Semi OT - SQL Course

From: Stephane Faroult <sfaroult@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "oracle-l" <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:53:20 +0200
 

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Folks, 

            I have launched this week-end an online SQL course that has kept
me much busy for the past months. Even if you have no interest in it,
I think that many of you will appreciate the trailer I have done to
launch it  - especially the first minute (the four last ones are
blatantly commercial, you are warned). It's here: 

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUB113i_mzA [1] 

        The Youtube-deprived can see it, without HD, here:  

        http://www.konagora.com/tutorials/video.php?courseid=2&module=26 [2]


        It was a fun project, and if you ever need to impress your in-laws
... (or worse, future in-laws). 

        It's the very first time I target people who aren't supposed to
already know SQL. I have attended Chris Date's presentation on using
SQL in a relational way in Edinburgh one year and a half ago (it has
already been announced on the list, he is giving it again at the same
place during the second week of May - if you can go, it's worth it).
My practice agrees with Chris' theory for about 98% (the 2% for which
I may disagree are relatively minor), and it has occurred to me that
instead of correcting bad habits it might be better to try to teach
things properly from the start, instead of throwing syntax at people
and letting them dabble with SQL with the results we all know. The
two courses I have taken myself (a one day course when I was an IBM
intern back in June 1983 and a three day course when I joined Oracle
France in September 1986) have left me rather unimpressed, and, from
what I have seen from multiple outlines here and there, there hasn't
been much improvement over the quarter of a century. I hope to have
done much better, even if I don't mention "tuples" even once. 

        Now a call to arms - I am increasingly worried about education, and
I plan to do my bit - you can read about it here:  

        http://konagora.com/static/manifesto_en.php [3] 

        If you have some presentations that target beginners, not
necessarily on Oracle, and if you think that it might interest a
wider audience than what you have had so far, don't hesitate to get
in touch with me (privately). I'm quite willing to help you turn them
into something that resembles what I have done, and I intend to pay
royalties. I don't want specialist material, but I'm interested by
foundations. Anything that would find its place in a 1st year IT/CS
curriculum can be good material. And as someone who has currently
sold more copies of "The Art of SQL" in Chinese than in English, I'm
not exclusively focused on English. Anything in English, French,
Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese or
Japanese can interest me - although if it's not in English or French,
German to a much lesser extent, I'll have trouble helping you with
editing. 

        Thanks, 

        Stéphane Faroult  
  

Links:
------
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUB113i_mzA
[2]
http://www.konagora.com/tutorials/video.php?courseid=2&amp;module=26
[3] http://konagora.com/static/manifesto_en.php
Semi OT - SQL Course

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