Announcing Prelude

I've been making a lot of announcements lately, there have been a lot of big changes.

I had been working at something that ticked a lot of the boxes of a "dream job". I'd been there for 5 years. I learned a lot, changed lives, built systems. And then I left.

I then announced a thing called the Guild of Educators. The Guild is a community for tech educators. For the people on the ground doing the work of education. It works to empower educators through skills, connection, opportunities and resources.

Now I have one more announcement to make

Introducing Prelude

Prelude is an organisation that focuses on damn fine tech education. It is the business arm of the Guild.

There are a few reasons I created it:

1. I want the work that I do to be financially sustainable. If I spend my life chasing grants then I wont be able to be as active in other ways.
2. I want to have a place to develop and hone the many crafts of teaching. Teachers gotta teach. Teachers gotta get training and feedback about what works

Prelude offers

Prelude is about planting seeds and unlocking potential. It's about education.

Prelude serves 2 types of customers:

1. Educators

Prelude offers consulting services, hands on support, and training to education providers. The goal here is to empower those who empower others. This has always been the goal.

2. Learners

Teachers gotta teach!

Prelude offers hands-on, expert-led, hyper-practical technical training. Currently this comes in the form of short(ish) specific workshops.

We maintain a healthy teacher-to-learner ratio so that everyone can get the support and attention they need.

This is not a Cousera clone, or a copy-paste tutorial system. We believe in the power of teachers. A good teacher can spot the root causes of struggles and reason about unknown unknowns. They know how to teach not only the game, but the inner game.

By offering damn fine workshops we are able to hone our craft. And then we can share what we know about teaching itself.

The end goal here is, yet again, to empower those who empower others.

Prelude ❤️ GoE

Prelude and the Guild have a symbiotic relationship.

Prelude provides the following to the Guild:

• Money. Money buys time that can be spent on building things and adding value to the Guild members
• A place to hone teaching skills
• A place to hone technical skills - Guild members will be invited to take part in workshops as both students and teachers
• Work for those Guild members who are looking to make teaching a career

The Guild provides the following to Prelude:

• A place to learn from other educators and other contexts. Cross-pollination of ideas. People to talk through tricky problems
• A source of tech ed talent: There are a lot of people who are trying to find a way to work in this industry, or who are looking for opportunities to teach
• Feedback! Marvellous wonderful feedback!

Not a closed system

Prelude's efforts feed the Guild and vice versa.

In the short term the result will be better teachers and education providers. That's what I'm aiming for.

And there will also be some nice outputs like free and open-source training material, opportunity grants for people who can't afford to pay for training, and support for tech education providers who are just starting out.

But that just the beginning...

The tech education ecosystem is a wild west. It's something I've said before, many times. Many problems stem from the fact that education training providers are selling products that are completely opaque to the people buying them. And so the dominoes fall...

I'm not going to launch into a rant about it now. But what I'm hoping to do is start to nudge the ecosystem in a healthier direction. It's a very big puzzle to solve.

What I've announced in this article might not seem earth-shattering. A bit of consulting, a couple of workshops, a touch of kumbaya...

The things I'm working on now are foundational. They are pieces of the puzzle. Not the finished result. I'll share more of what I'm thinking another day.

For now, I'll admit that considering taking on such a big problem is terrifying. A part of me feels very silly for even considering this. I realise that the idea of shifting the tech ed ecosystem in a healthy direction is a bit of a moonshot...

A lot of a moonshot...

But moons gotta be shot.

If all I build is an oasis of life-changing skills I would be pretty alright with that.

Wanna buy our stuff?

If you work for an education provider and would like to work with me, please get in touch. There are many ways to do it. I'm all over the place.

If you are interested in joining one of our kick-ass technical workshops, you can keep an eye on things and buy tickets here. The list is pretty small for now, there is more in development.

Call for support

If any organisation would be interested in sponsoring the Guild of Educators then that would be very helpful. I think it is a sensible thing to sponsor. It's still pretty small in a way - there are just over 30 members right now. But each of those members touch many lives.

Sponsorship will allow the Guild to:

• Add more value to the Guild members
• Develop kick-ass open-source course material (with your name on it 😘 )
• Put time into helping to polish the content and processes of other open-source education initiatives (of which there are many, especially in the land of Python)
• Work on outreach: connect with and support different communities (while showing gratitude to those organisations who have helped make it all possible 😘😘)

If any of this is interesting to you please don't hesitate to reach out!