MSc in Web Technologies

dotnetster

Heya,

Anyone else thinking about doing this course? Got some promotional stuff about it at the launch of Visual Studio 2010 in the NCI. Looked interesting. The ad mentioned that Silverlight will be used to build rich internet applications. Tis a wee bit pricy for my liking though at just €9,000. Wish something like this was offered in DCU, or some of the other colleges and funded by the ESF. The only thing holding me back from applying is the cost!

tricky D

I wouldn't touch it:

Sounds Microsoft oriented only.
Does it mention HTML5?
Silverlight is over hyped
€9000 stupid price

Lastly, in my previous roles as an employer of web people, very very little value was given to such courses as they're usually out-of-date, not standards-based, teach bad practices and so on. What we would value most was the ability to learn things for yourself from quality and cutting edge web sources.

dotnetster

I agree with to a large extent. I tend not to tie myself into any one technology. So if Silverlight worked, and I can use my existing .NET skills to develops enterprise, web and mobile apps I would use it. No HTML5 mentioned on the website, so I reckon it won't be covered.

As you say, these courses tend not to cover 'best-practice' type stuff. I went through 4 years of an evening Computer Science degree, in a very well known university, without a mention of Test Driven Development. Scandalous! And yep, €9,000 is a silly price for such a course.

Not too sure about it being Microsoft oriented. Their website doesn't give too much away. This is what's covered:

Advanced client side scripting
Cloud Computing
Enterprise Frameworks
Usability Testing and Implementation
Advanced Rich Internet Application
Deployment
Enterprise Game
Technological Entrepreneurship
Web Application Frameworks

A detailed description of the individual modules is not provided, so it's very difficult to determine what's actually covered.

dotnetster

Just saw some more details about the course. There's lots of jQuery and Ruby goodness in there. So, you can't get much more up to date and relevant than that. Clearly not just Microsoft focused.

limericklassy

I am interested going into web technologies, I have a degree in networks, What would be best areas/code to get into. i am learning javascript at the mo..

dotnetster

If you are learning Javascript at the moment, then i'm sure you have come across jQuery. If not, then go learn it at jquery.com. It's what all the cool kids are using right now. It's nice to work with and abstracts away all the complexities of having to develop cross browser apps. Also, take a look at this jQuery tutorial. This is where I started:

http://blog.themeforest.net/screencasts/jquery-for-absolute-beginners-video-series/

If you wanna get started looking at actually designing web pages, then consider using a CSS framework like: Grid960 or Blueprint (blueprintcss.org). Again, these frameworks will make your life so much easier. My preference is Grid 960 (see 960.gs).

All the cool kids appear to be using Ruby on Rails (web application framework) these days. If I had some spare time on my hands I would go learn this myself. It's looks sweet to use. See http://rubyonrails.org/ for more

If you need to learn more about the MSc in Web Technologies course in the NCI, they have an Open Day coming up soon.

limericklassy

Thanks for the information. I have heard of jquery but not come across it yet. I am a newbie to javascript. the reason i am learning it because its for my msc project (security). I am just finishing it in lit, so anything i do with web tech will be diy

I did a web course before my degree, so am a bit rusty on the new stuff. never heard of Grid 960!

dotnetster

Found some more info about the MSc on the HETAC website.

http://www.tinyurl.ie/0rr