OpenTechSchool2019-12-17T22:38:26+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.orgAleksaleks@opentechschool.orgJavaScript for Absolute Beginners workshop with Refugees at Neue Nachbarschaft Moabit2017-04-01T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2017/04/javascript-for-absolute-beginners-with-refugees<p>Last Saturday (25 March) we did a <a href="https://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/238213272/">JavaScript for Absolute Beginners workshop in Berlin</a> again.</p>
<p>This one was particularly special as we successfully reached out to new people - in this case refugees. We got invited by <a href="http://neuenachbarschaft.de">Neue Nachbarschaft Moabit</a>, a community initiative for bringing together newcomers and locals, to do the workshop at their wonderful café. We were happy to have a diverse group of learners, coaches and organizers, half of them members of the Neue Nachbarschaft community.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2017-04-01-js-workshop/01.jpg" width="500" /></p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2017-04-01-js-workshop/02.jpg" width="500" /></p>
<p>People enjoying learning together and connecting.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="de"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Everyone is busy making the browser smile. <a href="https://t.co/Q6m7w8dKkY">pic.twitter.com/Q6m7w8dKkY</a></p>— OpenTechSchool BLN (@OTS_BLN) <a href="https://twitter.com/OTS_BLN/status/845620526131433472">25. März 2017</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="de"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">American artists, Syrian refugees, born Berliners, Chinese engineers, meeting in a room to learn JavaScript together. Amazing!</p>— Hëävü Mëtäl Westin (@karlwestin) <a href="https://twitter.com/karlwestin/status/845694477138350086">25. März 2017</a></blockquote>
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<p><br /></p>
<p>A big Thank You goes out to the many helping hands that</p>
<ul>
<li>organized everything regarding the venue</li>
<li>prepared the OpenTechSchool laptops so we could give them out to learners that didn’t bring one</li>
<li>installed extra <a href="https://berlin.freifunk.net">Freifunk</a> routers to make the wifi stable enough for the 40 people we had in the room</li>
<li>gave presentations about OTS and JavaScript</li>
</ul>
<p>and of course to the coaches!</p>
<p>Some of the learners volunteered to participate in establishing a new Open Co-Learning at Neue Nachbarschaft.</p>
<p>We are looking forward to run more successful events with Neue Nachbarschaft.</p>
Rust Hack and Learn joins OTS2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2016/01/rust-hack-and-learn-joins-ots<p>Our regular <a href="http://rust-lang.org">Rust</a> Berlin Hack and Learn meetup has now <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/227320730/">officially joined</a> the OpenTechSchool umbrella. We meet biweekly and learn the new programming language created by Mozilla. The Rust Hack and Learn is coached by Florian Gilcher, member of the global Rust community team, Johann Hofman, founder of the group and Florian Hartwig.</p>
<p>We make this move because we wanted to join an organisation that supports us in our goals and provides a helpful framework. OpenTechSchool runs many events with a similar concept and promotes them, which allows us to be more effective in our outreach by doing it together with other language communities that share our goals and values. This includes our community diversity goals.</p>
<p>Finally, many of us come from other language communities and see a lot of value in collaborating instead of telling juvenile jokes about each other.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Rust-Berlin/">Rust Berlin</a> meetup will still continue to exist and will host the irregular meetups with talks and other projects.</p>
OpenTechSchool Berlin becomes official host of IT-Labs Berlin2014-02-07T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2014/02/taking-over-it-labs-berlin<p>Right <a href="/2013/01/announcing-student-labs-in-berlin.html">from the beginning OpenTechSchool has been a strong supporter of the IT-Labs initiative of the Technology Stiftung Berlin</a>. Our coaches have relentlessly helped writing content, supporting the building of the USB-Stick and hosting event. Heck, we love it so much, <a href="/2013/09/zurich-kids-education.html">we took it to Zurich and started it there, too</a>. So it makes us very proud to announce that OpenTechSchool will officially take over the hosting and organization of IT-Labs in Berlin from Technology Stiftung Berlin and start it with an <a href="http://www.tsb-berlin.de/tsb-berlin/veranstaltung/de/0/0/0/1118/Kick-Off-IT-Labs-Berlin">official, public kick-off ceremony on February 20th at ImmobilienScout</a> (<a href="http://www.tsb-berlin.de/tsb-berlin/veranstaltung_anmeldung/de/0/0/0/1118/Kick-Off-IT-Labs-Berlin">feel free to join here</a>).</p>
<h3 id="the-kick-off-event">The kick-off event</h3>
<p>Will take place February 20th, 15h30 at <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/52.5125/13.4260&layers=H">ImmobilienScout24</a>:</p>
<address>
ImmobilienScout24 <br />
Andreasstraße 10 <br />
10243 Berlin
</address>
<p><br /></p>
<p>You can find the <a href="http://www.tsb-berlin.de/tsb-berlin/veranstaltung/de/0/0/0/1118/Kick-Off-IT-Labs-Berlin">full schedule here</a>. The event will be german-only. To <a href="http://www.tsb-berlin.de/tsb-berlin/veranstaltung_anmeldung/de/0/0/0/1118/Kick-Off-IT-Labs-Berlin">sign up, please use this form</a>.</p>
<h3 id="what-is-it-labs">What is IT-Labs</h3>
<p>When it comes to Tech-Education in Schools many teachers are lost: even if they knew what to teach, few schools have the facilities and coaches to give their pupils access to this. And even if they do, they are often bound to restrictive and boring tech curricula. The idea behind IT-Labs is to break this loop by getting the kids out of their class rooms and schools and into fun and exciting tech environments, where they learn hands-on coding and tech topics.
For that IT-Labs Berlin was able to build a network of Partners, namely OpenTechSchool, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Technische Universität Berlin, the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Technik, KDAB Deutschland and ImmobilienScout24, building, hosting and running these workshops.</p>
<h3 id="the-future-of-it-labs">The Future of IT-Labs</h3>
<p>The idea is to start with at least one IT-Labs workshop morning per month and increase this over time. Which workshops are offered and when depends on the availability of coaches. To make booking easier, the date, place and topic will be pre-announced and promoted to all schools in the network, which then can decide to apply with their class/group of pupils. The experience of the last year taught us that a longer time-frame between announcement and event is of a lot of help. Once this has been set in motion, we’d like to increase the frequency, but first things first.</p>
Announcing OpenTechSchool Hackership Advocates2014-01-09T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2014/01/announcing-opentechschool-hackership-advocates-programme<p><img src="/assets/content/2014-01-07-advocates.jpg" alt="Advocates are the wind driving hackership forward" /></p>
<p>As you <a href="/2013/12/a-look-back-on-2013.html">already know</a>, OpenTechSchool Berlin <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/an-apprenticeship-for-hackers-a-hackership/">is currently raising funds</a> to create the first OpenTechSchool Learning Space and run – aside from its awesome free workshops at evenings and weekends – the <a href="http://www.hackership.org">Hackership full-time code learning programme and master class for advanced programmers</a> there. And now, you can help raising these funds yourself as we are announcing the <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/hackership">Hackership Advocates Programme</a>:</p>
<p>Are you excited about the idea of a OpenTechSchool/Hackership community learning space? Do you want to help raise the visibility and funds for it? <strong>Become an official <a href="http://discourse.opentechschool.org/t/application-for-hackership-advocats-programme/407">Hackership Advocate now</a></strong>.</p>
<h2 id="becoming-an-advocate">Becoming an advocate</h2>
<p>The OpenTechSchool community is very <strong>diverse</strong> – there are <strong>pirates, samurais, unicorns, terminators and robots, bears and kittens</strong> – and we’d like to represent that. <strong>Please pick one of the previously mentioned themes and apply it to a picture of yourself</strong> – whether you photoshop it, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/make-me-pirate/id586117979?mt=8">use an</a> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appspot.swisscodemonkeys.pirate&hl=en">app</a> or dress up for real is up to you. Then post this picture together with the name you want to have displayed and your Indiegogo account on the following thread. We look forward to your submission!</p>
<p><a href="http://discourse.opentechschool.org/t/application-for-hackership-advocats-programme/407">Post it here</a>.</p>
<p>After that, there is only one last thing left to do to become an official advocate: as soon as your image is displayed on the <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/hackership">Hackership Advocates website</a>, officially announce your participation – either through a tweet or a Facebook or Google+ post. Congratulations, you have just become a Hackership Advocate!</p>
<h2 id="benefits-of-being-an-advocate">Benefits of being an advocate</h2>
<p>Aside the obvious – being awesome and featured with a cool picture on the website – being an advocate comes with some more benefits. Through the Indiegogo account you provided in the post, we’ll track donations made through your referrals and <strong>award you with prizes</strong>: For just five donations (independent of the amount) referred by you, you’ll receive one of the <strong>limited edition Hackership-Advocate-Shirt</strong> (only available through this programme). And once ten or more donations have been received thanks to your referral, <strong>you’ll receive a spot on our Danke-Schön-Wall at the official OTS/Hackership space</strong> as mentioned in the perks (normally this perk comes from a donation of at least €2,048).</p>
<p>And that’s not all: Whoever refers the highest single donation will officially be named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_mate">Chief Mate</a> of Hackership which will include a prime spot in bigger letters with their new title on our wall. And the one referring the highest total amount of donations will be pronounced a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_engineer">Chief Engineer</a> of Hackership, including all the benefits listed above.</p>
<p><em>Note</em>: We can only account for donations made through your referrals. Please try to <strong><a href="http://support.indiegogo.com/entries/20582313-how-to-share-your-campaign#overview">use your personalized Indiegogo link</a></strong> when you post about the campaign. Otherwise, it gets really hard for us to keep track of individual referrals. If you encourage someone to donate and don’t have your code handy, tell your donor to post a hidden comment on the campaign page telling us they were referred by you and we’ll add this to your referrals list. Closing time for this competition is the end of the <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/an-apprenticeship-for-hackers-a-hackership/">Indiegogo campaign</a>. T-shirts will be sent out afterwards, accordingly.</p>
<div style="font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1em">
<p>This amazing picture was taken by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sophiea/3601175935/in/photostream/">Sophie and then licensed under Creative Commons Share-Alike-Attribution 2.0 on flickr</a>.</p>
</div>
A look back on 20132013-12-31T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/12/a-look-back-on-2013
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-12-30-year-in-review.jpg" alt="It has been a colorful year" /></p>
<p>2013. The first full-year after it all began in April of 2012. And what a year it has been – a truly great one for OpenTechSchool. Let’s take a short look back on what has happened this year and a small peak into the future at what is yet to come– which promises to be at least as exciting, if not more so.</p>
<p>We started the year off with some formalities. On January 5th, a <a href="/2013/05/opentechschool-is-now-a-foundation.html">few of us came together</a> to officially initiate the OpenTechSchool Foundation – the legal and liable entity of our organisation. At the same time, on the other side of the world, our dear friend Steven Farlie established the third chapter of OpenTechSchool. After Berlin and Stockholm, Melbourne joined as the third local team – and the first one outside of Europe.</p>
<h3 id="more-chapters">More chapters</h3>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-08-11-social-coding-global/social-1.jpg" alt="Social Coding in Melbourne" /></p>
<p>Throughout the course of the year, the movement grew. Other chapters joined, initiated by Berlin team members and community members outside. As of this writing, almost twelve months later, we have teams active in <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/berlin/">Berlin</a>, <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/brussels/">Brussels</a>, <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/dortmund/">Dortmund</a>, <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/hamburg/">Hamburg</a>, <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/melbourne/">Melbourne</a>, <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/nairobi/">Nairobi</a>, <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/ramallah/">Ramallah</a>, <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/stockholm/">Stockholm</a>, <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-tel-aviv/">Tel-Aviv</a> and <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/zurich/">Zurich</a>. I, personally, know of at least two more endeavors, in London and RheinMain, which are planning to join us very soon. A total of twelve chapters on four continents – in one year. Not too shabby.</p>
<p>With a number of new chapters, our outreach has also grown. We are - as of now - counting a total of 3.962 Learners within our various meetup-groups, Berlin being the largest contributor with 1.883 people (over three times as many compared to 594 we had on the 1st of January, 2013). On the other side of the spectrum, the OpenTechSchool’s coaches list is now at 217 and we have over 90 people contributing to organizing events.</p>
<h3 id="more-workshops">More workshops</h3>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-04-12-kids-hackathon-poster.png" alt="Kids Hackathon" /></p>
<p>2013 saw the likes of several new events such as the <a href="/2013/04/first-kids-hackathon-in-berlin.html">Kids Hackathon</a>, which OpenTechSchool co-organised with Hackidemia this year in Berlin, the <a href="/2013/01/announcing-student-labs-in-berlin.html">IT-Student Labs</a> in <a href="/2013/09/zurich-kids-education.html">Zurich</a> and Berlin, the <a href="/2013/07/app-summer-camp-in-hamburg-it-was-awesome.html">App Summer Camp</a> for teenage Girls that our Hamburg Team sucessfully organised as well as our <a href="/2013/06/how-the-learners-meetup-is-doing-in-berlin.html">regular Learners Meetups</a>. Of course, along the way, new learning material has also been added to the portfolio. As our <a href="http://learn.opentechschool.org/">newly created overview page shows</a>, we’ve created another five workshops completely from scratch this year.</p>
<p>For those interested in more numbers, globally OpenTechSchool <strong>has hosted 192 events this year alone, of which 137 where hands-on and workshop focused</strong>, empowering a total of 3.700 participants to learn more about coding and technology (2.087 at the hands-on events respectively). But that isn’t all. Aside from adding new materials, and trying more formats for even the younger crowds (as mentioned earlier), OpenTechSchool Berlin has also been exploring how learning can continue after the first weekend workshop.</p>
<h3 id="more-learning">More learning</h3>
<div style="text-align:center;position: relative; width: 100%; height: 0px; padding-bottom: 56.5%; margin: 25px auto;"><iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/82717221" style="position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%; left: 0px; top: 0px;" width="500" height="281" webkitallowfullscreen="1" mozallowfullscreen="1" allowfullscreen="1"> </iframe>
</div>
<p>From this, we’ve developed two new formats: the first being the <strong>continuous learning groups</strong>, where people meet regularly once a week after hours to work on their own projects amongst nice coaches, music and beers. Of course, coaches are only an arms-length away to help with questions and problems at any time. We’ve successfully implemented this with Javascript and Python and we know the RailsGirls in Berlin are doing a similar thing. These groups allow everyone who is interested to continue to learn with OTS support without having to quit their job or taking on expensive courses to reach the level of junior developer.</p>
<p>The other program we’ve developed is <strong><a href="http://www.hackership.org">Hackership</a>, a full-time code learning programme and masterclass</strong> for experienced developers who want to acquire new skills or get better at what they already do. The first experimental Batch ended about two weeks ago and the results are very promising. It is possible to transfer our model of an inclusive, welcoming and friendly learning environment to learning advanced topics, too. And it’s the most productive and efficient way to learn we’ve seen thus far.</p>
<p>Of course there has been more: <a href="http://opentechschool.github.io/slides/">We’ve created plenty more slides</a>, went to and spoke <a href="/2013/05/join-us-at-codemotion.html">at</a> <a href="/2013/05/presenting-at-codemotion-the-state-of-tech-education.html">various</a> <a href="/2013/10/kiwi-pycon.html">conferences</a>, were featured in <a href="/2013/10/kiwi-pycon.html">Year of Open Source</a>, started a <a href="/2013/05/more-documentation-and-more-open-too.html">knowledge base</a> (didn’t go so well) and an <a href="http://discourse.opentechschool.org/">online forum</a> (doing much better), <a href="/2013/07/naitobi-dev-school.html">supported awesome initiatives</a> and <a href="/2013/08/paypal-donations.html">got great support</a> ourselves.</p>
<h3 id="outlook">Outlook</h3>
<p>Berlin is the first chapter to reach its capacity, however. We have more workshops and formats in the pipeline and more people on the lists than we have space to run these events. In particular, running the continuous learning groups and the full-time Hackership programme require space and equipment beyond what our current sponsors are able to host by themselves. Encouraged from this years successes, we don’t want to slow down. If anything, we want to host even more events!</p>
<p>That’s why we’re creating the <strong>first OpenTechSchool Learning Space in Berlin in 2014</strong>, a location dedicated to learning tech – open, friendly and welcoming to all. During the weekdays it will host Hackership, and in the evenings, Fridays and during the weekend it will be available for other OpenTechSchool events, reaching wider audiences and more people. In order to make this a reality, <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/an-apprenticeship-for-hackers-a-hackership">we are currently raising funds through this Indiegogo campaign</a>. Please spread the word!</p>
<p>Another thing coming in 2014 is a stronger focus on <strong>bringing our global community closer together</strong>. We already had quite some success with the <a href="http://discourse.opentechschool.org/t/building-an-html-css-workshop/21">HTML-Workshop being the first one developed</a> and hosted collaboratively by teams from multiple chapters simultaneously. A few even joined our end-of-the-year strategic review meeting in November. Another objective is to make the work and processes more transparent and easier for the you, our community members, to become a part of. We hope you’ll be on the lookout for all the exciting things we have in store for OpenTechSchool in 2014. We have a strong feeling it’s going to be another great year – for all of us.</p>
<hr />
<div style="font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1em">
<p>Disclaimer: All numbers have been compiled using the official numbers of mailing lists and meetup groups <a href="https://github.com/OpenTechSchool/www.opentechschool.org/blob/e043058bc01ffd37dbad556ab4f515a89dc18f11/scripts/the-numbers.py">extracted using this script</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nishanthjois/4453067173/">Nishanth Jois for licencing the starting picture under CC</a>. FYI, it shows the Ganapathi (Lord Ganesha) temple at this home town decorated for the yearly fair.</p>
</div>
OpenTechSchool Berlin goes full time: announcing the first Hackership programme2013-08-19T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/08/opentechschool-berlin-goes-full-time-announcing-the-first-hackership-programme
<p>We’ve already announced that we are looking into offering a more in-depth programme <a href="/2013/05/presenting-at-codemotion-the-state-of-tech-education.html">back in May at Codemotion </a> but thanks <a href="/2013/06/lets-talk-about-an-in-depth-programme.html">to feedback and input of the community</a> we now also know what we want to do specifically: we call it <a href="http://www.hackership.org/">Hackership</a>.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/hackership-teaser.png" alt="Hackership Teaser" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.hackership.org/">Hackership</a> is a full-time, self-directed peer learning programme for coders to become better hackers. As every experienced coder knows there is no better way to really learn than getting knee deep into the mud and hack on and experiment with the new technology for a while until you really got it. Inspired by the <a href="https://www.hackerschool.com/">Hacker School</a> in New York, <a href="http://www.hackership.org/">Hackership</a> tries to provide an environment for exactly that by bringing together people, who want to learn the same thing, create a distraction-free, learning focussed environment and provide the guidance and help through experts in the field - we call them “Hackers in Residence”.</p>
<p>You can learn more about the concept of <a href="http://www.hackership.org/">Hackership on the website</a> or through <a href="http://hackership.github.io/slides/presentations/hackership/?full#Cover">this presentation</a>. Hackership Berlin is scheduled to start in <strong>Winter 2013/2014</strong> and will accept applications as soon as the last details are figured out (we are still looking for a good venue to host the programme).</p>
<h3 id="part-of-the-bigger-opentechschool-vision">Part of the bigger OpenTechSchool vision</h3>
<p>With this programme in place, OpenTechSchool now has offers for all experience levels: workshops for total beginners, continuous learning groups for on-going-learning of intermediates, and Hackership for experienced programmers.</p>
<p>The <strong>beginners’ workshop</strong> have been running since the creation of the OpenTechSchool in various topics and formats such as Javascript for Absolute Beginners (a week-end workshop), Python (for which a constantly growing series of workshops to be run over the months is built), Android development, Arduino and more in the pipeline. Those allow anyone from any background – especially total beginners – to get started with technology easily. Their learning material is hands-on, follows a pragmatic and result-oriented approach, is very expressive with precise steps to follow and also encourages to experiment and become creative.</p>
<p>On top we’ve created <strong>continuous learning groups</strong> recently: weekly or bi-weekly after-work groups of people learning together in a specific field. Without any pre-defined programme, structure or schedule to follow, people just meet to learn and work together on whatever they want and have coaches around, who help however they can. This open format allows everyone to come as their schedule allows, learn at their pace and the subjects they are interested in. And as this, too, is run by volunteers after-work no one is required to pay any tuition or quit their job to continue learning. Berlin currently has two of those, for <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/dwwbjgyrlbjc/">Python</a> and for <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/134245462/">Javascript</a>.</p>
<p>By adding <strong><a href="http://www.hackership.org/">Hackership</a></strong> OpenTechSchool wants to provide a similar experience to experienced developers, too. With the slight difference, that coders, who are proficient enough to judge a good source by themselves whether a source, don’t need the same kind of coach. So instead there will be experts – so called “hackers in residence” – providing them deepest insights in even the complex aspects of those topics, allowing the participants to learn faster and more in-depth than if they were on their own. Time is key here, too: we secure the time and space for these hackers to be able to learn full-time with other like-minded people by experimenting and hacking together.</p>
<p>Although these are different programmes they are all based on the same core concepts and values of OpenTechSchool: learning from each others, by doing it hands-on, at your own pace, in a safe and welcoming learning environment.</p>
We are supported by PayPal2013-08-07T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/08/paypal-donations
<p>{.centerme}<img src="/assets/content/2013-06-05_paypal_logo.jpg" alt="PayPal Logo" /></p>
<p>The great thing about running a non-profit organization with a lot of dedicated volunteers supported by companies and co-working spaces is that there’s usually little money needed. But we don’t kid ourselves that there <em>is</em> a need for a solid financial basis. That is the reason why <a href="/2013/05/opentechschool-is-now-a-foundation.html">we created the foundation under German law</a> and allowed supporters to become a member or give donations.</p>
<p>Once we announced this possibility we received requests for electronic payments - even from as far as New York, USA. We started looking for solutions and one that quickly came to mind was PayPal. We asked PayPal if they are willing to accept us <a href="https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/donations">in their non-profit program</a> and they made us an offer we couldn’t decline.</p>
<p>So, we are happy to present you the <strong>zero-fee PayPal donate button</strong> for OpenTechSchool:</p>
<div style="text-align:center; margin-bottom: 20px;">
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick" />
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="DWWZRJAN8C9DE" />
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" />
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/de_DE/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1" />
</form>
</div>
<p>The great thing about this magic button: It accepts any amount in any (supported) currency! Try it out!</p>
<p>We are very thankful to the PayPal team for solving our problem so quickly and especially to <a href="https://twitter.com/seraandroid">Tim</a> who made it all happen!</p>
<style>
.centerme {
text-align: center;
margin: auto;
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
</style>
Help wanted2013-07-27T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/07/help-wanted
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-07-27-help-wanted.jpg" alt="Help Wanted Sign" /></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org">OpenTechSchool</a> has built incredible things over the last year and every time when we add that it is all volunteer work, people are completely speechless. The things accomplished indeed are amazing and we are very proud of it but that doesn’t mean we don’t need any help; that couldn’t be further from the truth. <strong>Not only are we always open for more ideas and projects, we are also constantly looking for people to help us implement and execute the tasks we already have on our hands.</strong></p>
<p>Right in its core <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/about.html">OpenTechSchool has always been about open contribution</a> but we only recently learned that from the outside it looks very established, organised and well structured – basically something that doesn’t need anyone’s help. Let me tell you this is far from true: We are constantly running late on many things we want to do and are always looking for help. <strong>Tech Team</strong> – just to name one example – is constantly late on infrastructure requests coming from the ever-growing community like setting up emails, handle <a href="https://github.com/OpenTechSchool/">github</a> organisation or meetup groups. <strong>Help wanted</strong>.</p>
<p>Or the <strong>Communications Team</strong>, highly under-staffed and unable to talk about all these great things not only the OpenTechSchool teams all over the world are doing but also the cool things partners and befriended organisations are up to. Let alone send out information to the press in appropriate time beforehand to get the information to other groups and people we don’t usually reach. Currently it is randomly <a href="http://twitter.com/opentechschool">tweeting</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OpenTechSchool">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://plus.google.com/b/114834784518588736271/114834784518588736271/posts">Google+</a> posting and <a href="http://blog.opentechschool.org/">blogging</a> whenever there is time. And we know how to make it better but just don’t have the people to do it. If you feel you can contribute some time to this, that’d be great and highly appreciated. <strong>Help desperately wanted</strong>.</p>
<p>Those are just a few, the most obvious, examples. We have so much more to work on: workshops on conferences, workshops targeting less privileged, workshops on more topics, more hardware, more blueprints and website content, other documentation, tips and tricks helping others when setting up their OTS chapter. Maybe this sounds like a lot, but don’t get me wrong, even if you can only spare a few hours a week, that would help us a lot already – <strong>every minute helps</strong> and is highly appreciated. And you <strong>don’t need to be a hardcore techie either, there is plenty to contribute to OpenTechSchool other than coaching</strong>.</p>
<p>So if you want to help out – first of all: a big THANKS – please let us know: Either <strong>send us an email</strong> to <a href="mailto:team.berlin[at]opentechschool.org">team.berlin</a> or maybe <strong>swing by our next <a href="http://www.meetup.com/find/?keywords=OpenTechSchool+Drinks&events=true&eventFilter=all">OpenTechSchool Drinks</a></strong>. We are doing it once a month in Berlin from now on, with the next one taking place this Thursday. <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/130391872/">Come by</a> and join us for a drink and a chat.</p>
<p>{.smalltext}
Thanks to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gottgraphicsdesign/5863884809/">Brenda Gottsabend</a> for sharing this picture with us under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en">Creative Commons</a>.</p>
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How is the Learners Meetup doing in Berlin? Pretty good!2013-06-06T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/06/how-the-learners-meetup-is-doing-in-berlin
<p>In April we <a href="/2013/04/new-learners-meetup-format.html">introduced a new Learners Meetup format</a> and we’re really happy how things are developing.</p>
<p>The Learners Meetup in a way is the essence of what OpenTechSchool is about: people from all backgrounds and experience levels, especially absolute beginners, are coming together to learn and talk about technology. We are creating a community out of learners and coaches, novices and experts of all fields and interests.</p>
<p>The barcamp-style part of the event we started in May turned out to be a great way to get people to talk to others about topics they’re interested in. Small groups of two to eight participants that share the same interests including at least one expert get together. After 15 to 20 minutes one person per group summarizes for everybody what the group was talking about. Everyone gets involved that way and talking usually continues after the official ending.</p>
<p>Topics that were discussed included</p>
<ul>
<li>The difference between Ruby and Python (turned out it is basically in culture :))</li>
<li>Reverse-engineering</li>
<li>Different types of databases popular in the Java world</li>
<li>How to do paralax scrolling effects?</li>
<li>How do I start a programming career?</li>
<li>What is the “best” language for beginners (sorry, depends)?</li>
</ul>
<p>What would you like to talk about?</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-06-06-mingling.jpg" alt="Mingling" /></p>
<p>Visit the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/">meetup.com</a> pages of the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/116981172/">last</a> <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/121203582/">two</a> events for participants’ comments and some more pictures.</p>
<p>We will continue this and come up with more ideas how to connect people. Next step is to get participants more involved in organizing the event.</p>
<p>Check the <a href="/berlin/">Berlin page</a> for the next meetup which should be 3 July. Hope to see you there!</p>
<p>If you have an idea for a talk you’d like to hear or give, <a href="https://github.com/OpenTechSchool/learners-meetup-berlin">please submit an issue to our github repository</a></p>
Presenting at Codemotion: the state of Tech Education2013-05-31T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/05/presenting-at-codemotion-the-state-of-tech-education
<p><img src="/assets/content/the-state-of-tech-education.png" alt="The state of Tech Education" /></p>
<p>We were initally planning to co-host our talk with a few other tech learning inititatives at this years <a href="http://berlin.codemotionworld.com/">Codemotion in Berlin</a>, but when we learnt they were unable to participate, we had to restructure <a href="http://opentechschool.github.io/slides/presentations/the-state-of-tech-education/">our talk</a> and the topics to talk about. Though a little shy first, we decided to take this opportunity and, after talking about the lastest developments in the tech education space and presenting the OpenTechSchool and what we do, talked about something we’ve been pondering about for a while: <strong>How to make sure learning becomes an on-going process and take a peak into the future plans of the OpenTechSchool</strong>.</p>
<p>Fortunately, our friends at <a href="http://www.sourcefabric.org/">SourceFabric</a> recorded the audio, so we can give you a bit more than just some really beautiful but not that informative slides. And we stichted those two together using the great <a href="http://popcornjs.org/">Popcorn.js library</a> to sync the slides with the audio. So just press play on the soundcloud player beyond and follow our presentation.</p>
<p>(Tip: if you are only interested in that future-part of the talk, feel free to skip to minute 28.)</p>
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Extending the family - Hamburg and Zurich in go position2013-05-13T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/05/extending-the-family-hamburg-and-zurich-in-go-position
<p>After the successful launch of <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/melbourne/">OpenTechSchool Australia</a>, we are very happy to announce another two local teams joining the always extending OpenTechSchool movement: <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/hamburg/">Hamburg</a> and <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/zurich/">Zurich</a>. And not only are the kick-off events already set up, no the first workshops and events are on schedule in those cities already, too.</p>
<h2 id="hamburg">Hamburg</h2>
<p><img src="http://www.opentechschool.org/images/team/diana.jpg" alt="Diana" />{.team .right} <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/hamburg/">Team Hamburg</a> was initiated by Diana, who learnt about the OpenTechSchool when she participated in the <a href="/2013/01/ots-and-the-berlin-geekettes-hackathon.html">Berlin Geekettes Hackathon</a> earlier this year. Inspired by this experience she contacted the OpenTechSchool Team in Berlin about setting up an OTS in Hamburg.</p>
<p><img src="http://app-summer-camp.opentechschool.org/assets/flyer_web.gif" alt="App Summer Camp" />{.thumb .left} She already had a concrete project in mind, too: the <a href="http://app-summer-camp.opentechschool.org/">App Summer Camp</a> Hamburg, taking place 16th to 19th July, is a full week program in which teenage girls will learn to code and publish their first mobile app. And it will also be the first project OpenTechSchool Hamburg. The official OTS Team Kick-off will take place the week before, July 11th at ThoughtWorks <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-hamburg/events/115518512/">and can be found on meetup.com</a>.</p>
<h2 id="zurich">Zurich</h2>
<p><img src="http://www.opentechschool.org/images/team/robert.jpg" alt="Robert" />{.team .right} Our dearest Python coach and one of the main authors behind the great Python Beginners material recently went to Zurich to work at Google – say what? – and decided to take the OpenTechSchool with him. A few weeks in, he has proven there is an interest for such a learning community indeed and <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/zurich/">the team</a> had their <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-zurich/events/116036042/">kick off meeting on May 5th</a>.</p>
<p>The first workshop is on the schedule as well already, <a href="http://colab-zurich.ch/">Colab</a> is willing to host the Python Beginners for a Saturday afternoon and Robert is currently <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-zurich/messages/boards/thread/34200822">compiling a list of coaches and their available dates</a> in order to find the best date to host as many learners as possible. So if you are around or will be there at some point, please put your information in the corresponding <a href="http://doodle.com/hid8nn9p73tydyv4">doodle</a>.</p>
<p>Exciting times!</p>
<p><em>P.S.: If you are interested in starting something in your city, there is a <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/handbooks/city-blueprint.html">new city blueprint</a> in our <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/handbooks/">handsbooks</a> to help you get started…</em></p>
<p><br style="clear:both;" /></p>
Berlin: New Learners Meetup Format2013-04-29T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/04/new-learners-meetup-format
<p>The idea of the Learners Meetup is to have a monthly slot where we can rock up and</p>
<ul>
<li>hear talks which are on a level we can understand</li>
<li>connect with other people learning tech to share knowledge, help and motivate each other</li>
</ul>
<p>Learners of all levels are welcome, especially absolute beginners. As a
beginner you get access to people who may be able to help you, and as a more
experienced programmer you can share your expertise and train your mentoring
skills by being a coach.</p>
<p>The new format we will try:</p>
<ol>
<li>Welcome and introduction to coaches - what can you help someone with?</li>
<li>15 minute scheduled talk - the talks are aimed so that everyone can get something out of it, no matter what their level of experience or programming language.</li>
<li>A “mini barcamp” - anyone can propose a topic they want to discuss or get
help with and we organise ourselves into discussion groups or pairs. At the end we get
together as a group and summarised what we discussed.</li>
</ol>
<p>This meetup’s scheduled talk will be:</p>
<h1 id="testing-testing-123-with-benjamin-kampmann">Testing, testing 123… with Benjamin Kampmann</h1>
<p>How do developers test their code?
What is a unit test? What other kinds of tests are there?
What is test driven development?</p>
<p>Signup for the meetup <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/116981172/">here</a></p>
<p>If you have an idea for a talk you’d like to hear or give, <a href="https://github.com/OpenTechSchool/learners-meetup-berlin">please submit an issue to our github repository</a></p>
First Kids Hackathon in Berlin2013-04-12T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/04/first-kids-hackathon-in-berlin
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-04-12-kids-hackathon-poster.png" alt="Kids Hackathon Poster" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.hackidemia.com">HacKIDemia</a>, <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/">OpenTechSchool</a> and <a href="http://toywheel.com/">Toywheel</a> are bringing the hackathon format of working together on technology in interactive workshops to the world of Kids in Berlin with their first Kids Hackathon on Sunday, April 28th 2013.</p>
<p>Do you have a child (6 to 15 years old) and you want them to learn the latest technologies hands on and by experimenting in interactive workshops? Bring them to our Kids Hackathon where they learn to use microcontrollers, crafts and programming to express themselves and their ideas in the areas of interactive storytelling, space, music, healthcare and body functions, environment and ocean.</p>
<h3 id="details">Details</h3>
<p>The Kids Hackahton will take place Sunday, April 28th 2013 from 10:00 a.m. at <a href="https://maps.google.de/maps?q=Immobilien+Scout+GmbH+-+ImmobilienScout24,+Andreasstra%C3%9Fe+10,+Berlin&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sll=51.175806,10.454119&sspn=7.744349,19.819336&oq=immobilien&t=w&hq=Immobilien+Scout+GmbH+-+ImmobilienScout24,&hnear=Andreasstra%C3%9Fe+10,+10243+Berlin&z=16">Immobilien Scout 24, Andreasstraße 10, 10243 Berlin</a> near train station Ostbahnhof. Workshops will be held in both <strong>German and English</strong>, the event is <strong>free to attend</strong> but donations are encouraged. In order to participate you have to subscribe. <strong><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGNVc0tJYld5OXJjOFRlWW5scU9LdHc6MA#gid=0">You can register by filling in this form</a></strong>.</p>
<p>Or if you want to help us coach the kids, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEd0TTlVbTNZRElpZGpSRVJWVHVNQlE6MQ">register here</a> and come to the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/113978012/">next prepration meetup</a>.</p>
<p>You can find the corresponding press releases including the flyer here in <a href="/assets/content/kids-hackathon/KidsHackathon-Berlin-PressreleaseEnglish-12April2013.pdf">English</a>, <a href="/assets/content/kids-hackathon/KidsHackathon-Berlin-PressreleaseDeutsch-12April2013.pdf">German</a>, <a href="/assets/content/kids-hackathon/KidsHackathon-Berlin-PressreleaseArabic-12April2013.pdf">Arabic</a> and <a href="/assets/content/kids-hackathon/KidsHackathon-Berlin-Pressrelease-Basin_bildirisi-TURKCE-21Nisan2013.pdf">Turkish</a>.</p>
OpenTechSchool and the Berlin Geekettes Hackathon2013-01-29T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/01/ots-and-the-berlin-geekettes-hackathon
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-01-29-ots-and-the-berlin-geekettes-hackathon/berlin-geekettes-hackathon_long.png" alt="Berlin Geekettes Hackathon" /></p>
<p>You know that at OpenTechSchool we have always been supportive of women in tech, being glad that half of our learners are women, proud to have amazing female role models among our coaches and dedicated to building a safe learning environment where both women and men can feel welcome.</p>
<p>So it was only natural for us to offer to help at the <a href="http://berlingeekettes.github.com/hackathon/">Berlin Geekettes Hackathon</a>. We will be organising one of our hands-on workshops on the 1st March, the evening prior to the hackathon. The topic? Anything the participants will have asked to get trained on, so that they can get hacking over the week-end!</p>
<p>Now here is how you can participate too. Two options:</p>
<ul>
<li>you are one of our (female) learners? <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEJ5R1RVWWc2MjAtUTdpd3hPSUJjMGc6MQ">Apply</a> to the Berlin Geekettes Hackathon! You think you are not ready? We think you are! It’s never too early to get hacking and we will be there to support you the whole week-end,</li>
<li>you are one of our coaches? <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEJ5R1RVWWc2MjAtUTdpd3hPSUJjMGc6MQ">Sign up</a> as a domain expert and support the hackers during the training session and the hackathon on that favorite technology, language or domain of yours (be it mobile dev, JS, hardware hacking or design).</li>
</ul>
<p>We hope to see many of you there and are looking forward to your awesome hacks!</p>
Announcing Student Labs in Berlin2013-01-21T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/01/announcing-student-labs-in-berlin
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-01-21-students_biopython.jpg" alt="Students learning to code with BioPython" /></p>
<p>Through the <a href="http://hiveberlin.tumblr.com/">Hive-Network</a> we recently came together with <a href="http://s-seitz.de/">Sebastian Seitz</a> from the <a href="http://www.tsb-berlin.de/">Technologie Stiftung Berlin (TSB)</a>. He is supervising the project “Make IT real” and one of the things they are organising there are so called “Student Labs” here in Berlin: a place set up to facilitate a whole class of pupils or students and make a half- or even full-day workshops dedicated to teach tech topics. And the OpenTechSchool would like to help with that.</p>
<p>That is why we are announcing today the Berlin Student Labs mailing list and invite you to join to stay up to date on this topic. As of now, the TSB already secured four different venues that can and want to host such workshops, but what is still needed are <strong>coaches as well as content</strong> and some material around that (for e.g. some USB-live-Distros). So if you are interested to coach coding, design or hardware topics to students and pupils - not necessarily all German - please join this mailing list and we’ll keep you up to date.</p>
Python Coaches Wanted2013-01-07T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/01/python-coaches-wanted
<p><img src="/assets/content/pycoaches_2013_01_05.jpg" alt="Python Coaches meeting Sat, Jan 5th" /></p>
<p>Last Saturday the <a href="http://groups.google.com/a/opentechschool.org/group/coaches.python">Python Coaches</a> in Berlin met again to discuss the upcoming learning materials and workshop for the next several months and weeks. In the last informal gathering over drinks <a href="https://groups.google.com/a/opentechschool.org/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/coaches.python/phQIvlTLOqs%5B1-25-false%5D">it was already discussed</a> which other topics could be covered as well as that there shall be a rerun of the great <a href="/2012/09/a-look-back-at-the-first-python-beginners-workshop.html">Beginners Workshop</a>: aside from a rewrite of the Django 101 Workshop using the new django-marcador-post, the idea was to create a workshop on <a href="https://github.com/OpenTechSchool/python-oop">Object-Oriented-Programming</a> and one about <a href="https://github.com/OpenTechSchool/python-scripting-mp3">Scripting (using an MP3-Library)</a>.</p>
<p>During this meeting those two topics were specified and boiled down to specific point they should cover in a specific order to give the best learning experience and when they should be run. Now it is about getting the hands dirty and get the material written in order to be able to run more workshops. And for both we decided to do another call for coaches. Please join the coaches-mailinglist with the form below wheter you are interested in coaching on site or want to participate in writing. Let’s get this thing going!</p>
<p>You can find all details and the whole protocol <a href="https://groups.google.com/a/opentechschool.org/d/msg/coaches.python/C54lAYDdJXw/WjNSZrlNL7oJ">here as well</a>.</p>
Call for coaches: Android for beginners2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2012/12/call-for-coaches-android
<p class="centersmall"><img src="/assets/content/2012-12-15-call-for-coaches-android/android-banner.jpg" alt="Android" />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saadirfan/5168981298/">image by Saad Irfan (CC BY-NC-SA)</a></p>
<p>First released in November 2007, the mobile operating system <a href="http://www.android.com/">Android</a> grew from a niche competitor to the dominating system used by a variety of device manufacturers and Google’s most important products.</p>
<p>As smartphone use rises, people are getting more more interested in apps and how they are created. Our workshop for beginners aims to enable learners to create their very first Android app. In order to do this, <strong>we need qualified coaches</strong> who will teach according to <a href="http://opentechschool.github.com/slides/presentations/coaching/">our coaching guide</a> and can answer typical beginners’ questions during the first steps of Android development.</p>
<p>Once we have a group of coaches, we will agree on a curriculum and set a date and location in Berlin for the workshop. At the moment, we hope to hold this workshop in mid-February.</p>
<p>If you are up to the challenge and would like to inspire others to build more awesome Android apps, please join the mailing list for coaches below.</p>
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Call for Arduino coaches2012-11-08T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2012/11/call-for-arduino-coaches
<p><img src="/assets/content/2012-11-08-call-for-arduino-coaches/arduino_board.jpg" alt="Arduino" /></p>
<p>Arduino - a small micro controller conquers the world. And we want to help it. Not only because we’ve been asked a lot about hardware workshops for that device but also because we think it is just amazing what you can do with it. But we need help - help by experienced Arduino and hardware people, who want to share their passion with other by coaching.</p>
<p>There is a wide range of workshops and tutorials for Arduino out there. And there are plenty of people willing to learn but afraid to get started or knowing what to do. But it requires good coaches picking the right material or maybe even altering it so that it becomes usable for real hardware beginners, it requires their passion for this device and their experience and expertise to get along well and not be stuck quickly. That is why the OpenTechSchool is calling for Arduino Coaches.</p>
<p>So, if you have knowledge of Arduino and are interested to share its awesomeness with others, please join our mailing list and lets get started.</p>
let's micro hack2012-10-12T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2012/10/lets-micro-hack
<p>A few months back me and my pal <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/nellboy">Paul Nelligan</a> started our little “Micro Hack Days”: Every once in a while, we took the Saturday afternoon to come and hack together in some public place. It was fun and productive, but quickly we realised it would be nice to have more people there to hack-a-long and chat with. So beginning of October we decided to institutionalize this a bit more and make a public meetup under the OpenTechSchool umbrella. Last Saturday we hosted the first “official” event and it was … splendid!</p>
<p><img src="http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/a/f/0/c/600_166064812.jpeg" alt="Meetup" /></p>
<p>Not only did way more people show up than we would have expected (the drop-off rate on meetup events in our experience is between 25-30%) but it was also a pretty great group of various people and we are very happy for having opened it up that way. And it always very motivating to have people around you work on stuff, too. So we decided to keep it up and already have 22 (!!!) people RSVPing yes for tomorrow. If you are interested, join the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/">Group</a>, <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/84897172/">rsvp to the meetup</a> and tag along for some productive side-on-side hacking and helping each other. We gonna do that every Saturday afternoon now.</p>
<p>By the way, more photos <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/photos/11082902/">here</a>.</p>
October will be hot2012-10-01T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2012/10/october-will-be-hot
<p>First off, we’ll host the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/84329032/">Javascript for Absolute Beginners Workshop weekend</a> again: on the 13th and 14th of October, we invite you to join us at co.up for some awesome code learning. But this time <strong>we’ll be hosting day one as a joint event</strong> with <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-stockholm/events/85087902/">Stockholm</a>. If you happen to be around and would like to help us coach, <a href="http://groups.google.com/a/opentechschool.org/group/discuss.stockholm">join the conversation here</a>. We are very excited to be expanding our movement to this lovely city, once again starting off with our awesome JS workshop. That won’t be the only OTS event in Stockholm - we are currently planning to host at least another workshop and the first Beginners Meetup there later this month. Join our very own <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-stockholm/">OTS-Stockholm meetup</a> group to stay informed, and if you’d like to help us implement OTS there permanently, let us know.</p>
<p>There’s more: in just a few days, we’ll host the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/84138972/">Beginners Meetup</a> in Berlin again. Another thing I’m very excited about is the weekly <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-berlin/events/84336562/">Micro Hack Day</a> sessions we’ll be kicking off this Saturday, Oct 6th. Every Saturday, a few of us get together in a bar/café/restaurant to hack on our projects and we’d like to invite you to join. The idea is to to be around people hacking on code, share ideas and thoughts, and discuss tech problems or things you’re stuck on. Unlike other hacking sessions, this one is <strong>explicitly open to beginners who are working on their first projects</strong> or working on an online course they can do mostly on their own but in which they might be stuck somwhere. We are here to help!</p>
<p>On top of that, we are also looking into creating workshops on <a href="https://groups.google.com/a/opentechschool.org/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/coaches.git">git</a> and <a href="http://blog.opentechschool.org/2012/09/call-for-coaches-math-3d.html">Math-3D</a> (coach <a href="http://groups.google.com/a/opentechschool.org/group/coaches.math-3d">sign up here</a>). So if you are interested in either one (or both), join the conversation(s) and let’s make it happen.</p>
Call for coaches: Math 3D2012-09-27T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2012/09/call-for-coaches-math-3d
<p>Animations and visualisations are nice look at, but not that easy to produce, epecially when you are missing the math background. That’s why OpenTechSchool would love to host a workshop about math in visualisation and 3D. In order to do that, we need help!</p>
<p>If you have knowledge in math and/or visualisation and you’d like to share with learners interested in this topic, or if you just feel confident enough to coach one or more math or visualisation libraries out there, please sign up to our Math-3d coaches mailinglist below. Thank you!</p>
Announcing OTS camp at CampusPartyEU2012-07-11T00:00:00+00:00https://blog.opentechschool.org/2012/07/announcing-ots-camp-at-campuspartyeu
<p>I’m very glad to announce that <a href="http://www.campus-party.eu/2012/developers.html#OpenTechSchool">OpenTechSchool will be offering workshops during CampusParty</a>. Yes, we will participate in this week-long tech event, taking place on Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin from August 21 to the 26th. With 10,000 participants, developers, and tech enthusiasts from all over Europe, and over 600 hours of content, workshops, hackathons, presentations, and who knows what else, it will be one of the biggest tech events this city has ever seen. Awesome, right?</p>
<p>Well, it’s even more awesome than you thought: OpenTechSchool will be there as well. But if you think we’ll just be presenting the OTS initiative on stage, you don’t know us very well. Even though there will be a few lightning talks on the developer stage by our coaches on day one, the real stuff is going to happen elsewhere: we’ve been promised to have our own lounge area, where we’ll set up OTS camp - the meeting point for the various workshops on many different topics we will host there. For the actual coaching, we’ll head off to the desks around us.</p>
<p>We’ll be included in the official floor plan of the event and our workshops might even be published in the official schedule, if we come up with concrete plans on time. One thing that will definitely be included is our call for coaches during the event: if anyone feels like coaching learners on any topic at all, they should just come by and we’ll help them get started. Open for us means; spreading the joy of teaching to everyone!</p>
<p>At the moment, we are thinking of doing Javascript, Python, and Ruby workshops, some for beginners and some more advanced, probably covering the same material multiple times throughout the event. But we are still in the planning stages, so if you have a great idea or want to help us coach, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGsxZlkzSjdTM2ROTkJaX0g2azhiSVE6MQ">let us know via this form</a>! Coaches will be receiving a free ticket to the event, which is a definite bonus to the gratification you will receive by teaching what you love and providing an awesome “aha!” to the person at your side.</p>
<p>Get your ticket now or wait for our community raffle (to be announced soon) and join us for great workshops during an amazing festival!</p>