Keynote - Power to the People who Teach the People
Junior Ballroom | Audience level: Audience level: All
About this session
One thing I absolutely love about the Python community is the fact that there are so many people with teacher's hearts. Teaching is an amazing thing, you can change a person's life just by spending some time with them, having conversations, showing them stuff.
It's normal for people with software development skills to take on teaching roles - this might be through formal or informal workplace mentorship, community involvement, through being hired to teach or any number of other situations. Teaching and sharing knowledge is often a part of the job.
Software development and teaching are two distinct skill sets. There is a science to teaching and learning - there is a robust body of knowledge, there are techniques, mindsets and patterns that make teaching effective. And, on the flip side, there are mistakes, anti-patterns and myths that are very much worth avoiding.
It's perfectly normal for software developers to take on teaching roles and responsibilities, but it's exceedingly rare for software developers to receive any training in how to teach well.
I've been working in alternative education for quite some time, I've learned a lot of lessons along the way. In this talk, I'll share some of the most impactful lessons I've learned.
Presented by
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Sheena O'Connell
I’ve been programming in some form since my early teens. After high school, I went on to get an Honors degree in electrical engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. I’ve always been drawn to software development and to teaching. I worked for a string of startups and gained a lot of experience in all aspects of software development, from requirements gathering and UX design to implementation, deployment, and monitoring.
I am currently the CTO of Umuzi. Our purpose is to reduce social inequality in Africa through digital education. Through my work at Umuzi, I have been able to dive into my multiple passions and develop a lot of skills at the intersection of tech and education.
