Episode 149: Guiding Education with Sheena O'Connell

Episode 149: Guiding Education with Sheena O'Connell

Description In this episode, we're thrilled to welcome Sheena O'Connell, an educator and developer from South Africa who has been making waves in the Python education community. Sheena shares her journey from electrical engineering to founding Prelude, where she runs advanced Django learning sprints and teamwork training courses. We explore the critical importance of soft skills in technical education, diving into Google's Project Aristotle and the five key factors that make teams effective: psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact. Sheena provides fascinating insights into how cultural concepts like Ubuntu ("I am because we are") influence collaborative learning and professional development. The conversation covers practical strategies for teaching both technical and soft skills to adult learners, the challenges of helping students transition from learning to professional environments, and how to build psychologically safe spaces that promote growth and learning. We also discuss upcoming events including Django Con Africa in Tanzania and PyCon Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa, which Sheena is chairing. Whether you're an educator, team leader, or developer interested in fostering better collaborative environments, this episode offers valuable insights into the intersection of technical education, cultural awareness, and team dynamics. Key Topics Discussed Transitioning from technical roles to education Building effective coding bootcamps and adult learning programs The importance of soft skills in technical careers Google's Project Aristotle and team effectiveness Psychological safety and stereotype threat Cultural influences on learning and teamwork (Ubuntu philosophy) Managing the "desperation mindset" in learning environments Professional development and career transitions PyCon Africa and Django Con Africa Cross-cultural team dynamics and communication Guests Sheena O'Connell - Founder of Prelude, former educator at Umuzi, and chair of PyCon Africa 2025 Resources Mentioned Google's Project Aristotle (https://rework.withgoogle.com/en/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness) The Culture Map (book on cultural differences in teams) Prelude Tech (https://prelude.tech) - Sheena's platform for Django courses and teamwork training PyCon Africa 2025 (Johannesburg, South Africa) Django Con Africa (Arusha, Tanzania) Ubuntu philosophy Umuzi (South African coding bootcamp) Connect with Sheena Personal blog: sheenaoc.com (https://sheenaoc.com) Courses and training: Prelude TV PyCon Africa 2025: October, Johannesburg, South Africa Wins and Fails of the Week Sheena Win: Successfully running a teamwork course for Canonical with an international team Fail: All her plants fell onto the couch (and the subsequent cleanup) Kelly Win: Attending ISTE conference in San Antonio, meeting previous podcast guests, and co-hosting a presentation Fail: Losing momentum on Anthony Shaw's GitHub course due to summer break Sean Win: Being interviewed by media about AI coding tools and AWS Amazon Q Fail: Home server power supply failure during a lightning storm, breaking all home automations Episode Notes This episode provides valuable insights for educators at all levels, from K-12 teachers to corporate trainers. The discussion of soft skills, cultural awareness, and team dynamics offers practical strategies that can be applied in classrooms, coding bootcamps, and professional development settings. The conversation highlights how technical education must go beyond coding skills to prepare students for successful careers, emphasizing the importance of communication, collaboration, and cultural competency in today's global technology landscape. Special Guest: Sheena O'Connell.

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Episode 94: Anaconda in Education

Episode 94: Anaconda in Education

Sean and Kelly speak with Anaconda and their outreach program. Anaconda supports educators and learners with the ability to understand and interpret data. This leads to better decision-making and a world where people are empowered to create positive change. Episode Errata: * The hackday event referenced in the episode was related to Pyscript and more information will come out on that shortly. * The data science competition for high school students referenced in the episode is called Data Science Expo and will be piloted in the 2022-2023 school year. Note: we had to go to the cloud-based recording backup for this episode, so you may notice a few issues with audio quality. Our editor did his best to clean it up, but there are a few rough spots. Special Guests: Albert Defusco and Sophia Yang.

1 Aug 20221h 3min

Episode 93: Mission Encodeable

Episode 93: Mission Encodeable

Harry and Anna are high-school students who are passionate about coding, engineering, and design. When they’re not doing their homework, they’re busy writing tutorials, designing website wireframes, and planning the next courses for Mission Encodeable. Special Guests: Anna Wake and Harry Wake.

20 Juli 202244min

Episode 92: Let's Talk Teaching

Episode 92: Let's Talk Teaching

In this episode, Sean and Kelly talk with Computer Science and STEM teachers about our wins, our failures, and all about teaching Python. We're joined by teachers Dottie Holland, Andre Chmielewski, and Andy Colley to talk about everything from our favorite teaching resources, what it's like to teach after the exams are over, why Python over other languages, and more.

13 Juli 202250min

Episode 91: The New Beta Python Micro:bit Editor

Episode 91: The New Beta Python Micro:bit Editor

In this episode, we will learn about the new features of this great alpha product for the micro:bit. Its main goals are to make coding with Python per se and Python on the micro:bit more accessible: * An appealing user interface with bright colours * Contextual help and autocomplete * Example snippets of code you can browse and insert, like browsing blocks in MakeCode or Scratch * Simple code structure highlighting to aid understanding about indents in Python * Explanation of features of MicroPython useful in CS teaching, but not covered in device-oriented documentation * Built-in serial console and REPL so you can do more traditional Python coding using your keyboard input and printing to the screen – the micro:bit is your Python runtime! Special Guest: Giles Booth.

31 Maj 202248min

Episode 90: Equitable Learning

Episode 90: Equitable Learning

We welcome David Cavallo an entrepreneur in using technologies to improve learning and promote social equitable development. Our topic this week is equitable computation learning and the reasons and methods for it. Special Guest: David Cavallo.

12 Maj 202256min

PyConUS 2022 Debrief!

PyConUS 2022 Debrief!

Kelly and Sean debrief on PyCon US 2022 on Sunday morning before flying home. From the Education Summit to the Expo Hall to the Talk Track, we cover it all. Most importantly, we cover the best food and coffee to check out for next year in Salt Lake City! Note - this is a live debrief with no editing. Enjoy!

1 Maj 202236min

Episode 89: FinTech Careers

Episode 89: FinTech Careers

In the 2007 film, Shift Happens, Carl Fisch (later modified by Scott Mcleod) stated that “The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” Although the 65% figure has been debunked quite often and the data that was used during the video cannot always be verified, it is safe to say that the jobs of today, have evolved quite a bit since 2004. In addition, a lot of these fields are Global, rely a lot on technology and the use of code, like Python. In this podcast series, we will speak to professionals in the field that have jobs in industries including Fintech 3.0, Cybertechnology, Ethical AI, and Data Science We welcome Xavier De Pauw Founder & co-CEO of lendX, a B2B fintech that is looking to revolutionize the alternative credit sector with its SaaS Enabled Marketplace. Xavier started his career at Merrill Lynch in London as a Fixed income capital markets & structured finance banker. After 10 years, he co-founded a challenger banking group and was CEO of the digital challenger bank in the group. Again 10 years later, Xavier joined a €75bln private bank and asset manager as their head of strategic innovation. In 2020, Xavier went back to entrepreneurship, became a member of the advisory board at several fintechs and launched lendX with two other founders. Special Guest: Xavier De Pauw.

20 Apr 202246min

Episode 88: Data Science Careers

Episode 88: Data Science Careers

In the 2007 film, Shift Happens, Carl Fisch (later modified by Scott Mcleod) stated that “The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” Although the 65% figure has been debunked quite often and the data that was used during the video cannot always be verified, it is safe to say that the jobs of today, have evolved quite a bit since 2004. In addition, a lot of these fields are Global, rely a lot on technology and the use of code, like Python. In this podcast series, we will speak to professionals in the field that have jobs in industries including Fintech 3.0, Cybertechnology, Ethical AI, and Data Science We welcome Michael Galarnyk. Michael currently teaches Python for Data Visualization for LinkedIn Learning, Data Analytics using Python for UCSD Extension, Machine Learning Fundamentals for UCSD Extension, and Machine Learning with Python for Stanford Continuing Studies. I have previously taught Essential Python for Global Knowledge and Data Science (Python) at General Assembly. Special Guest: Michael Galarnyk.

5 Apr 202248min

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