In case you didn't know it, knowledge is free. In fact, it always has been. Some cultures make it hard to obtain, but it's free nonetheless. The Internet gives you extremely close access this knowledge. You can randomly choose just about any topic in the world and find at least one article, blog posting, or Wikipedia entry on the topic. In fact, when I was in college I only showed up once to my Kansas State University Physics II class. Instead I kepted up with the class from home by watching the MIT OpenCourseWare video courses. When it comes to Internet-related technologies like Silverlight, knowledge is even easier to find.
I see all kinds of courses by some of the biggest training companies offering all sort of great Silverlight courses. However, these are extremely pricey. There are also many books on Silverlight coming out. Again, not free. But think about it, how do you think the trainers and authors get their information? When I was offered my Silverlight 2 book deal (since being on a deadline sucks, I turned it down), where do you think I would get my information? It's all free online. Here in December 2008, there are all kinds of amazing free resource for learning Silverlight. You do not need training. You do not need to buy a book. Here are some of these resources that I've found this year to help bring you from ground zero to being a Silverlight master:
First, there's the 53-part video series at Silverlight.net. This series just about every single topic you will ever see in your Silverlight career. However, I would consider these to be at the basic level. They cover the fundamentals of each topic, give great tips, and progressively give more interesting examples as the videos progress. If all you are going to be doing is under-using Silverlight 2 as an RIA platform and for general [boring] UI development, then this series may be 90% of what you need. Link: http://silverlight.net/Learn/videocat.aspx?cat=2
Second, there's the 44-part video series from Mike Taulty. This is the guy behind the MSDN Nuggets videos. These videos are more at the intermediate-advanced level. It's also somewhat focused at "under-the-covers" development. Mike doesn't do drag-n-drop videos. He teaches real technology. Whereas the previous series will discuss concepts and how to do things "out of the box", Mike's videos show you how to work with things at a more mechanical level, thus giving you a much greater level of control. If you don't know the topics he's discussing in the videos, you don't know Silverlight. Link: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Mike-Taulty-44-Silverlight-20-Screencasts/
Third, let's not forget that Microsoft has its annual Mix and PDC conferences. Microsoft makes sure that the content for these conferences are freely available online. The Mix videos are very specific and, therefore, should probably be watched on an as-needed basis. You can just follow the link to see the wide variety of topics. Since it's at a conference, however, some of the information will be marketing-speaking, but there's a lot of good stuff in the videos as well. The PDC however is much less marketing-ish and there were a few Silverlight 2 sessions. Links: http://silverlight.net/learn/videocat.aspx?cat=8 and https://sessions.microsoftpdc.com/public/timeline.aspx.
Fourth, if you're the reading-type, then you may prefer the Silverlight 2 e-book at learn-silverlight-tutorial.com. This e-book covers a ton of information. Much like the 53-part series, I would mark this down as basic-level. It covers a touches on a wide variety of topics. However, much of the information is just that: "a touch". It's not very deep, but it's rather wide. Link: http://www.learn-silverlight-tutorial.com/
Fifth, Microsoft has always been good about providing QuickStarts. These are kind of a cross between visual, text, and hands-on learning. These are also the typical go to card for any one new to anything. The ASP.NET quick starts are still incredibly popular these many years later. The Silverlight ones are quite well done as well. The topics are basic-intermediate and range from topics like general UI controls to cooler stuff like JavaScript/DOM interop. However, you may feel completely free to absolutely ignore the completely worthless "web services" section. Whoever wrote that thought he or she was writing about the hopelessly-flawed ASMX, not the image-of-beauty WCF and, therefore, didn't even remotely bother to obey the most fundamental of WCF purposes and practices (i.e. keep your address, binding, and contract away from your implementation!) Link: http://silverlight.net/quickstarts/
Speaking of WCF, the last resource I want to mention is my document entitled "Understanding WCF in Silverlight 2". This one has received a lot of attention since I wrote it in November 2008. In fact, it's now listed on the WCF MSDN home page. It's there because I cover WCF from the ground up for both .NET and Silverlight in a very deep manner. If you are new to WCF, SOA, or Silverlight, then this is a good place to start (of course, no bias here.) I wrote this document to help both people new to WCF and Silverlight as well as those who have been working either either for a while. Even if you're not too serious about Silverlight, you should still read this detailed document to understand WCF better. I don't play around with introductory nonsense, I hit the ground running with best-practices and proper architectural principles. Link: http://www.netfxharmonics.com/2008/11/Understanding-WCF-Services-in-Silverlight-2
Though it's not a straight learning resource, I support I would also like to mention that you can always check out the Silverlight tag in my Delicous account: http://delicious.com/quantum00/silverlight. However, keep in mind that just because I bookmark something, it doesn't mean I'm recommending the resource. It just means it was interesting and/or provided some value to me. You can expect this to be updated for the months to come. I live off of my delicious account.
Another thing I would like to mention is that if you know WPF and web development, then you almost get Silverlight knowledge naturally. Silverlight is essential a subset of WPF for the web. You just take WPF, rip out a bunch of features, add just a handful of topics, move it to the web, and you have Silverlight. Much of your skills are reusable if you already know WPF. Actually, a lot of your skills are reusable if you're a .NET developer in general. Just whip open Reflector and start looking through the framework, you'll see that there's a lot less than what's in the .NET framework, thus requiring much less learning time.
So, don't waste your money on books. The blog is the new book. Don't bother asking your employer for Silverlight training. OK, well, if you just want some time off from work, sure, go ahead and ask. Really, though, these resources will give you what you need for your Silverlight development. In fact, if you were to compare the syllabus for an expensive course with the topics found in the first two sections of videos mentioned (97 of them!), you will see that the ROI for the course is virtually non-existent.