Community Data Science Workshops (Fall 2014)/Reflections: Difference between revisions

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 == General Feedback ==
-* Generally, there was a sense that we should stop creating pages in the wik by copying and pasting old stuff. We when archive the old version, we can use MediaWiki to create links to the old version of the pages (we can intstall templates from English Wikipedia) to make this easier.
+* Generally, there was a sense that we should stop creating pages in the wiki by copying and pasting old stuff. This was the BPW model but it's leading to madness. We when archive an old version of a site, we can use MediaWiki to create links to the old version of the pages (we can intstall templates from English Wikipedia to help make this easier).
-* We should try to schedule the workshop not as close to the end of the quarter. The beginning or middle of the quarter should be better for UW students.
+* We should try to schedule the workshop not quite so close to the end of the quarter. The beginning or middle of the quarter should be better for UW students.
-* Mentors should post the code generated in the break-outs. Encourage them to capture the code created in examples and to post these afterward systematically.
+* Mentors should post the code generated in the break-out sessions. Encourage them to capture the code created in examples and to post these afterward systematically.
-* There was general interest in pair programming or more team based excercises.
+* There was general interest in pair programming or more team based excercises. We should consider changes along this line.
 * There was a need for several on-the-fly corrections of the instructions and files on the wiki during the workshop. Better planning and testing for this will be very useful.
 === Mentorship ===
-Last time through, most of our observation were focused on improving the experience of attendees and we think we didn't spend as much time on helping mentors have a great experience and helping them prepare effectively. We had a series of pieces of feedback on how to improve this.
+Last time through, most of our observation were focused on improving the experience of attendees and we think we didn't spend as much time on helping mentors have a great experience and helping them prepare effectively. We had many new mentors this round. One general concern was the relative lack of mentor training, especially before the first sessions. We had a series of pieces of feedback on how to improve this.
-We had many new mentors this round. One general concern was the relative lack of mentor training, especially before the first sessions. We felt that we should:
-* Arrange a mentors meeting (perhaps a day or two before to over material) and maybe at a bar or other social environment with beer and pizza. We coudl use this tnorms, best practices, goals, planning, etc.
+* Arrange a pre-CDSW mentors meeting (perhaps a day or two before to over material) and maybe at a bar or other social environment with beer and pizza. We could use this to set norms, best practices, goals, planning, etc.
-* Perhaps meet 15-20 minutes early to get to know each other and over things
+* Perhaps meet 15-20 minutes early before Session 0 to get to know each other and over things.
 * Create some easier way to distinguish mentors from students (e.g., t-shirts, buttons, paper them head to foot in sticky notes).
-* Send out details instructions and emails to mentors, or create pages in this wiki with detail on how to do this better.
+* Send out detailed instructions and emails to mentors, or create pages in this wiki, that detail good mentoring. For example:
-** Talk to mentors about much should you help? (e.g., some but be careful not to just give away the answer, to focus too much on elegance or technical correctness and be careful not to overwhelm the learners).
+** How much should you help? Some. But be careful not to just give away the answer, to focus too much on elegance or technical correctness. Be careful not to overwhelm the learners.
 ** Explicitly encourage mentors to reach out to students and ask them how things are going by walking around to every single person to ask, “How are you doing? What are you working on? Show me what you’re doing.”
 === More Projects or Better Projects ===
-We had certain afternoon project sessions that were much more effective than others. One thing we were conflited about was whether we wanted more break-out sessions or whether we should just use best of the break-out sessions (perhaps in two rooms).
+Once again, we had certain afternoon project sessions that were much more effective than others. One thing we were conflited about was whether we wanted more break-out sessions or whether we should just use the best of the break-out sessions (perhaps in two rooms).
 Arguments for smaller groups of the best break-out session include:
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 * Diversity of projects inspires people to do the kinds of things that people can do with this new knowledge.
-Otjher ways encourage generative-ness? might include giving participants creative/flexible moments within sessions and lectures might be empowering. Perhaps, calling out participants who are doing creative things?
+We should pursue other ways to encourage creativity with code. For example, we might give participants creative/flexible moments within sessions and lectures might be empowering in simlar ways. We can also continue to call out participants who are doing creative things.
 == Budget ==