Rix Bits

We’re back again with another year of the BDPA High School Computer Competition.  We’ve got some new students as well as our returning students, and we’re already well on our way to getting up to speed on web application development! Thanx to Devry University for donating space in their facilities for our class. 

 

In our classes, we learn web app development using Microsoft’s Visual Studio Web Developer Express tool – basically, a light version of the same industry-standard integrated development environment (IDE) that many .NET

professionals like myself use everyday.  Today we took it kind of slow and eased into learning about tags in both XML and HTML.  In fact, the students learned how to categorize the songs in their MP3 collection (they looked at me a little funny when I first tried to get them to categorize their CD collection – remember those shiny discs we used to slide into our stereos?)  Not only did I help them see how to represent their music in XML, but they helped me learn the titles of some of the hot new songs that ‘the young folks’ are listening to these days. :) (says the mid-30’s out-of-touch computer geek)

To show my age even more, I kept giving history lessons about how technology has changed over time.  We handed out 4-gigabyte thumb drives for them to store their files.  This made me remember a blog post I wrote comparing the collection of drives I used to walk around with to the micro cards that now reside in our phones – I can fit 8 gigs into something no bigger than a dime!  Ahhh…remember the days when it took an entire [expensive] hard drive to fit that amount data? [insert nostalgia here]

 

Anyway, I hope they’re having fun, and there’s plenty more to learn in the coming weeks. I’ll keep you posted.