I have a degree from San Jose State University in Computer Science. I have spent much of my life writing user interface software. The growth of the web and the increase in mobile device usage means that user interface is more important than ever, but it is changing from what I learned when I was in university.
I took some classes at Mission College in Santa Clara. Their Graphic Design department offers a lot of courses related to interface design. Even though I knew some of these subjects already, I took courses in HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, User Experience, Photoshop (beginning and advanced), Illustrator (beginning and advanced), InDesign, Typography, Color Theory, Page Layout, Wordpress, and Mobile Web. My purpose was to learn the new tools and make sure my previous knowledge was up to date.
Mission College also offers a wide variety of computer science classes. I took PHP and MySQL, JavaScript, Oracle Database, Python, iPhone Programming, and Android Programming. I also took a few online classes at Foothill College and Ohlone College: Java, C#, and Perl.
Because my instructors and fellow students found me helpful, the schools asked me to teach some classes. I had the opportunity to teach PHP and also C++. I would not have had these opportunities if I’d not spent the time to take these classes and let the instructors get to know me.
I suggested we offer a new class called Advanced JavaScript using Frameworks and wrote a curriculum proposal. This class would cover Ajax, jQuery, Angular, and Node. We would set up a server and databases using only JavaScript.
I am still interested in taking a few more classes: Digital Photography, Advanced InDesign, SAS Programming, GIS Programming, Unix Administration, Ruby on Rails, and an advanced course in JavaScript if I can find one.