We had our final regular meeting this past week, during which everyone made a 90-second pitch explaining why someone would want to learn a particular topic. They were a lot of fun, and it gave people a chance to get a feel for the differences between teaching live, recorded video, and the in-between model of being live on the web.
For our last lap, you will work in groups of two or three to create and/or improve some of our lesson material, then each (independently) teach a 10-minute lesson online for an audience of other instructors and trainees. I’ve put people into groups below, and will send each group mail to make connections; if your name isn’t there, please let me know.
To find things to work on, please have a look at the issues marked “getting-started” in the Software Carpentry lesson repository on GitHub. Some of these require more work than others, so please talk to your partner(s) about what you’d like to tackle. If you have questions, please give me a shout, or ask on the mailing list.
- Christian Jacobs and Dan MacLean
- Florian Rathgeber and Mark Stillwell
- Graham Etherington and Alex Simperler
- Michael Schliephake, Padraic Stack and Shyam Rallapalli
- Jeff Hollister, Bror Jonsson and Scott Burns
- Tim Warren, Mark Wilber and Chandler Wilkerson
- Aur Saraf and Catalina Anghel
- Tim McNamara and Simon Michnowicz
- Genevieve Smith and Jonathan Frederic
- Jacob Levernier and Dav Clark
- Hsingtzu Wu and Matthew Dimmock
- Dan Warren and Devasena Inupakutika
- Jeremiah Lant and Russell Alleen-Willems
Finally, this would be a really good time to fill in this form so that we can add you to our database…
- Christian Jacobs (Imperial College London, UK)
- I like ipython and think the basic premise is good. might have been more compelling if you were pulling data from a text file or other data source.
- A very clear argument for being DRY. Used jargon words a bit, like implementation — what does that mean in context to a newbie?
- Good job I found the argument of making things more accurate with less maintenance a good one. Many people will relate to the changing each formula many times and the function makes that easier.
- I could show exactly where the Fahrenheit value is used in the function by the use of the parameter ‘F’.
- Very clear and concise. Provides good motivation to use functions.
- good way of presenting with the notebook, clear motivation
- “Made the implementation a lot more understandable”: well, yes, but only once you understand functions
- Dan MacLean (Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK)
- I think like with Florian, instead of discussing what you can do with markdown, the focus should be what markdown gives that word does not.
- The font in your screenshare was too small to read, but the conversion demo was great to highlight how easy it is to get different formats
- Gave a pretty good case for using Markdown. Probably need to say why NOT to use something like Word.
- Good that you emphasise “minimal sort of formatting” and that it is a simple plain text format. I felt motivated.
- I did find the base document to many other document types compelling. Instead of having to write .doc, .html, etc one can do it all. Again, I think the argument would be, but I can do that with Word. That is a really tough sell for scientists who have been using word for decades…
- As with Florian’s presentation, you spoke clearly and showed the tool well, but it’s still a very hard sell: why should I use some funky ASCII text and convert it to things I actually want to read when Word will let me type in the latter directly?
- I found it hard to stay away from the just showing aspect of this.
- Mark Stillwell (Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK)
- Solutions like these sound great, but in controlled IT settings (like the US Govt) setting these up is not trivial. how would you I motivate my IT staff to convince them it is worth the effort, security risk, etc. In short I would need more (i know 90 seconds isn’t much) to convince my higher ups.
- basically okay, could use a stronger concluding statement
- I found it hard to take home a bitesize reason why I would want to use/abuse VMs. It was very verbose reasoning, really. OBvously he’s very knowledgeable, but I found that a bit overwhelming
- might want to define the term deployment, won’t be clear to everyone
- Didn’t understand certain terms like “deployment target” at first. Seemed to get rather confusing when discussing Vagrant for me — wasn’t sure what to take away.
- Wasn’t sure where he was going when Mark started off.
- Graham Etherington(The Sainsbury Lab, Norwich, UK)
- good motivator, but I think someone without programming experience would have found the perl script intimidating
- I should have been more specific about how long something like this script might take to learn and script.
- clear motivation why a spreadsheet isn’t enough for many use cases. could explain the code a bit with more time
- I like how you showed a very typical use case (find/copy/past etc) in excel and showed how to do it quickly and repeatably with a script. One issue for me was stating that the script was basic, I think a lot of people would think it was a very complex thing to write the script.
- Good demo, very clear problem. Perhaps the lurking question from another user is why wouldn’t I do this in excel? With its merge functions… Isn’t that easier?
- Nice demonstration of how life with Excel can be difficult. I felt motivated when you showed the script in action and how it makes life easier.
- Again, liked the immediacy: here’s a problem that will be familiar to many scientists, they’ll understand the copy-paste-Ctrl-F pain, now here’s a shorter solution — the only thing that wouldn’t convince is that they wouldn’t know how long it took to write that script (or learn to write that script).
- Jeff Hollister (USEPA, Narragansett, RI)
- are we sure that dataframes are just lists? maybe I’m thinking about this too much like a computer scientist, but I’m sure there’s some more complicated internals there.
- I share Jeff’s frustration, and would probably follow his advice.
- As a non-R user I’m not sure how far you can get in using R without knowing about data structures. Is using data structures “optional”?
- I see how this is frustrating for a newb, you got that across well. I like that you highlighted the difficulty of it. Knowing Im in the same boat as someone who got out really helps.
- Other than being over 10 seconds, the thing I found frustrating was the 90 seconds. I needed to script this to get it close to the time. I definitely prefer to talk without much prompting.
- Good use of a personal experience/story. “Common frustrations” — perhaps provide a quick example?
- Really liked how you related it to your personal experience: “This is me, a scientist, telling you what helped me do my science.”
- Florian Rathgeber (Imperial College London, UK)
- I could have given a clearer example of notes that you might take in day-to-day and stress advantages of the text-only format
- I like markdown a lot, but I’m not sure that a novice wouldn’t just ask why they shouldn’t just use word (because we need to kill it with fire). Also, doesn’t address limitations of markdown (can be painful for bibliography references, etc.)
- I agree and am a markdown convert. My question (and one I have gotten from others) is that why is this easier or better than Word, or plain text, or …
- Nice topic… I liked how you pointed out that it renders well.
- Maybe taking taking notes is not Markdowns best feature. Fast and easy formatting is a key point.
- Wasn’t completely motivated — Could emphasise the ability to convert to other formats. (Why use the Markdown format — Why can’t I just do the same thing by clicking a button in another editor like LibreOffice?)
- I wasn’t sold: I don’t see why I’d use this rather than Word
- Alex Simperler (London, UK) Why would anyone learn want to learn shell scripting
- Some time spent typing, could have cat’d existing files. Overall good though.
- it seems a little bit risky to do live show. a video seems safer.
- It showed very well the increased productivity
- impressive to be typing online like that, but there could have been less detail, and more focus on big picture
- Could you have highlighted some of the relevant output after qstat to direct our eyes to where we should be looking?
- Scott Burns (Nashville, TN, USA) GitHub & Collaboration
- why do i want to know the issues and use others’ codes?
- could have had sharper pitch for why we should use it
- clear, easy workflow, but what can I gain?
- Really clear voice and I thought you introduced the topic well. Could you have made a mockup Git conversation that was easier to follow for git novices?
- In 90 seconds, you probably don’t need to tell people who you are, and saying, “…so that you can build the best software possible” sounds a bit like marketing speak. Good pace, good clear voice, showed all the key features — I liked it.
- Tim Warren (UW, Seattle)
- Really good stuff. Might be more related to structured data in general, couldn’t this have been done in a spreadsheet? Overall fun to listen to.
- good pitch, really good icebreaker, genuine — would want to learn this
- Engaging! That was great.
- sounds good.
- Very nice example, depending on the audience it could be too simple
- Yes, I think I could have taken a more sophisticated approach — struggled to fit that into the alotted time.
- great example — unexpected, in a good way
- Michael Schliephake (Stockholm, Sweden)
- i am lost. the second, third and fourth items do not sound appealing
- More time spent on the woes of GPU programming than potential increases in speed/productivity. Maybe include specific speedup increases?
- I am not sure exactly what was being talked about. I agree with a concrete examples
- seemed abstract, and would have been great to have concrete examples.
- one crucial example
- Mark Wilber (UCSB, CA, USA)
- I liked the pace and the breadth. Colorful figures were a good sell.
- Good pacing, what can I do extra in matplotlib/python that I can’t in Matlab/excel (devil’s advocate)?
- Scripts seem easy and short and sweet — would have a go to learn this
- sounds good
- Started rambling a bit at the beginning and felt a little rushed by the end
- Came late, but looked to present IPython in a way to wake interest
- Only criticism is you said the interface/syntax was intuitive: it most definitely is not
- Hsingtzu Wu (tokai-mura, Japan)
- Very nice visualisation and clear language
- clear slides, nice pitch. Example would be good
- Nice comparison between the old way and your way. Could have dived deeper into what automation brings (history, replicability, etc)?
- visuals showed what topic was clearly and I liked point that multiple enter commands are aversive.
- The power point worked pretty well. Could you move away from A, B, C to something a bit more real? It would be more engaging and easier to follow.
- Nice and short, and clearly presented — but I still don’t really understand what the shell is doing other than pressing “Enter” for me
- Bror Jonsson (Princeton University)
- well done, I was sure it was going to be long because it was conversational.
- I liked your mention of different tools for different purposes — and reproducability,
- Did you mention specific tools though?
- Normally shouldn’t stumble so much on the wording…
- Good pace, I forgot which example it was, but there was one point which involved a little hand-waving? (Sorry for not being able to pick the example…)
- Good pace, and the motivating examples (reproducibility, automation, remote access) are good ones too.
- Padraic Stack (Dublin)
- Good job! I like the idea talking about being lazy. You might want to to emphasise what you are talking a bit more- it sounded a bit scripted.
- Good recovery from technical failure: slides didn’t work, so you did it live — an essential skill
- I like the three single-word points—nice and expressive like a TED talk
- Chandler Wilkerson (Rice University, Houston)
- I thought that you referenced what your students would be learning was good
- You also gave some clear succient reasons why it would be useful (i.e. ubiquity)
- Think about how to sell the pitch. Why do I need to use VI in comparison to other stuff. Why do I need a text editor?
- You mentioned regular expressions as a reason for learning Vi — is that going to resonate with your target audience? Will they know why REs are useful? And ditto macros — will they know what they are and why they’re a good thing to have?
- I know the ending was perhaps weak
- Catalina Anghel (Toronto, ON)
- Looking at notes while talking
- Good starting story
- Pace was really good. And I liked that you anticipated people being kind of attached to their ‘clicking’ and ‘dragging’ of files.
- Liked that it there was a concrete problem that you were able to fix/assist with.
- It felt very real. I believed you.
- I went faster than when I was practicing. And WAY more nervous!
- It is motivating and re-assuring to audience
- Looking at notes while talking
- Genevieve Smith (Austin, Texas)
- nice to see graphics, But I am not an R person. I know nothing about it, What else would I use it for? But I was motivated..
- Wow, very well prepared presentation, loved the different examples, especiallyt the last one where you changed two lines and got a whole new set of graphs.
- I really like the “whatever this is” — people find it reassuring when their instructor is that honest
- Very nice graphics and with good examples and variation of for tree species
- Well done! Very polished. Well thought out — tried to provide motivations from several different angles, including reproducibility.
- I was confused by the “keeping a record” title, I didn’t understand how it related to the content that followed it
- Tim McNamara (Auckland, NZ)
- 25 seconds in before you started your story — promised me power, but I still don’t know how it will actually help me
- Good. Perhaps explain you meant sql with web beforehand, as I am not familiar with that sort of programming in general and took a while to work out what you were discussing,
- I really liked the idea of giving students a personal story to help explain why this was a useful thing for you to learn. I wasn’t totally clear what exactly it was you gained — other than it felt really great!
- On time, phew! Wasn’t too sure if the story would connect. Was web programming relevant enough to a research audience?
- I think I was convinced by the fact that within little time you could do advanced filtering.
- I liked the idea about personal story but i didn’t get the final gain
- Sorry, not sure what to say that wasn’t said
- Simon Michnowicz
- I was a bit nervous. Perhaps a personal story to lighten it?
- Really tight audience. Perhaps I would have liked to hear a warmer tone in your voice.
- I felt like I had a good sense of what topics you would cover in your session, but I still didn’t feel super-motivated. Maybe it would help to give an example of a task that would be tedious or time consuming without using the command line.
- I liked your presentation (lots of preparation beforehand). Maybe a bit scripted? (I will have the same problem I think).
- Specific audience, spent a bit of time on background but liked the presentation slides
- Spoke directly to the audience’s needs: they have to use HPC, HPC systems are Unix, you interact with Unix from the shell — don’t know if the slides were needed, but I liked the picture
- Shyam Rallapalli (The Sainsbury Lab, Norwich, UK)
- I don’t think you needed the example! I thought you did a great job explaining a situation that was specific — so I could follow it — but generalizable to other people’s types of problems. So it was easy for me to understand how version control could be useful to me.
- Good personal story
- I might have been slow or fumbled, would have been good to show the example
- I liked the example, and I think it was a good introduction to what came next (general to a specific example).
- It was a bit hard to understand what you say in the beginning. I guess if you wouldn’t plan for an example it wouldn’t be an issue,
- Good pace — wasn’t rushed — liked the motivating example (it will appeal to scientists, who’ve all been there)
- Not afraid to pause. Calm voice/pace. Effective use of a familiar example.
- Aur Saraf (Tel Aviv, Israel)
- I want to play the game! When can I begin?
- I liked that you had a single, very clear reason as the basis for your motivation. You also did a good job anticipating the audience’s reaction to learning by playing, and in doing so your motivation was very effective.
- Yes, very motivating for learning the game.
- I want to play the game too, very precise and clear
- one technical thing in front of a camera — try to keep your head and shoulders relatively
- Jonathan Frederic (Cal Poly SLO, CA, USA)
- So excited to see you interactively fit the plot, but then we didn’t get to see it! Great demo idea.
- Liked that start of your example. Had me excited to learn about iPython.
- Good demo. Wanted to learn the feature of the iPython you mentioned.
- Clearly spoken. Too much to cover in 90 seconds.
- Well spoken. A bit too ambitious with what you wanted to do in 90 secs.
- Didn’t get to the good part!
- Dav Clark (UC Berk D-Lab, Berkeley, CA)
- Very good speaking voice and pace — much clearer than most people on the web
- Very good introduction. Sound clearly.
- Technical, but spoke really clearly with good pace.
- Very technical, seemed well rehearsed. Wish I could have seen more of the example.
- Well spoken. Nice and calm. Made sense to me. Shame about the timing.
- Great voice. Could easily read text on your window.
- Matthew Dimmock (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia)
- I kinda liked the skeleton. But otherwise, very clear description. I think physicists would be motivated if they were already dealing with the problems you mentioned — you could have made a bigger point about the generality.
- The slides were nice and clear. I am motivated to learn more about convolution. Tough to do in 90 seconds.
- I wasn’t sure where you were going at first, but towards the end I understood. I think the -1 -1 -1 8 example was a bit too much for the time limit.
- Liked the slides. The images were useful, but is there a way you could have done a live example of any kind?
- Slides is good. Need to shorten the motivation.
- Showed me what it is — I’m still not sure why it’s so important (you said it was, but I didn’t see it beyond “here’s how to find edges”)
- I think I went a little fast , and should have tested in full screen mode.
- Jacob Levernier (Eugene, OR)
- Good motivation re: general idea of messy data. Still a little hard to follow what’s going on with the regexps.
- I love the summary of what we would learn. I wasn’t quite sure if I was learning about regular expressions or the tool that you used.
- The summary part is great. The example is a good one,too. I really want to learn regax.
- Showing power of regular expressions is good and motivating. A bit technical, but I like it.
- The regular expression you showed on the screen (right hand side) was really, really scary — is there a simpler one that would make the same point?
- Well spoken again. I was convinced. Nice simple example that everyone could relate to.
- Liked the motivation part of why I would use it, but didn’t get that feeling of you being excited about RegEx and what they can do.