I would recommend sending the heads out. There's nothing better than lots of experience for good porting. That translates into the 20th set of heads you do will be great - and by then you will realize just how badly you butchered your first set of heads.
If you do want to learn, the best advise I can give is to do small steps and complete each step for each port. Start with gasket matching all eight intake ports and nothing else, then lightly clean up all eight pushrod bulges, and so on for both heads. Spending a full day on the first intake port will really screw you up on day two when you try and remember all of what you did on day one. Plus if you throw in the towel after a few days the ports will be pretty much equal and the heads can be run with the minor improvements. If you stop with three out of eight ports done you're screwed.