EuroPython 2015 – Education Summit
This year’s EuroPython conference takes place in July in Bilbao, Spain. Not only is our own Carrie Anne Philbin presenting a keynote (alongside the creator of Python, Guido van Rossum), but the Raspberry Pi Foundation will be running an Education Summit, in partnership with the EuroPython Society.
We have a dedicated track of education-focused talks, as well as training sessions, workshops and discussion groups for teachers and educators. There’ll also be two days of sprints for developers to contribute to educational projects.
As well as Carrie Anne’s keynote, I’ll be giving a talk and workshop on physical computing, and James will be giving talks on the Raspberry Pi Weather Station and his experience as a teacher at PyConUK. We’re really excited to be attending, and helping facilitate the first Education Summit at EuroPython.
Reduced ticket prices
Good news – teachers can pick up conference tickets at the student ticket price of €120, and the organisers have also arranged coupons for kids on request – please email helpdesk@europython.eu.
Raspberry Pi Certified Educators – we’d love to see you there!
Community Pythonistas
We’re not only appealing to teachers to attend EuroPython – anyone interested in Python should feel welcome to attend, and we’d love to see more of the wonderful Raspberry Pi community in Bilbao. Come see some great talks and learn from the best in the industry, show people what you do with Python, and of course come and take part in our Education sprints! Personal tickets are available at €340, and Bilbao is lovely in July.
I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Carrie Anne, who has just been elected to the Python Software Foundation’s Board of Directors – we wish her success in her role on the board.
10 comments
Ben
“I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Carrie Anne, who has just been elected to the Python Software Foundation’s Board of Directors – we wish her success in her role on the board.”
Congratulations! Buttttt… does that mean you’ll be leaving the RPiF? :(
Ben Nuttall — post author
No – it’s not a job, it’s a role on a committee.
Ben
*huge sigh of relief* – that’s what I thought, but…
Luke Castle
Too much money!!!!
Edwinj85
Yeah, I’d love to go as well but I just can’t afford it. :(
Steve Foster
It would be great to go, but I was told a few years ago that my school’s training budget would be just over £100 per year, per member of staff. This was spent some time ago on an exam board course. This is also in term-time, so I would have to take time off unpaid. I would have to pay for accommodation and travel. I’m afraid there just seems to be too many financial barriers :-(
Szymon
This looks great but casually inviting teachers just because it has an “Education Summit” is a bit naive. I think that you have been out of school to long (or were never a teacher) because this is a VERY niche conference, based around a single programming language. But you talk about it as if it is no big deal for a teacher to go to a niche conference in Bilbao for a week in term time(yes, you will tell me that the sessions have general value for teaching, not just Python etc, but think about it).
Most teachers have problems going to the BETT Show when the only cost is a train ticket and a day’s cover. My boss laughed at me when I told him. The cost for travel, accommodation and ticket would be several hundred euros, plus cover for the last three days of term.
It would be nice to come, but my school won’t pay for it or let me go, and I can’t afford it or justify it because it is a specialist conference. I’m sure Bilboa is lovely in July and I’m sure it will be a great conference. But do not treat it like it is no big deal to go, it is actually very privileged. In fact I think you should sponsor some teachers to go.
Ben Nuttall — post author
There’s now a big sponsored initiative funding teachers to go to PyConUK, which has had an Education Track for a number of years – and the confidence the sponsors have in it comes from the previous years where teachers have attended. Maybe next year’s EuroPython will find a sponsor to get more teachers there, if this year goes well. This is our starting point and we’d be stupid not to make an effort to promote it.
You’re talking about teachers in the UK and we’re hoping to reach out to teachers and educators from all around Europe, who perhaps can make it fairly cheaply, perhaps travel just for the day, or a couple of days.
Yes, it’s a technical conference, and we’re not throwing teachers into the technical talks – they may just want to attend the Edu Summit day, and maybe the sprints too.
This is not the only initiative we do for teachers – we run Picademy, our free professional development course, all around the country, to name just one.
Szymon
“You’re talking about teachers in the UK and we’re hoping to reach out to teachers and educators from all around Europe, who perhaps can make it fairly cheaply, perhaps travel just for the day, or a couple of days”
This makes no sense. Apart from France, the UK is maybe the nearest EU country to Spain/Bilbao. Poland is about two times as far for example. So again, I think you are stuck in a “head place” where it is all easy and everyone “just travels for one day faily cheaply”. Please sponsor some UK and EU teachers – it will not be much cost compared to what you are paying for the conference and for the expenses of your team.
David Boddie
I was going to suggest looking at the EuroPython site’s Financial Aid page but it seems that the deadline was the end of last month. :-(