Teaching PowerShell to others??

I've just started a new job and have been tasked with becoming the team's PowerShell guru.  Not only that but in 2 weeks I have to come up with a proposal on how to "introduce" the rest of the team to it.
 
Given that I have only a passing knowledge (which I am now frantically trying to improve), what would you all recommend be the general focus of my proposal?  Obviously I can(t go into details about every aspect of Powershell so I am thinking of highlighting the major features and differences to VBS/Perl etc
 
Any advice?

I would suggest the "Script Club" method. The concept was created by a member of the powershell team whose name I can't remember right now. Here are the rules:

1) You always talk about Script Club
2) You ALWAYS talk about Script Club.
3) If someone asks for help, and you can help, you help.
4) Two people help one person at one time.
5) One module per person per night.
6) All scripts, all powershell.
7) Scripts will be as short as they can be.
8) If this is your first time at Script club, you have to script.

You might want to modify the concept for the first meeting or two, but basically you want everyone to come prepared with something that they want powershell to do for them.

I also do something that I call Power Lunch. I simply eat lunch at a specific place at a specific time and interested parties come eat lunch too. We discuss issues that they are having and how powershell can help. I did this specifically to teach powershell to the helpdesk because our management won't give them time off the phones for formal training...grrr!

Having been a technology instructor for many years I can tell you this much, have a lesson plan, and stick to it. I've taught all skill levels from guys who shovel coal to engineers. The engineers are the toughest to teach because they know they are smarter than you ;-)
 
I don't know the level of your students programming skills if they are all technology graduates they should know the basic's. (IF THEN ELSE etc...) If they have no programming education then you need to start with the basic's. I would guess you will have a mix and some will not want anything to do with programming (I have a couple guy's like this) it's totally normal but they need to know.
The guys that don't want to program just need to have some success in order to get them moving.
At least one guy will excel at scripting don't let him take over, just give him something complex to challenge him.
 
A file copy script will give them result's and it's easy.
When they can copy one file from one place to another have them do 2 files using a list, read from a file.
This is the trick for new scripters they need to build on what they have been taught.
To start with everyones script should look the same "everything in the script"
Use flat scripts to start no functions, you will build on what they already know.
 
What "You" do is write a complex script that will do everything they need to know.
Take the script apart so you can teach each section of the script as the next lesson.
 
Now give them a script that does exactly the same thing but done in a different way and have them debug it.
Debuging is not easy some will not get it they will not find the errors, that's ok, have the guys who get it help them.
Teaching is the best way to reinforce what one knows.
 

Hows the powershell training going?

I gave my self a huge push to learn this but it is so different from VBScript. 
Read complete books etc. Think I will have to have another go soon and get over that darn hump.

I was rather hoping it had been forgotten about but I have to come up with a basic outline for next week.  The team consists (mostly) of technical people who have a good knowledge of VBS or shell scripting but none of them have ANY Powershell knowledge.

I don't think I'm meant to come up with a comprehensive course, more of a general overview and introduction. 

So, I think I need to cover the following :-

It's not VBScript V6!  If anything, it's C# Script
Cmdlets
.NET & WMI calls
Piping
Functions

I then need some examples of why PS is so much better than VBS/batch scripting.

I would highly recommend stressing the "Everything is an Object" aspect. This combined with the pipe and access to .Net is what gives Powershell it's power in my opinion.

Yup.  I've added that to the list ;)

I've also thrown in the HyperV module so that the one super-techy who thinks Powershell is "just another scripting language" can be shown how I can create a VM far more quickly than he can ;)

What about the fact that the management consoles for server technologies like exchange are now built on powershell. That would sure make it easier to script.

Right.  I now have a date, June 18 and I'm supposed to make a proper training (slides, examples, exercises etc).

Gulp.  I'm no trainer!!!

Anyway, I've decided to compare and contrast PS with VBS and standard batch files.  Try and show why PS is so much better for most things than either of the other two.

What they actually want me to do is give a "primer" training on June 18, set my colleagues some exercises and then do another training in August to see how they've got on and to go into a little more depth.

So.....suggestions for exercises?  I'm thinking

WMI remote queries
Querying AD (They can use the Quest cmdlets, I don't have an issue with them.  They make it SO much easier)
Counting the 10 largest files on a fileserver

Just go through everything in the Frequently Asked Questions thread in the Client Side Scripting section here. Everything there can be done more simply in Powershell.

I need to make a push into learning PS myself, but so far haven't found a reason to do so.  And Yes I do know it gives you more control over things but most of my scripting is app installs, and at this time VBS works fine for me.  I just need to find the time to figure out how it will benefit me in my normal scripting functions.  The main reason, way back when, why I switched from BATs to VBS was because I had someone show me how VBS was better and how I could do my job better.

With all that said, suggestions:  find a couple simple job functions and as long as it is fairly easy to convert to PS then use that as a starting point.  Interacting with EventViewer. etc.

Here is how you would get the 5 most recent Application log events:

get-eventlog -newest 5 -logname application

Compare that to the VBS to do the same thing.

Well, today's the day!  9 people gathered around my desk to learn about the wonders of Powershell.  I've knocked up a little Powerpoint presentation plus some example scripts/one-liners to demonstrate the core features. 

Now I've just got to try and sound confident enough when I start talking!  God, I hate doing stuff like this.

Good luck. You'll do great.

And it's over.  Went OK, all things considered though I think I went a little too quickly and glossed over some of the technical details.  Given that it was only meant to be an "overview" that's not so bad.

At least 3 of the people have been impressed enough to want to delve into it though :)

Nice!

I just did this today too, I gave a quick overview of Powershell2 to a couple of guys.

It went extremely well, I ran the presentation from a notebook remote controlling my workstation which I setup earlier. Out through a projector.

The only problem was that I had to scroll around the screen cause I had the resolution too big on my workstation. One of the guys brought the computer so I did not have time to prepare.

The thing that made it a success though was that the I found a copy of the new MS PowerShell2 course slides linked by Thomas Lee http://tfl09.blogspot.com/

All I had to do was glance through it and was able to present Lesson1 in one hour. (not reading word for word but all explaining and demonstrating). I recon that’s all you need to get started and hooked. So it will be interesting if they ask me to do more or same for others.

I am no trainer but I feel I delivered it well. (even without the course notes) Definitely would be a worth while course to attend and see it delivered by a real trainer. Now how to get Don Jones to come to the Australian Sunshine Coast for a holiday and visit us?

You got a working link for those slides?

Sorry try the office live link on this page http://tfl09.blogspot.com/2010/08/pshscriptsblogspotcom-2-years-on.html