Wednesday, March 21, 2012

On Learning and Learning and, well, Learning

The last few weeks I have had the honour of being an assistant instructor for the current Foundations course in the AST's Black Box Software Testing (BBST) course. 

Going in, I was a little nervous.  Partly, I think, because I had agreed to be a "contingency instructor" for the course.  That is, should one of the other instructors not be able to, well, instruct, I'd step in.  Well, that happened.  On top of that, the day-job is going nuts and I'm way behind on other writing (which is why I'm taking a minute to write a quick blog entry - don't tell anyone.)

Oh, I have presentations and a paper to prepare and.. well, never mind.

Some 20+ students dove in, and the instructors dove in with them.  And the fun began.  Really.

Exercises and reading and lectures and learning and group exercises and... thinking.  Lots of thinking.  And learning.  When I took the course it was like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant.  Massive amounts of information and ideas and, well, huge learning.

You know what I've learned as an instructor?  Lots.  Huge learning.  Massive amounts.  I half expected this from teaching drumming and drumming workshops, but, whoa. 

So, we are about to start the final lesson, then the exam. hooo-boy.

What have I learned most?  If you want to really learn something, try explaining it to someone else.


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