My high school offers us the option to go to the C-Tech center a few minutes away for Junior and Senior year. For Junior year, I'm going to take Computer Repair, because it's the only first year computer course. It offers A+ and N+ certifications. But, for the second year I'm not so sure. I can either take Programming, which has no certifications, or Networking, which has a Cisco certification. Personally, I'm more interested in the programming, but it just doesn't look like such a good class. For example, they say one of the things you'll learn is HTML (in a programming class?), but take a look at their website.
Suggestions?
ID:185412
 Feb 8 2006, 2:39 pm
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Unless they changed it in the last year or so, I believe you could go directly into any of them after you do the intro classes which are required regardless. If you haven't yet most of the area schools go and take a tour for an afternoon in the perticular area you chose (In april/May I believe).
I went and was sort of tempted for the programing, but the demo projects they had shown didn't really 'wow' me all that much. None of the stuff was something you would see outside any beginners book. When you coupled that with the fact that you had to do the intro courses first, it wasn't anything that I was looking forward to doing. If theres any questions you have though feel free to page me, probably not too many people here have actually been there. | |
Airjoe wrote:
For example, they say one of the things you'll learn is HTML (in a programming class?) In that case I'd go with networking, simply because you get a certification. It sounds like the programming class will be deadly boring to anyone who already knows about it; and knowing Cisco stuff can be quite useful sometimes. | |
If I had any idea what that was, then I'd answer your question. As it is, I'm just going to have to ignore it. =) I don't think we have anything like that in Australia.
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Never heard of it. Are you sure it isn't something local to your area, maybe trying to get you to sign up for classes that are pointless.
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Could be. They're making everyone in the Business and Computing area take IC3. It's supposed to be needed to participate in any certification, like Cisco networking (which is what I'm in, it fricken' sucks.)
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Neither class looks very promising. The programming class lists like 11 topics of study, so there's no way you can honestly learn anything too well. Well, HTML could certainly be taught in the time-span of a week or so, but they obviously are already starting off on the wrong foot by labeling it as a programming class. If they could pull off effectively teaching you all about VB, VC++, Java, Python, Robotics and AI in one school year, I'd be greatly impressed. Especially since it seems like they are expecting to teach to those who need an introduction in Computer Apps and OSs.
The good thing about programming is that you can easily learn all you really need to know at home(though I'm sure colleges and the like would prefer to see credits for it). Everything I know is pretty much self-taught, aided by books, helpful programming communities, and practice. Networking, on the other hand, doesn't look so bad. Not saying that it looks good, but with any luck the course would provide you with all of the hardware you need, which may be more difficult for some people to afford on their own. Hiead | |
How cheap of them. =/
Notepad would be much more effective for learning. DreamWeaver(well, DreamWeaver MX anyways) doesn't really require you to know much. It prompts you for possible attributes, so you no longer have any reason to memorize such things, and I've found it often slows me down more than just typing up a page in Notepad would. Hiead | |
It a span of two years. It also about 2 and a half hours every day.(It about 800 hours). C-tech is suppose to be a good program from what I hear, I also had an orenitation on it. It sounds more like you take the classes so you can get a job in the field so that you can work on the side while going to college or get some pre-knowledge before college. It also very hands on.
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Dark_Shadow_Ninja wrote:
It a span of two years. He said that in the first year, he's taking Computer Repair. The second year (senior year) was what he was asking about. Hiead | |
Well, I went for a visit today, and I have decided to go into Computer Repair for year 1, and Cisco Networking for Year 2. It turned out that Programming was a 2 year course, and there is a second year for computer repair (first year is A+, second year is N+), but I decided to take Networking for the second year.
Programming: The course looked horrible. The 'examples' the teacher showed us were a bunch of crummy VB games. I mean, so crummy that I could probably learn better from planetsourcecode.com. When the C-TEC website said "Robotics" and "Artificial Intelligence", I was hoping for something cool. You know what it was? A laptop which sat on top of a set of wheels which were plugged into a USB port. It also had a camera on it, plugged in to USB, and a robotic arm, plugged in to USB. I mean, come on, that's just rediculous. That's not interesting, that's plugging in cables and then telling the program what commands to give to which piece of hardware. Lego made something like this, except smaller (and without requiring a freaking laptop), years ago. Repair: Year 1 is just basic take it apart, put it back together, format it, install an OS, etc. Alright, I know it all already, but maybe I'll pick up something new, and plus, I'm getting A+ certified. Year 2 sounded cool at first, especially when the guy said we'd be using linux. I asked what distro, he said RedHat 7.3. Wtf?! No thanks, I'll go to networking. CCNA: The cisco networking course looks really neat. I don't recall a lot, we only got to see each course for about 30 minutes, but it looked really informative. We did an "e-lab", where basically we're given a 'pretend' terminal, and we have to configure the router and such. The course also teaches how to make Cat5 and other similar cables, which I think is kinda cool. This course is actually accepted at some colleges for credits, and DeVry university is giving a scholarship for anyone who completes the course sucessfully- 1,200 dollars per semester! Not that I think I'm going to end up going to DeVry, but hey, it's a possibility. There was another course on the tour, which was CAD. It did look interesting, but that's just not where I'm headed. Just thought I'd update this. | |
It looks like they need a lesson in HTML.
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Looking at their website, it seems that you'll learn HTML with DreamWeaver 6.