Dragons Out

The New Year has started well for Dragons Out books. The book donation of 30 books to Tuulos Elementary School made front-page news in Keski-Häme newspaper. I drove to the school personally to hand out the books and discuss the book and learning software testing with Principal Antti Lamminpää of the School. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Keski-Häme journalist present to interview both of us. It would have been nice to see how kids react in getting the books, which was what I and the Principal planned originally, but the increase in Covid-19 cases spoiled that plan. Well, this was nice, too! Well done Mikko Kaloinen Foundation, who donated these books to Tuulos school! My humble thanks. You can read the scan of the article at the end of this blog post, in Finnish. Link to Keski-Häme article is here . Other news - my preorder stock of Finnish Dragons Out books is almost sold out. There are some copies left, and if you (or your company) buy them from me, you still get to participa

I am inviting more ICT-companies (and individuals, of course) to participate in the Finnish donation campaign. Now is the last stage of the campaign as I am in discussion with the Finnish Ministry of Education about finding a time slot to hand out a Diploma of Donated Books to the Minister of Education. It would be grand to have a really impressive list of companies in that diploma. You can help! I have some books left in the preorder stock of Finnish books, so just order books at  https://www.dragonsout.com/p/preorder-dragons-out-book.html  and you'll participate in the donation! Thanks to my employer Knowit for issuing the donation challenge earlier - now, let's finalize it! Consequently, I'm also inviting more schools to make use of the donations. So far it has been mostly grades 4-9 in various schools and some coding clubs which have taken the book and the supporting teaching material into use. The form for expressing interest to receive donations is at  https://www.dra

I got the kind permission from Antti Niittyviita to publish this interview for his #AamuQaQa podcast even before he's released it. Isn't that awesome : ). You'll get a nice tuned-up version there, of course, but here in YouTube is the raw truth of Antti interviewing me, Kari Kakkonen, the fresh newly-published author of the Dragons Out! book's Finnish edition. We discuss how the book will transform the thinking of children and adults about software testing, through fantasy stories, and the creative process of authoring a book. We discuss time management, lists and calendars. We ponder what drives the creativity, is it lists of ideas, free time or what! We discuss the best fantasy books of all times. The interview was lots of fun, which you can feel, I'm sure. Enjoy! For those bug hunters out there note how Zoom apparently plays a bug on us... no, it's a feature, of course, LOL #softwaretesting #childeducation #books #childrensbooks www.dragonsout.com

 Another milestone achieved! The Finnish publishing event was held today as an online event. If you wanted glamour and champagne... well, it was there. I think Adri's great illustration on the slides gave plenty of glamour, and also the achievement of getting the book out and getting plenty of great feedback has glamour of their own sort. As for the champagne, well, I opened my bottle of Prosecco and others did the same remotely. Still, raising a glass to the camera only doesn't feel the same as celebrating together and making toasts. Well, I have a good reason to organize another publishing party once this Covid-19 is over.  I'm very thankful for the publisher Avain  for believing in me and facilitating the birth of the book as well as for Adri for the great illustration - check out some more of her work here . Special thanks go of course also to all the IT companies donating the books to schools, and also to all the schools jumping into the opportunity to teach some softw

One major goal with my Dragons Out book project has been to reach all the schools in the world to give the students the opportunity to learn about software testing. I realize this won't happen with the book alone, not even translated to multiple languages. There needs to be also free content for available for anyone. I have created a PowerPoint presentation that is suitable for 1 or 2 lessons in school. The presentation is Creative Commons licensed, meaning everyone can use it as long as they attribute me as the source. The presentation carries the same fantasy theme as in the books but it is set more into a lesson format. I piloted the presentation and even though students liked it, for teachers there is some learning before they can deliver the presentation well. To make the learning of the teacher easier, I've created a recording of the presentation and uploaded it to YouTube. You can either play the recording to students or use it for practising to deliver the presentation

Boy, it's been a shipping week. While keeping other wheels running, I've spent the remaining time to ship the Finnish Dragons Out books. I'm quite an expert now in packaging books in multi-shape carton packages, buying postage online from Finnish Postal Service, using tape, dropping packages at Posti's delivery desk. Some closeby, big deliveries I've done myself or will do in the next few days. There is news from the book on the internet. My dear employer Knowit interviewed me about the book project - you can read the Finnish article in Knowit blog here . My publisher Avain has made a press release . Fantastic - thrilling to finally get the book out and give the readers and teachers the chance to enjoy it! I'll organize a Publishing Party over Teams on December 16, 2020, at 16-17 in Finnish. I've sent many invitations directly. If you fancy joining the event to hear a bit more about the book, ask me at  kari.kakkonen@dragonsout.com for the invitation. It