From: SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@...>
Date: 2007-02-18T11:35:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Adopt-a-newbie? Based on actual experience.

I think exposing the dialogs between mentors and newbies is essential,
and if infrastructure doesn't exist, it hsould be done manually.

Personally, I'm going to edit my conversations with Semantha a bit and
publish them since they are such a great learning resource in my
opinion (they just contain far too much personal information as-is, so
major editing is required - I don't think many Ruby newbies are
interested in Jewish prayers :) )


With these dialogs published, I don't think the community will be hurt.

There will just suddenly be a huge FAQ with the REALLY frequently
asked question, those too trivial and too abundant for an official
one, all answered until a real newbie approves and groks.

Besides, conversation is a great kind of teaching material, as anyone
who reads Creating Passionate Users (and everyone SHOULD! How much
resonance can begin with an article there) has read lately.

Aur

On 2/18/07, Ruben Medellin <chubas7@gmail.com> wrote:
> Edwin Fine wrote:
> > First, *my* definition of "newbie" just for this post:
> >
> > A person who is generally inexperienced in computer programming, and
> > specifically inexperienced in Ruby programming.
> >
> > Therefore, when mentioning newbies in this post, I do not refer to
> > people who are already adept at programming in another language but just
> > don't know Ruby. I believe most of such people would not hesitate to
> > post to a forum, and would not really want or need a mentor. They would
> > also hopefully know how to ask questions in a clear way.
> >
> > I mentor developers as part of my job. Based on experience, I would say
> > that newbies as defined above should execute the following algorithm
> > (which contains polite versions of RTFM and STFW) to get maximum benefit
> > from a mentor:
> >
> > newbie.read_the_manual or
> > newbie.search_the_web or
> > newbie.read_ruby_books or
> > newbie.ask_mentor or
> > newbie.post_to_ruby_forum # Last resort
> >
> > It is unfortunately not rare to encounter people who will not exhaust
> > all other self-help possibilities before asking others for help. I will
> > not opine on why this is so. However, IMHO, help is given freely and
> > happily when the helpee has demonstrated sufficient gumption, and
> > consideration for other people's time, to try to find the solution using
> > the above algorithm.
>
>
> That's my point: for specific questions a newbie should exhaust as many
> possibilities of solving a problem before asking to a mentor. However,
> for the learning process of any people, a good technique is to learn
> from other people's problems, hence the communities. I believe in
> collaborative learning.
>
> I agree with Aur, it can be possible to do this system and benefit the
> community by doing it an open process, with browsable search and so
> -which yields to a forum-. Or, extending the process and adopt a newbie
> for a long time, would better make a course or a tutorial.
>
> In short, I can see the benefits of this by changing the learning
> process of the newbie in question. However, it would hurt the community
> learning process. As a shy newbie myself, I can say I've learnt a lot if
> things -that are not in any manual or book- by searching and posting,
> and more important, by looking at other people's learning processes.
>
> Ruben.
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
>