Thursday, March 26, 2009

"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." Mark Twain

I have many students that come to my classes that use Macs. They ask about classes on Apple products and I tell them realistically there is very little chance I could ever do it. The reason is simple. Apple is a minority in the computer world and Windows is the majority and to this we offer both computers and classes on windows machines. It does make sense. But what about the Apple people then? First off if a student is taking a class about something on the web or even some Microsoft products then it frankly doesn’t matter because they are basically the same. OK fine but what about learning the system and its applications? Well I have an answer but it is not free but still good nonetheless. Apple features a service called OnetoOne training. It is a $99 bucks for a year’s worth of training. What you get for you money is a once a week session with an Apple rep* for 52 weeks. You just make a reservation online and you walk in. They teach you pretty much anything you might have an interest in. They do have a curriculum if you want to follow it but it seems fine to go off topic at anytime. I have recommended this to both friends and family and it has really reduced the phone calls I get. The one joking question I get after a class is “Do you make house calls?” Training is so very necessary especially with programs becoming more and more powerful. People try earnestly to learn this stuff but when they go home they often feel they have been left on a raft to drift in the sea of computer problems. This is the reason why I have a “Ask a question feature on the site. I recommend this OnetoOne service because I believe the price is right for a solo tutorial when you want it. I should also mention they have free classes as well that have multiple students in them. So if you have a Mac and you don’t see the class you want for free then give this a try.

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