During the academic year <2005/6> I am running a project called
the "Disciplinary Commons in Computing Education". 

This has the twin aims: 
* To document and share knowledge about teaching and student learning
  on <introductory programming> courses in the UK.
* To establish practices for the scholarship of teaching by making it
  public, peer-reviewed, and amenable for future use and development by
  other educators: creating a teaching-appropriate document of practice
  equivalent to the research-appropriate journal paper.

What does it involve?
The Commons open to anyone who currently teaches <introductory
programming> in a UK institution of higher education. 

Over the course of the academic year <2005/6> up to 20 teachers will meet
every 4-6 weeks to document <introductory teaching of programming (itp)>
practice and create a powerful community resource. Each participant in
the Commons will construct a course portfolio for the itp course that
they teach, as well as evaluating the portfolios of other participants
and collectively deciding on appropriate content for <itp> portfolios.

There is no cost to participate in the Commons - the project will
pay for all meetings and for participants travelling costs.

I hope that you will be interested in participating in this project:
the deadline for applications is <Friday 9th September>.

You can find further details from the webpage: 
http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/~saf/dc/
or you are very welcome to talk with me further.

And if you are no longer involved in the teaching of introductory
programming, could I ask you to pass this message onto your colleagues
who are?

Many thanks

- Sally Fincher