where do I go from here?

[undercover]

Dont know if this is the right forum to ask this.

 

I don't know what to do job wise. Or even what im qualified to do.

I am currently working as a VLE administrator. I started off by doing a foundation degree in ICT ( involving alot of media, web, and programming) then worked as an ICT tech that evolved into VLE admin understudy. A change in job to full VLE admin, and now im working my way to full blown Moodle administrator and master of the server.

The thing is I seam to know lots of technology but not in great detail rather than have a specialty in a subject, other than VLE's. This steams from the foundation degree where we got introduced to the basic of stuff but not indepth.

I am currently trying to top up my qualifications to a full degree as well as learning linux for the moodle box.

 

But when i look at job adverts, there either to basic as in just an admin, or they look like they need more skills than i have. I just feel stuck.

 

Any advice for a young paddywan like me?

 

TIA:(

[u8dmtm]

It depends what your salary requirements are, since if they are flexible you should be able to enter a wide range of IT fields at the entry level.

[dhicks]

The thing is I seem to know lots of technology but not in great detail rather than have a specialty in a subject, other than VLE's.

 

Maybe aim for the consultancy route: Moodle is written in PHP (bleh...), figure that out for a start - read a book or two on PHP programming and SQL. Then you can start doing customisations and add-ons for Moodle. Flash development is always nice, too, along with AJAX-style Javascript stuff - up-to-date experience with one or more Javascript libraries (Dojo, JQuery, etc) will make you pretty marketable.

 

--

David Hicks

[torledo]

The thing is I seam to know lots of technology but not in great detail rather than have a specialty in a subject, other than VLE's. This steams from the foundation degree where we got introduced to the basic of stuff but not indepth.

I am currently trying to top up my qualifications to a full degree as well as learning linux for the moodle box.

 

TIA:(

 

VLE is a huge growth area within education because of the whole 14-19, personalised learning agenda. And it's also huge in FE and HE.

IT doesn't sound to me as if your stuck at all, or if your stuck it's in no way a dead-end field/specialism.......it might be an idea to familiarise yourself a bit with sharepoint and the SLK as it's the other dominant technology and look at complimentary technologies such as single-sign-on, SIF and integration with unified communications systems.

 

Linux would certainly be useful, although i'm not sure how indepth you'd need to go, your skills would perhaps best fit being part of a dedicated application server team looking after Sharepoint/IIS or Moodle/Apache specifically on large portal and VLE projects. That's perhaps where you should be focusing your learning and working toward.

 

good luck.

[undercover]

Thanks for the replies.

I take your points, i like the sound of consultant or dedicated application server team. At least that gives me something to aim towards.