Posted by lee vodra on September 17, 2006 at 8:56pm
Hi There -
Am looking to hire a tutor to meet quasi-regularly for help learning Drupal and PHP. Or, if there's enough interest, maybe a class? Maybe both?
Any help finding someone would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Lee
Comments
Yes
If there were a class, I would like to attend as well.
But let's share the knowledge... give it freely... disseminate these pearls of wisdom without regard to things as base and as pedestrian as money.
Do it for the people.
There are PHP user groups and Drupal user groups. These have seemed more geared towards networking than anything else. I would like to see something similar geared towards empowering the novice.
Regards,
J
Hi J -
In a perfect world, I'd be right there with you, and I'm willing to work toward that. I really wish the Boston Drupal community were large enough to support that kind of relationship. The people who are contributing are very helpful.
When, not if, the Boston Drupal community has enough numbers and demand I'll be there helping everyone I can. (BTW, check out Mel King's South End Technology Center (SETC) to see this taken several steps further. The Drupal site I'm building is a volunteer project to support one of SETC's endeavors.)
On the other hand, I don't mind paying a great music teacher. That person studied for years and should be rewarded for his dedication and love of the art. I'm looking for someone like a music teacher who will guide my learning and get involved with my projects and I'm willing to pay extra for that. Money isn't always bad. There can be respect and dignity involved. I'm also willing to trade labor (I do marketing), food (I'm a great cook.) or another barter arrangement. There's a long tradition in all cultures of wonderful student-teacher relationships built on respect and learning. It was only fairly recently in our culture where it got broken and there are still vestiges of this type of relationship to be found. The tradition of music teachers is one of these.
I've hit a wall with the forums on drupal.org and what I'm trying to do no one has done before that I can find. If there were classes I'd be all over them. But I'm sort of an intermediate PHP person and not quite a beginner Drupaller. A class would be about what people do all the time first, not about something someone has never done before and only one person in the class wants to do. I might be on my second or third semester of classes before something comes up that's relevant to what I'm trying to do with my particular project. (I'd still take them.)
So, to save time, I'm willing to pay for personalized instruction. If I'm paying for someone's time, then I treat the time of our meetings with a different kind of respect. If the teacher is being paid, they treat the time more professionally as well. There's magic in the master-student relationship. Traditionally if the student was poor, then there was a lot of humility, carrying of water, and generally keeping the master's infrastructure going. In this way, the student learned how to create and manage that infrastructure.
Benefits to the teacher? I teach graphic design privately. When I need to hire other graphic designers, I have a pool of trained people whom I know have the skills for the particular job I'm going to give them. They also pay me. It's also a nice relationship and we enjoy each other and it alters the employer / employee relationship for the better later on when I hire them. Honestly, I wouldn't be able to afford to make the time to give them for free. I wish I could. In about a year or so when I have more financial stability, I will. It's worth it for me to enlarge the talent pool that I have access to. Right now, they need to pay me. Or save me time in other ways. Right now, I have a decent job where I can store up my labor to give to my future teacher in the form of cash so he can pay his water bill rather than have me haul it up in buckets from the Charles.
On the other hand, I have three people (including me) who are interested in instruction and are willing to pay a teacher in a small group setting. It would lessen our individual costs if you would join us and we'd be able to meet more frequently.
Cheers,
Lee
Any response
Hi Lee,
Have you received any offers?
If not, I'd be willing to teach you--or work with you on--some basic things you should know when developing with Drupal and PHP. I'm middling level competence with some modules and websites (http://meetamericorps.com , http://mappingaccess.com) under my belt, but by no means an authority.
Let me know if you (or anyone else) would be interested in meeting up and figuring out the best way to share some knowledge. You can email me at bensheldon [at] gmail dot com.
Ben
http://island94.org
I/We Do Training
Well Boston is a place that we have on our radar for doing some Lullabot workshops. We also do specialized private training and consulting for companies and individuals who need a boost with Drupal.
If we can get together enough interested people, we could certainly organize a workshop sooner rather than later. What type(s) of things are you looking to learn? How many of you think you would be interested in attending some workshops?
Existing workshops include "Intro to Drupal", "Drupal Theming", "The Drupal API and How To Build Modules", and "JQuery AJAX in Drupal 5.0". But we're happy to put together custom workshops based on interest.
-Jeff Robbins
Lullabot
-= Jeff Robbins | Lullabot | Drupalize.me =-
Hi Jeff
Hi Jeff. I met you at a one of Moshe's meetups in Boston a while back (I couldn’t make the last one about JQuery – bummer). I listen to the Lullabot podcast all the time - they are great! (as are the videocasts).
I would love to come to a workshop, as you guys know Drupal better than anyone. Your SF workshop would be great, but I just can't afford it. I almost did the DC one.
I am primarily interested in theming. Probably walking through how you did Twit would be great. The next thing I am most interested in is how to best use CCK and Views (as opposed to just using taxonomy). Finally, knowing about API and how to create modules would be cool, but maybe not urgent for me.
Of your existing offerings, I like these two:
"Drupal Theming"
"The Drupal API and How To Build Modules"
If you can do sessions like this for a reasonable price, I’m there. What is reasonable? For me, I would pay up to $500 to learn everything there is to know (or say 80%) about theming. But $500 is really stretching it. If you could do squeeze both of the above into a day, I would definitely be there for $500.
We are having a meetup in WMass (http://groups.drupal.org/node/1449) so we’ll discuss this then (or before). If there is enough interest, maybe you could do a session in Northampton, MA. There is a great space I think I may be able to get for free (with full AV: projector, screen, etc.)
Thanks -- Rick
Hi Jeff,
Your podcasts are wonderful, and you're doing a great job with spreading the word. I understand that you're charging what the market will bear, which is a reasonable thing to do. I just can't generate the income right now to come up with that kind of money in a lump sum.
It's one of those catch-22's. I'm trying to learn Drupal so that I can generate that kind of income. This is why I'm proposing a series of focused one or two-hour lessons. Northeastern is charging $800 for a semester of PHP that I can pay over time. I can afford that. That's my price point right now.
The barrier is high with Drupal in terms of its learning curve and unless people are really good at teaching themselves, then there are limited avenues for people who want to learn who can't come up with the type of cash that you ask for in your seminars. You are skimming the cream off of the market, charging a premium price for your instruction. It's a perfectly reasonable thing to do when the demand is high.
That leaves a lot of market for people who can teach shorter classes / lessons, or otherwise come up with more affordable solutions for those of us who cannot come up with a lump sum that you ask in a market with such high demand. Your Lullabot brand is very strong. It took time to get that way. This is one of the ways that it shows its value.
So I'm looking for an unbranded solution. Perhaps there is someone out there who isn't interested in going through all the effort to brand themselves, package learning materials and develop a curriculum but who would like some cash for their insight into what we need to learn. A one or two hour lesson is a lot easier to come up with than a full-on day-long seminar.
Perhaps there is someone who would like to develop a reputation for teaching.
Perhaps there is someone who would like to harvest the rest of the market, which if you look at the curve, is greater than the section of curve you're aiming for.
Perhaps there is someone who is altruistic and would like to help someone who's doing non-profit work for free like we are doing.
There are a lot of motivations people have for sharing what they know and not charging what you charge. Ultimately, and provided that there are evangelists like you out there, Drupal will get its marketing and reputation together and there will be regular meetups in Boston and all over where people will be sharing freely. There will also be many alternatives for those with differing means can find the barriers of entry low enough for them to step over.
The journey between now and then will prove to be an exciting one. I want to thank you and Moshe and everyone who has contributed to building Boston Drupal infant community. I'm hoping to be able to give back while its still a toddler.
Thanks,
Lee
Hi Jeff,
Your podcasts are wonderful, and you're doing a great job with spreading the word. I understand that you're charging what the market will bear, which is a reasonable thing to do. I just can't generate the income right now to come up with that kind of money in a lump sum.
It's one of those catch-22's. I'm trying to learn Drupal so that I can generate that kind of income. This is why I'm proposing a series of focused one or two-hour lessons. Northeastern is charging $800 for a semester of PHP that I can pay over time. I can afford that. That's my price point right now.
The barrier is high with Drupal in terms of its learning curve and unless people are really good at teaching themselves, then there are limited avenues for people who want to learn who can't come up with the type of cash that you ask for in your seminars. You are skimming the cream off of the market, charging a premium price for your instruction. It's a perfectly reasonable thing to do when the demand is high.
That leaves a lot of market for people who can teach shorter classes / lessons, or otherwise come up with more affordable solutions for those of us who cannot come up with a lump sum that you ask in a market with such high demand. Your Lullabot brand is very strong. It took time to get that way. This is one of the ways that it shows its value.
So I'm looking for an unbranded solution. Perhaps there is someone out there who isn't interested in going through all the effort to brand themselves, package learning materials and develop a curriculum but who would like some cash for their insight into what we need to learn. A one or two hour lesson is a lot easier to come up with than a full-on day-long seminar.
Perhaps there is someone who would like to develop a reputation for teaching.
Perhaps there is someone who would like to harvest the rest of the market, which if you look at the curve, is greater than the section of curve you're aiming for.
Perhaps there is someone who is altruistic and would like to help someone who's doing non-profit work for free like we are doing.
There are a lot of motivations people have for sharing what they know and not charging what you charge. Ultimately, and provided that there are evangelists like you out there, Drupal will get its marketing and reputation together and there will be regular meetups in Boston and all over where people will be sharing freely. There will also be many alternatives for those with differing means can find the barriers of entry low enough for them to step over.
The journey between now and then will prove to be an exciting one. I want to thank you and Moshe and everyone who has contributed to building Boston Drupal infant community. I'm hoping to be able to give back while its still a toddler.
Thanks,
Lee
upcoming cctv class
there are some early plans to offer drupal development classes at CCTV. the initial plan is for an 8 hour class that costs $300 but all that is subject to change. to express interest or comments on that class, send feedback to sean effel at cctv.
I'll be there
8 hours for $300 - I'm there.
Boston area Admin Trainings
We call this the Drupal Admin Bootcamp, every other month or so in the Boston area. You can see the curriculum on the links below.
http://www.cctvcambridge.org/bootcamp
Good luck!
MetroWest Boston Meetup
Hi Lee, and others who have dropped by this thread in the past couple years!
We're initiating a MetroWest Boston meetup on a smaller scale and more open to teaching than the Boston Drupal group can be. Hope you (and people who are where you were in your Drupal knowledge two years ago!) can make it:
Wednesday, December 10, 6 p.m. at Natick's public library, the Morse Institute Library, 14 East Central Street, Natick, Massachusetts. This is less than one block from the Natick stop on the MBTA Commuter Rail's Worcester/Framingham/Boston line.
benjamin, Agaric Design Collective
benjamin, agaric