Ten Ton is on a crusade against bad teaching. Bottom line is, there’s a severe lack of quality training that gives learners exactly what they want. The "learning industry" (including colleges, training institutions, video-based training companies, and so on) is full of out-of-work designers, hacks, and wannabe superstars. After all, if you can’t find work, you can always "teach." I’ve got a big problem with that. Simply knowing how a piece of software works doesn’t mean you can teach it — just as owning a camera doesn’t make you a photographer. I love teaching, and it truly is a combination of skills and character traits; subject knowledge accounts for about half of what makes a great teacher. Problem is, a lot of instructors think they can teach. They should stop. This is not amateur hour at the Roxy. This is your education (that you laid out your hard-earned money for) that we’re talking about!

Most college professors aren’t teaching what’s needed to be competitive in the marketplace, and many training companies are focused on market share and profit, not on teaching you what you need. They’re caught in an endless race of more, more, more. More courses, more products, more endless hours of video lessons. They’ve mistaken "more" to mean "better." There’s no standard of quality, there’s no depth, there’s no fun. No fun? Who says this stuff has to be boring and dull? Obviously, a bunch of "suits" who are focused on things other than your education. Of course Photoshop’s fun. Of course web design is fun — this stuff is exciting and creative! But for most colleges and training companies, it isn’t fun and it isn’t creative. It’s a product. It’s a means to fatten the bottom line. I call bullshit. I love what I do. Getting paid for it is a bonus, not the sole reason for Ten Ton’s existence.

Now all that said, there are some great teachers out there. If you have an awesome teacher or professor, tell them they’re great — and that Ten Ton salutes them. The world needs more great teachers. If you’re in college, demand more from your professors. If you’re enrolled with a training company, demand quality, depth, and an instructor who can teach. Don’t be afraid to call bullshit on them. And if you’re a teacher yourself, make damn sure you’re giving your best. Until training companies, teachers, and professors realize that it’s morally wrong to demand so much money and give so little in return, until they produce content to the high standards that you demand, then Ten Ton will exist.

Bad teaching sucks. That’s the way I see it anyway.

I’m Geoff Blake, and I just brought the thunder!

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Ten Ton is excited to announce our new affiliate program! There have been a lot of changes and additions around here lately, many of them apparent, some of them not, but one of the big additions is our new affiliate program. The program, powered by E-Junkie, offers a generous 15% commission on all of our training products (that works out to over $20 for each regularly priced DVD an affiliate sells!) — so if you run a website, blog, e-newsletter, or if you want to help promote Ten Ton on your social media platforms, then be sure to sign up (it’s fast and easy) and start earning some extra dough today!

To find out more about Ten Ton’s affiliate program, click here!

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Check out Ten Ton’s Facebook page right here.

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Ten Ton Give-Away: Win A Copy Of Ten Ton Photoshop!

Yeah, that’s right baby! Here’s your chance to score a copy of Ten Ton Photoshop! Why the give-away? Well did you know that this month marks the 20th birthday of Adobe’s image editing titan? To celebrate, Ten Ton is giving away a copy of Ten Ton Photoshop Essentials! How much does that rule? Our randomly drawn lucky winner can choose between either Ten Ton Photoshop Essentials Part One or Ten Ton Photoshop Essentials Part Two.

So how do you shoot for a copy? Easy. All ya gotta do is throw a comment into this post. You can talk about whatever you’d like: Your favorite Photoshop command, why you want to learn Photoshop, a war story from the Photoshop trenches…whatever you’d like. Just keep it clean for the youngins, kay? The contest runs until the end of the month, so you have until Feb 28 to enter. Sound sweet? Damn straight!

On March 1st, we’ll randomly draw a name from our list of comments and announce the winner. In the meantime, check out this fantastic post over on WebDesignerDepot about the past 20 years of Photoshop and the origins of your favorite image app!

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1. And Tha Winnahh Is…