We know that some of the guidelines for creating a workshop and/or how we coordinate things might seem arbitrary, ill thought through or just plain irritating. So to help you cope with the injustice of using a centralised template (and other stuff), we've written some justifications below.
In no particular order:
- Websites are great, but when we go into schools, websites are often blocked and it is frustratingly difficult to get them unblocked (most schools don't have control over their firewalls and site blockers - the council does). Being able to print worksheets before we go makes it a lot easier.
- Most of our setups are single screen. Which makes switching to and from a website and the application very difficult, especially as most children are (by CS student standards) slow at using the mouse (and they're really unlikely to use shortcut keys). So again, printed worksheets make life easier.
- We frequently have internet connectivity issues in venues. Printed worksheets again solve this problem.
- Sending PDFs to teachers for them to read is easier for them and generally receives a better response than directing them to lots of websites.
- Printed worksheets have a consistent format and follow through nicely, so they're easy to teach with.
- We can easily hand our printed worksheets to parents to take away
- Many people attending Digimakers don't have laptops to bring, so using website tutorials requires us to loan out laptops. This is a lot of extra organisational effort already. Printed worksheets are virtually zero effort.
- The LaTeX template is easier to work with than the web template so requires less training for people who are new to creating workshops.
- PDFs can easily be uploaded to the website.
- PDFs can be placed into a single repo so everyone can find them, use them and review them.
In no particular order:
- The template is designed to be good for teaching kids. Teachers have reviewed it (along with other design suggestions) and recommended this format to us. It wasn't just plucked out of nowhere.
- Most people who make their own LaTeX template end up with something that is fine for University level students, but it beyond what an 8 year old can cope with.
- If your idea for a worksheet is that good, then it's good enough for everyone to use. I.e. it's good enough for you to integrate it with the proper worksheet template and submit a pull request for your idea (and implementation) to be reviewed.
- Consistent format across all worksheets makes it much easier to train people up to run workshops.
- Consistent format across all worksheets makes it much easier to pick up any worksheet and use it - this makes a big difference in the Drop-In area of Digimakers.
- One template for all means everyone can take advantage of other people's good ideas.
- LaTeX makes it easy to (re-)publish the PDFs when necessary.
- LaTeX is a skill that most engineering students need to learn at some point anyway. Why not now by having the outreach programme train them? :)
In no particular order:
- One place to find all workshops = speedy access during our fast-paced Digimakers events if we happen to run out of printed copies
- One place = one place for parents to look after the event. No trawling through all our repos!
- One place = one place for the web admin to look/to link to maintain the list on the website
- One place = one place for Caroline and the Outreach Teaching Assistant to look to see what's going on / what workshops are available (because if you hadn't noticed, the list of repos isn't great to trawl through!)
In no particular order:
- One place for all resources/stuff for a particular workshop
- Folders within repos and/or branches are better for managing sub-parts of a workshop
- No duplication of repo names making the list of repos much easier to use
No, just no. Endlessly remaking the website is a pointless waste of time. It's very good as it is and we have someone to manage/develop it. By all means suggest ideas, but we'll be keeping the set up as it is for the foreseeable future.