The Value of Delphi Training
Captain Jake
teach on a number of topics and subjects for itemsthat I do not use on a
day-to-day basis. This happens a lot in the training World." The person making
this claim also implied that it is normal for training in a given product or
technology to not have any experience or certification in the subject.
Is this true? Those of you who have taught classes in Delphi, how common is it
for you to not have actually used or been certified in the subject matter? If
you are teaching a course in D8, for example, how common is it for you to not
have any significant experience or certification in D8? How many training
companies will let you teach such a course anyway? If you
are teaching a course, how much preparation does it require?
It seems to me that if it is common for Delphi training to be taught by those
who have no experience or certification in the subject that this training is
essentially worthless. I say this as someone who used to teach for a living
(college and university level economics and statistics). Any trained monkey can
read from prepared texts. But when the students ask questions, the lack of
experience or direct knowledge becomes a real barrier to learning.
--
***Free Your Mind***
G. Bradley MacDonald
@comcast.net says...
happened when I took a Lotus Notes course. In both cases I got up and
left after the 1 first day (both were 5 day course). I got my money
back for the remaining 4 days (in one case anyway). I was very offended
that the person teaching the course could not answer what I considered
simple programming questions outside the course material. I have heard
of this happening in one or two other courses on MS topics.
However, I have never encountered this when I took the Delphi courses.
The trainer really new Delphi and had used it.
Bradley MacDonald
Wayne Niddery [TeamB]
>
> It seems to me that if it is common for Delphi training to be taught
> by those who have no experience or certification in the subject that
> this training is essentially worthless. I say this as someone who
> used to teach for a living (college and university level economics
> and statistics). Any trained monkey can read from prepared texts. But
> when the students ask questions, the lack of experience or direct
> knowledge becomes a real barrier to learning.
There are many people who are instructors who regularly have to learn enough
about a subject to teach it but who never actually use the product
professionally or extensively.
In the context here, it would be rare (and I would agree useless) for
someone with no serious programming experience to teach programming, but it
is not uncommon nor worthless for an experienced programmer to study up on
some aspect of programming or some product in order to teach others about
that. So this fact alone cannot be used as a criticism against Derek or
anyone else. If this were a valid criticism, then it would not be worthwhile
writing books about new products since that is essentially doing the same
thing.
--
Wayne Niddery - Logic Fundamentals, Inc. (www.logicfundamentals.com)
RADBooks: http://www.logicfundamentals.com/RADBooks.html
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are
injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say
there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks
my leg." - Thomas Jefferson
Jon Shemitz
> > It seems to me that if it is common for Delphi training to be taught
> > by those who have no experience or certification in the subject that
> > this training is essentially worthless.
> If this were a valid criticism, then it would not be worthwhile
> writing books about new products since that is essentially doing the same
> thing.
I'm not sure that's true. While it's true that writing a book requires
research and exploration, you can choose what topics you'll cover.
Since you're not writing in real time, you can do as much research as
necessary to be sure that you're 100% solid on everything you cover,
and that everything you say is right.
Otoh, when you're on the podium, you have absolutely no control over
the questions that will be asked, (although some people do seem to
"plant" questions).
--
programmer, author http://www.midnightbeach.com
and father http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs
Wayne Niddery [TeamB]
>
> I'm not sure that's true. While it's true that writing a book requires
> research and exploration, you can choose what topics you'll cover.
> Since you're not writing in real time, you can do as much research as
> necessary to be sure that you're 100% solid on everything you cover,
> and that everything you say is right.
>
> Otoh, when you're on the podium, you have absolutely no control over
> the questions that will be asked, (although some people do seem to
> "plant" questions).
Valid point. Certainly one needs to be well versed to be able answer a
reasonable variety of questions. Then again for a new product, the
instructors intially can't be a *great* deal ahead of the students, that
takes a little time.
--
Wayne Niddery - Logic Fundamentals, Inc. (www.logicfundamentals.com)
RADBooks: http://www.logicfundamentals.com/RADBooks.html
In a tornado, even turkeys can fly. - unknown
Captain Jake
news:4127f964$1...@newsgroups.borland.com...
> Valid point. Certainly one needs to be well versed to be able answer a
> reasonable variety of questions. Then again for a new product, the
> instructors intially can't be a *great* deal ahead of the students, that
> takes a little time.
One would assume that for a product that has been out almost a year, that
the instructor would have been able to acquire at least *some* significant
experience in the topic. I am fully aware that in a lot of training, the
instructor is just a biological animatronic, reading a pre-prepared text
that the students themselves could have read directly. This was actually my
point/gripe when I started this thread. There is too much of this so-called
"training" that is really just a very expensive and time-consuming version
of books on tape.
K. Sallee
> Is this true?
It is not uncommon.
> But when the students ask questions, the lack of experience or direct
> knowledge becomes a realbarrier to learning.
Depends on the instructor. Experts in a field do not necessarily make a
better teachers. I have had PhD's, true experts in their field, that
could not teach themselves out of a paper bag when teaching their specific
field's topics. Teaching experience, training in being a teacher, and
just having a knack for teaching often means more when it comes to being a
good teacher. That of course does depend on the "depth" of the course
material as well.
Case in point: I write the software and know most about it. But my wife
constantly gets better evaluations from students when I have her
co-teach. She even gives better answers, more tailored to each person's
level of understanding, than I do, most of the time. She is just a much
much better native teacher than I am, flat out and hands down.
Cheers,
Kevin
--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
Dave Nottage [TeamB]
> Is this true? Those of you who have taught classes in Delphi, how
> common is it for you to not have actually used or been certified in
> the subject matter?
I have experienced this myself - though I was not the trainer. Usually
the trainer will acknowledge that they don't normally train in it
and/or are not experienced with it, and I regard their training
accordingly, eg I wouldn't change my career/toolset based on the
training session (or recommendations therefrom) alone: that would be
extremely foolhardy.
--
Dave Nottage [TeamB]
See Delphi 9 (codename: Diamondback) at BorCon (US) 2004:
http://bdn.borland.com/article/0,1410,32499,00.html
Iman L Crawford
news:412761a3$1...@newsgroups.borland.com:
> common is it for you to not have actually used or been certified in
> the subject matter?
I've taught a couple of delphi classes without certification. From my
understanding I got pretty good reviews. Most of those taking the course
were newbies without hardly any experience. If they had a question I
couldn't answer off the top of my head, I would find out the answer
during a break.
I've been asked by a local training company to teach courses on just
about everything. I've turned down all but the Delphi related ones.
--
Iman
Kirk Halgren
news:412761a3$1...@newsgroups.borland.com...
> It seems to me that if it is common for Delphi training to be taught by
those
> who have no experience or certification in the subject that this training
is
> essentially worthless. I say this as someone who used to teach for a
living
> (college and university level economics and statistics). Any trained
monkey
> can read from prepared texts. But when the students ask questions, the
lack
>of experience or direct knowledge becomes a real barrier to learning.
>
It depends on the teacher, their breadth of understanding, and general
integrity. I asked Charlie Calvert a related question, and he replied that
a great way to learn an area was to prepare and deliver training in it. I'm
sure that all his courses are well worth the time and money.
Kirk Halgren
"This is America, where any boy or girl can grow up to win the popular
vote."
-- Al Gore