Rails training

[Update: the training side of Collective Idea is now Idea Foundry--check out the new site for the training schedule.]

All last week I was in San Antonio for Rails training with these guys. I want to put up a review before too much time goes by because when I looked for one, nobody had anything up about their training class. Also, I plan on whoring my blog out to AdSense one of these days and I bet that'll get some traffic.

So, in a nutshell, best professional class I've ever taken. Usually training like this is really dry (not DRY! [bad joke, you'll have to be a Rails geek to get that one]) and it takes an effort simply to remain conscious. The teacher is typically somebody who's following a program, and doesn't deviate far from the outlined path.

Collective Idea takes a different approach. They scheduled the training in a pretty swank hotel, and even took us out for dinner and drinks the first night. The continental breakfast was exponentially better than what you get out of Holiday Inn. But that's all just details--the point is that from the start, Dan, Brandon, and Brian are working to create an atmosphere that's comfortable and entertaining.

The training went way above what I was expecting. I've had some Rails experience, but its been awhile, and I took their beginner class (along with two true beginners from my office) in order to kind of firm up my knowledge of Rails. Because the class was small, we ended up moving really quickly and managed to cover not only the basic ideas of rails, but also at least a snapshot of the current best practices. There really wasn't anything that was off the table--usually in a class like this, if you have a question that deviates too far from the program, the course instructor will either say "take the advanced class" or give you five or ten minutes of explanation off to the side after class is over. CI's style, at least in our class, was really to let us drive the direction. It was a basic class, in that you didn't need to bring any existing knowledge with you, but we managed to cover some more advanced topics like RSpec and Cucumber. They use Rails every day for the work their company does (training is really a secondary pursuit for them) so they're current on what the community is doing and what's going on with Rails Edge. I don't think we actually asked a single question and got a "Gee, I don't know" response.

Hopefully sometime in the near future I'll get a chance to take their advanced class. I really don't have any complaints about the training I did get. Part of me wishes it had been a day longer, but honestly, I don't think my brain could have kept up for another day. I probably would have started spacing out and missing out on what was being taught. And I think the other two guys I took the class with were probably at their saturation point as well. But the class definitely took the steep learning curve that comes with ruby and rails and turned it into more of a gentle grade. So if you're reading this post because you're wondering whether the training is worth it--it is.