On the LearnComputer.com site there's a new post comparing the benefits/downfalls of online versus classroom learning of PHP development. They list a few advantages and disadvantages of each.

There can be many factors in the decision to learn PHP online or to take a class in-person, and for some, this can be a difficult decision to make. This article discusses the pros and cons of each method of PHP training to help you find the learning method that is going to suit your needs best. PHP isn't a new programming language, and there is a wealth of information on it on the web for every level of proficiency. The question is whether these resources alone are sufficient to get you up-and-running with PHP quickly.

For the "online" section advantages include flexible schedules and more up to date content. The disadvantages are things like a prerequisite knowledge of using computers/the training software and that the instructor might only have "set hours" to answer questions and offer help. The "classroom" option advantages include the motivation of a regular meeting time and fewer technology hurdles to overcome. Disadvantages include the need for a time/in-person commitment and that the focus might be higher level than needed to appeal to a more mass audience.

As Rob Allen points out, the PHP North West conference is happening again this year and includes a Zend Framework 2 tutorial day session as taught by him.

The fabulous PHPNW conference is back again this year on October 8th and 9th and tickets are now for sale for a mere £72. Buy now! as you only have a few days left at that price. There's no need to wait for the schedule as we know from the past 3 years, that it's going to be a great selection of relevant topics. More importantly, this year there's a tutorial day on Friday 7th October which is also very cost-effective at £330 for the tutorial day and the conference.

He mentions some of the other tutorials happening the same day including a look at Drupal performance and tools, web services and maintainable application development through components. If you're interested in the sessions and what they're about, check out the tutorial day page on the PHPNW website.

php|architect, the people behind the php|tek confernece, have announced a new training event they're holding in Austin to help you hone your OOP skills in a day-long class.

On Tuesday we launched a new initiative called php|architect Live! - a full-day, in-person training course that gives you practical and in-depth knowledge of a specific topic. But there is more: we don't want our Live! events to be "just training courses." We want them to be intimate learning experiences.

As mentioned, their first event happens in Austin on April 20th and will be taught by Keith Casey. The number of seats is limited (20) so if you're interested, check out the tickets page for a more detailed explanation of the class and to get your tickets ($250 USD).

For those that weren't able to make it to either the PHP Unconference Europe or the PHP Days training that followed, Lorna Mitchell has posted her retrospective of the two events, briefly covering her experiences as both an attendee and speaker.

I spend most of the last week or so over in Manchester for a combination of excellent PHP-related events: PHP Unconference Europe on Saturday and Sunday (with a rather excellent warm-up party on Friday night!), followed by the PHP Days training on Monday and Tuesday.

She talks about the voting process at the unconference (the scientific "stickers" method) and her talk that was voted in - "Speaking Tips for Developers". She also talks about the PHP Days training where the members of thePHP.cc presented on best practices, good development, security, etc. (audience's choice).

Client Bucket Workshops is holding another event in New York at the City College of New York on January 29th - "Content Management System (CMS) Design with PHP, Javascript, and MySQL: Learn How to Design a Dynamic Content Driven Website from Scratch or by Using a framework". It's a full day event happening this Saturday.

A website Content Management System (CMS) is a framework that simplifies the management of content published on the web. Smart administrators and individual website owners use content management systems because they save time, money, and when implemented correctly, completely eliminate the need for a webmaster. In this day long workshop we will teach novice and intermediate programmers the basics needed to build and or setup an existing CMS to better manage existing or new web content.

If you're in the New York area and are interested in building up your CMS knowledge (or just want to get started), you can find out more about the workshop here and, if it sounds interesting, register for your spot. With discounts offered off the price of the ticket drops from $125 USD down to around $79 USD - a low price for a day packed full of training.

As is mentioned on the Zend Developer Zone, Nick Belhomme has released the first few pages of the training materials he's created for using PHPUnit effectively in testing applications for free.

Today is an awesome day my dear fellow programmers. Today is the day I decide to freely distribute the first couple of pages of the PHPUnit workshop I have been giving for some time now. It is a workshop that builds a small demo application the Test Driven Development way. The reason I open this workshop course is because I strongly believe everybody should understand and use PHPUnit in their projects.

The free content is hosted off of SlideShare and covers some of the basics of testing including how to use PHPUnit and things like test doubles and handling dependencies.

New on his blog Cal Evans looks at an interesting topic that several developers out there might not think about - is WordPress training needed?.

Has WordPress become so simple that it requires no training? Honestly, if you are a PHP developer already, yes, it is that simple. Ok, so the code isn't OO and that drives a lot of purists up the wall but at the end of the day, it's functional and that's what is important. Like PHP itself, WordPress is a tool that lets you get the job done.

He talks about the different sides of the same coin - the PHP developers that need to get their hands into WordPress' code but need a little guidance and the users that need to understand the interface that this code provides to get the most out of their sites. He also points out a few resources where you can start on your quest to WordPress mastery like Mitch Canter's blog and Aaron Brazell's blog as well as videos on lynda.com.

Justin Kozuch has submitted some information about a WordPress event happening February 11th in Toronto as a part of the Refresh Events series - WordPress: Zero to Hero.

If you want to learn how to create your own WordPress themes, understand how to use template tags and conditional tags to format and display the data you want, or how to use WordPress as a content management system, Nick will take you from WordPress Zero to Hero in 7 hours flat.

This workshop is for people who have a WordPress blog (or are in the process of creating one) and would like to create their own theme and templates for personal or professional use. This workshop is also for web designers who wish to offer a value-added service to their clients. PHP skills are not required to attend this workshop.

The cost for attendance is $125 CAD and includes wireless internet access/power, breakfast, coffee breaks and, of course, the great course material to be presented. It's recommended that attendees have their own local LAMP installation before coming as that installation will not be covered.

For more information on the event and to reserve your spot, check out this event page from Refresh Events.

Fabien Potencier has posted some updates to the Symfony blog about the upcoming Symfony Live event (in 2010) related to the sessions, their Training Day and some new sponsors.

Since the last time I blogged about the next Symfony Live Conference, I have a whole lot of exiting news. First of all, because I receive a lot of questions about the language of the conference, I want to say again that the whole conference will be held in English only. As a matter of fact, I can tell you than people from 24 countries have already registered for the conference.

Updates to the sessions include the addition of Matthew Weier O'Phinney and Dustin Whittle. The Training Day will be right before the conference and will have five tracks going at once. Check out the post for more on the updated sponsor listing.

Shawn Stratton has an interesting new post to his blog about startups, working environments and a few ideas that could change things a good bit for the average developer's workplace.

I've come to several conclusions after making observations on several articles by successful founders, thinking back on the startups I've seen and interacted with, and seeing the common mistakes that have been made thus far in the businesses and projects I've been involved in and let me just state that it has been a most interesting journey.

He suggests a few things that could make up an "idea workspace" scenario including less (required) work hours and more time off, giving full benefits, promoting an open environment instead of a "cube farm" and the encouragement to always keep learning. He even suggests something that could help make it easier - replacing a lot of the usual means (like books and training courses) with a Kindle loaded and ready to go.

I'm hereby making an open call for people to argue with or contribute to my ideas, let's fix what's wrong with the current corporations and thereby making our economy and our lifestyles sick and dying.

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