When in Manila and you want to learn web design, Photoshop, Photography or practically anything, check out the cutting-edge Philippine Center for Creative Imaging and be amazed!
PCCI Details
The Adobe Dreamweaver class was a 24 hour, 3 day workshop on Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is one of the best programs available for web design and working with CSS and HTML from Adobe. However other classes PCCI offer range from Photoshop, to 3D Imaging to Nude Photography. Yeah, I thought about taking that last one but I thought I wouldn’t be serious enough for it =D.
The building and environment at PCCI work well. It is clean, well lit, and air conditioned in the classes. Also it was quiet, something that I really appreciate when trying to learn. Lunches came free which was an added perk for me (I don’t know where I would have gone otherwise!) and as a school it felt professional.
Adobe Dreamweaver Class 101
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I signed up for the Dreamweaver class at PCCI. I have a few years of self-taught (go sit-at-home, programing nerds!!) practice with Dreamweaver, web design, CSS and HTML, but I wanted to see what I would learn from a structured class. I wasn’t going so I could learn Dreamweaver, just learn how to use it better.
The Adobe Dreamweaver class itself was pretty cool and unconventional in the way it’s taught. I’ve taken a few different computer classes before and you always sit in front of your computer, with the back of the monitor facing the instructor. Not exactly the best set up, unless of course you plan on half listening while tweeting pictures of cats in clothes. Instead they had the computers behind us, so we could have split time for the lecture and exercises, not all together. I liked this method a lot more because it made me really take the time to pay attention during the lecture.
What I Learned from My Adobe Dreamweaver Class
I knew a fair amount of the course content from the beginning. However I was going so I could learn the parts I didn’t already know (confusing, right?), and PCCI helped fill those in. There are some very basic concepts that I never learned about Dreamweaver and CSS. This would always make designing a site would always take a for-ev-er! I would set up a few elements on my page, and then spend the next 3 hours trying to make a Div element float right, but still align the container to the center of the page, while nesting a menu in the sidebar, but styling it differently than…yeah. I don’t advise this.
Because of this I had a few “Aha!” moments in the Adobe Dreamweaver class. Things clicked. I knew it was important to learn the basics before the fancy stuff, but after finally going back and learning the basics it definitely will help!
Sometimes when working on the exercises I would jump ahead. Luckily Datu, our instructor, knew what he was teaching! I would have advanced questions that didn’t really relate to the course, but he would help me out nonetheless. He also showed us a lot of different online resources from color picker websites to his own Responsive Web Design (RWD) site and online form builders and scripts. I can definitely use these to make my websites more efficient in the future.
Was the Adobe Dreamweaver Class Worth It?
I say yes. Regardless of if you are starting out and have no idea what Dreamweaver is, or if you have been tinkering with it for some time but want to complete your learning, the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging (PCCI) has many different levels of classes. One last thing that I definitely think is cool is that you can take a refresher course (or as many as you like) for up to one year after you take the class. I think I might do this once Dreamweaver CS6 comes out. It will be an entirely new program, but since it’s still the same Adobe Dreamweaver class, I can go in and learn all the new tricks for Dreamweaver CS6 for free!
All this just proves the point that When in Manila and not in a mall you should be picking up some new professional skills at the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging (PCCI).
Check out their website for a full list of courses offered at https://pcci.com.ph/ or follow them on twitter (https://twitter.com/pccitraining) for more info!
