A "flipped" workshop on Web Development with Python & Django
by Parul Gupta (speaking)
Objective
The workshop will help the participants understand the fundamentals of Web-Development with Python/Django well enough that they are ready to build any app they want using resources on the web. We want to do this using an innovative “flipped classroom” methodology which teachers & students around the world have found very effective.
Description
The workshop will teach Web Development by building a real app (choice of an e-commerce website/a daily deal website/an aggregator) using Python/Django. Web development needs a vast set of skills, including databases, frontend, backend and dev tools, and it is hard to teach it effectively in 3 hours. We could focus on one part, say the Django framework, but the workshop becomes inaccessible for people who don’t have knowledge of all the other prerequisites. Hence we want to use the flipped classroom methodology. All the workshop materials (video lectures, readings etc) will be prepared & shared beforehand - here's a starting resource: http://mysliderule.com/web-dev-intro . A mentor aided community forum will be setup to discuss any doubts you have as you go through the material. On the day of the workshop there will be practically no lecture time (maybe just 5 minutes of an opening note) and the entire 3 hours will be spent building and deploying the app in a team of 2. 3-4 mentors with expertise on HTML/CSS/JS/Python/Django/Git/Nginx will work with you whenever you need help.
The goal is to spend more time doing and problem-solving, rather than lecturing. Think of it as a lab session as opposed to a lecture.
In case you are curious to know more about the flipped class methodology, an interesting info graphic : http://www.livescribe.com/blog/education/2012/07/17/the-flipped-classroom-infographic/
Requirements
There are no prerequisites for this workshop. You don’t even need to know coding.
However, the workshop day will be useful ONLY for people who have done majority of the pre-work. The learning will come from the self-paced curriculum, an online community, concluding with the hands-on session meant to clear doubts, tie the loose ends, and help you ship your first webapp!
Speaker bio
(Parul + 3 really smart pythonists will run the workshop. Names will be announced as soon as the workshop & travel plans are final)
Parul has been building software and doing cool research in a variety of areas like wireless networks, cloud computing and big data analytics for a decade. When she started her education startup SlideRule, she taught herself Python, Django and Web-Development using online resources. She has studied at IIT Bombay and University of California, worked at IBM Research and been named by MIT Technology Review India as a Top Innovator under 35.
Why we are the best people to do this:
The "Web Dev with Python/Django” learning path got so popular that it was on the front page of HackerNews for one whole day. We are doing this because we are really passionate about open & accessible education as a means to giving people employable skills. We started SlideRule to build the missing pieces for this movement to materialise.
Links
- A draft of the prework: http://mysliderule.com/web-dev-intro
- (This will be refined for the purpose of the workshop)