I’m a big fan of education in all its glorious forms: traditional classroom learning, online education, and on-the-job-training.  Having completed graduate school in 2008, I needed a new set of educational goals.  More specifically, I wanted to learn a web programming language.

For the past three weeks, I have been taking a non-credit Ed2Go course entitled Introduction to PHP and MySQL offered through the University of Maryland Baltimore County Training Centers.  Ed2Go provides six week long online courses that cost between $95 – $120.  I must say, that I am thoroughly impressed with the presentation of the material and the quality of the instruction.  I am especially impressed with the knowledge and responsiveness of the course instructor.  Ed2Go classes have flexibility build into assignment deadlines to accommodate working adults.  Lastly, the intuitive e-learning platform means that you don’t have to “learn the platform”, instead you simply learn PHP.

Why did I sign up for an Ed2Go class?

I briefly considered enrolling in another Masters program (which I still may do in the future), however I couldn’t bear the thought of having to amass another pile of student loans obtaining a second graduate degree.  So, I asked myself what do I really want to get out of going back to school?.  The answer was simple: I want to learn about web programming. This is different than desiring to earn a degree in a subject, or wanting to do firsthand research in an academic environment, or all the other responses my heart could have given.

I had failed in the past at completing self-paced enrichment courses because they lacked deadlines, structure, and were low stakes – meaning I wouldn’t waste tuition money or receive a failing grade for not finishing them.  For me, options like MIT’s Opencourseware, although amazing in many ways, aren’t practical.

I have always had a healthy interest in software programming and application testing and despite not having much formal academic training, I have a “better than expected” knowledge of the methodologies of both.  As an undergraduate, I took a C programming course that provided me with an introduction to the data structures and program flow controls common in every programming language.  Soon afterwards, I began developing simple, yet effective procedural programs using Autoit 3.0 to streamline my tasks as an application integration tester.

Ed2Go and Career Changes

Ed2Go classes are great for professionals seeking to acquire new skills to help advance their careers or for lifetime learners desiring personal enrichment.  Although, they won’t help you transition into a new career like a certificate or degree program can, Ed2Go courses can certainly give you the opportunity to test the waters of a career change before spending thousands of dollars on tuition.

I’m still working my way through Introduction to PHP and MySQL but so far, so good.  I’m even considering signing up for Intermediate PHP and MySQL which starts in a few short weeks.

I haven’t been impressed by a Microsoft product for a very long time. If pressed on this issue, I’d have to go way back to the release of Windows XP for the last true awe Microsoft gave me. I refuse to install Vista, but I am somewhat impressed by Microsoft Office Professional 2007.

There is a Microsoft product everyone can benefit from. It’s called Windows Home Server and it’s packed full of features you actually give a damn about. Just install Windows Home Server on a computer running on your home network, and run the set-up CD on all your PC’s, Windows mobile devices,and game consoles like Xbox 360. The software links all your machines together, and from one nifty command center enables file sharing, automated data back-ups, security features, and remote access. With this product, Microsoft does a good job of taking the critical data management and security functions of large business technology and down scaling it for home and small business use. Windows Home Server product also eliminates the need to install multiple networking applications. Take a look for yourself.

Back in April, I posted about Google Docs and Spreadsheets, where I noted that Google acquired Tonic Systems, creators of online presentation software.  Well, here we are 5 months later, and Google Presentations is go.  Google Docs and Spreadsheets has been renamed to just plain Google Docs, and has gotten a facelift – and now, you can create Presentations online as well.

It’s pretty slick.  It’s AJAX, not flash or Java, which is great.  It does all the basic presentation stuff – creating bullets and titles, changing looks, moving things around.  The best thing is the same best thing about the text editor and the spreadsheets application – collaboration.  If you share your presentation, multiple people can work on it at once.  The second best thing?  Being able to publish your presentation to a webpage – which also automatically creates a chat box.  You can even embed your presentation in an iFrame.
Overall, it’s a neat application.  Unfortunately, it suffers from the same problems that the rest of the Google Docs suite does – pages being slow to load, disconnects, automatic saving when you don’t want it, occasional sluggishness, etc.

Personally, I don’t know that we’re ready for online office application suites.  While they are definitely nifty, especially for creating quick documents for web publication or simple collaborative work, ultimately they simply are not as robust as desktop applications – and given the sad state of the United States’ broadband infrastructure, I don’t know that it will become of significant use within the next few years.

Still, fun to play with.

For a more complete rundown of Presentation’s features and glitches, Philipp Lenssen has a great post about it over at Google Blogoscoped.