W3SCHOOLS

In the last period of the class where we had to go through chapters one and two, I told Dr. Drake about my very minimum knowledge of JavaScript. He directly wondered if I have heard of w3schools and my answer was yes, I have heard of it. Now, have I ever used it?? No. When I got home today I went to that site to find that they have tutorials for almost all the modern languages that are used nowadays. I'm assuming that everyone in the class have at some point visited that website. In the upcoming paragraphs, a discussion of these tutorials would be provided.

To start off, here is the website link if you ever care to check it out; it's w3schools. Once you go there, you are going to find more than five icons at the top of the page that are labeled HTML, CSS, XML, JAVASCRIPT, ASP, PHP, SQL, and MORE. the tutorials I'm planning to look at are JavaScript and XML-DOM language tutorials. Since I have no previous knowledge of JavaScript what so ever and since Dr. Drake advised me to go there and start training, I have actually started the JavaScript tutorial. I haven't gone far yet but at least I know a little bit now. I believe that with time I'm going to have a better understanding. I have also decided to learn DOM because Dr. Drake told us that we are going to use it at some point in the near future . I'm not going to get deep in it but I'm just going to get the general understanding.

One cool thing to mention about w3schools is their category listings. If you click on the more icon, a new page would load that have the tutorials divided into different categories such as browser scripting, XML languages, and HTML & CSS languages. From this categories you can choose what ever topic you desire. For example the JavaScript is found under the browser scripting tutorials. The XML-DOM language is found under the XML languages tutorials. If you already know the language but you want to look at references and examples, these are also available on the website. Check out the icons on the top left that says references and the examples icon.
Overall, this is a very good resource to learn of in addition to e-Training.

e-Training

I don't know if you guys have heard about this service that our school offers called e-Training. From the name you can tell that it is about training. What kind of training? almost anything you think of with relation to technology. From personal experience, i think it is a very effective website. In addition, it is hundred percent free. You wont have to pay a dime. I have learned the c++ in there; OK, I have tried to learn it on there but I lost the interest when I started taking the actual class and some of you might know why. In the following paragraphs, few services will be displayed and discussed.

The first service to mention is the free online courses. It is easy to register; the one thing to remember is the fact that you can set the time line for whatever course you think about choosing. As mentioned earlier, I tried learning one thing and that was the beginning c++. To register for a course go to e-Training homepage and log in with your emich account user name and password. After your logged in, a search field is going to appear in the middle of the page. Type the keyword; for e.g. AJAX and choose all from the category options because you will get to see through everything the website offers. After you click on the search button, a list of the different options related to Ajax will be provided. Look for the course category and choose which ever course you desire and click on the add to my plan button to add the course. After that set up your goal and whether there is a deadline for learning the course or not and finally click the submit button to officially register the course.

the second service to mention is an access to thousands and thousands of online books. At no surprise, these books are for free. If anyone knows about books24x7, it is a website that offers a wide variety of books in different business topics such as project management and technology. EMU students gets a free access to every service available on books24x7. To log in to the website, it has to be done through e-Training web page. After your logged in to e-Training, a shortcut to books24x7 would be available in your home page and it is the last shortcut. click on it and you'll be directed though another link to the actual books24x7 website. for there, it is pretty easy to browse and check out books.

Overall, there are so many services offered by our school that we do not know about. Browsing the school homepage can unfold many helpful services.