Reflection
I learned an enormous amount of information in this class. I've been making small websites for a number of years now, and I've always wondered how websites could do all the things it does today. I remember the days when “frames” were the new deal, and if your website had them, you're at the top. I've always loved programming websites. But with all the programming languages today, I've been overwhelmed so much to the point where programming websites didn't look so appealing to me – until this semester. Although IT461 was only an elective class that I took because it was the only one available, I don't regret it at all. Now that I've taken the time to learn php and ASP.net, I do think this is something that I would want to do in the future. The best thing is I learned it at my own pace, since its an online course. I learned HTML 10 years ago at my own pace as well, so its only fitting, and maybe that’s the reason why I enjoyed this class.
I learned that programming websites today isn't as hard as I thought. But I also do know that not everyone can do program websites. You may be a good programmer and debugger, but today's websites come with a lot of ingenuity and design. The artistry and inventiveness of today's websites are apparent through websites like WeChooseTheMoon.org. Websites are putting so much information onto one page that you must be imaginative to design and mesh everything on one page, in a way that isn't clashing or rude to the eyes. ESPN.COM has evolved into a website that is always always changing. Because it covers tons of different sports from around the world, it is always getting updated – every minute of the day. I can't even begin to imagine the coding process it takes to develop something of that magnitude.
I feel like I know where to begin if I wanted to design web applications – but I don't even consider myself remotely competent. I do wish to gain more experience in this field but with this only being a secondary thing to me, I plan to do it slow. It has been a good class, and I will recommend it to others who are interested in becoming web application developers.
