[ale] Teach yourself classes

[Charles Shapiro]

We tried this approach to learning Java at a previous job. The text we
used was Bruce Eckel's _Thinking_In_Java_, 2nd edition (Prentice Hall,
New Jersey, 2000, ISBN 0-13-027363-5). The class was composed primarily
of professional coders with strong backgrounds in C and C++ but limited
or no Java experience.

In its favor, you're pretty much forced to read the material. Going over
it with others can help you get it better, and having to explain it to
other folks keeps you honest. 

Against it, it's difficult to keep a study group going, and the larger
the group the harder it gets.  Your understanding of language concepts
can vary according to the (random) quality of the person leading the
discussion for that chapter. I've also had good luck teaching myself
from books, but it often hinged on doing the exercises as well as
reading the text. We were on a schedule which made it hard for me to
cover both the material and the exercises, which limited its
effectiveness for me.

If you can figure out a way to do the exercises and spend time on them
in the 'teach yourself' classes, this can be effective and k00l. I
might-could even be innarested in helping with something like this,
perhaps at Innovox? I've just coded my very first production Java
program, and my knowledge of the language is still weak in many areas.

-- CHS

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Fowler [mailto:cfowler at outpostsentinel.com]
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 7:01 PM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: [ale] Teach yourself classes


A friend of mine told me that he learned Java at
a teach yourself class.  Basically it is a 
group of people that chose a topic and a book.  Each
week they meet and it the responsibility of teaching
falls on a different person.  It was a chapter a week.
Has any people here thought about doing something like
that?

I have purchased *many* books on various topics.  I teach myself
but I would guess that this method would be even better.  It provides
accountability and help.


Chris

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