I’ve been thinking lately about the roadmap to learning WordPress and how I’d never say WordPress is easy. But should that stop us from learning, using, teaching WordPress? Not at all.
Why teach WordPress?
- Remember what you learned
- Spare others from the same frustrations
- Give back (my friend Andrea has profound insights on this)
- Help you synthesize the information you’ve discovered
- Continue learning by repetition and experiencing others learn
By participating in any one of these reasons, we help WordPress, open-source, and the internet a better place.
I love seeing WordPress grow, because I believe that open source makes the internet a better place. I also believe that welcoming people into thriving open source communities can help them find the kind of interdependent, mutually-beneficial society that is elusive in many parts of the globe.
Andrea Middleton
Do I need a degree to teach?
Nope, there is no degree required to teach WordPress. You need some experience, but there are many ways to get that. It’s especially helpful to have experience in the specific lesson, but no degree is required.
That said, I think about my days in college. I do have a degree in this stuff. I had some professors specific to computer programming, astronomy, philosophy, and more. These years were a great time to explore many new-to-me concepts. However, I could tell which professors had training in teaching.
There is a real value to anyone with experience helping another. We can all learn from each other. There is also great value in those who think about Bloom’s Taxonomy, learning styles, learning objectives, curriculum planning, and more.
Those degrees are really useful, but not at all required to share the knowledge and experience uniquely yours.
Want to see what others without an educational degree are sharing? Check out WordPress.tv. You can find recordings from so many WordPress events here.
How can you share what you know?
- Blog, podcast, vlog about it
- Speak at events
- Help someone 1-1
- Offer a class
- Write a lesson plan
- Create a workshop
Want to get on every teacher’s nerves?
Just say or agree with this statement:
Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach
Why is this statement so bothersome? It implies that teaching is somehow less than doing the work.
I question if those who say such things have ever led a group of people through something new to them. In teaching, we see many new perspectives, challenges participants face with the material, and possibly even new insights about the lesson in the process.
When we teach, we speak from our experience. In technical topics, such as web development, we need to anticipate the troubles participants will encounter and be prepared to help them.
When what we teach is open-source-related, we are actively giving back to the project by empowering others.
Why do I teach WordPress?
In my post-college years, I worked on some deeper self-discovery work. I realized the thing I most wanted to do with my life.
My personal life’s mission is to lift the quality of life for others through technology.
At the time, I was a high school business education teacher with a passion to lift the standard of living in remote parts of the globe. I was listening to The World is Flat. My mind was shifting to how globally distributed work was possible.
I found open-source software. I needed a learning management system and started a Moodle server for my class and a blog in Joomla. Soon after, I found WordPress and haven’t looked back since.
My life journeys have meandered here and there along the way, but the mission has never swayed.
With WordPress powering 42% of the internet and my love for empowering others to reach their dreams, I am excited to continue teaching WordPress.
What about you?
Do you share the skills you’ve learned? How do you help others learn WordPress? Leave some comments below
