[CLUE-Cert] time and place

[Lynn Danielson]

John Kottal wrote:
> 
> Lynn Danielson wrote (at one time or the other):
> > a complete newbie is going to find it very difficult to get 
> > prepared for Linux certification in the next six to eight months
> > unless they have a lot of time to dedicate to this task.
> 
> So, how do we decide what constitutes is a "newbie" and what
> constitutes an intermediate/advanced user? Can we come with a
> list of things that one has done or should be able to do to
> sort ourselves out, or just start the class and cull the
> unknowledgable ones out as we go in some kind of Darwinian
> evolution <g>.

I'm not sure I care.  I think some of the people who describe
themselves as newbies may do so because they are unconfident
about what they do know and they are aware that there is a
lot they don't know.  I think one of the hardest things about
this study group is going to be determining when we've spent
enough time on a given topic and not letting any one person
monopolize the meeting or excessively slow down the pace at
which cover the material.

The reason I brought up my concern about newbies is that I
got the impression that some people are going to be more 
interested in showing up for a tutorial experience than
actually preparing for certification.  I think we need to 
agree on the type of participation we expect from members 
of the group.  For example, Q & A is going to be an 
important aspect of this study group, but once the question
has been answered, the less we dwell on that particular
question the better and if a topic is not pertinent to the
material we're covering for a specific meeting, it's 
probably not appropriate to bring it up.  I think this is
common sense, but I also believe that the study group will
be more effective if we discuss this to some extent up
front and have a common set of behavioral expectations.

I've neither organized nor participated in a study group
like this before.  If others on the list have, I'd 
appreciate hearing your opinions about what worked and
what didn't.
 
> Maybe one solution to this is to have another meeting for newbies --
> not necessarily on the night that CLUE meets. I know that at one
> time the Windows on the Rockies group was doing this for VB users
> with an experienced VBer who would lead little labs and handle
> questions.

I'm not necessarily against this, I'm just not interested in
organizing and maintaining it myself.  If someone else would
like to, I'll do what I can to help out.  Let me know.

Lynn Danielson