Dear All, providing a persistent alumni forum is a very worthwhile idea, but I would argue to separate it from the concerns addressed by the in-workshop use of etherpad.
As discussed in the context of Github a while ago, it's not entirely desirable to ask participants to create yet another account -- so while it's ok to ask everyone to connect to the workshop's etherpad and choose a moniker and a colour, I think asking people to create a Slack account has disadvantages. They're likely to spend the first coffee break getting familiar with the new thing, and it may continue to be a distraction even during lessons, and after the workshop, they'll be left with that yet another account, which of course is the whole point for those who want to stay in touch more permanently, but it may be a burden / debt to those who don't. Best regards, Jan On Wed, Aug 03, 2016 at 10:42:42AM +0000, Hetherington, James wrote: > I???d be keen to use Slack if this were made efficient. > > This would be especially good if it could be used to create a persistent > forum of course alumni. > > > -- > > Dr James Hetherington > Head of Research Software Development > Research IT Services > > And > > Honorary Lecturer > Department of Computer Science > > University College London > > Tel: 07946868834 > Site: http://bit.ly/ucl-rsd > Twitter: @uclrcsoftdev @jamespjh > Skype: ucgajhe > > > From: Discuss <[email protected]> on behalf of Ted > Hart <[email protected]> > Date: Tuesday, 2 August 2016 at 18:19 > To: Software Carpentry Discussion <[email protected]> > Subject: [Discuss] Preferred communication tool used during teaching > > Hi all, > > I'm curious what people are using these days for communication during > teaching. I know historically folks have used etherpad, but recently I've > seen some workshops go to Slack. In light of this, I've decided to set-up a > slack space for an upcoming workshop. So given the ubiquity of Slack in the > zeitgeist (and likely also in the workplace) what are other peoples thoughts > are using it during teaching as opposed to the traditional etherpad. > > I think if there were wider adoption, which I'm not necessarily advocating > for, it seems that it could be folded into a more formal part of the workshop > set-up process in two ways. > > 1). A procedure for setting up official SWC slack channels as opposed to the > current ad-hoc method. Obviously these logs could be useful for text mining > student questions / feedback etc (if we aren't already doing that with > etherpads) > > 2). Given Slacks API for bots, it could be useful to maintain an official > SWC bot to address common use cases (Although I'm drawing a blank on any > specifics at the moment). > > Overall though I just wanted to take the temperature of the other > instructors. I appreciate your thoughts. > > T > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss -- +- Jan T. Kim -------------------------------------------------------+ | email: [email protected] | | WWW: http://www.jtkim.dreamhosters.com/ | *-----=< hierarchical systems are for files, not for humans >=-----* _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss
