Ask Slashdot: Online, Free Equivalent To a CompSci BS?
An anonymous reader writes "I am a middle school math teacher and I also run a programming club. I recent completed my M.Ed in math education and was inspired to try to do the new GT online MS in Computer Science in a couple of years. I have some background in programming: two intro to comp sci courses, Java, C++, Python, the main scripting languages, and a bunch of math background. I also read through this great article on getting these pre-requisites completed through Coursera but unfortunately you need to wait for courses to enroll. I would like to just learn these on my own time, no credit necessary. Suggestions?"
Other way around. If you learn the new hot skills, you can get a low level job where you'll struggle and work poorly because you don't really know what you're doing. Then when the buzzwords change, you'll be unhirable. If you learn the theory and fundamentals, you'll write better code more quickly and be able to easily pick up new technologies as they come along. Theory always trumps "real world" skills.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?