I’m set to co-teach a class today. Essentially, a co-worker and I have created a course about how to do the type of position that we do at our institution (functional technical software support). The reason for the course is that many areas that we work with tend to turn over their “funky techs” quite quickly, sometimes leaving an area with no one with experience. That leads to issues that could easily be prevented if we had a standard entry course to teach those folks.
I’m not sure how it will go at this point. We’re going to do 14 weeks of classes in the hopes of imparting some of our collective experience. If it goes well, I expect we’ll be offering it again. It seems like every person I’ve told about it has expressed an interest, which is both flattering a bit scary. I worry that it’s overhyped, but then I just remind myself that I’ve attended some truly awful trainings in the past through my job. This will definitely be better than those.
When I first started as a funky tech, there was a sense of community among those who held similar positions in other areas. Turns out, that community required intention and focus to keep it going, and we’ve lost the people who once held that. So I also want to make the class a starting point for a more community focused approach to our positions.
I’m nervous, but I’m also excited. Time to see if we can actually pull this off! It will be what it will be, and I hope it is good, or at least good enough. The only way to know is to go.