Yeah my school offers many certifications. Here's a few I can think of off the top of my head.
- MOS
- IC3
- A+
- ITLA
Don't know if E-Commerce has one, but yeah, my school does have that class.
When you first start learning to program, you aren't taught EVERYTHING about a single concept. You're taught the basics of that concept until later on. Then you will learn more in-depth stuff and different ways you can use that concept. That's why I don't consider it basic.
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Object-oriented programming bases on some fundamental concepts, which includes the difference between object and instance as one of the main and foremost ideas.
If I understood the subject of Alice correct, it is to teach exactly these basic ideas behind the programming paradigm. | |
Like Kaioken said, it doesn't take that long to be good at programming.
I'm only fifteen years old, with about ~7 months of experience with the DM language(my first language) and I consider myself a pretty good programmer.(At least for the amount of experience I have) | |
Perhaps this is a relative matter. I've been programming for 6 years, 4 of which were full-time study on Software Engineeing. I wouldn't say I'm all that good, really.
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Stephen001 wrote:
Perhaps this is a relative matter. I've been programming for 6 years, 4 of which were full-time study on Software Engineeing. I wouldn't say I'm all that good, really. Hmm, I'd say five years in DM, three years in PHP, MySQL and CSS and about eight years messing with Javascript and HTML. I can be a lot better than I am. | |
Stephen001 wrote:
Perhaps this is a relative matter. I've been programming for 6 years, 4 of which were full-time study on Software Engineeing. I wouldn't say I'm all that good, really. This is an interesting phenomenon. I propose that there are a few forces at work here:
Here's a graph, after which I'll explain the exact equations I used to get it. The constants are highly questionable -- I did not put nearly enough time into this to come up with good ones. Pay more attention to the trends.  skill(x) = tanh(x-3)+tanh(3) knowledge(x) = tanh(x-3.5)+tanh(7/2) judgment(x) = skill(x)/knowledge(x)*log(x+1) bias = judgment(x)-skill(x) So, in conclusion, there's a pattern where new programmers underestimate the scope of the field and just judge themselves better programmers than they actually are. As time goes on, that bias drops off. Like I said, I don't care to hear anything about constants ("What is 3 supposed to mean? Why does bias(x) peak where it does?") Those things could be changed to reflect research I haven't done. However, I'd be happy to hear comments on this general idea. I've been programming for about 7 years, and I'm realizing how huge the field is and how little I really know, and having never organized a huge software project, I know I've got a lot to learn about organization and teamwork, which will take me a long time to figure out (many work their whole lives and never really "get it", hence the need for systems like Extreme Programming, etc). <small>Edit: the definition of judgment used judgment instead of knowledge. Fixed.</small> | |
A problem is that you guys' concept of time isn't accurate enough to talk about; rather than time passed since one begins programming, the time he actually spends programming/learning programming is what counts. If I've been programming for 10 years but I'm not so good, it doesn't mean it really takes decades; perhaps I was only learning programming 2 days a week. Or maybe I took a break of a month, or a year, in between. Another, more serious, perhaps career-planning individual could focus on programming on much more time, and work on it 5 or more days a week. Then there's also an individual's learning methods, learning rate, understanding of principles, acceleration of further learning after reaching a certain proficiency, etc.
But, it's still a not-bad, fun graph there. | |
Mizukouken Ketsu wrote:
In the Programming class we're using a program called Alice right now. Ew. In my junior year of high school, I took a Java programming class, and I was also forced into using that dumb program. Now, to me, it's a very useless program 'Nuff said. My programming teacher has taken a slight interest in it and lets me do my thing as long as I complete an assignment a day and keep up to speed with the class (no problem since I already know all the concepts! >.<). That's how I felt in my Java class, except instead of one assignment a day, I just sped through all of the assignments the teacher had prepared, and then went on doing various nonsense tasks (such as making a JavaScript page that repeatedly changed its background color from red to white at a high, "seizure" rate, then setting this page as my desktop background). Anyone else do coding at school? :D A few others do it too at my school. I'm in Computer Science 122 (Data Structures) as a freshman at my University. The deadline for a multi-week project (a graphical, multiplayer game in C++ and/or C#) is Monday night, and I'm going to start later today for a few hours, and then try to finish up during the day on Monday. Does anyone like think better while at school than at home? No, I usually play Go during my programming class lectures when I go, and when I do so I seem to play poorer than usual. I do, strangely enough. You are indeed strange. | |
Dutch people don't get elective classes?
Anyway, the magnet school won't do much but give him a big head-start in the tech field. He can get certified, but if he's into computer science and software engineering, he won't be able to find a job without a degree from college.
But if he wants to be a computer tech or network manager or something like that, certifications will be enough. Shoot, people with the certifications to be network managers get paid more than most undergraduate software engineers here. Just a little fun fact!
And before I post, certifications require not that you attend school to learn, but that you pass a test. The tests are pretty expensive, too.