Our core values
Openness to us means sharing, whether that be the coaches sharing their time and skills, or, over time, the learners sharing what they have gained with newcomers and becoming coaches themselves, as well as sharing their projects and progress with others. It also stands for our aim to provide the opportunity for coaches to pool their brainpower and create the workshop and curriculum themselves, rather than having a rigidly set way to teach or learn the material. By publicly providing the documentation of how we organized our work and events, what was taught, and how well that worked for the coaches and learners, we can provide a rough framework that can be used as a guide by others. It also means that we can decentralize our work; being a community/volunteer project, transparency provides the opportunity for one person to pick up where the other left off, meaning that the project does not rest on the shoulders of only a few individuals.
Empowerment is something with which we hope to provide everyone involved. Encouraging people to coach, whatever their skill or experience level, lets them see how rewarding and valuable teaching others is. By encouraging learners to become coaches themselves over time, we hope to create a sustainable movement of skilled, confident, eager to help individuals. Leaving the framework of workshop organization open to adaptation is done to empower others, providing a framework for them to rally their own communities to organize similar initiatives.
We believe the best way to learn is by actually doing it. That is why our workshops are focused on practical cases and provide a hands-on learning experience. While others provide tools to learn on your own, we want to bring people together to learn in small groups, supported by coaches keeping an eye on individual progress. Therefore our workshops aim to reach a certain goal or step of the learning process while also providing a roadmap on how to continue afterwards. We feel that visible progress is the best motivation to continue learning.
Many people are left behind in classic learning environments because they don’t ask questions, often because of the fear of embarrassment or the thought of holding others back. We aim to provide a safe learning environment in which no one feels shy asking any question. Teaching only 3-4 people at a time, coaches can move at the pace most suited for their group, rather than moving on too swiftly. Learners will be encouraged to share their progress, with the goal of solidifying their knowledge and overcoming the fear of speaking in front of others.
Rather than a copyrighted brand or concept, OTS is an open, transparent movement with which we want to encourage others to create similar or related projects in their own cities. We hope to inspire you with our successes and let you learn from our mistakes, as well as develop a strong support network for those new to coding, giving them a chance to learn & go on to teach others.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://blog.opentechschool.org/2012/07/what-is-opentechschool.html