Teaching Tech Together

We know as much about teaching and learning as we do about public health, but most people in tech don’t even know what we know. A few basic ideas will help you build more effective lessons in less time and with less effort. They will also make those lessons easier for people to find and reuse, and help you figure out what impact they are having.

This one-day workshop introduces key evidence-based teaching techniques that apply to onboarding new team members, technical support, and self-paced learning as well as more formal training online or in the classroom. Topics include:

creating learner personas
why novices, competent practitioners, and experts need different lessons
managing cognitive load
formative and summative assessment
what motivates and demotivates learners
teaching as a performance art

This workshop has been taught over 30 times since 2017 for companies, public libraries, and open source organizations, and all the materials are available online under an open license. If you are interested in having it taught where you work, in organizing an open session, or would like to know more, please email gvwilson@third-bit.com.

Greg formalizes the most effective ways to teach even the most complex concepts and debunks common misconceptions in the teaching community. His course was an invaluable resource in building my technical seminar, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is planning on teaching anything.

– Ehsan Motamedi, Director of Architecture & Innovation, Rangle.io

Dr. Greg Wilson is a programmer, author, and educator based in Toronto. He co-founded and and was the first Executive Director of Software Carpentry, which has taught basic software skills to tens of thousands of researchers in over 65 countries, and is the author of several books, including Teaching Tech Together. Greg is a member of the Python Software Foundation and a recipient of ACM SIGSOFT’s Influential Educator of the Year award.

FAQ

What is the format of the workshop?: It can be one full day or two half-days (preferably on consecutive days). The latter works better: people are less tired for the second half and it gives them time to deal with anything else that might come up. No special equipment is required.
Is the workshop online or in person?: Some parts are more effective (and more fun) in person, but it works well online and is often easier to coordinate that way, particularly for distributed organizations. Online offerings also don’t incur travel costs.
How large can a workshop be?: Up to 20 people; any more than that, and people become observers rather than participants.
How much does this cost?: One option is CAD$3000; the other is to pay the instructor CAD$2000 and make a CAD$2000 donation to an agreed-upon charity such as Rainbow Railroad or the Red Door Family Shelter. In the latter case the host receives the charitable tax rebate, which lowers the effective overall cost significantly.
How much lead time is needed to arrange a workshop?: One workshop was run on 48 hours notice, but four weeks notice or more is less stressful for everyone.
Who is the intended audience?: Participants at past workshops have included programmers, product managers, designers, data scientists, support staff, and others. The material does not assume any prior training in teaching.
Who can take part?: That’s up to whoever is organizing or hosting the workshop. Most workshops have been for the staff at specific companies, but some companies have sponsored workshops for members of open source or other volunteer communities.
Where does the material come from?: The workshop is a shortened and updated version of material originally developed for the Carpentries’ instructor training program and RStudio’s instructor certification program.