Workshops at home in Colombia
I met Alejandro Tamayo in Helsinki in February during Pikselache 2008, besides the Finnish sauna experience -that includes beer drinking and sausage eating half naked on the snow- we share an interest in electronics, education, and working with extremely small groups.
Picture courtesy of Alejandro Tamayo, follow his flickr account for more
In the past he has been teaching electronics in picnic situations, what is very much in line with the work by the philosopher Sarat Maharaj and his followers at the Un-wetter group. Bringing the educational event outside the classroom and inviting people from outside academia makes the whole experience different, making it into a celebration.
This time, he sent me some pictures where he arranged an Arduino-on-breadboard course at his living room for only four people: a mathematician, a historian, an engineer and a graphic designer. It his his belief that informal teaching models generate special dynamics and bring interesting results.
This is also my understanding about the way hacker culture spreads, through small informal interest groups. If you are part of a community of Arduino users in any size, please remember to use our forum to announce your meetings. There may be many interested/interesting people close to you.