Education Program

A position currently held by laurel; one of the first paid positions created at Free Geek in order to make the education aspect of our mission a reality.

[Hiring a new education coordinator] can be a great opportunity for Free Geek to develop the education aspect of our mission, if we choose the right person and supply them with the appropriate resources and orientation. To do this, we have to have a coherent vision of what we want the education program to be.

Current Situation
Free Geek is an educational center that can provide people with basic knowledge about PC architecture computer equipment and basic computer use just through exposure. Those who join the Build Program can get more detailed information about hardware and troubleshooting and some GNU/Linux skills. If they assiduously ask questions and take advantage of our documentation and Internet access, motivated volunteers can learn a lot. The "Advanced Linux" classes also provide a way to learn some operating system basics that may not be touched on in the workshops.

Volunteers with an independent bent can serve the community and learn about more esoteric things, like laptops, printers, and servers, if they are dedicated and self-reliant.

The most structured learning at Free Geek takes place in the FreekBox Adoption Classes, 1-3 hour classes that introduce an "adopter" to the basics of using her new computer. Though adopters are encouraged to re-take this class as necessary, education thenceforth generally takes the form of calls to Tech Support to answer questions about installing or updating software or basic troubleshooting.

There are also (very sporadic) classes on other topics taught by volunteers as they have the inspiration and time and the space is available.

Resources Available
There's a large amount of knowledge and talent in the community, both in current volunteers and in Portland as a whole, which is becoming a center of Free Software development and advocacy. Some of these people are willing and able to teach. There's also a lot of public goodwill toward Free Geek, and potential collaborations with local projects such as the Sun School or PLUG.

Free Geek has a large amount of documentation detailing things that have a direct bearing on our important processes, such as system evaluation. There's a smaller amount of documentation meant to be purely educational, such as the FreekBox manual.

We have one, potentially two, classrooms and a space that could be used for lectures if we weren't storing stuff in it.

And we also have the Free and Open Source community.

Our Goals
Our mission says we will provide "education, internet access and job skills training to those in need in exchange for community service."

The education we provide is, in some sense, a necessary part of reuse because the systems will not be used if people do not know how. We also have an unoffical mission to promote the Free Software that allows us to do all this with reused equipment, and an assumed goal of remaining solvent. Up to the present, our education program has not really been a money-maker, but instead is a piece of our operations that everything else buoys up.

Who Shall We Serve?
"In exchange for community service" implies that at least part of education program must be available to our volunteers purely in exchange for the good work they do here. I suggest that the education opportunities we already offer fill this obligation, though they can of course be improved. But we really ought to expand our offerings, and the direction we expand them in will depend on who we want to serve.

often far beyond the reach of many of our FreekBox adopters. These are classes for which it would be reasonable to charge a fee, and they would potentially expand our talent pool in these areas while giving people bona fide "job skills training."
 * The Coders and ASSes (and some advanced builders) are examples of people who might like to see training on Free Software in particular, in programming, system administration, and related topics which are
 * Those who come here to get a new computer are searching for a whole different set of job skills, such as keyboarding and Internet use. This is not a group that we should expect to get money from, but i believe they are pretty much our first priority, for the reason stated above: it's not reuse if they're not using the computers.
 * The general public might be interested in classes/lectures on general computer makeup or on the ewaste problem, aimed at interested generalists. This could bring us some income, positive public attention and possibly donations, and i hold would forward our position as a "community organization" among not just our volunteers, but also our neighbors and Portland as a whole. We are looked to as a model by people all over the world. If we develop these curricula, people could share this information everywhere.

Potential Projects For An Education Coordinator
literacy.
 * Improve existing documentation. For example, the Freekbox manual could be expanded indefinitely - and while we provide people with a printed copy with their FreekBox, we might make printed copies of an expanded version available in the store. Other items might include detailed build materials, or laminated command line cheat sheets. The information should be available freely, but printed versions could be sold.
 * Further develop the Advanced Linux classes to include things like lessdisks (theory and installation) and the differences between distributions. This would require volunteer teachers, as there are not enough staff hours to offer the current advanced Linux classes on a regular basis. As the classes become more consistent (and the space more bearable), asking for donations or even fees for these classes would be reasonable.
 * Collaborate on the development of the Nonprofit Assistance Program to make classes tailored to computer users who are switching to Free Software.
 * Develop a series of classes on basic computer topics (like the ones outlined on the Classes page of the wiki), which could relieve some pressure on tech support and give people more confidence and basic
 * Search for ways of reimbursing teachers, whether with a stipend or other rewards, in order to assure consistent and professional teaching. Yes, write grants!

I have lots of other ideas. I'm sure there are many more in the minds of the Free Geek community.

YIKES!
All this, and maintain the stuff we do already. The one thing that will most determine whether the new education coordinator will succeed is how much time they are allowed to have to develop new programs and maintain the exisiting ones; stuff that can only really be done in what staff refer to as "admin time." My opinion is that a new education coordinator will need to have significantly more admin time than i currently do. This may mean that more paid hours will have to be added to the schedule, whether as internships or collective member hours. Giving the new education coordinator a schedule such as the one i have will doom them to failure, or at least frustration as they strive to maintain the already-existing programs.

Job Description
We'll be looking for someone who can come to a program that works and make it something new and better. At the same time, she will need to be able to work within the culture and limitations (and with the unique strengths) of Free Geek and volunteerism. We need someone who can be:


 * a volunteer coordinator
 * a grantwriter
 * a Free Software advocate
 * a writer
 * able to talk to people with all levels of experience
 * and super flexible.

She should also be dedicated to our mission and ready to jump into a democratic workplace. An ideal candiate will have some experience in program development (or, alternately, curriculum development) and sensitivity to the needs of volunteers. Her previous coworkers should have a sneaking suspicion that she is secretly a superhero.

And one has to have a sense of humor to work here or it just isn't gonna work.

Timeframe
(See also Hiring and Job Calendar) I am starting classes in late September, but would like to stop being the education coordinator in late August, if possible. This would mean we should start the hiring process immediately in order to have the job posted in public for a decent amount of time before starting interviews.

I ask the council to approve the preceding description of the position, and to provide the staff with any additional guidelines for selection you may feel appropriate.

(This originally posted to the council list on 7/20/05.)

What's happening
The council did not approve going ahead with hiring a new education coordinator as described immediately, but instead asked a working group (consisting of HR and other interested parties) to come up with a strategy for hiring in the near and not-too-distant future.