CoderDojo Conf Talk Plan

[cameronmcefee]

I'll be speaking at the upcoming CoderDojo Conf about how we run our CoderDojo here in SF. We've done some talking about our future process and how we might encourage dojos to collaborate better. I think it'd be awesome if we could have our process set up and demonstrable by April so I can really sell the idea. Here's a list of what we've talked about possibly doing. If I've missed anything, feel free to add them.

• Work with GitHub to give free orgs to new dojos.

  This will probably require having new dojos email GitHub support to request the org.

• Have a lesson plan template.

  It'd be nice to have some sort of predefined format so that all our lessons when presented to the kids are consistent.

• Have a pre-session time for setup

  This requires updating our eventbrite info so people know that if they want help setting stuff up, they should come early.

• Short url solution for lessons

  Linking to a GitHub blob for a lesson is kind of dumb from a url perspective. We've got to come up with a way to give kids a shorter url to set up.

• DojoApp

  This is probably not something we'll have by April, but I figure I'll list it here. It'd be cool if when a new dojo starts, there is an open sourced app somewhere they can fork that will help them create events. Additionally, it may act as a frontend for lessons that live on GitHub.

[KartikTalwar]

@cameronmcefee Everything here looks good to me. Is the DojoApp the same as 'EventApp` from this repo? The URL coderdo.jo is available (~$300/yr) if that's where this is headed. If not, getting a website and linking to the readme's there would work too. In general, how much of this would you like to discuss on github vs. in-person discussion.

[cameronmcefee]

I think there's definitely room to overlap. I put it in the list here but it's probably out of the scope of things to have ready by my talk. The url itself probably ought to be customized to the dojo itself. In general I picture the app handling dojo specific issues (the already existing zen.coderdojo.com feels more appropriate if we want to try contributing to that instead).

For example, say we had coderdojosf.com. Then we could go to coderdojosf.com/admin to set up our events. On event days we could have the kids go to coderdojosf.com which will be everything they need for that day's session. If they want a list of past sessions, they can go to coderdojos.com/lessons. I'd love for the kids to just come in and fire upcoderdojosf.com by memory because they know that's where the lesson is.

We could probably even do one of those annoying redirects you get on wifi hotspots and send them directly to coderdojosf.com when they open their browser the first time on the coderdojo wifi.

[KartikTalwar]

@cameronmcefee does the cancelled session affect this? Perhaps we can/should organize just a meetup for mentors and plan this out in person?

[cameronmcefee]

I'm down to hash this stuff out here. That was kind of my intent. I'd rather have it on record where anyone can contribute rather than deal with it in meatspace. 'Tis the GitHub Way.

[KartikTalwar]

Sounds good! I'd prefer to get started with the lesson plan template and the dojoapp

[cameronmcefee]

Sick. For the the lesson plan template, I'll let you do whatever makes sense to you. I'd suggest including a license too, since we've started adding those.

For the app, it'd be good if you hooked up with @jonmagic to talk about it. He's already building the ticketing side of the app, so it'd be good to talk about where we want it to go/see if they should overlap.

[cameronmcefee]

I've started outlining this stuff here: https://github.com/CoderDojoSF/dojocon-2013-talk/blob/master/outline.md

[jonmagic]

This is really solid. Would be pretty amazing to get help from the GitHub video team to produce some shorts to show what a class is like, teaching vs mentoring, etc.

One of the things that really stood out to me was getting at eye level. Looking back on the class I taught in some cases I knelt down and the connection was much stronger than leaning over or standing up and explaining something. Being intentional about things like this really make a difference.

On Monday, April 1, 2013 at 5:09 PM, Cameron McEfee wrote:

I've started outlining this stuff here: https://github.com/CoderDojoSF/dojocon-2013-talk/blob/master/outline.md

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub (#2 (comment)).

[cameronmcefee]

@jonmagic that might pair well with #3. I don't think it'll be good for my upcoming talk, but it'd be cool to have that to distribute to new dojos.

[KartikTalwar]

On that same note, linking the lesson plan template here. I perceive it as a rspec style - mock lesson, so this will have useful information in it soon.
https://github.com/CoderDojoSF/LessonTemplate/blob/master/README.md

[cameronmcefee]

It might be nice to have some CoderDojo GitHub flavored methodology in there. For example:

---

Step 1

At this point in the lesson, try to have some sort of working code for the kids to see. This will let advanced students play with "working" code while the other kids catch up.

Step 2

More instructions

---

That way, we're not only standardizing the format but also the lesson flow.

[KartikTalwar]

@cameronmcefee that is exactly what I'm doing 😃