New Direction in Training

I always thought interactions are the heart of any training. Here's a confirmation. Even classroom, instructor led trainings are getting remodeled to introduce increasing amounts of interactive periods interspersed with "lecture" ESRI have introduced this model now and finds it very effective. Read about the details via the link.
Esri ArcWatch December 2010 - Esri Charts a New Direction in Training

Embedded Center of Excellence!

I'll be embarking on teaching a course this coming semester starting end Jul/beginning Aug. I hope I am able to do a good job at it. More than anything else though I'd like to set up something that'll give students a practical orientation.

Setting up an embedded centre of excellence would be a nice thing to do. Bsides offering students the practical orientation, it'll also provide the institute opportunities at industrial collaborations. If things work out properly it can even be a collaboration center for off-shore projects too.

I am trying to intriduce some changes in the student projects this year. I'd like the faculty too to make their hand dirty and participate in the projects themselves too. Not only forces them too learn practical ideas, students too would like the leadership. Rigorous tresting is another thing I'd like to introduce so that software projects create products rather than yet another data acquisition system!