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by: Bernard Teo








Creative Commons License

Copyright © 2003-2012
Bernard Teo
Some Rights Reserved.

Mon 20 Oct 2003

Mac Training, for Mac People, the Mac Way

Category : Commentary/MacTrainingAnnounce.txt

I've wanted to organise Mac training for the longest time - so that Mac users can learn about getting the most out of their Macs, from other dedicated Mac users who could teach the Mac way of doing things.

It's only lately that I've got the resources to make this happen. I've got a large enough space, complete with AppleStore look-a-like beech wood flooring. It's in Shenton Way, within walking distance of the MRT, as well as all the design, media and advertising companies around Tanjong Pagar.

I've got the systems set up for course adminstration, making materials, paying the trainers, and for publishing course calendars. If you've got the latest iCal, you can see what I mean - subscribe to webcal://www.roadstead.com/dav/ical/RoadsteadTraining.ics, and you can reach the registration page for a course with just one click.

And I'm starting to find the right people who've got the passion to help other Mac users - both switchers and veteran Mac users - discover things they don't know they could do with their Macs.

I'm working with Yezdi (who's the President of the local Mac Users' Group MUGS) right now to organise a half-day "Panther/Mac Productivity WorkOut" course that can help people switch to Panther, as safely as possible. The idea is, you bring your own Mac, say your PowerBook, and you bring along your copy of Panther, and we'll help you choose a strategy for upgrading (believe me, there are a few), showing you how to take advantage of all the new features, as well as all the old stuff that you always wanted to know but didn't know who to ask. (We've arranged it so that you can also buy Panther here when you turn up for the course.)

We've got PCs, servers and laptops, on tap, so that you can really see how well the Mac fits into a PC environment, instead of just taking somebody's word for it.

Because I own the place (really) we can work towards keeping the costs down, say $80 for a course. And we'll keep things focused so people won't waste time. (If you just want to learn and don't have a Mac to bring, we'll provide you with one to use for just $19 more).

We've put up more details on http://roadstead.com/training/workout

There are currently two planned dates - 28th Oct (Tuesday) & 8th Nov (Saturday), 9.00 to 1.00 pm (just to see which timing is more popular) - which people can register for, if they're interested in joining other Mac users upgrade to Panther together.

I'd love to host courses for FileMakerPro, Final Cut Pro, movie making on the Mac, sound editing, business systems, setting up Internet servers, courses for kids, etc...

I'm contributing the space, the systems, the infrastructure, and doing the publicising, so that people who need the knowledge can get connected with the people who can best provide the training.

I don't know how far we can take this (though I've been dreaming about doing this for a long time). But I've always preferred the grass-roots movement rather than the top-down, hey-we're-with-Apple way. So I'm going to stick my neck out and do this.

I've just sent out a message to Mean, a local Mac users group. Maybe later to MUGS. And I would have learnt enough from doing real estate adverts to advertise on the local papers. I believe this idea could work. Even if we only get one interested attendee, we'll still do it.

Posted at 5:51AM UTC | permalink

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