Web Programming at PATHS

I’ve put a bunch of information from Full Sail on the back table.  Please take a look if you’re interested.  There will be a representative from Full Sail here on Friday to give a presentation and answer questions.

I just wrote a little waitlist program to help me keep track of who needs help. Please use it during class time. You can find it here:
http://172.25.128.74/valerie/waitlist/

DevKit is a 2-week camp on game programming, to be held July 28 - August 8 at Zero Station in Portland. If you’re interested, please get on the mailing list! You can find more information here: http://www.devKitME.org/. Send e-mail to Wade Brainerd telling him you’re from my class and that you’re interested in devKitME.

Wade works for Activision Software. Notice that Activision is blocked by Portland Schools, so it must be good!

I’m finally typing up a summary of the meeting we had after the Advisory Dinner on March 13th.

Present:

• Valerie Green (PATHS)
• John Zaner (USM)
• Gene Ellis (Maine Dept. of Labor)
• Deborah Ellis (UNUM)
• Andrea Roma (UNUM)
• Jim Smith (UNUM)
• Mark McGhie (Medical Mutual)

The notes that I took centered around 2 topics: giving kids an idea of what it would be like to work in the tech industry, and proposed changes to the Java curriculum when I next teach it (2009 - 2010 school year).

“Life after high school”
- most tech classes at SMCC won’t transfer to a 4-year college. Often, core courses such as English and Psychology will transfer.
- I need more industry contacts. It would be great to have people come to class and talk about what they do. Note: maybe I can have a monthly panel with a few people, and/or combine with another class for this.
- Could people from UNUM come to talk to the class?
- I need more job shadowing opportunities for students.
- John Cole (Scarborough) is interested in UNUM. He may be a good contact for me.
- UNUM used to have kids come in for “a day in the life” or “a week in the life” at UNUM, often doing software or user testing.
- what are students’ perspectives on IT professionals? Can I find people to come in and talk?
- MESDA has user groups at night, and UNUM has something called Maine Bites. Could I get kids there after hours?

Curriculum Needs
- kids need practice in reading comprehension and study skills
- kids need to practice being precise
- kids need to practice getting out of their comfort zones, “daring to try hard enough to succeed”
- they need lessons in logical reasoning
- they need to know what they expect to happen, so that they can decide whether something is working correctly or not.

If you’re interested in applying to the New England School of Communications, you might want to check out the Open House next weekend (3/22/08). There’s more info here:
http://nescom.edu/content/62/Open_House/

You can sign up online, and you can even schedule an admissions interview for that day. If you apply before 3/22/08, they will waive your appication fee.

Next year’s course descriptions are now here! Course numbers will likely change.

September 2008-January 2009
WP103 – Standards-Based Web Design and Development

Open up a Web page and select View->Source from your browser menu. Do you understand the code? After taking this course, you will. Say goodbye to old table- and frameset-based layouts and say hello to modern, flexible design techniques using CSS! After taking this course, you will be fluent in HTML and CSS, and will have experience applying principles of graphic design and layout to make Web pages that look good in a variety of Web browsers and have solid code underneath. Week-long instructional segments covering software programs such as Dreamweaver, Fireworks, PhotoShop, and Flash will make you familiar with these tools of the trade. Basic knowledge of FTP commands will also be covered for transferring your files to and from Web servers.

Prerequisite: none

January 2009-June 2009
WP104 – Dynamic Web Application Development

If you already know how to write stylish Web pages with clean code, take your skills to the next level by adding MySQL and PHP to your personal toolkit. Want to write online registration applications, message boards, shopping carts, or other applications that require a database on the back end? This is the course for you. You’ll learn the basics of adding, deleting, and accessing data in a MySQL database, and you’ll learn to use PHP (a standard Web application language) to pull data from a database and transform it into styled HTML. Experience with common software design patterns in PHP programming and SQL queries will allow you to apply what you learn to future programming projects. You’ll also set up a test server using Apache, MySQL and PHP, and learn how to set up domains and subdomains on a hosted server.

Prerequisite: WP103 or permission from the instructor.

A student found this nice reference on advanced CSS selectors:

Mid-term exams are due on Thursday, January 24th. Mid-terms are listed on the 1st year students and 2nd year students pages.

To do the Java mid-term, you will need to have completed all assignments before Hangman.

To do the Web Design mid-term, you will need to have completed all assignments up to #4 under “More Design Stuff”.

If you are not ready to take your mid-term, or if you will not be able to start your mid-term by January 10th, please see me.

http://biorust.com/ has tutorials on PhotoShop, Illustrator, Flash, and others.

Here’s a nice summary that Venita found about converting between different types in Java.
http://stuff.mit.edu/people/ele/Javaconversion.htm