Starting considerations
We are officially starting next Wednesday our Fab Academy 2021 term. Welcome again to all new (and non-that new students). Few considerations on communication platforms and random stuff. Apologies for the long mail ….
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Mandatory lectures are held every Wednesday from 16:00 till 19:00 (FINNISH TIME) in Zoom: http://fabacademy.org/2021/video.html (meeting ID: 894 1627 8965, password: 1234). We will track the COVID situation and at some point it might be possible for local students to follow it from Fab Lab. Remember that every week you should have your documentation ready just in case Neil’s random generator chooses you to present your work. In order to be sure you can present something, do not wait to push to the repository till Wednesday afternoon (I will go through it on Thursday): DOCUMENT WHILE DOING.
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Usually on Thursdays you will have the class with local instructor. Each instructor will inform beforehand about the schedule and the teaching mode (Zoom or face-to-face). The information will be provided about Gitlab. IMPORTANT FOR LOCAL INSTRUCTORS: this year we have two remote students so you should always open a zoom channel with them in your local classes. If you would like to show some of the process using any of the machines it would be great if you could also “Zoom” it. We have a Gimbal at your disposal that you can use for your mobile phone. You can also ask for help to your support instructor. Please, also remember to record zoom meetings, specially if the remote students cannot attend to the class.
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This year we are not going to have Whatsapp group for quick communication / chatting with students. Instead, we are going to substitute by Mattermost. You can install Mattermost in your mobile phone (if you want to receive notifications) or use the online site. FabAcademy Mattermost service available at: https://chat.academany.org/. You can see at least two channels: general and Node:Oulu. The last one is our internal communication channel. Using the default settings you will only can get a push notification in your phone only if someone speaks directly to you. That’s why if you want to be sure that others see your message, @ him/her or to the whole @channel.
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While Mattermost is going to be our informal communication channel, for specific (and more important) academic aspects we are going to use gitlab.fabcloud.org. We have our own project there: https://gitlab.fabcloud.org/academany/fabacademy/2021/labs/oulu/site. It contains: o The Fab Lab Oulu website. You should not touch this one but for documenting your group project in the machine week. o The Wiki: https://gitlab.fabcloud.org/academany/fabacademy/2021/labs/oulu/site/-/wikis/home -> Here we will have there the list of instructors, the schedule and link for local classes and additional material for each local class. The wiki is not yet updated and contains information from 2020. Please, local instructors, you can start “filling the gaps” for the local schedule. Include in the Instructor list also the support instructor. o The Issues. We will use the issue tracker of this project to send important information and reminders to students. It is important that our students change the notification settings (the bell at the top right corner of the screen https://gitlab.fabcloud.org/academany/fabacademy/2021/labs/oulu/site) to watch, if you want to receive an email everytime we send you an issue. You should do the same for your own repository.
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You do not have any tasks for next Wednesday. However, if you have time, you could do the following. o Have a look to the following video: https://vimeo.com/504684413 (pass: fablaboulu_2021). I provide there a short introduction to Version Control System and Git. This is something you will use during the whole course. More on Thursday. o Check last years Oulu students sites (e.g. http://fabacademy.org/2020/people.html, http://fabacademy.org/2019/people.html). During this week you need to decide (and implement) the visual appearance and structure of your site. You can either use a predefined template provided by Fab Academy: (e.g. this one from Antti: http://fabacademy.org/2021/labs/oulu/students/antti-rytilahti/, you all should have already your own predefined template in http://fabacademy.org/2021/people.html) or create your own site (check Xinhui for instance: http://fabacademy.org/2020/labs/oulu/students/xinhui-hu/) o You should also check last year projects. During this week you should define a project idea. I would recommend it to have a few ideas before the Thursday lecture. You should not have yet clear a detailed view of your project, but at least which is going to be your main concept.
And I think that is all (for now!!!)
See you on Wednesday!!