, 2015 6:52 PM, Ivan Gonzalez via NASW-Talk <[email protected]> > wrote: > Python is a programming language, so technically you could use it to write > programs that do anything. It runs on any type of computer (Mac, Windows, …), > and these days you can use your favorite web browser to write the programs. > > Regarding useful things to do: > > - you could use it to do data analysis for your reporting, like an "Excel" on > steroids, > - you could scrape institutional websites to get information about a project, > or a research paper to extract all the references to a spreadsheet, > - you could create data visualizations to enhance your blog posts. > > Best, > > Ivan > > El 16/01/2015, a las 16:13, "A'ndrea Elyse Messer" <[email protected]> escribió: > > > I would be interested if I had a better idea of what one can do with it. > > > > Also, I don't believe Python will run on a Mac. We are unfortunately Mac > > based, so I'm guessing using it in the office would be impossible. > > > > > > A'ndrea Elyse Messer, Ph.D. > > Sr. Science & Research Information Officer > > Office of Strategic Communications > > Research Communications > > Penn State > > 244 Ritenour Building > > 814-865-9481 (o) > > 814-867-1774 (h) > > 814-883-3307 (c) > > [email protected] > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Ivan Gonzalez via NASW-Talk" <[email protected]> > > To: "NASW-Talk discussion list" <[email protected]> > > Sent: Friday, January 16, 2015 2:57:43 PM > > Subject: [NASW-Talk] Would you like to learn Python at ScienceWriters2015? > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > I'm thinking in putting together a proposal for a hands-on workshop during > > the next ScienceWriters conference. I've seen similar seminars for writers, > > but they usually focus on a particular tool. For example, in > > ScienceWriters2014, there was a "Data Crunching and Visualization" workshop > > using Google Fusion Tables. > > > > Learning a generic programming language like Python allows you to build > > your own tools when the "commercial" solution doesn't fit the bill. I > > volunteer teaching basic programming skills to scientists and think that > > writers could benefit greatly from a similar training. > > > > Before writing the proposal, I'd like to ask you two questions to see > > whether this is interesting at all: > > > > 1) Do you think learning Python could be helpful for you as a science > > writer? > > 2) If so, which is the one thing that you want to learn most? > > > > Best, > > > > Ivan > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > NASW-Talk mailing list > > [email protected] > > To manage your subscription or unsubscribe: > > http://lists.nasw.org/mailman/listinfo/nasw-talk > > List policies: https://www.nasw.org/discussion-group-policies-0 > > [email protected] > > > _______________________________________________ > NASW-Talk mailing list > [email protected] > To manage your subscription or unsubscribe: > http://lists.nasw.org/mailman/listinfo/nasw-talk > List policies: https://www.nasw.org/discussion-group-policies-0 > [email protected]
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