---
layout: post
title: "Such lessons, much learned."
subtitle: "That's a wrap! Goodbye from Fall '16"
date: 2016-11-29 10:00:00
author: "Monte Thakkar"
header-img: "/images/bg_image.jpg"
comments: true
tags: [ milestone ]
---

#### This weekend was the last MobileSpace meetup for Fall'16, and I am extremely delighted to say that it was a roaring success.

#### Here's a quick update on the community:
- At it's peak, the community was 15 members strong
- Course lasted approx. 3 months and met every weekend at SF State
- Students built 3 iOS apps in Swift 3 from start to finish using Youtube tutorials, online resources, Github code snippets and through their peers
- 6 students successfully completed the iOS course and attended every single meetup
- 1 Alumni is currently working as a full-time iOS Engineer in SF and 3 others are pursuing a career in iOS development as well

### <b>Observations</b>
- I found that freshman/sophmore CS majors at SF State (with no prior background in web/mobile dev) are more likey to be interested in developing mobile apps rather than websites. This would make sense considering millenials spend much of their daily lives on their mobile phones.

- Teaching students that are geniunely passionate about learning mobile development is pure joy!

- My teaching style towards the beginning of the course was very hands on as I spoke and wrote code for most of the time. Soon I realized that students learn faster when they write code themselves, and so towards the latter part of the course I would only teach in the first part of the meetup and let them ask me questions for the rest of the session.

### <b>Lessons for the future</b>

1. Since I was solely leading MobileSpace, there were times when things got really busy as I was also finishing up school and working part-time at Pillow. Hence I found myself pulling all nighters just to record youtube tutorials and organize weekly assignements for MobileSpace.
  - If I decide to do MobileSpace again, I'd definitely look for someone else to help me lead the course.

2. Attendance was not up to the mark. I was hoping that all 15 members would finish the course but a lot of them dropped out during midterms as things got busy with their classes.
  - In the future I'd like to work with students to tailor the assignments to fit their schedules better.

3. MobileSpace was entirely free for anyone to attend, and I put in a lot of time and effort to make sure students were spending their time well and learning something new during each meetup. Towards the end, I would like to have organized a company tour for them as a reward for finishing the course.
  - I'd be open to sponsporships by 1 or more companies that would like to support this sort of free education.

#### Overall, I am extremenly delighted that through MobileSpace I was able to share my expertise in iOS developement to help others discover their passion for building mobile apps and I am also grateful that I was able to provide them with a stepping stone to help them kickstart their professional careers.

#### I have always been passionate about technology and teaching and I am glad that through MobileSpace I was able to explore both these passions and make a positive impact while doing so. As my own skill set grows, I'll do my best to make sure that I am able to help the people around me grow as well.
