[michaeledward8881]

Hello,

I’m new to this forum. I’m definitely in the infancy stage of Web Development. Essentially I’m going off of YouTube tutorials, Googling, experimenting with Dream weaver & assumptions in my head when it comes to educational direction. I guess in the back of my head I’m a little worried I’m hopping around aimlessly with what I’m learning (like , learning how take a car engine apart & reassemble it again, before I learn how fill tire air, drive or pump gas... ). I guess what brought me to this was that I showed my Web Developer friend the results of my (–webkit , css,etc...) research on a .html local site I made & he explained to me that I’m getting way ahead of my self & told me to focus more on the fundamentals . So after some reading I figured .php basics was the way to go ...?

So ... I guess what I’m rambling about is, I want evolve with my learning step by step not hop from 2011 .CSS3 to 1996 .PHP and so forth.

I’ve found sites like tizag.com, w3.org & so on... but none have really kept me on a productive trajectory. Is there any free or cheap, effective, comprehensive & entry level user friendly education available that goes step by step from $A-$Z ?

Also, if I can get comfortable with the core of Web development. I’d like to go for a A.S. degree or a certification. If some one could send me links or key words to reputable degrees or certifications that would help me out immensely. Keep in mind my focus is non-design aspects of building web sites: writing mark up and coding ( I’ve experimented with graphic design since middle school , I feel confident in that facet).

Any suggestion are greatly appreciated , thanks for your time !

[Sogo7]

You don't have to Google far to find lists of what skills are desireable in the design or development sectors of course if you ever plan to become a freelancer then the answer is somewhat daunting.. because you have to learn it all!

Of course it's always a good idea to know a little about what the other is doing because designers and developers have to interact or at least their code has to at some point.

Here's a link to one such list http://webdesign.abo...-job-skills.htm

Not sure why you think learning PHP is a step backwards, like all programming languages PHP is constantly evolving and the latest version was released March 2011. As a result of certain commands being depriciated a large number of sites have ceased to function when their web hosts upgraded. Fixing the resulting code hiccups is a prime example of a real world task that any web designer/ developer could be called upon to sort out.

Plus given at present most of the worlds websites run using PHP then ignoring the language because it's 'old school' will narrow your choices of prospective employers or clients down considerably.