Am 30. Oct, 2004 schwätzte shadex@cox.net so:

> Evening everyone. I am an instructor for the CompUSA corporation and as
> I saw the upcoming need for classes in the Linux OS I recently signed on
> for the PLUG site as well as the mailing list. I am one of millions of
> users that have been chained to M$ since 3.1. I had made arrangements to
> attend this latest Install Fest in order to begin my learning expedition
> into the GNU world when I read this latest thread of e-mails.

Excellent, let us know you're coming and we'll bring along the chain
cutters ;-).

> As an instructor for the last 8 years the single biggest complaint I get
> from new computer users is what I call, "The Computer Guy Syndrome",
> named after the skits of the same name on Saturday Night Live. They all
> have friends or coworkers that are around should a problem arise with
> their systems, but rather than actually helping the user they simply
> *zip* *zip* fix it and move on, leaving the user with no knowledge of
> how to circumvent or maybe even fix the problem on their own at a later
> date.

There is a lot of that in person :(. I try not to do it, but I actually
have some teaching experience. One nice thing about remote assistance via
the mailing list is that the person has to make the change and people
usually explain why that's the correct change.

> This is why I cancelled my original plans to attend Install Fest. While
> the intent is most admirable and necessary, without explaination
> and instruction nothing is retained. This has been the reason class
> environment training has been so successful. You have to put the student
> at the terminal with their own input and have them go through the steps
> with you.

I'm trying to get us to change that aspect of the InstallFest. Installs
should be a *zip* *zip* *done* kinda experience. People who are new to
Free Software don't need to know how to install it, they need a working
install and then help understanding how to use and maintain it.

> I have purchased enough books on various versions of Linux to rebuild
> the Berlin Wall. Each of them flippantly omitting huge aspects of the
> required understanding of the OS that is needed to do anything more than
> survive within its walls. The Debian installation walk-through on the
> www.linux.org site even state instructions like this, "Assign partitions
> to look like this." without explaining how. This is a dominant aura that
> is carried unfortunately by the Linux society. The mystique likened to
> the Freemasons. If you are in a position where you need to know how to
> install Linux, you probably should already know how is the ghist many
> people get.

Grab a copy of Knoppix and give GNU/Linux a test drive from CDROM without
having to worry about installing it.

> As I am face to face with thousands of students each year and a rapidly
> growing number of them are inquiring about the Linux world I must ask,
> where do I send these people? I had hoped to offer courses to get them
> started yet even I am hitting obstacles that my years of computer
> background are not affording me passage to. To give instructions that
> state...

There are many places that offer classes.

Thurman at Scottsdale Community College teaches *NIX classes.
I'm told the Business and Industry Institute at Mesa Community College
teaches GNU/Linux classes
Collins college is teaching GNU/Linux classes
Jeremy teaches classes ( don't know if he's on his own or if this is via
some training organization )
Red Hat brings their road show classes to Phoenix once in a while.

PLUG did teach a no cost intro to GNU/Linux for a year until the
instructor ( me ) just couldn't donate any more time to the project.

There are also numerous training facilities that teach classes. The
biggest problem I've run into is that the classes are poorly written and
are being taught by people who don't know what they're doing. Honestly I
can say that about much of the tech training I've seen :(.

The Free Software community has been concentrating more and more on
documentation for the last couple of years. I think that is leading to
better training materials and training, but we've still got a long way to
go.

ciao,

der.hans
-- 
#  https://www.LuftHans.com/    http://www.AZOTO.org/
#  C'est la Net - der.hans
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