DEV Community: Perpetual Education

The Odin Project: Landing page: walk-through

sheriffderek — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 01:17:32 +0000

There is a never-ending supply of “free” educational materials.

But how do you know if they are “good” - if you don't know that much about the subject yet?

Well, one way - is to see the final product.

Today, I'd like to talk about TOP's landing page project from their fundamentals course.

Here are some of the outcomes:

To be fair, They say:

“Do not worry about making your project look nice on a mobile device. We’ll learn that later.”

But in a world where 80% of traffic is on a small screen, we feel like this is starting newcomers off on the wrong foot. HTML and CSS are better than ever and learning from a small-screen-first approach has massive benefits beyond just the responsive layout bits. (Did I just turn English for a minute?)

It's much more difficult to undo mental models later - than to just get them right in the first place.

You can check out the whole lesson/project outline.

(it has the mockup etc.)

If you want a challenge, give it a shot!

and when you're done, you can see my take on it:

If you have any thoughts about this, we'd love to hear them. Have you gone through the TOP foundation course? Did we miss anything? We can splice in any of your suggestions. : )

I hope you find it helpful.

Hey - and - if you feel like doing some flexbox challenges: we have some "free" (haha) ones right here: https://perpetual.education/exercises/flexbox-part-1

PE featured in LA WEEKLY

perpetual . education — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 06:24:27 +0000

(from the article)

Try Something New: Perpetual Education Is The Best Online Programming And Design School

One of the more exciting new schools in this space is Perpetual Education.

Perpetual Education popped in 2021, right here in Los Angeles. They believe that the future will require designers with a broader knowledge and understanding of the entire design process.

Their flagship course, “Design for The Web” (DFTW) is a 6-month online design and programming mentorship. DFTW combines the best parts of a stepped college curriculum, boot camp pace, flexibility of a MOOC, and one-on-one meetings with the instructor.

...

Read the whole thing here: https://www.laweekly.com/best-online-programming-and-design-school

We teach "design" (the whole process) - and of course / the programming too!

perpetual . education — Mon, 24 May 2021 19:05:59 +0000

Haven't heard of us? We're Perpetual "Dot" Education

That makes sense! We're not a giant corporation. We're keeping thing small and effective.

We're a small design school dedicated to educating a new era of aware, confident, and responsible designers in the web space. There are a million "coders" out there - but we need something more.

The classes are small and personal. Serious personal attention. It's a 6-month program - and it's only goal is to focus full time on getting you trained up and out there designing a better world. You can talk to us every single day (the real humans who designed the course).

Learn more deeply - and faster - by focusing on just the right things at the right times.

Sound interesting?

We still have some openings for June.

Next session won't start until August.

If you want a 100% chill / no pressure - meeting (to meet us/the actual humans who teach the course) - with real-world advice... and no "Salesman" stuff: Do it. Meet us. It's easy.

Here's what some of our students are writing during the course:

If you've been trying to "learn code" - for a week or a month - or 6 months - or years... consider a new path.

Perpetual Education

"Should I learn React?"

sheriffderek — Sun, 16 May 2021 19:37:19 +0000

If you're asking this question...

Then the answer is no. Why?

When you know for sure what wall you've hit, what needs to happen, what tool makes that happen, and you understand the tech debt you'll incur, then (and only then) - should you even consider learning it. That goes for anything.

Should you learn CSS Grid?

(If you're asking... then - no)

Should you learn Rails?

(If you're asking... then - no)

Would you like to learn "All the things" in order of importance and skip all of the "Should I..." and all the youtube videos and late nights and tutorials?

Check out what we're doing at Perpetual Dot Education.

That boot camp might be lying to you

sheriffderek — Thu, 06 May 2021 22:22:42 +0000

Have you noticed that ALL of the boot camps get the "Best Boot Camp" award - in some shape or form?

Had you noticed that they almost all get 5/5 scores? Can they really ALL be the best. Well, if you didn't notice that - then you definitely didn't notice all of the really sneaky stuff.

Before you fall into the high-pressure sales trap, take a second look. Just because they are lying to you doesn't mean you have to lie to yourself.

Also - if anyone needs some fake awards, we have Photoshop.

Simple yet extremely effective portfolio pieces

perpetual . education — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 05:22:37 +0000

We work with a lot of people who have just finished a boot camp.

It seems like they get to the end.... and then - they think "Now it's time to build a portfolio."

This usually ends up mirroring what they think a 'portfolio' is, but it's becoming a bad pattern.

Your portfolio is your work!

Your "portfolio" is the work. It's the actual work you have. and YES you can make a nice brochure site that can house the index/links to those projects. But - most recruiters we know - aren't going to dig around in your 4 CRUD Github repos and try to figure out if you know what you are doing.

The technical people probably wont either. They might pick out a little area and look at it. For example, maybe they'd look around for some HTML to be sure you can write it. Then - look at your CSS approach. Then look at your library and framework choices - and what people really want to know - is your problem-solving style.

So - just give them what they want!

Explain why you're the person they want to hire

Show them your problem solving. And you don't need 4 CRUD apps.

Check out Cassie's site: https://www.cassie.codes

She loves fun animation. She has an insane attention to detail. She knows how to write about her work. She knows how to talk about her work. But - look at the work! It's mostly just her logo - and a few well-documented experiments. It's awesome. It really does the job. If I was going to hire a super rad person to make super fun animations - and I needed to trust them to use best practices and / basically - just be the best person for the job ---- well? There you go. She's selling herself with ease.

You can do the same type of thing with a handful of CodePens and some writing about your process.

We made this quick example to make our point:

https://perpetual.education/calculator-exploration

and seriously it has to have a mobile-first / small-screen-first 'responsive' layout... or it shows you aren't aware of the state of the web. Probably 80% of the traffic is going to be phones... so, don't think of "responsive" as something you just do later. It's deeply connected to the entire process of UX and content strategy - and design.

It's worth 10 minutes ^ to switch your mindset.

Pick the job you want - then just prove you're the person for the job

Show off the things that are unique about you - instead of trying to fit the "general developer" suit. Write about your work. Explain your thinking process. That'll be a lot easier to understand than a repo. (of course it all depends on the role you are going for)

Pick the job you want. Make the things that show your passion for that job. Meet some people who work there. Ask them what they are looking for. Add a few more pieces to prove your value. Then - tell them you're ready to come to work.

And hey... consider using plain ol HTML instead of some over-the-top React situation where we can't see any of your markup or decision making, and there's no metadata, and it isn't crawl-able...

Show them that you write great code. Keep the frameworks for specific framework specific things.

If you want a guide -- we've got a few spots left in our March 1st Session of "Design for The Web" https://perpetual.education

Women allowed

perpetual . education — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 22:30:45 +0000

Oh wow.

We were watching Kamala speak on the senate floor a few years ago and thinking.... wow. What if there were more people like her. What if someone like that was in charge?

In case you didn't know

Women are MORE than allowed.

Young, old, light, dark, tall, short, with-child, and from every background and situation you can think of. You are more than allowed. WE NEED YOU. We need you because you are you. Not because you 'can' or because you should. We want you.

We need you to design new systems. We need you to care about the people. We need your insight as mothers - and provider and hard workers and - ALL of the things.

We need you

We need you NOW.

And we can't think of any better job for a women in tech than "DESIGNER." (not only a visual designer) (not only a production artist) But someone who can research and plan, and talk with people, and come up with ideas and test them - and BUILD them. The real full stack.

We need women leading the way with design, research, content strategy, information architecture, user experience, user interface, user testing, HTML, accessibility, CSS, SVG, visual design, PHP, JavaScript --- all of the things. AND MORE.

Languages and typing code are important tools: but these problem-solving techniques - these "Design" techniques: are timeless. These are the tools that you can use to change the world. These are the tools of a designer.

The web is the worlds most powerful tool for change

Wield the power of The Web. Design the world YOU want to see - with history's most powerful communication platform. You CAN do it. We need you to do it. We've tried out best to build a system to get you ready.

Learn Design for The Web with us - at: https://perpetual.education

❤️ Ivy c/o Perpetual Education.

Looking to pivot or cross-over? UX+code+visual+

perpetual . education — Sat, 05 Dec 2020 22:21:46 +0000

Derek was helping Marco with one of his projects --- and we were doing some design thinking for the company... and - so, he thought... well - I'll record this part (might be of some use) - and then it just kept going.... and is unfolding into a pretty great crash-course type thing.

There's going to be 10? videos.

The series shows how to design and build a product (super high level) - in a lean/agile way - and no wire-frames and all that junk. Just - real-world UX and design and programming and user-testing and iteration. If you like it -- let us know. It seems like everyone out there is dead.

Here's the first one:

~ Ivy c/o PE

Save time by NOT working

perpetual . education — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 22:26:19 +0000

If you use some timers to force yourself to do something else... the time you're working will magically become more effective!

+ Derek inserts an impromptu mini music video... hahaha

https://perpetual.education/save-time-by-not-working

Just saying...

...

Do you think this video is fun???

Our next session is going to be the first Monday in January. If you're interested - well, get involved! We have some ISA stuff in the works... so, the barrier is getting lower and lower -

https://perpetual.education

Getting ready to launch DFTW publically

perpetual . education — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 01:12:42 +0000

You're most likely - already a developer...

But people ask us all the time

"How do I learn programming... or web design... or What is web design?..." etc...

and they probably ask you that too.

There are sooo many ways to learn

but this is the one we built and we're really proud of it - and we really do think it's the best way to learn / so, check it out. Maybe you know someone who is in the market.

Design for The Web is a 6-month online mentorship program that teaches the entire web design and development process from idea to completion.

It's not really like a boot camp... it's different. We're an open book. Feel free to ask us anything about it. We have free open time-slots to give people education or career advice too. No strings attached.

We're probably not going to do any traditional advertising - so, we figured we'd just give money to the people who help us find good matches.

Is that you? perpetual.education/get-paid-to-match-students/

Anyway - you heard it here first!

: )

How we designed our part-time design + development curriculum

perpetual . education — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 16:16:30 +0000

perpetual.education/how-we-designed-our-curriculum

We didn't count them - but here's the books and the order of things and our thought process.

Join our mailing list if you want to follow along as we build the school.

Get paid to match us with great students.

Programming is a lot like making electronic music (Ivy and Derek show you)

perpetual . education — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:21:24 +0000

Ivy and Derek were fooling around with some synthesisers - and talked about how "composing" functionality - and tools / is a lot like sequencing electronic music.

The way that each little concept adds up - and the way that you can "compose" methods and manipulate data - is a lot like a synthesizer. Once you understand the concepts - then you can relate them to different languages - and things become a lot more like legos.

On another note - we've decided to skip paying all the rotten companies to market our school / and instead - we want to pay YOU to find us the best students: more about that here:

https://perpetualeducation.substack.com/p/we-need-some-women-over-here-asap

and here: Get paid to match students with PE