Pink goes on yet another rant.

Ok... Taylor Hicks, the voice is ok, but the jerky "I'm trying to be Joe Cocker" movements is really getting on my nerves. And quite frankly, he's no Billy Klippert (who I've met! squeee!) If I had any idea how to link mp3 files on this thing, I'd give you BK's Leavon, but I don't, so you'll have to find it your own darn self. *grin* (hint, check his music page :) )

So, I've been taking an HTML programming class at the local college... First, I'm totally loving it, so don't be surprised if you see all sorts of wierd-ass shizznit going down in here :)

Now, that being said, I have a huge issue with the way the class is being taught. First, I'm a kinetic learner. (For those going huh wha?, studies have shown that people learn in one or more of three different ways - auditory (by hearing), visual (by seeing) and kinetic (by doing). Personally, kinetic is best, but I can also learn visually... but auditory, I'm completely lost.) Second, this class *should* be run with the assumption that students have a basic understanding of HTML and the Internet, and at the very least, computers. Case in point: if you don't know how to find a file on the J:drive? you shouldn't be in there.

Only this time 'round the powers that be got rid of the prerequisite and shortened the class from 14 weeks to 10. We just (about an hour ago :) )finished week 5 and we're at least two weeks behind. The reason? The instructor a)is self-taught and is teaching her bad habits; and b)spends half to three-quarters of the class babying half to three-quarters of the class. So tonight, we had it out with TPTB. There's no adding extra weeks to the end of the class, there's no taking work out. We have a set curriculum, and we're going to follow it.

Only, not ten minutes after instructor stands up and says, ok, we're just gonna run through the work, I'm gonna lecture you and you'll have to do it on your own, she spent the next two hours hand-holding the people who aren't getting it. Five weeks in, do we really need to be told *again* to copy and paste code rather than rekeying it six times?

Worse, we were learning image mapping. Pink poses the question, ok, so how does one calculate the coordinates of your image, without the textbook giving us the answers?
Instructor: you don't. Go on the Internet and download an image mapper. Ummm... I'm pretty sure that's not the answer. Pink: So maybe one would take the image and blow it up to like 1600% and count the pixels? Or is that a really long way of doing it?(it's the only one that makes sense to me...)Instructor: I don't know, real web designers don't have time to do it manually, they download a program to do it for them. Fine, that's what they do in the real world, but I'm paying to learn to program myself. You need to know the rules before you can break them. (Also, to the idiot who said the number of pixels in the image would vary depending on your program. um. no. If your image is 300 dpi, it's 300 dpi, whether you're in paint, photoshop or word. duh.)

So, lots of handholding, lesson didn't get finished and Pink is pissed off. I should have saved myself the money and just bought the book and taught myself. I'm pretty much doing that anyway. What makes me really mad is the real beginners dropped out. So we only have three or four stragglers. So tell me why 8-10 people have to sit around staring at the walls while she coddles the stragglers? Especially when we're this far behind... I've started to work ahead, but I get to a point where the stuff I need to know is in her head and not on the powerpoint. Argh.