Thoughts on Belgrade /etc HTML Workshop

Teaching a workshop over IRC is very challenging. I am not sure how successful the HTML workshop was, but I don't think it was a total loss. Having samples and resources already on line was a great help. I could direct the participants to the web page resources and then explain an exercise. Unfortunately, we got off to a slow start as it was very difficult to see what level the women participants were at. It wasn't clear to me if they knew how to use a text editor. I also didn't know what editors they were using, so I couldn't help them with editor commands. Definitely, before the next HTML workshop, I will make sure to prepare a simple editor Howto and ask that an editor workshop precede the HTML Workshop. In the end we made it through some HTML tags, but we were a long way from actually publishing a simple web page. The nice thing is that the students can use the on-line HTML resources that I have created when they like to further their skills.

During the workshop, Donna took some pictures and sent these 3 along to me. It looks like the participants are having a good time, so that gives me some hope that the workshop was actually ok. There were some evaluation forms handed out at the end of the workshop, so I will be getting some feedback from the participants via the evaluation forms. I will be able to implement changes for the future.

As for the /etc in general, I was really happy to see a lot more on-line events for this years eclectic tech carnival. I enjoyed the blog, though I think it could have been used more and the live webcam and live chat was really great. Unfortunately for me (way far away in Vancouver), I was 9 hours behind Belgrade and it was difficult for me to participate in these events. The little time I did spend chatting 'on stage' though was really exciting. It was so nice to be connected to what was happening so far away and to see that our organizing efforts had come to fruition once again!

As a wrap up I would like to invite the women who participated in my workshop or other women affiliated with the GCA or /etc to check out the on-line HTML resources and to make her own web page. If you need a place to publish your efforts, please contact me and I can help you set-up a space on the GCA web page /home section. If you have a place to publish, please don't forget to send your links to me, so we can link it to the GCA web page.