Ubuntu Training Community

[Jonathan Jesse]

On Monday 30 July 2007 07:42:32 Matthew East wrote:
> Hi Billy,
>
> Adding back the -doc list too. I'm reordering your email so that it quotes
> properly, not to be snobbish about netiquette but because I feel that it's
> important to get the context of this discussion. My response is below.
>
> > Matthew East wrote:
> >> Hi Torsten,
> >>
> >> Thanks for this. One further quick question for now, and perhaps we can
> >> discuss it when Billy returns.
> >>
> >> * Torsten Spindler:
> >>> Hi Matt,
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, 2007-23-07 at 20:44 +0100, Matthew East wrote:
> >>> ...
> >>>
> >>>> I'd be very keen to help ensure that the work being done by both teams
> >>>> isn't duplicating effort: I would think that in many cases the content
> >>>> should be the same as the system documentation - in what circumstances
> >>>> would you envisage these differing?
> >>
> >> {snip}
> >>
> >>> The main difference is for me the focus of course material on being
> >>> delivered by an instructor rather than the self-study path used for the
> >>> documentation.
> >>
> >> I understood from Billy's email that there is a self-study (or
> >> e-learning) component to the work, and that this material is part of
> >> that too. So presumably the material produced has to work for both,
> >> right?
> >
> > Hi Matthew & Torsten,
> >
> > Thanks for your feedback. To reiterate  what Torsten has written, I see
> > the instructor led and web based training as complementing the
> > documentation with much of the same content being reused in all 3. ie
> > more or less same ingredients, different dish. The web based training
> > will be interactive and  and provide a combination of reading material,
> > audio visual, animation and online testing - so again, very different to
> > wiki page layout.
>
> Ok, this has definitely re-enforced my view that there should be a much
> greater overlap between the documentation team and your project.
>
> Just to clarify a couple of things first:
>
> 1. In my previous emails I haven't been referring to the documentation
> wiki, but to the material avaialble in the Help System.
> 2. The question we need to address when discussing these issues is *not*
> "is the intention for the Ubuntu training materials to look like the
> existing Ubuntu documentation?" (which is the question you and Torsten
> have answered with a convincing "no") but rather:
>
> "Are there common objectives between these two projects?"
>
> It sounds to me like the answer to this question is likely to be "yes".
> Ok, your plans for the training materials (with audio visual, animation
> etc) are more ambitious than the current Ubuntu system documentation, but
> from what you've said so far I'm not sure how or why any of these ideas
> aren't equally applicable to Ubuntu documentation. Essentially the goal of
> both projects appears to be "how can we teach Ubuntu users how to use
> their machines in the most efficient way".
>
> My wife is a teacher, and I know that teaching materials often make a
> distinction between "classroom led" and "self-help" materials. The Ubuntu
> documentation falls into the latter category, while it sounds like you
> envisage the training material to cover both categories. That results in a
> pretty comprehensive overlap between the two projects.
>
> This is borne out by the fact that the table of contents which you've
> established for the training material is basically identical to the Help
> System index.
>
> So, to conclude, I think these projects should either be working directly
> together, or alternatively communicating closely to avoid reinventing the
> wheel and to share experience.
>
> Matt
> --
> http://www.mdke.org/

I would echo Matt's thoughts on this.  is the training material going to be 
powerpoint's of the system documentation?  Or will there be an 
actual "manual" written for the students to follow?
When I do training, the students are provided with a manual that goes further 
indepth then the powerpoint slides that I talk through.  Are you thinking the 
same thing for Ubuntu?

Also please don't forget Kubuntu as well