[hackerspaces] How To Teach a Hackerspace Class?

[mAcfreAk]

Hey guys'n'gals!

SOme time ago, I've been instoring in my local space a kinda beginner workshop named HacKids, where the mission is to try to bring youngsters (10-18 years) to hacking.
My approach was rather pragmatic. I had a topic with some sort of guideline for the first 30 minutes. After this time, I let the participants work by themselves, i.e. w/o any instruction wahtsoever. This led the kids to use their own imagination and creativity, two essential skills when starting to hack.

Topics reached from light to heavy, including Scratch development, MindStorms robotics, simple electronics, soldering introduction, solar powered robots, etc.
If you want more insights, go to : http://wiki.hackerspace.lu/wiki/HacKids_Old (old because I stopped my activity in the hackerspace).

However, this is concerning kids. With adults or youngsters, the approach could differ a bit.
The main idea remains : if you're passionate, your passion will spread and engage natural curiosity. 

When it comes to "being prepared", let me tell you that as a teacher (which is my real job), you're *never* really prepared. You count on 10% chance that students will ask questions you simply don't have the answer to. But this is the beauty of it all, improvisation ;-)

HTH

mAcfreAk


On 14 nov. 2012, at 09:48, friday demola <demolaboy at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Jerry,  I've been looking forward seeing someone who would be interested in teaching a new starter in hacking, If you are very available to teach new freshers on how to hack kindly mail me back on the direct email.
> 
> 
> Email: Demolaboy at gmail.com
> 
> Hack On
> Demo
> 
> On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 9:32 AM, Jerry Isdale <isdale at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hackerspaces quite often have classes, right?
> sometimes these are for members only, but many spaces teach public classes as a revenue stream (and to build community).
> but hackers are generally not teachers and teaching, especially teaching the public can be difficult.
> 
> How have you prepared for teaching a class?
> Have you tried teaching when you were only a bit more advanced than the students? 
> Sometimes this is necessary when starting a space - bootstrapping member knowledge!
> 
> 
> Jerry Isdale
> isdale at gmail.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
  mAcfreAk				Innovator - Creator - Maker
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
		1 = 0 for large enough values of 0
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-