Looking for a defined path to learn Rev (for new users)

[Jim Bufalini]

Judy Perry wrote:

> I went back and re-read Alejandro's post and that is most definitely
> NOT
> the impression it gives me.  I also chatted with him for a good half
> hour
> or more yesterday and nothing in that conversation suggested that these
> teachers already know how to program using another
> language/environment.
> 
> For example, he repeatedly makes the point that they are expecting Rev
> to
> look like and have similar capabilities to a typical Office suite of
> programs (which is about all teacher ed candidates tend to be taught).
> He
> says they look at the volume of documentation and are horrified,
> whereas
> probably most of us who already use Rev to varying degrees wish there
> was
> even more (for example, it was recently suggested to me to use the
> selectedLine for a tabbed button... I checked the docs and they only
> suggest that selectedLine works for fields, not buttons, but it did,
> indeed work).
> 
> Can you point me to what I missed (re Alejandro)?

Hi Judy,

If you spoke with him for 30-minutes yesterday, then you probably have not
missed anything and I am the one who misunderstood his post. ;-) In my
defense, when I read (brackets added for emphasis by me):

-----
Hi all,

Previously, i have wrote about [my fellow teachers] that i have [invited to
use RevMedia] in their classes.

If you read those comments, you had learn that they expect to receive
training from the source, from Runrev, not unlike Microsoft and Adobe offers
with their [certification programs].

The idea of learning on their own, do not attract too many of them. I know
that this is the result of previous experiences in [trainings for other
softwares]...
-----

I read it to mean he wanted to teach his fellow teachers (not kids) how to
program in rev and I took his "previous experiences in trainings for other
softwares" to mean other software languages and not how to "use" office
programs.

And, in Alejandro's defense, I fully understand he is not writing in his
native language.

None the less, and in light of what is now my obvious misunderstanding
aside, it did cause me to think of when I first started with Rev and as I
said in my post: 

"... But you raise an interesting point... assuming there are programmers
who know how to program in other more traditional programming languages...
you need to focus on the lay of the land first... this applies to not just
your fellow teachers, but all those we expect to embrace revlets and
revTalk..."

I stand by this, even if it wasn't what Alejandro was asking. And in writing
my "misguided" response, it made me realize that this is probably the single
most barrier to mass adoption of revlets by programmers of other languages.
However, it is certainly not an insurmountable barrier, and in fact, a very
addressable one.

As to teaching kids, you'll have to speak to my wife who is a "certified" K
through 12 and special needs school teacher. ;-) She was previously, for 18
years, a Systems Engineer with IBM in charge of Education Systems and
installing computers in the classroom here. 

Aloha from Hawaii,

Jim Bufalini