A learning community in action (Image credit: OpenTechSchool)

Learning Communities

Diversifying the tech industry through education

Teri Chadbourne
Aug 22, 2017 · 3 min read

If you’ve been around the tech scene for a while and live in an urban area, you’ve likely uncovered a learning community (or two or ten) in your city that offers workshops or co-learning opportunities. For example, as a UI engineer and web developer in Berlin, Martin Stadler co-organizes Web Frontend co-learning sessions and JavaScript workshops for OpenTechSchool, where he also serves as chairperson. In his passion talk at Offline Camp Berlin, Martin shared with us how groups like his are working to reshape the tech industry by empowering a diverse group of people through free tech education.

Martin Stadler presents “Learning Communities” at Offline Camp Berlin, April 2017 (Video credit: Aaron Ross)

In his talk, Martin focuses on community-based education programs that offer their services for free. (That price tag is an essential ingredient in the effort to increase the diversity of participants.) For the most part, these groups meet in person for hands-on workshops or co-learning sessions, with volunteer mentors or coaches serving as guides where needed. These learning communities also each share a set of common values, and may publish participation guidelines (sometimes presented in a Code of Conduct) to create a safe and welcoming space for learning.

Events in such groups take many forms, but can be as simple as sitting down with others while working on separate projects. In co-learning sessions at OpenTechSchool, for example, participants might sit down in groups of 5–20 people that include both beginners and more experienced programmers. After a quick round of introductions to share what they’re working on, members would get to work on their individual projects, asking each other for help where needed. A group of volunteer coaches floats around the room to help out, either by lending their own expertise or by introducing people who they know could help each other out.

Workshops on pre-set topics are another popular option. Many groups invite local volunteers to present training materials already created and shared online, thereby removing the stress those instructors might otherwise feel to do extensive prep work. (Girl Develop It, for example, makes a whole library of course materials available to its local chapter leaders.) In order to share resources and increase attendance, group organizers from multiple learning communities might create a combined workshop that can be promoted to a larger audience via Meetup or individual group websites.

Whatever your level of tech expertise, tech learning groups can offer a fun way to meet great people and improve your skills. For those who volunteer as mentors or coaches, there’s an added benefit of becoming a better communicator while attempting to explain concepts to someone else. Most important to Martin, though, is the opportunity to help shape the community. To increase diversity in tech, he recommends spending time teaching people who aren’t like you, thereby putting them in a position to become your colleagues in the industry.

Interested in getting involved in a learning community? The list Martin shared in his talk is below. Some of these are global and others not, so don’t hesitate to seek out options closer to home. (Stuck in a rural area? Some of the options on this list, such as FreeCodeCamp, offer online tutorials and communities.)

Setting up a workshop or co-learning session on Offline First in your city, as Martin suggests? Share your event listing with the Offline Camp organizers on Twitter so we can add it to our list of upcoming events!


Editor’s Note: This passion talk is one of many shared at Offline Camp, where a small group of campers with diverse interests come together to discuss Offline First. We hope to see you at an upcoming event!

Offline Camp

Building the Offline First community, one campfire at a time.

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Thanks to Bradley Holt

Teri Chadbourne

Written by

Web developer | Building the dweb community as lead maintainer of @ProtoSchool at @ProtocolLabs | @OfflineCamp co-organizer & #OfflineFirst advocate | she/her

Offline Camp

Building the Offline First community, one campfire at a time.

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