[ale] Training costs (was ANN: Linux Training Class

[Grady Harris]

I hope this isn't getting off-topic, but I've got an interest in the subject of
IT teaching/training. The provocation to several of the folks who repsponded to
the original announcement seems to be the cost/duration of the class. I, too,
wonder what can be learned in a short time.

Certainly, a great deal can be taught in a couple of days, and the short-term
memory of it tested. My own small experience with more-or-less formal (that is,
money up front) classes and training has not given me much confidence in the
effectiveness of cramming a great deal in. To quote Comenius, "Repetition is the
mother of learning," and there is little time for repetition.

I taught English in the Czech Republic for some five years, 1992-1997, and saw
the English/German/French (whatever language money was speaking that year) cram
schools spring up, offering miraculous learning in a week, two weeks. Their
customers were often my students later, and I encountered few miracles among them.

I know that technical training is different, but I couldn't lay out the
differences very clearly. Since the folks on this list come from, and remain in,
a variety of backgrounds, I wonder what y'all see as the important differences.
Which aspects of IT training can be handled in, say, three days? Which can not?

Does anyone know of a literature on the subject?

Grady Harris
Etlanner