[ripe-list] RIPEng

Maybe I misunderstood your initial goal.
If your goal is to make sure there is a new generation of network engineers to replace us as we get old, then you want to make sure there's are cohorts of working-age or very-nearly-working age people who know the fundamentals of network engineering. So the target demo is 18-25 year olds. I would want to assume very little prerequisite knowledge, and use simple enough language that a young teenager might still enjoy it, but that's not the goal. I know my kid enjoyed and contributed to IETF Hackathons even at age 10.

"Prerequisite knowledge" may be surprising, though. Students entering university now have a lower level of literacy than they did five years ago, having lost 1-2 years of school and having less focus on school since the pandemic. Many have no knowledge of file systems or PC hardware, having experienced all internet on phones and tablets.

So that's why I went straight to content. I was thinking, "What do I wish new/aspiring network engineers knew?"

Lee

-----Original Message-----
From: Randy Bush <randy at psg.com> 
Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 2:29 PM
To: Howard, Lee <LeeHoward at hilcostreambank.com>
Cc: RIPE List <ripe-list at ripe.net>
Subject: Re: [ripe-list] RIPEng

This message is from an EXTERNAL SENDER - be CAUTIOUS, particularly with links and attachments.



folk have been teaching addressingm forwarding, LANs, routing, services workshops since 1988.  props to Alvise Nobile of ICTP who organized the first workshops.  folk such as the NSRC have vast open source materials and tools to teach these things.  no need to reinvent the wheel.

imiho, we need to make some initial scoping on audience.  do we want to target tweens and early teens with programming and computer concepts?
or so we want to target older students who have grown up with laptops, the internet, and teach networking and services?  or ...

my personal take is that there are a bunch of folk focused on serving the younger set and making the next generation of programmers and UI designers.  and that is not really our main bailiwick.  we should focus on network and services engineering.  but i am biased.

to put my money where my mouth is (sorry for another idiom), i volunteer to teach basic routing, but need folk to help organise, recruit, ...
and i don't think it is the ncc's role this season, as folk are beating the ncc up over budget.

randy