Both learning plans proved to be a lot more difficult than I had first imagined. I set myself the target of learning both PHP and Illustrator at an introductory level, and thought this would be easy to manage considering I’m only doing the basics.
I began by researching the key skills of PHP and Illustrator. This helped me analyse and select the most valuable skills that would be useful to learn for my future on and after the course. Of course I had to bare in mind that I had no prior knowledge to PHP, and only a very small amount of knowledge to Illustrator. This meant that I really did have to start right from the beginning.
Once I had found the key skills I wanted to learn I began my learning by mainly using the books I had purchased, Adobe Illustrator Classroom In A Book and PHP: A Beginners Guide. I found it useful to stick with the one book so that I could work my way through it in an organised way, I was able to develop through the books.
Each day that I was learning I was amazed at how much I was actually learning. I went from not even knowing what PHP was, to building small tutorials including If statements and variables, and finally building my own website with PHP. I have found from this module over any other how satisfying it is when you complete something, and you’ve done it all yourself. It’s really rewarding, especially with the amount of work you put in.
I did find it hard deciding where I needed to stop learning, especially with Illustrator. I should have been starting LO3 of my learning plan – creating something with the skills I have learnt, however I would find something else that I needed/wanted to learn. I struggled to find a stopping point. I did spend just under 27 hours learning Illustrator and just under 32 hours learning php.
I think it did work well doing both learning contracts side by side as it allowed me to have a break from one or the other. Some days I was just sat down reading about PHP, other days I were creating a piece of artwork in Illustrator. It made it much more interesting. However it did also make it hard to manage. As I had both things at once, I had a higher work load, compared to if I had done one then the other. Both contracts were about the same business in the end, and therefore it worked well to do them together. I am very glad that I choose to learn two completely different things.
I arn’t very pleased with the outcome of the contract however, just because I don’t like the design. However I am very pleased with the skills that I used, and the knowledge which I show I have gained.
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