Poor Dean's Homework 2013 Turnout

My honest response to seeing this thread:

"Wait there was homework?"

I pay attention to FIRST every day, and I don't remember hearing about this project at all. Maybe it's just me, but a bunch of people I've just asked didn't know about it either, and it would have been a fun and amazing opportunity to help spread FIRST. If it was only majorly discussed at championships, then the majority of teams aren't hearing about it, and the occasional chief delphi post about it doesn't really help get the information out there.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

My honest response to seeing this thread:

"Wait there was homework?"

I pay attention to FIRST every day, and I don't remember hearing about this project at all. Maybe it's just me, but a bunch of people I've just asked didn't know about it either, and it would have been a fun and amazing opportunity to help spread FIRST. If it was only majorly discussed at championships, then the majority of teams aren't hearing about it, and the occasional chief delphi post about it doesn't really help get the information out there.

You're a veteran. There's always homework. I think the assumption made by FIRST here is that teams will go and seek out Dean's Homework, and that's just plain not the case.

That gets me thinking...

My memory isn't perfect after 20 years of events, but wasn't Dean's Homework previously assigned during Kickoff and not the Championship? (Many years ago). If a team doesn't watch kickoff, then there's really something wrong.

Why not have the yearly homework put out in Dean's speech there, rather than at the CMP? That way everyone sees it.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Libby K

You're a veteran. There's always homework. I think the assumption made by FIRST here is that teams will go and seek out Dean's Homework, and that's just plain not the case.

That gets me thinking...

My memory isn't perfect after 20 years of events, but wasn't Dean's Homework previously assigned during Kickoff and not the Championship? (Many years ago). If a team doesn't watch kickoff, then there's really something wrong.

Why not have the yearly homework put out in Dean's speech there, rather than at the CMP? That way everyone sees it.

It was previously assigned during Dean's kickoff speech, and IIRC during his Championship speech he would generally provide an update of some sorts during his CMP speech. I did notice that it was missing during this year's kickoff speech (and now that I think about it, I'm not too sure if I remember Dean even having a long speech during kickoff). Could it have been overlooked in the recent efforts to make kickoff shorter/more fast-paced?

2012 during kickoff he emphasized three things:Incorporate FIRST into everyday life, tracking Alumni, and nominating juniors for Dean's List (Source)

2011 was announced at Kickoff as being incorporating the word "FIRST" into everyday life (Source)

2010, was to reach out to inviting people outside of teams to FIRST events (Source, this page doesn't describe it much, but I personally remember an emphasis being put on inviting "outsiders" to FIRST events)

2009 and 2008 were pretty typical of Alumni network creation and spreading the word of FIRST via media.

2007 was trying to get legislative initiatives/writing to local politicians.

Special thanks goes out to Team 365 for being one of the top google results for "Deans homework 2011" and keeping consistent URL formats to allow a change of number to give me results

[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by Libby K

My memory isn't perfect after 20 years of events, but wasn't Dean's Homework previously assigned during Kickoff and not the Championship? (Many years ago). If a team doesn't watch kickoff, then there's really something wrong.

Why not have the yearly homework put out in Dean's speech there, rather than at the CMP? That way everyone sees it.

Yes, I remember this and I honestly didn't know it was assigned at champs until this thread. Other then receiving email blasts about it I saw it nowhere else.

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

I don't know. It seems that way: there was no reward for doing it, it wasn't mandatory, it wasn't advertised. The time frame was all wrong, etc.

Maybe, this whole thread just rubs me the wrong way. I teach and hear excuses about not getting homework done. Some of the posts here reminded me of my students.

Nobody is blaming FIRST - teams just have other priorities. As a student, your homework should be a priority because it reflects on your grade (wow, if only I went by that in highschool...). In this case, teams like my own are busy trying to stay afloat. Dean's homework doesn't secure us funds for the next season. Its not a good way to look at it, I myself don't agree with it, but it is what it is. Don't get me wrong, I'm more then happy to use 'FIRST' in my every day life, spread the word, and inspire. We just don't have the students for a media team, or the support, the time, ect. Therefore it just doesn't happen because we're focused on other things.

[Chris is me]

For us, it was due six weeks after our team started meeting again, and we really only got more organized in the last 4 weeks or so. Training a new crew of students in the ways of cinematography and editing, filming, actually doing the editing, etc. was just not in the cards. We intend to do some kind of video in the fall as kind of a Chairman's training thing, but it obviously won't be done for Dean's Homework.

[Walter Deitzler]

Our team thought about doing the homework, but, in the end, there was just not enough time for us.

In the midst of training rookies, revamping the robot for CTTD, and trying to get new sponsors, we did not have time for the 10 of us to make a video. We honestly would have liked to do it, and thought about it, but never had enough free time to put together some filming, let alone editing (which can take just as long, if not longer, than the filming.)

We might make one anyway, who knows? We will have to see what our schedule form now until build looks like. Sure, we could not submit it, but it would be fun to make.