AJAX Workshop Reflections
Apr 18th, 2008 by Karen
I’ve taught a workshop on AJAX in Libraries with Jason Clark 3 times now and each time it both gets better and more challenging. It gets better because Jason and I tweak the workshop based on the participants feedback. We have buffed up the examples we should and Jason has added more sample code. It gets harder each time because the technical aptitude of our audience increases each time. This isn’t a bad thing by any means but it raises the issue of how your teach a workshop that really should include hands-on coding when your venue doesn’t provide this type of facilities?
code4lib has this same problem. Only for them it isn’t a problem. The given at code4lib is that any preconference is BYOL (Bring your own laptop). Everyone knows it and everyone BYOLs. But code4lib isn’t CIL or Internet Librarian and I wonder if these conferences have yet crossed the threshold where preconference participants wouldn’t balk at a BYOL environment. I’d like to think that it would be possible for Jason and I to do our workshop as BYOL at Internet Librarian in the fall. This would allow us to do SO much more. It would also present different challenges and mean we would need to keep the group smaller in order to keep our sanity.
Based on my experience teaching the workshop at CIL this year though. I get a strong inclination that meatier and more hands-on, digging into the code is what people want. Frankly, I like teaching this type of workshop better myself. It is more fun because you can see people’s personal successes. To pull it off though the technology has to be spot on. Otherwise, chaos reigns and that can create a very negative experience. I’m really going to have to think about if it is possible and desirable to try to teach the AJAX workshop this way and if Jason and I are going to try it what logistics need to be handled to pull it off well.
You bring up a good question, Karen. Your post didn’t say how many people you had at each workshop. In my experience, hands-on workshops mean that the instructors have to go slower (so everyone can keep up) and have to have fewer participants (so the instructor(s) can give hands-on help when needed). That you are team-teaching this with someone else certainly helps on both points (one of the instructors can be roaming through the attendees to help out individuals without the main speaker having to stop), but attendance for an effective workshop is still limited to about two dozen people at most.
Peter,
We have averaged about 25 people at the AJAX workshop. If I was going to do it hands on I’d like to cut that down to 15 tops. I’d even be willing to teach the workshop twice (once in the morning/once in the afternoon) to accommodate the people registered but not have too many folks in the workshop to be hands on.
“I get a strong inclination that meatier and more hands-on, digging into the code is what people want.”
I know I’d like to see more of that at CIL. In talking to attendees there seems to be a big divide between the people who are well versed in the basics and want something more in-depth and the people who still don’t know what RSS or AJAX is.
“The given at code4lib is that any preconference is BYOL (Bring your own laptop). Everyone knows it and everyone BYOLs.”
Some of us get to know this the hard way… :-(
Thank you for being so kind about sharing yours!