#devstudyjam

There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about how MOOCS will change future education.

I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of non-traditional education and as such was excited to check out something new - Google Developers Study Jams  The tl;dr version is free, in-person study groups based on online course content.  This seems like a really good model to me.  One gets excellent instruction from a single polished, expert source which is viewable any time, any number of times.  But there is also the social motivation and benefits of a co-located group.

I have enrolled in many MOOCS.  Completed maybe 30% of those I started, and passed about 50% of those.  My recent experience at The Iron Yard codeschool brought in to focus the importance of both a workspace and a face-to-face peer group as support in completing the material.  As I see things, the big downside to a The Iron Yard model is cost - five figures USD.  The current codeschools are expensive because you are paying for the content - some expert is lecturing you in person three hours a day four days a week.  As I have written previously, I see a lot of cost but not a lot of value in live lectures.

Enter the Study Jam model.  Course content is online via Udacity.  Workspace is donated (by Two Toasters in our case).  Pizza is funded by Google.  Students work through one lesson per week then meet weekly for a few hours to work / discuss / troubleshoot / network.

The first part of Study Jam was an (unintentional) selection filter which I barely passed.

Quest Objective 1:  Find the meetup
Two Toasters is right around the corner from where I work.  I arrived for Study Jam a few minutes early to discover - no more Two Toasters - just an empty office suite.  Out came my phone, pulled up a PDF of the ticket and got the address.  Walked to the address on the ticket and found a crowd of geeks gathered outside a locked door at the American Tobacco Campus.  Through the glass door, we could see Two Toasters (they had moved to a new location as of a few weeks ago) but we could not get in.

Quest Objective 2:  Gain entry to the building
I am proud to say that, being familiar with ATC I knew that one could enter the Cuban restaurant next door, exit the rear, go down the hall and open the doors from the inside.  That is exactly what I did to thunderous applause from the crowd outside.

Quest Objective 3:  Get inside Two Toasters
Once inside the ATC, we were greeted by frosted glass double doors adorned with fresh Two Toasters vinyl appliques.  Locked double doors.  The crowd of engineers mulled what to do.  We checked other doors - all locked.  We pressed buttons - none gave us access.  We tried key cards on the reader - all rejected.  Smart phones came out - people searched for ways to contact Two Toasters - Twitter, Google+, Facebook, email, telephone.  There was a way in.   We would find it.

Then the crowd parted as someone stepped forward, stood squarely in front of the glass obstacles, raised their fist and rapped three times on the glass.  A murmur of surprise and anticipation spread through the crowd of engineers - the ancient practice of knocking - someone had double majored in engineering and history.  The doors promptly opened and a young woman with pink hair escorted us to the meeting space.

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