[Cialug] user group idea: coding dojo

[Matthew Nuzum]

Hi, I was able to participate in a cool user-group concept called a
"code dojo" last week. It was a great idea. The group starts out with
socializing and eating (this is optional, but the socializing part
should probably not be excluded), then the premise of the group is
explained to newbies, then a plan is set forth. In my case this was
the 8th meeting so the plan was to decide how to continue from the
previous meeting.

Then you split into a number of groups of about 4-5 people to
effectively pair program where you pass the keybaord about every five
minutes. The goal is to accomplish the agreed upon task in the time
allotted (1 - 1.5 hours), at which point each team demonstrates what
they accomplished, why they chose the path they did and what successes
and problems they encountered.

The group I participated w/ on Thursday evening was extrodinary
because each of the four groups actually had a working project at the
end. Admittedly, at the actual end several of the groups were so close
that they extended the time by 5 min to achieve this, but apparently
having working code is not a given.

The point is to learn collaboratively. Each team is assigned at random
(i.e counting off) so you're bound to get different skill levels and
experiences. Unless everyone in the group is an idiot, I'd expect that
it would be near impossible to leave w/out learning something new.

I'd like to bring this idea to our area. Here's a wiki: http://codingdojo.org/

Thoughts?
-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, identi.ca and twitter