Jnaapti’s Day Out @ FSMK 2014

In the last 3 years of Jnaapti’s functioning, we have visited more than 20 Engineering colleges in South India and one thing that we see in common is the lack of motivation in engineering students.

So when this is what seems like a norm, it’s always good to see organizations like Free Software Movement of Karnataka (FSMK) trying out initiatives like the FSMK Summer Camp 2014.

So when one of our Meetup participants asked us if we are interested in conducting sessions on free software technologies for this upcoming camp, we blindly accepted to be a part of this.

fsmk-2014

What the FSMK team was trying out was something really grand! Getting 185 participants (and another 20 odd volunteers) under one roof for a period of 9 days during the vacations and keeping their motivation levels high during the entire period is not an easy task. But like, Sarath MS (one of the key people behind FSMK) put it, “It’s better to try something this big and fail than to not give it a shot”.

The intentions were clear. Get the participants to build something tangible using Web technologies by the time they leave the camp.

Every event has its own share of hiccups. Murphy’s laws are not just theory, and this event had its own share of technical glitches. But what was really good to see was the way the volunteers gelled together to overcome this. And the motivation levels of the participants was mind-blowing.

jnaapti-training-at-fsmk

Our learnings

  1. The audience size – We were anxious about the challenges in training 185 students in parallel with just one primary trainer. So we prepared ourselves by getting our whole technical team involved in this. All the engineers were told about the challenges and we asked them to disperse into the crowd and make sure they give their best in providing personal attention.
  2. Covering the content on time – Considering that there was quite a bit to be covered in 1.5 days, it was always challenging to address individual needs and also to cover the content in the stipulated time. The co-ordination of the volunteers and team Jnaapti went great ways in making sure we didn’t face any issues. The FSMK team was very co-operative and trusted in our decisions to execute the training according to what we felt was more effective.
  3. Afternoon sessions – We know that having about 90 people in a room immediately post lunch and taking them through a theory session is a challenge in itself, but what pleasantly surprised us was that even the students in the last benches were keenly listening and noting down things and were interacting with us.

A few mentions

And then came the 2 days that every soul in the camp enjoyed the most – A session on JavaScript by Mr.Gautam Pai and his team for Jnaapti. What was supposedly a single day session was extended to two and the Jnaapti team complied. They came down, taught the students in the most simple and yet effective manner possible. Farhaan Bukhsh, one of the participants, recalls “Gautam was absolutely amazing. He taught JavaScript in the best way possible. I’m not sure if I could have learnt JavaScript in a better way elsewhere”

Gautam, as Farhaan aptly puts it, was really amazing. He explained JavaScript in a very easy-to-understand way and never showed that learning a new language can be tough. With a perennial smile on his face and wowing the students with his exceptional typing skills, Gautam was a boon to the camp.

Source: http://nitinr92.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/when-fsmk-brought-order-from-chaos-14-07/

This most resourceful session was taken by Jnaapti’s founder Mr. Gautham Pai. He was probably the most efficient guide than anyone else in the entire camp. He also gave everyone good set of tips that is required to enter the IT space.

Source: http://sahilsatishkumar.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/fsmk-summer-camp-2014-fsmksc2014/

“…the basics of web development – HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Mr. Gautam and his team from Jnaapti had come to teach us these technologies. Mr. Gautam taught us wonderfully for the next two days, explaining from the basics of HTML(DOM) and covering a wide range of topics. At the end of his session, we only wished he could extend it.” – Dhiresh Jain (Participant,FSMK Summer Camp 2014 ).

Thank you for your support too -Jnaapti Team

Source: http://dhireshajain.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/fsmk-camp-14-07/

“… we started with javascript which was taken by Jnaapti. They tried to put up things in such a way that it was very interesting and we could grab it soon.” – Poojitha Koneti (a dedicated volunteer during the FSMK Summer camp 2014)

Source: http://konetipoojitha.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/fsmk-summer-camp-14-2/

fsmk-last-day

Unfortunately, we couldn’t be a part of the whole event this time. We wish the FSMK team all the very best and would be happy to be associated with more events in future!