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

Hi everyone,
here there is the super useful doc made by @Dane11e regards to free/cheap venues in London.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ck-IOJP8CRqhj7k0TeBmboiPtHGVUa1wl4TQqwMKkyk/edit

thank you danielle, that’s great!

BELOW IS THE AGENDA for the First OTS London Meetup scheduled for January 21 at Maker’s Academy, London. The format might still change, but this will be the event flow during the evening. (Notes prepared by Danielle, with input from Vikki/Gen/Danielle.)

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A. (Danielle)What is OTS

OTS General Format:

-Arrive, introductions, leader does an introduction, then it is generally bring your own devise and access the webpage; there will be one leader and coaches for every three people (all material is provided) and then follow along the online course, when there is something that the student doesnt understand they put up their hand and a coach will come along and help; there is a coach for every 3-4 people; very informal

B. (Vikki)Example of courses: https://github.com/opentechschool http://opentechschool.github.io/python-beginners/ http://opentechschool.github.io/python-beginners/en/index.html

C. (Gen)What skills do we have (Survey - if not have time to respond to survey then they can present to the group)
What people want to teach and what they want to learn
-Beginners Python
-Beginners Javascript
-Beginners Web (HTML and CSS)

Find out how we will organize meetups and workshops:
-People can suggest events but do not create events without being an organiser or without a venue

Find out how we will coach learners:
-Not supposed to tell the answer, that they are wrong, guide them

Find out how to get involved and how/when organize the first workshop:
-Who (mentors and a leader) -Clearly denote student/mentor to keep correct ratio; ask them how we could fascilitate this
-What (subject)
-Where (the leader can help to fascilitate meeting places)
-When (date)

-Group discussion Get know each other better; technical knowledge/mentored before/any suggestions?

-Drinks?
-Far rockaway free drinks?

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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Great summary @vikkiread! Nice starting point for our next Google Hangout on Sunday. One thing we need to talk about as well are the tools we will use to manage all these.

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Great job as always girls! :slight_smile:
one thing about the “advanced group”: We use to do a learning group for some kind of topics. Currently we have Learning group for Python and Javascript.
Is a weekly or bi-weekly event where people get together for coding and working on some project. Is made on the help desk style, so there is no lesson, no material to follow. People come with their project and there are 1/2 coaches around to whom they can ask.

Python group is also more organize and every meetup cover a different Python topic (django, bio python,…)
I think is what you need :slight_smile:

When you created a survey, can you also send it to us? This thing is really interesting for us!

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