My weekly Geekery, A training RANT
Granted, I'm 4 days through a severe 6 day head-cold. So maybe this is coming out harsher than it should. But whether I'm climbing out of my sickbed or taking time out of my work schedule, DON'T WASTE MY TIME when you claim to offer advanced trainings.
In computer trainings, there are some real benefits to investing in real-life training classes with human beings, rather than book/video/internet tutorials. I have had some great experiences with good teachers who bring the material to life and give you the benefit of their experiences, talk you through the tricky details, students who bring in valuable questions and perspectives, and good hands-on learning.
I signed up to a 2-day smartphone conference, with 4 fascinating looking tracks. How to choose? I decided to attend the Android programming track, which claimed to be a "top gun" course - intermediate to advanced stuff. Pre-requisites is already having installed and done a few tutorial apps. "Yes", i thought, "This should clear out the cobwebs and tough roadblocks I ran into the first time! I'll come out of this able to quickly throw together prototype apps"
I'd be better off dedicating 2 days at home, re-reading one of my Android books.
The trainer has a set of powerpoint slides that are like the chapter headers of a training book, plus some code that could be copied off the Android tutorial websites. Clearly no teaching experience, he talks monotonously AND chaotically through his slides, providing neither clarity, nor details. It's 80% presentation and 20% hands-on coding. There is no cohesive demonstration code or app, just small code demonstrations.
Those of us with a little android experience already know what he means and aren't learning anything new. Those with no experience can copy his code examples, but don't really learn the concepts. Pointless on both sides!
On top of that, the conference turns out to be poorly organized. So instead of 16 hours of concentrated learning, there are huge gaps, and tomorrow we lose two hours to a Microsoft Windows 7 presentation that has (at the last minute) overwritten our schedule. Wait, didn't I pay for an Android training?
AAAARRGGHHH! I may jump to another track tomorrow. But none of them are looking good to me anymore now that I'm so ticked off.
In computer trainings, there are some real benefits to investing in real-life training classes with human beings, rather than book/video/internet tutorials. I have had some great experiences with good teachers who bring the material to life and give you the benefit of their experiences, talk you through the tricky details, students who bring in valuable questions and perspectives, and good hands-on learning.
I signed up to a 2-day smartphone conference, with 4 fascinating looking tracks. How to choose? I decided to attend the Android programming track, which claimed to be a "top gun" course - intermediate to advanced stuff. Pre-requisites is already having installed and done a few tutorial apps. "Yes", i thought, "This should clear out the cobwebs and tough roadblocks I ran into the first time! I'll come out of this able to quickly throw together prototype apps"
I'd be better off dedicating 2 days at home, re-reading one of my Android books.
The trainer has a set of powerpoint slides that are like the chapter headers of a training book, plus some code that could be copied off the Android tutorial websites. Clearly no teaching experience, he talks monotonously AND chaotically through his slides, providing neither clarity, nor details. It's 80% presentation and 20% hands-on coding. There is no cohesive demonstration code or app, just small code demonstrations.
Those of us with a little android experience already know what he means and aren't learning anything new. Those with no experience can copy his code examples, but don't really learn the concepts. Pointless on both sides!
On top of that, the conference turns out to be poorly organized. So instead of 16 hours of concentrated learning, there are huge gaps, and tomorrow we lose two hours to a Microsoft Windows 7 presentation that has (at the last minute) overwritten our schedule. Wait, didn't I pay for an Android training?
AAAARRGGHHH! I may jump to another track tomorrow. But none of them are looking good to me anymore now that I'm so ticked off.