For quite some time I have wanted to put together a Ruby and Rails 101 course for the community at no charge for attendees.  I recently posted a message on the Ruby::AZ google group to see what interest was there.  Although it seems that there is a greater need for intermediate classes, I still believe that we should start at the beginner level and if that is successful then we can have a more advanced course.

The plan is to have a weekly class most located in Phoenix/Tempe area.  I feel that once a month class is too much time in between.  Once we have the course planned, we will know how many weeks we are looking at.  I want the classes to be hands-on and last 1 - 2 hours.

So, as it stands it looks like RebelHold and our friends at Flatterline along with the Ruby::AZ group are going to make this happen.  I have had several people volunteer to help out and that is yet another example of how great the Ruby community is!

Why are we doing this?  If you have read my blog before, it is obvious that I do not like seeing people getting charged to learn programming.  Charging a company to do training is one thing but we as the Ruby community owe it to ourselves and others to help develop new Ruby programmers.  At RebelHold, we bring in apprentices and train them.  After they have made the transition, they are made partners.  So by offering this course, we are developing programmers that might work with us some day.  I owe a lot to many people that took the time to teach me Ruby and to help me learn.  Time to return the favor.

If you are interested in attending or would like to help out with the classes, please email me or go to the Ruby::AZ google group and post a message.