Posted by atuline on September 24, 2008 at 3:33pm
I'm considering some education to further my knowledge in the area of website development, possibly to transition my career (from Network Infrastructure Management). Areas could include:
- Sales/marketing
- Business management
- Consulting practices
- (Web) design principles
- HTML, CSS
- PHP
- Javascript/JQuery
- Databases
- Applications, i.e. Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, etc
- and so on. . .
The question is, what recommendations do you have for education in these areas. One suggestion that's been offered to me is the BCIT Associate Certificate in Web Technologies at http://www.deltamac.ca/Weaving/index.php.
Comments
Heya, THAT's you lol. I
Heya,
THAT's you lol. I still owe you for that chocolate milk from Drupalcamp :) I don't have your contact details, shoot me an email fathamburger@gmail.com. We have a LOT to catch up on.
The nice thing about a course vs teaching yourself is that if you ever want to get a job, you have a piece of paper and a transcript to back up your claims, however you eat tuition and debt. If you can afford to just hole up for awhile and just learn on your own that's generally the cheaper way to go, do smaller jobs while learning which is what I'm trying to do now. I'd probably say, keep doing what you're doing now and see how much progress you're making before jumping into more student debt, I mean education.
Home Study
Andrew:
I agree with fathamburger. Rather than a certificate, your portfolio will be your strongest calling card and you've already got a great start there. Much of the things on your list can be learned for free off of the web. You're more than tech savvy enough to pick it up the core technologies yourself. Going down your list:
For these three I would start by talking to the folks at the Small Business BC, a not-for-profit society dedicated to providing information and resources for small businesses. They have lots of free material and a library. They should be able to direct you to further resources. You might also consider night classes in these areas.
There are some excellent web sites that cover web design principles. For usability issues I would start with the excellent book Don't Make me Think.
Again, the web is a great place for this. I know you're aware of www.w3schools.com. It doesn't go into a lot of depth, but it does the basic stuff well. For CSS I would especially look for sites that discuss the box model.
To learn PHP and the MySQL database I used the books PHP 5 Advanced and PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites. Both were quite good, with explicit and practical examples.
For JavaScript I like JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition. For jQuery I like jQuery in Action.
See the PHP entry above regarding MySQL.
For PhotoShop and Illustrator type work I use the free and excellent programs, GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) and Inkscape. They are not compatible with Photoshop and Illustrator, so this may not be an option when you are collaborating. I farm out the Flash work.
Good Luck!
-Scott
Scott Morgan
www.webzoa.com
Scott Morgan
www.webzoa.com
I'm a student in the BCIT program
I am in the BCIT Certification program and am finding it very useful. To be honest, there isn't anything you can't learn from reading a good book on each subject (and there are lots of 'free' online offerings as well) but being in the program, you get to interface with the instructors who themselves are an incredible resource, and you get the benefit of seeing others' assignments as well (including code). Seeing how others are approaching something gives you valuable insights and alternate methods that you, yourself, may not have thought of. The reason I chose to go the Certification route is that I noticed doing it the 'self directed' way that I had 'gaps' in my knowledge. I learned how to do something because I HAD to sometimes but missed a whole bunch of other stuff along the way which would have made my life soooo much easier had I known.
This program is completely self directed and done from home so you do it in your available time. The only time sensitive things are the assignments and, even there, the instructors understand if you have to be a bit late.
The good news (financially) is that you can apply for a PLAR for any courses which you feel you have enough knowledge. Essentially, you pay half the course cost, are sent out an assignment from the course instructor, and are given a mark for the course. If you have a good HTML/XHTML background I would definitely PLAR the first course. As was previously suggested, doing smaller jobs while learning is a great idea. With the courses, I have managed to combine my learning with my earning and much of my course assignment work was work I was doing for actual clients.
Contact me if you want to know more - I'd be happy to talk to you about the program