Friday, June 6, 2014

Tasha Versus the Hack Off

Hackfest: Honestly I didn't know what to expect when I attended this session.  It appealed to me as the presenter also works in an Engineering Library and as such, I thought I should attend.  I left with a greater understanding of what a hackfest is and some lingering desire to help plan one at the University of Saskatchewan.

A hackfest is an event that attracts a large number of individuals who come together and engage in collaborative computer programming while evolving the principles of information literacy instruction.  The presenter highlighted that this event worked nicely because of the experimental learning opportunities in the first year computer science course at her university (guest lecturer each week who assigned work of some kind).

Students formed groups, worked on ideas and concepts, meet with mentors and participated in peer-to-peer feedback sessions and then finally presented their idea.  The event is collaborative and not competitive.

Considerations:
  • dedicated space for at least 48 hours
  • opportunities for ongoing mentorship
  • build relationships with faculty and staff
  • build upon the history of libraries
  • create an agenda that foster critical literacy and not just digital literacy. 
Key takeaways:
  • learn more about GitHub (social coding): https://github.com/
  • Definition of critical making "is the process of making is as important as the results" Ratto
    • This reminds me of the leadership learning that we have done around the formation of teams at the U of S. 

Please note: the name of this blog post pays homage to my favourite episode of Chuck, Chuck Versus the Hack Off - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034914/.

1 comment:

  1. I just read a blog post about this kind of thing! The author of that blog, who lives in the States, called it a "hackathon", so these kinds of things happen all over! Very interesting.

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