[ubuntu-za] Umonya Hackathon: Writing Python course notes for kids

[Marco Gallotta]

Hey everyone!

If you've been on this list for the past months, chances are you've
heard of Umonya before. In short, we introduce programming to kids in
grades 7-12 using Python (see http://umonya.co.za).

Well, we're having a hackathon next Saturday 13 November to work on
new course notes, and we'd like all the help we can get! When we
started the first Umonya course, we didn't have many volunteers and so
we made do with existing notes (http://umonya.co.za/pb/) released
under the GNU Free Document License. We have had many issues with
them, as they were written for graduate biology students, and we've
been patching the worst parts. Now we want to do this properly. The
hackathon is the first in a series to adapt the course notes,
rewriting large chunks to properly target our younger audience. It'll
all be released with an open source license, of course!

We will start will a discussion on the outline of the book at 11:00,
where we'll have the Umonya lecturers and anyone else interested in
giving input on the structure of the book. Then the rest of you can
start joining from 12:00 -- still come if you can only make it later!

Schedule:
10:00 Stellenbosch meetup for carpooling (see below)
11:00 Outline discussion in CS303 (3rd floor UCT Computer Science building)
12:00 Talk on Connexions, hackathon strategy, etc. in CS303
12:45 Hackathon begins in The Shuttleworth Lab (ground floor UCT
Computer Science building)
13:30 Lunch (Pizza will be provided)
15:00 Review and discuss next steps
16:00 Pack up time

For those in Stellenbosch, there will be a meetup at 10:00 at the
Neelsie parking area (http://goo.gl/uimNF). Contact Robert
Ketteringham (robert at umonya.co.za or 0845684780) for anything about
this.

We're looking for people with basic to uber Python skills (people who
have experience using Python 3 will be especially useful), people who
have taught kids, people who have good writing skills and people just
passionate about helping this project get better. We look forward to
seeing you all on Saturday! If you know anyone that might want to
join, please invite them.

If you have any questions, can't find the room we're in or whatever,
contact me (marco at umonya.co.za or 0731704444).

Marco

-- 
Marco Gallotta
MSc Student
Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town
people.cs.uct.ac.za/~mgallott | marco-za.blogspot.com
marco AT gallotta DOT co DOT za | 073 170 4444 | 021 552 2731