[Systers-dev] (1) Reporting back from PyArkansas, (2) courses you want from me, for this group

[Gloria W]

Hi All,

For those who want to know, the PyArkansas women's code sprint never got 
near this project. We covered a weather data map project I had written 
as a teaching example (cherrypy, mongodb, postgresql), then an 
interactive regex script I had written for the same purposes. The 
students were outstanding, really sharp, understood it all, but just too 
green to be tossed into this project after a two hour intro to Python.

I invited them to join, I hope some of them do. From the outreach 
perspective, the code sprint was a flying success.

As an aside, I asked them all to talk about what inspired them to enroll 
in CS, and if they had faced any barriers. One woman said she was 
discouraged in high school, but never from that point forward. Everyone 
said the college experience is excellent (Hendrix College), and no 
discrimination happens there, to my surprise.

Granted, the program is tiny. But if such a tiny program in such a small 
school, in such a remote place could accomplish this, it really makes 
you appreciate the effects one person can have on a community. Dr. Carl 
Burch seems to be the reason for this lack of discrimination. When I met 
him, I had no doubt he has a conscious plan to make this program bigger 
and more diverse. He is really awesome.

Re: online courses you want from me, pls let me know what features/types 
of courses you have in mind, and the medium (Moodle? IRC? Something else?)

Thank you,
Gloria