From: dblack@...
Date: 2006-11-11T13:06:21+09:00
Subject: Re: looking for some feedback about Certification

Hi --

On Sat, 11 Nov 2006, James Britt wrote:

> dblack@wobblini.net wrote:
>
>> 
>> I think it's fine for the institution to offer a certificate in Ruby
>> programming, but I don't think it has any implications for Ruby per
>> se.  In other words, I would not call people who take the course
>> certified Rubyists, but rather holders of a certificate in Ruby from
>> such-and-such an institution.
>
>
> Jamis' comment on Pat's blog, though, hit the nail on the head in pointing 
> out that anything called a "certificate" will carry linguistic and 
> work-culture baggage.

I guess I'm coming at it from having been involved for many years in
an academic department that packaged groups of courses into
certificates -- so, for example, if you took a certain sequence, you
would have earned the Computer Graphics certificate.  This was partly
done because we were a big umbrella department (Communication) and it
was hard to tell what someone had actually studied when they were a
Communication major.

> I really like the idea of a school offering a formal path of Ruby study, 
> and I suppose that, at the end, you would get something that indicates 
> success or failure by the standards of the course.  You know, a 
> certificate.
>
> Overall, there are worse problems to have than people abusing the notion of 
> Ruby certification.  You'd think more people had seen The Wizard of Oz, 
> though.

It does seem too bad to have the baggage associated with one word
stand in the way of what might be a beneficial and effective learning
experience.


David

-- 
                   David A. Black | dblack@rubypal.com
Author of "Ruby for Rails"   [1] | Ruby/Rails training & consultancy [3]
DABlog (DAB's Weblog)        [2] | Co-director, Ruby Central, Inc.   [4]
[1] http://www.manning.com/black | [3] http://www.rubypowerandlight.com
[2] http://dablog.rubypal.com    | [4] http://www.rubycentral.org