The Learning

I get asked all of the time some variation of What’s the best way to learn all of this Web Stuff?

It’s an interesting question, because to me it always presupposes that one can learn it all. But the questioner is always more interested in the learning-y part than the all-part of their question, so I usually let it slide.

We are all individuals (Just like everyone else! I love that joke).

But it’s true. Someone like me is going to do well reading about something, most days. I can back up a page or a paragraph or two and take another run at it, if I don’t quite get something. I can take a book or a magazine with me to the doctor’s waiting room, or the laundromat. I don’t need a plug, or an appointment. I just need light.

Other people are more do-ers. They can watch something, they can read about it, they can listen to someone describe it dozens of times, but until they actually do something, it is all just theory to them.

I never know who of these types is going to attend my training sessions. I know the names of the people, but I don’t get a handle on whether this one is a reader, that one is a listener, or these two both have to do something, in order to get it. So I have tried to design my training so it incorporates a little of all of them.

There are a lot of words on the screen at any time, probably too many for some. But I’d rather have people skip over something than not have it there for them. I know the panic of needing an answer late at night and not knowing where to get it. And each course is designed to stand alone. You can come in at two in the morning and click through how to install Dreamweaver and probably get it done, in other words. If you have a few moments and want to learn about Templates, or refresh your knowledge of Templates, then have at it. It’s all there. If you have questions we can cover them in e-mail.

But I try not to read everything on screen. That would be awful. The information is there for the readers. For the listeners, I try to tell a slightly different version, and it’s probably slightly different from class to class, too. I may leave this or that part out, or focus more on something that someone asked about earlier. And at the end of each page or so I try to have a moment of, essentially, “Now, YOU do it!”

People get done earlier than others. People struggle with this or that part. I try to talk them through it, or we spend that time going over questions anyone might have about anything we have covered. When we are done, we move on to the next thing.

The nice thing is that this has all been going on for a while, now. The first HTML books and seminars weren’t all that great. Elizabeth Castro’s Visual QuickStart Guide to HTML is in its Sixth Edition, today. And a lot of that is repeat business, I’m sure. A whole lot of Idjit’s Manuals and Learn It All In An Hour titles are gone, by now. So if you learn best by reading, you have some terrific options out there.

In the same vein, A List Apart crosses the country with terrific in-person training and seminars. All of the stars of Web Development show up for these.

I love that everyone is different, responds differently to differing inputs and yet still arrives at the same destination, somehow. What works best, for you?