Interim Review - O’Reilly School of Technology

O’Reilly School of Technology

I recently signed up to take a couple courses at the O’Reilly School of Technology. I’m huge on continuing education and learning, and typically I read a lot of books to stay on top of the latest trends and technologies on the web. However, the one drawback I found with books is that I tend to read them, but I rarely put any work into what I’m reading right away, and I find that it’s not until I jump into a project using the new software or technology that I start to really learn it. When I was reading the “Learning Java” book from O’Reilly, I found it quite easy to understand because I do have a substantial background in Object Oriented Programming, however, when I sat down to start doing some programming it was difficult. When you’re in university you always have assignments to complete that give you the hands on learning and experience to really get to know the programming language, or software like Photoshop or Flash to learn it well.

Hands On Learning at the O’Reilly School of Technology

The aspect of O’Reilly School of Technology that really got me interested was that all the course work is done as you go through the different topics, it’s a real hands on approach to learning. For example, the first course I took was the Object Oriented Programming with Java course, and through out each of the topics, there was an objective and a quiz which I went through while I was reading about the material. It forces you to actually implement what you’re learning and reading about while you’re reading it. Which is a great way to learn.

What Courses Did I Take

I completed the Java Object Oriented Course just to get a little better understanding of Java. I’ve been learning Java for about 10 months now and because of my background in C++, PHP, and Actionscript, it was really easy to pick up, but I wanted to try out O’Reilly, so I signed up, and it was great. Now I’ve signed up for the Linux/Unix System Administration Certificate. I’ve completed the first two courses: The Unix File System, and Networking and DNS. I have a intermediate level of experience working with Debian and Redhat Linux for the past couple years, but I wanted to solidify my networking, DNS, and more advanced server administration skills so I signed up for the System Admin certificate.

Difficulty of O’Reilly School of Technology

After taking the Java course, I thought that maybe the other courses would be relatively easy. However, once I completed the first Linux course (which was also easy) I found that the Networking and DNS course was really not as easy as I thought it would be. Maybe because I hadn’t done much actual networking on Linux aside from setting up Samba within my office, and I had never worked with Bind before.

Overall, I’m quite happy with my experience at O’Reilly, and I also was quite impressed with the additional bonuses from signing up for the course which included a free book for each course you take. The “Head First Design Patterns” book I got from the Java course is awesome, and I would recommend it to anyone doing object oriented programming whether it’s in Java or any other language. The Unix in a Nutshell and the Networking with TCP/IP books have also been indispensable in learning more about networking and Linux. I was pretty disappointed that the third course, Unix Services, only provides you with the Apache Pocket reference, which is dated and doesn’t even cover Apache 2.0. I would have liked to have a more complete book like the other courses.