Starting an OTS in London - Let's build a London Team!

Organising New Chapters
23

Hi everyone,

Just writing up my notes for the meeting, please feel free to correct / comment / update as necessary. I’ll also post a link to this on meetup so more people can contribute to what happens next!

OTS London Meetup #1 : 21 January at Maker’s Academy

Agenda:

  • 5 minute intro to Maker’s Academy from Jordan
  • Introductions from everyone (about 30 people) about who they were, why they’d come along, and what they were interested in learning / teaching
  • Danielle covered what OTS is, and how it works
  • Vikki demonstrated what the courses look like, and what’s available on github
  • General discussion / Q+A

Notes:

  • Lots of people know python, this would potentially be a good choice for an initial meet up
  • Lots of people are complete beginners to programming and so would like :
    • introductory courses
    • more information about what they could learn (so rather than “intro to html/css/js” or “intro to arduino”, they’d want choices like “intro to making websites” or “intro to making robots”, and info like “once you’ve done this course you’ll be able to make a basic website that displays your CV”
  • Some people would like more advanced courses, which may not have a curriculum on github yet. We briefly discussed forking what’s already there to add new curriculums for what’s missing
  • Several people suggested running a jam/dojo style event where people with an interest in a given topic could get together to practice rather than work through specific material; this may suit those who would like to learn more advanced skills.

Actions:

  • Create a survey (on meetup?) to find out from the whole group:
    • what to learn (again phrased in goal-oriented way, rather than tech-oriented way, so “learning websites” not “learning CSS 3”)
    • what we’re able to provide coaches for
    • when and how frequently to run sessions
    • gauge interest in jam sessions (topic, frequency etc.)
  • Once we have survey results:
    • pick a session to run (hopefully one with an existing OTS curriculum on github)
    • find a venue
    • find coaches
    • create meet up event
  • (Optionally) Write up what curriculums we have available actually do, phrased in goal-oriented way to help new people who may be wanting to achieve a goal and might not be aware of tech required to do so
  • Start planning future events!
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