User:Danielle Benoit


 * Who am I?: Danielle Benoit
 * Email: drop me a line
 * Working on: Tutorials project for Berlin Hackathon 2012

Strategies for Running a Fabulous MediaWiki Tutorial
People learn skills by practicing them. That's the reason we run tutorials at the hackathons. The difference between a presentation and a tutorial is practice. Talks, presentations, slide decks are all passive for the audience. Tutorials put people into action.

Learning Styles: About the "Students"

 * kinetic
 * verbal
 * auditory

There are many learning styles. Most fall into three categories: hearing something, seeing or doing/touching something. Of these, doing something builds skills the fastest. So how can you teach skills to people with all of these learning styles? Mix it up! Include several types of exercises/hands-on activities in your tutorial.

Developer culture leans toward looking at code. It's a primary activity in dev. But, it's not the best way to learn a skill. Why? If you just show a code snippet and talk about it, tutorial participants are engaged in a listening, a passive type of particpation. They are taking in information, but not using it yet. To learn a skill, people need a chance to actively participate, to practice.

Teaching Strategies for All Learning Styles

 * inductive
 * expressive
 * deductive
 * prediction

Offering Resources, Encouraging Participation
"Students" are more likely to use what you taught them if they have a specific opportunity to practice. If you have a Lab or Project they can work in, be sure they get the URL. If there are additional manuals, guides or live help options, be sure they have those links, handles, IRC#s, email lists/addresses, places to find a mentor, etc. Empowering people with ongoing opportunities to engage with the dev community obviously increases the chances that they will contribute code. But, it also strengthens our community and encourages mentorship.

Asking for Feedback Before Your Audience Gets Ready to Leave
Be Bold! You can get quick feedback by asking for a show of hands in response to some key questions. This really helps keep communication open and increases the likelihood that your audience walks away feeling good about your tutorial. You can also create a form online to collect anonymous feedback or MediaWiki/Tutorial discussion or simply ask people to email you with their feedback right then and there. Follow up with an email to participants, including links to and ensuing on-wiki discussions.