Education and Training Summits

Python Education Summit @ PyCon!

In 2021, PyCon will be holding its ninth annual Python Education Summit virtually. The Summit is a gathering of teachers and educators focused on bringing coding literacy, through Python, to as broad a group of audiences as possible. We invite educators from all venues to consider joining the discussion, share insights, learn new techniques and tools and generally share their passion for education. We are looking for educators from many venues: authors; schools, colleges, universities; community-based workshops; online programs; and government. Not only will we have a wide array of full-blown talks, we will also have a round of lightning talks!

This year we will be splitting the Education Summit into two separate events: the more traditional Python Education Summit, and the Python Virtual Training Summit. COVID-19 has asked us all to transform our practices into virtual worlds.

Virtual Education Summit (Wednesday, May 12)

Having high quality educational materials and informed educators has never been more important than now. While we cannot run the Summit with all the elements we had originally planned, The Education Summit committee is committed to ensuring that the Summit does happen this year. We will have a 2 hour format, held within Zoom. We will have strict schedules for talks so people can attend portions as able.

Education Summit talks will be focused on K-higher education teaching practices, important developments for the Python teaching community, impactful case studies, etc.

Edu Summit Schedule

Check the schedule page for your start time. Times here will be in reference to that. For example, it starts at 12:00 (noon) central time, which will be referred to as +0:00. Then the first talk starts at +0:20, which would then be 12:20. So you should add in your local time.

  • +0:00 - 0:10: Welcoming and setup
  • +0:10-0:20: Opening remarks about the Education Summit
  • +0:20 - 0:40: Introducing Friendly (André Roberge)
  • +0:40-1:00: Learner Personas for Domain-Specific Data Science Educational Materials (Daniel Chen)
  • +1:00-1:20: Practice makes perfect -- but what kind of practice? (Reuven M. Lerner)
  • +1:20-1:40: From room to Zoom: Strategies and technologies for teaching Python workshops online (Marley Kalt)
  • +1:40-1:50: Lightning talks:
    • Interdisciplinary Education case studies: applying Python to the Humanities, Social Sciences, & Arts (Chiin-Rui Tan)
    • Martian Math (Kirby Urner)

Python Virtual Training Summit (Thursday, May 13)

The Python Virtual Training Summit seeks to present how community organizations, trainers, meetup groups, classrooms, and employers have facilitated Python training and mentorship to a virtual environment.

Virtual Training Summit talks will be focused on showcasing the strategies and methods that have been used over the past years to facilitate the formal and informal training needed in highly technical organizations. We are hoping to hear from groups that support aspects of training but may not see themselves within the education sphere.

Following the same time notation, the schedule is as follows:

  • +0:00 - 0:10: Welcoming and setup
  • +0:10 - 0:30: Keynote: Virtual Teaching the New Way of Life (SherAaron (Sher!) Hurt)
  • +0:30 - 0:45: Don't make these training mistakes! (Because I already did) (Reuven M. Lerner)
  • +0:45 - 1:05: Coaching Junior Developers in a Remote World (Sebastiaan Zeeff)
  • +1:05 - 1:25: Python Emergency Remote Teaching (Fernando Masanori)
  • +1:25 - 1:45: Tools we need to teach project management (Sumana Harihareswara)
  • +1:45 - 1:50: Lightning talks:
    • Distilling Your Examples (Miki Tebeka)
    • Computational Thinking for Creatives - Decoding Barriers to Entry (Tadeh Hakopian)

Proposal submissions

We will be using a single CFP form for both summits, so no need to choose between which one to submit to! You may state which one you would prefer, but we will be selecting and curating talks as the content fits.

In addition to the regular advice about PyCon talk proposals, here are some other general suggestions for submission

  • Provide a brief outline of the talk
  • Explain the purpose of the talk, what the audience will gain, etc.
  • As applicable, explain why you are qualified to speak on the topic you are proposing. For example, explain why you are qualified to speak about learning disabilities if that is the central topic of your talk.

Proposals that are only a few sentences or copies of a repository readme file are likely to not be accepted.

To submit a proposal click the button below, a speaker profile will need to be created first. Once you have submitted submissions can be accessed via your dashboard to add or edit the proposal up until the deadline. The deadline to submit was April 2, 2021.

Presenting

Talks will be limited to 10 minutes plus Q&A, with some lighting talks at the end. 10 minutes is not always enough time, but we hope that this keeps the content on target and in a manageable length for audience members. We invite all speakers to record and host a longer form version for demos, expanded data analysis, code, etc. that can be linked from their primary talk recording.

You are welcome to indicate if you would prefer a regular talk or lightning talk, but all regular talks will be considered for lightning talks.

Goals

The goal of the Summit is to bring together leaders from multiple educational venues to:

  • learn more about each other’s efforts
  • gain useful insight from each other
  • form connections that might foster future collaboration
  • identify common issues and begin discussing ways to attack them
  • create an enhanced sense of unity, purpose, and community among teachers of Python, wherever they might be

It is our hope that the Summit will serve as a catalyst leading into the rest of PyCon to encourage even more interaction - hallway discussions, open spaces, lightning talks, and sprints.

Anyone attending this conference will gain a broader understanding of approaches, issues, resources, and constraints in teaching Python, will have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion, and will make contacts with other teachers of Python from across the community.

Schedule and Format

The Virtual Education and Trainer Summit will be held on Wednesday, May 12th and Thursday, May 13th at 1:00pm Eastern/US.

Schedule will be posted after the call for proposals has ended.

What to expect?

We encourage all attendees to engage in the dialogue. We are anxious to hear your questions, see your ideas and experience your passion for education and Python. So please come willing to learn, to participate and most importantly, to teach.

If you have questions, please contact us.