[TOS] An Instructor for POSSE South Africa

[Michael Adeyeye]

Where are we? Is Jan now the second instructor? I think it's up to Jan to
decide.

Regards,
Michael.


On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 5:34 AM, Mel Chua <mel at redhat.com> wrote:

> > There is a POSSE seeding issue we'll keep having.  If we require a
> > physical human presence on site to start a POSSE seed in a part of the
> > globe, it's going to slow things down ... when they are slow enough
> > already. :)
>
> Honestly, I think they're pretty fast - after June alone, we'll have
> multiplied the number of POSSE alumni by at least 5. Exponential growth
> takes a little time to snowball.
>
> > What alternatives do we have?
> >
> > Video conferencing + FOSS tools being used?
>
> Not as a replacement for a POSSE. I believe the in-person aspect of the
> experience is an important one; we're not trying to (just) teach
> technical skills, we're trying to teach cultural immersion - and we need
> the lowest possible communication barrier since we only have a week to
> do it.
>
> > Accepting a FOSS expert (e.g. Jan) as an instructor without previous
> > POSSE experience?
>
> Technically speaking, this is what we did/will-do for the POSSEs in
> Singapore, Worcester, and to some extent California. A large amount of
> effort and advance planning - and remote meeting and prep time - has
> gone in to getting the second instructor and the curriculum ready for
> POSSE in all three cases; it's workable, but it does take extra effort
> to sync-up.
>
> > On that last one, my biggest concern is the one that Matt taught me --
> > the need for at least one of the instructors to intimately know the
> > experience of teaching and academics.  But that person doesn't have to
> > be a POSSE graduate.
>
> Our current requirements, from
> http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/POSSE_Instructors, seem to
> fulfill this:
>
> * A POSSE must be taught by at least 2 instructors.
> * A POSSE must have at least 1 instructor who has taught a POSSE before.
> * A POSSE must have at least 1 instructor with deep community
> involvement in that POSSE's focal project.
> * A POSSE should have at least 1 instructor who is teaching, or has
> taught, at the college level.
>
> > Or do we accept the slower pace?
>
> Patience is good - and multiplying by a factor of 6 (likely more by the
> end of the calendar year) seems pretty good to me. We'll be starting
> Summer 2011 POSSE planning in June... one thing I've been repeatedly
> told is that things move a little more slowly in this world. :)
>
> --Mel
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