On 2/25/08 19:38 Alan Altmark said:
On Monday, 02/25/2008 at 11:03 EST, RPN01 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Sometimes, a good class can help get you started, or can bring it all
together and make it gel.
The Getting Started with z/VM for Linux book is a good place to start. As
to IBM classes, the reason that IBM doesn't offer many formal z/VM classes
is that there isn't much demand. If folks want IBM to offer more classes,
you need to contact IBM education folks.
Speaking as the instructor of the upcoming IBM course "z/VM Introduction and
Concepts" I have to agree. The class will start exactly a month from now and I
currently have only three students. Apparently the same three students who were
enrolled in its previous offering back in mid-November, which was cancelled due
to low enrollment.
This is a great ab-initio course for someone just getting started in VM and the
public price is $1635 for the three days. I've been in the mainframe training
business for twenty years and I assure you, it takes $2000-4000/day to put on a
lecture/lab class of any quality with a subject matter expert for an instructor.
It's not hard to do the math and see that Education in not one of IBM's
major revenue centers...
Go to the System z section of the IBM Learning Services course catalog
http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/ites.wss/us/en?pageType=page&c=a0000409
and select the "e-mail us" link on the right.
As to affordability, I guess the question is whether the cost is in line
with the benefit. What criteria do you have for affordability?
And effectivity?
At one point, I was going to make a ton of easy money cranking out "self-paced
learning" courses. The deeper I got into it the more obvious it became that the
only students who actually retained any information from the courses were the
very ones who learned quite well from reading manuals in the first place.
The material is obviously delivered towards the visual learner and the exercises
have to be constrained to the limits of the course environment; there's no "go
play around and explore" with self-paced courses.
But mainly, there's no raising your hand and asking a question to clarify your
(mis)understanding. No instructor with years of experience crafting analogies,
real-world examples, or comparisons to concepts you already understand. (Until
the cows come home, if necessary.) And no one to winch you out of the ditch when
your playing around leaves you stuck in the weeds. With self-paced courses, you
either get it from the text or you don't.
Then there is the cruelest aspect of self-paced courseware, as exemplified by
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:
> Would it make sense to have some kind of computer (okay, PC) based education
> - where the student (their company) buy the class, and the student could not
> only take the class on his own time - but could refer back to it when he/she
> shoot themselves in the feet??
"On his own time"? What "own time"? How many of us work an eight-hour day and
go home to enjoy sixteen hours of our "own time"? Besides, how much technical
material are you able to absorb after a more typical 10-12 hour workday?
In short, there is no shortcut. By corollary, there's no cheap-cut either. If
you want (to be) a well-trained staff member, it's going to cost some money and
time. Preferably time away from the office and interruptions. Time away from
phones and crackberries. Time to concentrate fully on the material being
learned, and to practice the skills you came to acquire.
IBM has a great VM curriculum (most of which I don't teach) including the
outstanding "Installing, Configuring, and Servicing z/VM for Linux Guests".
This course is so popular the instructor's never home. But if you want my
recommendation for a good SysProg jumpstart course, check it out.
-Chip Davis-
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
