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Diagram
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Title
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Foundation Course
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Building Architecture
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The workshop methods of the Bauhaus encouraged students to understand the materials and tools of their craft. The foundation course placed a great deal of emphasis on theoretical and practical knowledge. It applied a scientific logic to art - a hallmark of modern thinking. It also focused on the individual student and sought to develop a well integrated creative person.
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Architecture Intensive Disciplines
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The goal of all learning in information technology should be the development of a well integrated creative person. A foundation must be based on the individual. Vendor or platform specific training that promotes knowledge of a brand of products is not likely to focus on the individual's own personal development. Rather the product manufacturer will seek to focus on promoting the product or brand.
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Case Study A: Large Corporate IT
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In this environment there was a contrast in approach towards building a knowledge foundation. Few of the developers held a tertiary qualification (degree or diploma). Most of the contractors (who out numbered permanent staff by 10 to 1) were self-taught, perhaps with experience but no tertiary qualification. There were those who sought to build a foundation based on a vendor certfication such as Microsoft's Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD). The latter two were focused on technical tools and showed less interest in knowledge issues such as documentation, best practices, processes and accepted analysis and design methods.
It was much more difficult for these individuals to make paradigm shifts - client server to web application development and vice versa, relational design and object orientation, prototyping and visual modeling, construction and design, hierarchical data and relational (XML parsing). The most effective method for training was to illustrate using templates, tools and source code examples. Raising the level of abstraction was always more difficult. Yet, those who could develop mental models of concepts such as normalisation, generativity, encapsulation, aggregration, recursion were in a better position to comprehend how this applied across tools, brands, platforms or technologies.
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Case Study B: Small Commercial Team
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To some extent it is easier to develop a "well integrated" individual in a small team because one is forced to do a broad range of work. What is lacking is the interaction with very experienced and talented specialists that larger corporate environments have. In this case, the technical staff had individuals who held degrees and shared a common value system of knowledge sharing. There was an appreciation for deeper knowledge and a willingness to learn.
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