Perhaps, yet people learn in different ways.
You have kinesthetic learners. They learn by doing. You have visual learners, they learn by watching. You also have verbal learners. They learn by listening or reading about how to do it.
Education and training solutions cannot be a one-size-fits all product.
There will always be those who need an instructor present to identify their preferred method and guide them through it.
The web really doesn't offer that.
I have a neighbor taking on-line Java classes. I'm frequently helping her with her assignments as she needs more than what the on-line training offers.
Others might be able to get it. But she's a visual learner. So I'll show her parts of the solution, done for another problem so she can take what I show her and apply it to her assignment.
For instance, if she has an assignment that wants her to produce a method to calculate the area of a rectangle, I might write up an example that adds a series of numbers from the provided start number and end number and show her how my method is called to provide the answer.
She can then take that and apply it to her problem. The form is the same, but the contents of her code is somewhat different.
That way, I can see if she understands.
She's really a visual learner, so seeing how something similar is done helps her grasp a solution to her problem.
She doesn't get that in the on-line training.
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Perhaps it's not new, but we have new ways of doing it in a connected world.
Your point is moot-we've always had "new" ways of doing things, and the workforce is required to adapt. We also no longer need operators to connect our phone calls, milkmen to deliver milk to our front door, and ice cutters to cut ice on frozen lakes in the winter. We had "new" ways of doing things during the industrial revolution, we had "new" ways of doing things when transistors replaced tubes, and we had "new" ways of doing things when computer punch cards were the norm. In a few years we'll have technologies around that make current technology look like 5-1/4 floppies do today.
Training? Much of it is available online, especially when it comes to IT/tech administration. Things are reliable enough that it no longer takes a great deal of training to plug in devices or subnet a network, and even an average person can build a computer from off-the-shelf components. At the same time, the talent has moved to programming-good programmers are always in demand, and a large portion of that has shifted from computer programming to programming for mobile devices. There will also come a time when that shifts to something new, and the workforce will have to shift and adapt. There was a time when people needed classes to learn Word and Excel, now the information is so easily available that the classes would be a waste.
If there is someone willing to do your job for less, then you need to increase your skills or find a way to make yourself more valuable rather than lament about it.
