Need Opinions on LFFS

As many of you know I’ve been co-writing a series on the O’Reilly site www.insideria.com with my friend Scott Sheridan called Learning Flex from Scratch.  A big thanks to Rich Tretola for having us on as a part of Inside RIA.

When we started the series Scott had no experience as a programmer. His academic background is in Psychology and he is a music and yoga teacher. He literally began this project at a point of learning Flex from scratch. My academic background is in Computer Science and Sociology. One of the things that interested me in the very small amount of study I did in the Sociology of Eduction is the idea that students often make the best teachers. So, my role in this project was/is as mentor and technical editor as Scott chronicles his experiences learning the ins and outs of becoming a Flex developer.

The insight that I’ve gained on how a person learns to be a programmer has been invaluable. I hope this project has resulted in a novel resource for the novice to learn how to really use all of the powerful capabilities offered by the Flex platform.

So, we’re starting to talk about planning where to go next. John Wilker and Tom Ortega were gracious enough to accept both Scott and myself as presenters at 360 Flex | San Jose. We will be presenting the LFFS series. After that we’re open to what comes next and I’d love to hear some feedback on what would be most valuable to those of you out there learning Flex.

Here are some ideas to think about:

  •  A full length book in the LFFS style
  •  A series of pocket-guide books
  •  Continuing the series as is
  •  Creating a featured site for LFFS that includes addt’l writers
  •  A focus on LFFS sessions at Adobe community events

Don’t think of this as a comprehensive list of choices or that any choices are mutually exclusive. We’d love to hear what will be the most valuable resource for you. Feel free to comment on this post or e-mail me at adamflater at gmail dot com.

thanks
-adam

4 thoughts on “Need Opinions on LFFS”

  1. ben.clinkinbeard

    I think continuing and/or creating a dedicated site would be nice, but I think a book could do really well also. It seems like beginners are more likely to start learning from books than web sites, and more likely than people who know what they are doing already. At least that was the case with me, but there weren’t nearly the amount of blogs and online resources back then.

  3. justin.reidy

    While I still see a spot for a “killer” book on learning Flex, I think the format of LFFS lends itself more to a serial, online format. (This serial could always be compiled into a book at a later date, as I think it would be pretty successful).

    What I find most interesting about LFFS is the teacher/student relationship between you and Scott. I’ve felt for awhile that the best way of learning any new framework or language is through a “guild” style pairing of mentors and apprentices, with apprentices moving their way up the guild and teaching more junior members. Having a more senior resource to answer questions and provide code samples, or even just to discuss meta-points about the framkework/language, tends to flatten the learning curve. Expanding on LFFS to enable, or at least encourage, the creation of a Flex learning community like that would be incredibly helpful.

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