Wednesday, May 4, 2011

SOUG: Cary Millsap

Performance related topics are trending this year at SOUG. By trending, I mean 2 of 7. That's a trend right?

In January, we talked Tanel Põder into taking a vacation from his vacation. Now, we get Cary Millsap of...well, fame.

If you don't know who Cary (@carymillsap) is, you should. From his blog:

Oracle performance specialist since 1989, author of "Optimizing Oracle Performance" (O'Reilly), founder and president of Method R Corporation.

Hmm...I thought he had Teacher in there. Here it is from his Google Profile:

Oracle performance specialist, author of Optimizing Oracle Performance with Jeff Holt. Founder and President of Method R Corporation. Teacher, consultant, software designer and developer.

I really like that, Teacher. Teaching.

Teachers need to understand a subject enough to convey its essence to students. While traditionally this has involved lecturing on the part of the teacher, new instructional strategies put the teacher more into the role of course designer, discussion facilitator, and coach and the student more into the role of active learner, discovering the subject of the course. In any case, the goal is to establish a sound knowledge base and skill set on which students will be able to build as they are exposed to different life experiences. Good teachers can translate information, good judgment, experience and wisdom into relevant knowledge that a student can understand, retain and pass to others. Studies from the US suggest that the quality of teachers is the single most important factor affecting student performance...

Like Tanel, I don't understand many of the finer details, I do not have that kind of experience. What makes Tanel, and Cary, stand out, is that they can make these complex topics easily consumable by mortals.

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