Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-02-16 04:40:54 - Graham Ellis
Attending a course is one thing, but usefully applying what you learnt can be another if the course just taught you the mechanism. And whoever's course you attend, you need to practise afterwards, and have some way you can get back and ask questions. There's a follow-up responsibility on both the course taker and the course provider.
I'm going to share with you part of a response I wrote to someone who has attended a mechanistic PHP course ....
"I understand that you've already attended a course that included some PHP, though not one of ours; if you're needing further help on what you learnt, can suggest that you might also be provided with an element of ongoing help from the trainer or organiser of that course - that's certainly a service we provide here at Well House Consultants for our delegates, and chances are that your tutor knows you and your application a bit already.
Programming is an art as well as a science, and you do need to practise and get into the flow of things as well as having taken the course. I take great care when I teach to ensure that I cover not only the mechanism of specific examples but also the techniques for adapting and applying those techniques. There's something of a parallel to a creative writing course, where copying the tutor's work really won't do much for you."
Yes, I do find it slightly ironic that I'm being asked to provide help by someone who's just bought (a course) from a competitor but, what the heck, this business is all about networking and I know how hard it is to choose the right course - after all, if you knew what you were looking for, you wouldn't need a course, would you?