[TOS] Fw: [Posse-south-africa] Sakai: 5 minutes of "experienced FOSS hacker, new project contributor" deep-diving

[Mel Chua]

> I've taken to surveying my students about tool knowledge and I'm
> finding lots of holes in what they know.  For instance, almost none
> of them use IRC or know much about it.  And I saw that same gap at
> the Grace Hopper conference last week - Leslie Hawthorne asked a few
> tool questions (Do you use/know tool X?) at the start of a panel we
> did and very few hands went up for IRC.  So I have students
> developing small "getting started" notes for various tools (and we'll
> be posting them on SoftHum).  But this piece would be great to have
> them read as a scenario to deepen understanding of how those tools
> fit into everyday work in FOSS.

Glad it's useful. :) I think, honestly, those basic tools are what 
*should* be in the Textbook - and I think that's the direction it's 
moving in, which is great to see. I'd love to have students help write 
those sections of the textbook as a resource for those tools as a way of 
solidifying their own understanding/learning of the tech, but it seems 
like we haven't found a way to do that for this particular project (the 
TOS textbook) yet. Any ideas?

> I've also developed a few "FOSS Field trip" assignments to have
> students observe/analyze FOSS projects.  This would provide a nice
> script for that sort of exercise too.

Ooo. Have you seen Dave Shein's 
http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/Community_characterization_worksheet? 
I think there were some notes taken from the presentations the RIT class 
did for this assignment but I don't know where they are, ccing Justin 
Lewis who's the TA for the class and probably does.

--Mel