Microsoft Training Today

I was very happy to receive five of my companies Microsoft Training Vouchers for an authorized course which gives me five days of training.  I went back to New Horizons where I originally got my MCSE and my CCNA training and talked to a rep. I noticed that now they have three methods of training delivery - Instructor Led, Mentored Learning and remote learning which I think is watching videos from home. I made absolutely sure that I signed up for IL training (Instructor Led) as I do not want to sit and watch videos, I would be asleep in minutes.

I'm taking Windows Server 2008 Configure & admin class which was supposed to start at 7:30 this morning.  On Friday I received an email confirming the class and I noticed deep in the email that the class was from 8am to 4pm.  What?  Just to be sure I arrived at 7:30 am to a room with a TV, microphone and one other student.  It appears that instructor led no longer necessarily means the instructor is actually in the room.  I was pretty peeved for the first 45 minutes because grand assumptions were made that I'd attended classes before, I knew how to log in to the New Horizons portal and Illuminate, etc.  I told the guy I didn't even know what that was.

After he got me all settled I put on my headphones and tried to settle in.  Fortunately, the instructor is fairly interactive.  He makes you answer questions, put check marks, happy faces and raise your hand in the video session area, etc.  So it actually isn't too bad.  So far, today has been a review of old material - after all, the original concepts of Windows servers are still the same but the devil is in the details. 

We'll see how it goes but it appears you can teach this old dog new tricks but I'm still not on board with this new learning style.  I know its the way of the future but I'm not too happy about it.