Open letter: Remote support for anyone - call for help

Hi together 👋,

It's my first post here, but I strongly believe that this platform I would love to create is one of the most important right now. 💪💪💪

TL;DR;

We want to create a platform for remote school classes or offering support regarding tech setup or any other question.

• You need help and / or have good ideas what is the best setup to help you? Ask here
• Want to support in organizing, maybe helping to create a workshop for kids? Sign in for the initial Brainstorming call. Register here

Small note

This whole project will be:

• open and free for everyone
• completely free of charge

What is it about?

Let me share a small story beforehand of mine:

Actually I was a lecturer at the University of Applied Science in Mannheim (a city in the south of Germany).
I taught many students for about 6 years the basics of Web Development. But one day I moved away, and they didn't allow me to do it remotely. Of course, I could have found another University for giving courses but I loved this one.

Another week I wrote to many schools nearby if they allow me to do free open Workshops in their schools for "getting into developing" already at a younger age.
Many of them answered me it is too much paperwork for the sake of assurance and resources.

Both stories bothered me a lot and I do not want to let it go.
In the last few months I talked already to some persons about the idea like:

• Remote School classes
• Small YouTube videos explaining in our mother language German (because most of the Videos about for example mathematic is in English and it might be a huge language issue for kids)
• Remote Tutoring or private teaching

Some told me due to our bad infrastructure in school things like that will be really difficult.

Ok, and now?

We all know about the situation recently: Schools are closed and social distancing is forced (which is a good thing).

Kids aren’t allowed to go to school anymore and parents need to become creative teachers at home.
I was actually really impressed when I saw a tweet from Ana Cidre
about the homeschooling schedule she created with her husband:

Ana Cidre 🏡

@anacidre_

We find it necessary to add structure to our life during the madness! So @rebelytics, Aroa & I came up with a homeschooling schedule for next week 😊 As we both need to work we need to divide our time.

Luckily our 8 month old is so calm we can make this happen with him around♥️ twitter.com/rebelytics/sta…

11:16 AM - 15 Mar 2020

Eoghan @rebelytics

Homeschooling schedule sorted for next week! https://t.co/zt0EelehLC

3 21

And my previous thoughts of create remote classes jumped into me again.
But who am I supposed to talk to? I might not have that range of people I can ask for support.

Then I saw this Tweet from Wassim today:

Wassim Chegham' OR 1=1

@manekinekko

@AnfibiaCreativa Here are some random ideas I've been thinking about lately. As engineers and developers, how can we help?
- teachers and students
- people who are locked down
- all medical personnels
- commerce / delivery platforms
- people working onsite (cashiers, pharmacies, taxies...)
- ...

12:59 PM - 21 Mar 2020

5 5

I answered, Natalie quoted me, and now everything started.

Natalia Venditto

@anfibiacreativa

I also think about this a lot. Or how to teach development to adults with no technical background, so they can maybe find an opportunity in tech and a second career chance. twitter.com/martinakraus11…

13:58 PM - 21 Mar 2020

Martina Kraus @martinakraus11

@manekinekko @anfibiacreativa I keep thinking about offering free online courses for parents trying to simulate school classes now for their kids. I would love to give lectures in science classes for children. Like a remote school classroom. But I just don’t know who to talk to :-/

1 3

The reactions where really amazing. Everyone wants to help and support and loves the idea of running workshops for kids, to support
their parents in this time.

So what is the basic idea and how can I support?

First - and most important - EVERYONE can help and EVERYONE can ask for help.

I would like to settle an initial call with all the great persons who like to bring their own ideas.
I might settle different calls with persons sharing the same ideas, so we would not have one big overwhelming call.
There is not a restriction of how the support could look like. Maybe anyone of you has even a way better idea than I can even think of, or we create this idea together.

Please register here if you want to be part of the initial brainstorming call.

Maybe you are one of the group that actually need help. I also would love to talk to you because you are the person who knows the best in how we can reach out to you and help you.

Would it be great to have a shared Video conference session with you? Maybe just a text messaging chat for asking questions from time to time is better?
Please reach out to me and talk to me as well:

Please sign up here if you need help regarding a topic and / or have good ideas in how we can help you

Thank you !!!

And I really mean it: Thank you 🙏🙏🙏
There are some persons (like me) who can be called really lucky. I have the privilege to be allowed to work remotely. I did this already the last months, and I can just go on like before. But there are many persons who can't. I think we should give everything to help and support here.
So thank you so much for giving my thoughts and this project a chance.
Together we are always stronger and have greater ideas ♥️♥️♥️

Comments

[Wassim Chegham]

Count me in, Martina.