Newly married in Cleveland Ohio, Tony is primarily focused these days on trying to be a good husband. While inexperienced at that, he's quite experienced in all things web.
Tony has been programming since he was 12 years old, and got into web sites and web application development at 16. After graduating with a Computer Science degree from Case Western Reserve University, Tony continued with that interest as a Microsoft certified software application developer and architect, database designer, and user interface designer.
His experience has ranged across technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, ASP .NET MVC, JavaScript, jQuery, KnockoutJS, AngularJS, NodeJS, LESS, Bootstrap, SQL, Entity Framework and more.
He believes strongly that deeply understanding any topic allows you to properly learn it and, even more importantly in a real-world environment, quickly overcome problems.
He also has a deep interest in human nature and behavior, and how that impacts human-computer interaction. This interest translated into extending his career into user experience design and usability research.
Another link in the chain is his 25 years of experience in public speaking and teaching, both in front of large groups and as a one-on-one private instructor.
Putting all these pieces together, he has spent his career listening to a client need, designing a database and software to meet that need, building it, testing it, teaching others how to use it, then improving user experience by watching people actually use it and adjusting accordingly.
Tony loves teaching every aspect of what he does, and even more loves teaching in a way that imparts understanding, as opposed to just examples intended to be parroted. He loves that moment when a student 'gets it', and that's what he wants for you when you take one of his courses.
He has found that those that learn purely by example, and not by understanding, end up much more limited than they need to be.
"Examples need to be built on top of context, and once you have context, you can not only copy the examples you find, but adjust and improve upon them."
He firmly believes that everyone has the ability to develop software, if they are just taught properly. Including you.
"It is my pleasure and privilege to teach you. I hope you'll come away knowing something you didn't before, understanding at a level deeper than before, and feeling positive that you can accomplish what you've set out to accomplish. Thank you!" - Tony Alicea
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