training (was Resourceful BSD/Linux Network Administrator)

[Jeremy C. Reed]

On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 bja at Illinois.DynDNS.Org wrote:

> > As for learning via reading: that is fine for many -- including myself.
> > But many students need the extra push by actually attending a structured,
> > hands-on class. Also classes, even running at a slow pace, can cover a
> > lot more than a student trying to self-teach themselves.
>
> I disagree here. I'm a self-taught student and I doubt any classes would
> have taught me as much as installing the system and using it day to day
> for a couple months. I eventually set up a FreeBSD and my family and I
> rely on it for just about all computer functions.
>
> Hands-on is great, but classes are not needed.

Many of my students have limited time and limited interest to learn
FreeBSD on their own. But their employers are interested for them to take
multiple days of hands-on training.

Also, learning over a "couple months" is too slow versus a class that can
teach many skills with real experiences in a few days.

And as others mentioned, trying to learn on your own may not provide with
the real-world experiences that a qualified instructor can provide.

An example of something we do in some of our classes is teach basics of
BIND and Apache, and then the students apply the skills to configure
named.conf, create their own zone file(s) and then setup httpd.conf for
virtual hosting, for some real hands-on experiences.

Often I have students that have years of Unix experience, even back to the
1980's, who have told me many times: "I didn't know you could do it that
way", "I wish I knew that before", "That is something I had difficulty
learning on my own", "I have wanted to learn that for a long time", etc.

Yes, the students could have learned in an alternative way, but sometimes
paying money encourages you to learn differently.

 Jeremy C. Reed

 	  	 	 open source, Unix, *BSD, Linux training
	  	 	 http://www.pugetsoundtechnology.com/

p.s. Notice the To: line. It says "jobs" but the address is chat. Funny.