From: Mark Woodward Date: 2007-02-19T20:25:11+09:00 Subject: Re: Adopt-a-newbie? Based on actual experience. On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:20:07 +0900, Logan Capaldo wrote: > On Thu, Feb 15, 2007 at 05:03:16AM +0900, SonOfLilit wrote: >> Hello all, >> >> Remember Samantha? She dropped by the list a while ago and was given the >> idea to develop a Rails resume generator... >> >> Anyway, yesterday she happened to email me about the Haifa RUG post (only >> reply this far and it was a false :/ ) and I happened to remember her >> project and give her a bit of advice, and it developed into a conversation >> reminding a bit of a chat about her project, that seems to have pulled her >> out of a stuck position (I hope). >> >> Well, she told me she's glad she can email me those questions since sending >> them to the list would be overkill and uncomfortable... >> >> Now, remember the recent discussion about newbie questions plaguing the >> list? >> >> All of this has brought me to think of an Adopt-a-newbie model. Somehow, >> every newbie that wants would get an email address of a volunteer from >> ruby-talk, with whom he can correspond personally and who will answer his >> basic questions and serve to also encourage him to keep learning. >> >> I could manage two-three active newbies at a time, I think, and they would >> greatly benefit from it if they are anything like me. >> >> >> What do you think? Would you consider it a good idea? Would you volunteer? >> Is anyone up for infrastructure (preferrably on ruby-lang.org, though >> anywhere is good)? >> > I would be interested, but I think it would depend on the adoptee not > just the adopter. I would not want to end up being the fount of > knowledge and turn into a crutch for the adopted person. >> >> >> Aur Saraf I've often thought about this but in a slightly different way. As a newbie I think this is a great idea and I'd certainly be interested in being mentored, but I'll throw my ideas in here anyway. I guess my ideas are not for newbies on the first rung of the ladder, but a rung or 2 higher. 1. Last year at Uni I was part of a 4 student team given the task of creating a project for a 'customer'. It was web based and used PHP and none of us had any real experience with PHP. But by the end of the year we'd learnt a lot. So, couldn't 4-5 newbies here start an open source project using Ruby? Perhaps with a Mentor overlooking the project? This would not only develop Ruby skills but requirements, teamwork, project management etc. I've thought about joining a 'real' Ruby project but would feel like a preschooler going to University. This way we'd all be preschoolers under the guidance of the Mentor. 2. Have some (progressively harder) newbie quizzes on RubyQuiz. ie have a series of quizzes that brings the (semi) newbie up to the level of the quizzes that are there now. 3. I remember a while ago, although I can't remember the site, someone was organising a series of 'on-line lectures' from the 'Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition'. Something along the lines of: "In 3 weeks time we're going to start studying each chapter over the course of a week. During the first week we'll study 'Computing Sub-basics' the second week 'Basic Commands', wk7 'Shell Scripting' etc Again, could a small group of newbies under the watchful eye of a Mentor do a similar thing with the 'Pickaxe' for eg? cheers, -- Mark