Linz, Sparkfun and programming at the CTC

The crew outside the CTC

Linz Craig is a, “technologist, educator, consultant and artist” who I met through my good friend Bill Pollock from No Starch Press.

From Linz’s email:

“I’m writing you to let you know that today is my last day at SparkFun. I’m striding off into the sunset and out into the world at large on my own.”

It turned out that Linz was first heading to Uganda thanks to a grant from Sandra Washburn who is running Oysters and Pearls (http://www.oystersandpearls.org) in Northern Uganda.

When Bill introduced us, and I realized that Linz was a SuperGeek like me, and he would be in Uganda, I had to reach out. I’m glad I did. It turns out we have an awful lot in common.

Today, Linz came to the CTC to teach a course. That’s really an understatement because a “course” is a one-shot deal. What we decided to do was have a closed class specifically for our trainers to teach them how to teach programming to kids in grades K-7. This exponentially improves the benefits of the course because our instructors can turn around and use this knowledge to teach others.

Linz’s passion and humor as he taught this course was infectious. Our staff is usually quite stoic and serious (or at least when I, “the boss” am around) but they were laughing along with Linz and they had fun and learned a lot.

Linz taught both Scratch and Processing in the 8-hour long Saturday course and this set the stage for one of the things we’re hoping to accomplish in the new hackerspace: getting kids excited about programming. (I only wish I had been around for the whole course.. I was busy getting ten stitches in a local clinic thanks to a pretty nasty dog bite I got during the lunch break..)

I’m excited to see what’s next, and Linz and I are already scheming about his possible return in January. Linz was such an asset, shares our thrill of technology and our values and I’ll do whatever I can to get him here for a much longer stretch.