How many people who in college/university learn Web Development using Content Management Systems? I am sure there are a handful who do, but majority of colleges/universities all tend to teach web development using a certain company's tools/software.

When I was in college, web development (the course was called Internet Technology) class was mostly done using ASP.net Framework in Visual Studio 2008. Let's get the facts straight first, I am not saying Visual Studio 2008 is a sucky product and it should not be used, in a matter of fact it is a great product, and a very powerful one in the hands of a good developer.

I am going to give the experience and views I had in my college, this may be or may not be the same as in other colleges in the country or even around the world. In my college, I did put up the question on why no other tools where taught for web development to my lecturer, her answer was along the lines of "We only teach products and technology that the majority of people use", sure I can accept this answer if it was an explanation on why they don't teach about and on Linux/Unix/BSD/Mac OS X operating systems, but this is about "Web Development". Most major websites around the world are not being developed with the ASP.net framework, there are mostly in PHP. (Facebook, Youtube, just to name a few).

So if my college really was teaching the stuff most of the world use, I always wandered why there was no teaching done for PHP Web Development. Sometimes, they give the reasons that they use Microsoft development tools because it is free and doesn't have licensing cost (Microsoft provides this for Education Institutions), but most PHP development environments like Eclipse and Netbeans is also free to use (Heck you can even develop with Notepad/a Text Editor if you are good enough), so again this reasoning is flawed.

Since I am from Malaysia, I am going to take an example of two local news websites, the first is The Star Online ( http://thestar.com.my/default.asp - a website developed using the ASP.net framework ) and second is MalaysiaKini ( http://malaysiakini.com/index.php - a website developed using PHP programming language ), compare the two, as you can see both of the functions are almost identical. Remember to develop in ASP.net you need to have a computer with Microsoft Windows (RM200+) and Visual Studio (RM2000+, err not quite so about actually price need to check on this) compare to doing development in PHP which can be done on Linux (which is free) or on Windows using programming tools which is free also. Which one is more cost effective? You decide. Here is a clue, PHP Developers is in HUGE demand in Malaysia compare to ASP.net Developers, you know why? It is because by throwing a stone to a bunch on computing students there is a high chance to hit an ASP.net dev compared to a PHP dev, the basic Supply and Demand Law.

You may argue with me saying that development in ASP.net is faster compared to PHP or even other programming languages, but that it is because you probably never heard of "Content Management Systems" or CMS for short, I will be talking more about this in the next entry so wait for it. There is also "Frameworks" that you can use for speed/rapid development, but this explanation also I will save for another time.

Anyways the main point I was trying to point out is the flaw in our education system, most colleges/universities sell themselves out to a certain company and give you training in that product only. This is becoming more rampant every passing day. It is like most students attend colleges/uni for product training instead of actually learning. it is as though Microsoft gives free programming tools to the colleges so that we get hooked on their products. Think of it like getting your first crack, first time free, second time free, third time pay through your nose. I really want to love Microsoft for making certain products which are good (like their office suite and visual studio), but the problem is the way they promote/market these products are unethical and I feel it is really killing our education system, specially when it comes to Web Development, since the web supposed to be platform independent.