[OSCTC-planning] framing our tutorials

[Pariksheet Nanda]

On Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:39:51 -0400
Shauna Gordon-McKeon <shaunagm at gmail.com> wrote:

> We've gotten a few comments that our morning tutorials, which cover
> IRC, issue trackers, reading issue reports, and using version
> control, are a bit abstract - they're not rooted in the process of
> contributing and therefore they're less interesting and harder to
> learn about for students.
>
> A little while back we made the 'Finding a Project' activity:
> https://openhatch.org/wiki/Open_Source_Comes_to_Campus/Curriculum/Finding_a_Project
> 
> What do folks think about framing the morning tutorials with this
> activity? Students would start the day by finding projects, and
> they'd cover the different activities - IRC, issue trackers, version
> control - as they came up.

That sounds like a fun activity for keeping students actively
engaged since it could tap into their "itch to scratch", and
also involves them in the critical thinking process of evaluating
projects and work areas within projects.


> Alternatively, we could keep this where it is at the beginning of the
> contributions workshop, or remove it entirely.

Maybe this could be something interested students could opt-in to, as
some students may prefer the passive learning of the morning tutorials.
Could this 'Finding a Project' activity be communicated with the
students ahead of time, so that when the arrive in the classroom they
might already have ideas of projects they want to work on?  One could
group then students who are working on similar areas even if they are
different projects.


> ~ Shauna

Pariksheet