In our sessions in New York, we always have teaching assistants whose tasks include note taking, supporting teachers in and outside of class, offering 1:1 office hours with students. Teaching assistants are mostly alumni of the School for Poetic Computation, who've taken the classes and understand the pedagogy and culture of the school.
Poetic Computation: Detroit is an exception as there is no teaching assistants. Instead of teaching assistants, we asked all teachers to participate in other teachers classes and assist. We were able to ask for full participation because most of the teachers came to Detroit from out of town, with an explicit goal of collaborating to make an immersive learning experience for themselves and the students.
To make a useful note from classes
Check in with the teacher if they alreay have speakers notes and/ or slides. If they have most of their talks written out, it's not necesarry to transcribe everything they are saying. Effective notes are a mix of high level summary that synthesize the core arguments and lesson objectives, and a detailed capture of conversations and interactions between students and teacher.
The notes are used by students to review the class. Useful notes contain links to references. If teachers share their slides with the class, notes can be a supplement to the slides. The notes are also used by the organizers to write daily blog postings. In a short, condensed program like Poetic Computation: Detroit, the notes play an essential role in documentation.
The School for Poetic Computation used Hackpad, until it was acquired by Dropbox. We use Dropbox Paper because it's design and easy sharing options, including an option to export as a markdown file. We are open to using other non-commerical platforms that can be edited by a group.
The fellow teachers and co-organizers, who are working to assist in class or note taking can offer feedback to the teachers via private notes. The feedback can be about content of the class or delivery. The teacher can also offer feedback to the producer and co-organizer via private notes. These notes are not meant to be shared with the students or the public.