[erik.price]

Hey everyone,

I really wanna take some kind of serious programming class so I can get some good experience in early (I'm a freshman in highschool). My problem is though, my school only teaches VisualBASIC, which wouldn't work for me since I use a Linux/Mac mix. My community college offers some courses on computers, but most of the stuff is usually something like "Learn Microsoft Word!" or "Microsoft Office!" or something like that. They are registered at an online course site, ed2go, which offers stuff like C++ (intro) C#(intro &intermediate) Java(intro&intermediate), etc. The thing is, the curriculum for all these online classes goes something like this:

Taken From The C++ class but all are basically the same:

	  Week One
	  Wednesday - Lesson 01
			Seeing Real-World Objects and Installing Visual C++ 
	  Friday - Lesson 02
			The Attributes and Abilities of Real-World Objects 
	  Week Two
	  Wednesday - Lesson 03
			Writing Step-By-Step Processes 
	  Friday - Lesson 04
			Storing Your Data in Variables 
	  Week Three
	  Wednesday - Lesson 05
			Comparing Items 
	  Friday - Lesson 06
			Gathering Data Into Arrays 
	  Week Four
	  Wednesday - Lesson 07
			Dividing Programs Into Functions and Debugging 
	  Friday - Lesson 08
			Writing a Class in C++
	  Week Five
	  Wednesday - Lesson 09
			Adding Member Functions and Working With Events 
	  Friday - Lesson 10
			Using Pointers to Watch the Addresses of Your Variables
	  Week Six
	  Wednesday - Lesson 11
			More on Inheritance and Hiding
	  Friday - Lesson 12
			Dividing Your Source Code and Using Other Compilers 

So, doesn't actually look that interesting.

I've tried to find some courses that offer more in depth curriculum, but no colleges offer courses to 15 year old freshman. Go figure

So, anyway, do you guys think its worth it to take a class I know nothing about, like Java, and spend $89 dollars for a six week course I could learn at home for free in less than two?

Any sites or opinions would be a great help.

Thanks,
Erik

[Martyr2]

You know Stanford offers a whole beginners Java series of videos on Youtube you can watch. It is actual classroom footage with the instructor and is a college course in programming. I believe you can even download the course material off the stanford website to go along with it.

Stanford also has a few other computer science courses available online. You can find all of them here...

Programming Methodologies - Stanford (Class is beginning Java)

Enjoy!

[mostyfriedman]

when it comes to programming, i prefer self study...i like to experiment and explore

[hochspeyer]

M.I.T. offers Open Courseware online-

http://ocw.mit.edu/O...ComputerScience

I skimmed it and while I didn't see any language specific stuff, the course list is definitely worth a look- these are real M.I.T. courses, not dumbed-down versions (non-credit, of course).

[erik.price]

mostyfriedman, on 21 Feb, 2009 - 03:21 AM, said:

when it comes to programming, i prefer self study...i like to experiment and explore

Same here, but I would prefer diving into a language with some instruction from a teacher, since I'm going to be taking a Java class next year anyway, and just use it as a jumping off point to teach me the basics. The rest I would do myself


Thanks for the sites guys, really helpful.

Now if only I could find the time to watch 28 lectures on youtube that are all 40 minutes long

[World]

Ya I Noticed That. 40 Minutes IS Way Too Long. I Stopped Coding But Now I'm Looking Into c#. Java Just Doesn't Do It For Me Any More.

[mostyfriedman]

erik.price, on 21 Feb, 2009 - 08:07 AM, said:

mostyfriedman, on 21 Feb, 2009 - 03:21 AM, said:

when it comes to programming, i prefer self study...i like to experiment and explore

Same here, but I would prefer diving into a language with some instruction from a teacher, since I'm going to be taking a Java class next year anyway, and just use it as a jumping off point to teach me the basics. The rest I would do myself


Thanks for the sites guys, really helpful.

Now if only I could find the time to watch 28 lectures on youtube that are all 40 minutes long

Java is pretty easy, get yourself this book, java, how to program 6th edition..its a really good book with simple explanations and a lot of examples, and if you have any questions or problems just post em in the java forum and you'll get a lot of help there, the guys at the Java forum are really good and you'll get pretty quick responses..good luck

[bodom658]

Martyr beat me to it, the Stanford vids on youtube are great!

[porcupine]

I think self teaching yourself with a book would be the easiest option, at least it is for me.

I like how books first define something, show you how to do it, then have you accomplish something based on what you have learned.

When I was in the programming class I took in the spring (it only covered VB6) I learned almost explicitly out of books. It was good for me, and I only needed help aka asked my teacher to find my typo about three times. I also experimented for a while making games.