Computer Science vs Information Systems vs Certifications

[InbetweenDreams]

I may have mentioned this another time but I will bring it up once more, hopefully with a little more detail.

I am kind of considering something in teaching technology related courses but beyond K-12. Without doing much research, it seems K-12 education requires an education degree. I also spoke to one of the instructors who was also my advisor... OK let me back up real quick... I work where I went to school in the IT department, I got an Associates in Applied Science for Computer Information Technology. So there is an in field advantage there. I got the idea that it would be a neat job to teach this stuff to college students at the community college I work at or something similar. I do have a passion for it and I like talking about it. I have also been tutoring a student who wants to lean programming, so I have been working with her here and there with Python.

So I also kind of like the programming, database and logic side of things more so than I do with the Information Systems, particularly the management and business stuff. So I figure something like Computer Science would be better suited for me, or something along those lines. I know at least two of you here... [MENTION=19807]SilverBullet[/MENTION] and [MENTION=22879]kindy64[/MENTION] either have or will soon have a degree in Computer Science...so yeah the cat's out of the bag for you two lol With that being said I know there's a good bit of mathematics involved. So I thought it would be a good idea to take a single course next semester, pay for it out of my pocket and take Pre-calculus as a measure of what in the holy f*ck I'm signing up for. I have never taken a higher math beyond Algebra for the most part, so most of this when I get into it will be new to me.

Now for the fun part. Provided all goes well with the math class. My plan would be to do one of two things. I could take whatever necessary courses so that I can get credits transferred from where I work, 2 year college to a 4 year college where I would finish a BS in Computer Science.... or something like Information Technology. Here's why there is the "OR" in this. No school that I have come across offers a BS in Computer Science as an online program, they all offer other similar majors like Information Systems and so on. If I were to do Information Systems I don't know if Math is much of an issue at that point. The problem of course with me going the traditional route is that means I have to commute 1:15....65 miles to the nearest 4 year school and I'm probably going to miss out a lot of work because I don't think there are any schools that offer "night" classes these days. I think that crowd went the online route. Now it is possible that I can work something out with my boss and be able to do all that but I really can't afford to take a pay cut either especially having to take out student loans and try to do all the course work, capstone and maintain a full time job making full time pay....

Then someone said focus on certifications. Now I like that idea, I'd say that would work to my favor in a lot of cases, not sure about going towards an instructional position, but abroad a lot of employers want people who have been and done stuff in the field. I have, almost 10 years but I don't have any fancy papers... I have a 2 year degree, I have an A+...ok so I know a little bit here and there and probably in better shape career-wise than a lot of people because I have the experience and I have dabbled in a lot of stuff. The big thing I have about certifications is the cost and the big thing lately about having to renew them....and then you have cases like Novell who basically don't matter, everyone is moving away from Novell and migrating to Active Directory for instance... I mean GroupWise? Seriously? Anyway, the other thing someone told me was to "get your employer to pay for your certifications." I might be able to pull something where I work now, but before I was doing good to get the time off to go to Atlanta to take the test...and I did find the A+ pretty easy, easier than what is in the books at the time.

Anyway, that's kind of some of the ideas and where I stand with things...hopefully there is a good or better direction to take with what I want to do or figure something else out... 9 years ago I should have been a realtor, could have made bank...and then the bubble burst.