Civic engagement and HFOSS and POSSEs, oh my!

One of my goals for my sabbatical this year is to pursue professional development opportunities that I might not otherwise have time for. As I mentioned in a previous post, I applied for and was accepted into POSSE, a workshop aimed at professors who want to incorporate student participation in HFOSS (humanitarian free and open source software) projects into their courses. The workshop was held two weeks ago in Raleigh.

POSSE is structured in three stages. Stages 1 and 3 are completed outside of the workshop itself — Stage 1 is the “homework” phase, while Stage 3 is the “continuing work” phase. In Stage 1, we completed activities designed to introduce us to the HFOSS world and HFOSS tools and workflow, and practiced using those tools. We examined some projects and learned some strategies for vetting projects for our classes. From what I understand, the goal of Stage 3 is to have us continue working in groups, developing and implementing curriculum (mainly, learning activities) around HFOSS. Stage 2 is the face-to-face part.

The workshop was intense. We maximized the small amount of time we had together. The face-to-face activities consisted of more learning about HFOSS projects and HFOSS tools and workflow, practicing this workflow, hearing others’ experiences incorporating HFOSS into their classes, and working on developing curriculum and learning activities in small groups. I appreciated that most of the activities were done active learning style, with hands-on activities and discussions as opposed to lecture. I learned more about POGIL, a particular approach to active learning, during the workshop since many of the activities were done POGIL-style. (On a possibly related note, I’m strongly considering applying to a POGIL workshop this summer to learn more about it. I realized during the workshop that I already do a lot of POGIL-like things already, but I always love learning how to be more effective using active learning in my courses.)

I went into this workshop intending to find a way to integrate HFOSS experiences into our Comps (senior capstone) experience at Carleton. I struggled during the pre-workshop activities to figure out a way to make it fit, eventually abandoning that line of thinking and instead exploring how I might integrate HFOSS activities into our Software Design course. Being at the workshop, talking with the other participants, and reflecting on the pre-workshop thinking I’d done for Software Design, helped me to get unstuck. I spent much of the group work time planning the curriculum, structure, and schedule for an HFOSS-based Comps. I think I have a pretty good start, and I’m excited to explore it further.

I still don’t feel a great level of comfort in my ability to select an appropriate project. I guess part of the point is that dealing with real-world developers and timelines is messy by default, and I’m mostly ok with that (and that in and of itself is a good learning experience). But as an educator, I have to balance this with the learning goals and objectives I have for my students, and my vested interest in making sure the activities in the course (or the capstone experience) help them work towards those objectives. I’m still a bit scared about all the things that could go wrong with any given project. I think a fix for this is to just play around with some projects more and get a better sense of the level of involvement, and then just try it out next year in Comps and hope for the best.

Aside from everything I learned, the best part of the experience was the people. Collaborating and learning with like-minded colleagues from a variety of institutions in such an intense way is exhilarating. As I mentioned on my FB page, I feel like I’ve gained a bunch of new colleague-friends, people who I look forward to meeting up with in the future and collaborating with in the short- and long-term. I would highly recommend this experience to other faculty! (*)

The biggest takeaway from this workshop? A renewed commitment and interest in integrating civic engagement experiences into the CS curriculum. As I said in my workshop application, I see HFOSS experiences as another piece of the civic engagement puzzle, one I was eager to explore. I see so many new opportunities as a result of attending this workshop. I’ve been thinking of curricular models to expose more students to civic engagement within CS, whether that’s engaging with the local community face-to-face or with the world community via HFOSS. After attending this workshop, I’m more committed to exploring those models and seeing what changes I can institute at Carleton. I have a bigger vision now of what’s possible, and space to explore that while on sabbatical. I’m excited to see where this new path leads me.

(*) If you’re interested in learning more about POSSE and about integrating HFOSS into your courses, there will be a couple? a few? sessions at this year’s SIGCSE, so be sure to check that out if you’re there!

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#AcWriMo: Sabbatical Edition

Longtime readers of this blog know that November brings that annual rite of productivity for academics: Academic Writing Month, or AcWriMo for short. The premise of AcWriMo is simple: you set some ambitious research/writing goal(s) for the month and do your darndest to achieve those goals, with the support of a virtual writing community. I’ve participated in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, and have always found it to be a worthwhile experience.

I’m a little late to the party this year — I didn’t finalize my goals until today. And it feels a teeny bit like cheating, since the purpose of being on sabbatical is to have the space to work on your research, so I don’t “need” this challenge to jump-start my research or get back into good research habits, which is my usual motivation for participating. But I really love the community and support around AcWriMo, and I really love the challenge of setting and trying to meet ambitious goals, so that’s reason enough in my book to join in!

I’ve decided on two main goals for AcWriMo this year:

1. Complete draft of conference paper. I spent a lot of time this summer thinking about restructuring my research. In the process, I identified a line of research that I thought I could complete and submit as a conference paper by the end of this calendar year. I’ve made really good progress so far on this paper. I really really want to end the month with a completed draft that’s pretty close to submission-ready, because if memory serves there’s a submission deadline in early December for a conference that seems like a fairly good fit. To complete this goal, I’ll need to write, debug, and test some simulation code and run some experiments in addition to writing the paper. This is my main goal.
2. Complete rough draft of new research study. The idea for this study also came out of my Summer of Reflection. I’ve been chipping away at it, but not making as much progress as I’d like. (So much to read! So little time!) With this project, I just need to buckle down, complete a preliminary lit review, and sketch out one or two possible study designs in some detail. The challenging part of this project (and probably what’s been holding me back) is that it’s way more of a “pure” HCI (human computer interaction) project than I’ve ever attempted, and is likely going to involve research methods that I’ve never used before. Exciting! and also terrifying.

As usual, I’ll be updating my progress here and on Twitter (@drcsiz) under the hashtag #AcWriMo. This year, there’s also a fancy schmancy tracking app that I’ll be using. And since I’m planning on writing anyway, I’ll also be participating in a  14 day writing challenge in the middle of the month. If all this doesn’t keep me accountable, nothing will!

Happy November writing, everyone!