This review post covers the last three weeks of activity for Software Carpentry.

One shot of Software Carpentry is not necessarily enough… –Phillip Fowler

Lesson Material

Christina Koch has been reorganizing the default install instructions for Software Carpentry bootcamps to make them clearer. Take a look at the proposed changes here, and drop by https://github.com/swcarpentry/bc/pull/211 with any suggestions for improvement.

Ethan White has continued his work on intermediate lesson material, focusing on Python content. Here’s a preview of one of the new lessons! Please drop by https://github.com/swcarpentry/bc/pull/209 to leave feedback.

Karthik Ram, John Blischak, and Gavin Simpson have been working on a complete set of R materials for an R-themed bootcamp, based on original work by Karthik. Please direct any editing feedback to Karthik’s Issue Tracker.

Website

Abigail Cabunoc redesigned the Software Carpentry website over the last several weeks—check out the new front page.

Bernhard Konrad has added an independent instructor map in https://github.com/swcarpentry/site/pull/274, and Greg has added some other enhancements, including country flag images. You can see the results online, but the resulting page is too pretty not to share:

Blog

Phillip Fowler posted a study of the impact of the Software Carpentry bootcamp held at Oxford University one year ago. In addition to some clear visualizations, Phillip looks at what tools and techniques students are still using, and what they think now of what they learned then.

We’re very pleased to announce that Andromeda Yelton will be coming to Toronto in mid-January to help teach a bootcamp for librarians. Her advice on how to do this is online, along with her reflections on what she’s learned herself. There’s lots of good stuff in both, and we’re looking forward to lots of new ideas.

Now that Software Carpentry has wrapped up its sixth round of instructor training, we’ve written a summary of enrolment and completion rates. If you’re looking to take part in an instructor training, please mail us.

On his blog, Mark Guzdial considers how to gain interest and hold attention in computer science education. Greg Wilson adds Software Carpentry’s perspective in Catch and Hold. How do we catch the attention of scientists by showing them we can help them solve their problems? And how do we continue to reach out to underrepresented groups within science and computing?

Software Carpentry now has a CafePress store with lots of ways to show your support, including Software Carpentry-themed glassware.

We are excited to welcome Arliss Collins to the team. Based in Toronto, she will be working on bootcamp management, infrastructure development and maintenance, and communications.

We’ll return to our normal weekly schedule next week. Welcome to SWC 2014!