So who on here is good with Android phones? I mean really good.

I'm presently learning - well, attempting to try to learn how to become a developer for the Android platform. Problem is I'm starting from scratch - I'm not that computer literate. I know how to log in online, edit photos, and I can load software if the instructions are REALLY good. I've been reading on Androidforums.com, rootzwiki.com, xda-developers.com and developer.android.com but most of it is Greek to me.
What I'm hoping for is somebody to just kind of spare maybe little tidbits of basic things they've learned about the Android platform in laymans terms and maybe how they learned it in the first place. Problem for me is I'm the kind of person that learns better by being shown it rather than reading it in books and trying it on their own - everybody learns differently. I just work better with somebody at hand so if you can keep it simple it'll help A LOT. Thanks!

Would this help?

Android Development Tutorial Search on Youtube

Start taking some Comp-Sci / Programming classes at your local community college. Along with some programming skills it can really help to know at least some basic hardware/networking stuff, so any basic networking/CCNA or A+ training might be good too.

Yeah...

I'm a professional computer geek who just wrapped up his first Android project, so this is calling me out explicitly. If you've got zero Computer Science background, you're going to be in a really tough spot.

Playing off what fromeast2west said:

Look for beginning programming classes, preferably in Java. Java, not Javascript, not Web 2.0, not VisualBasic, Java. Android programming is in Java, and you'll need to know a little bit about how to edit XML documents.

You need a good understanding of Object Oriented Programming, Data Structures would help a lot (mostly in just "thinking like a computer"). You'll be able to bodge something together, maybe, after a single intro Java class. Hopefully that intro class will cover some GUI type stuff.

The Eclipse IDE makes Android development a breeze, but it won't do the programming for you.

If you've got an idea for a killer app you want to see developed... it's probably better to do the research yourself, then go to somewhere like elance and cost out a developer. (Just an example, one Android developer we contacted worked through there, I've never actually used them). What took me several days and much frustration could have been freelanced for stupid cheap. We just needed it faster than the developer's personal schedule allowed.

So yeah... I'm not going to teach you how to develop Android apps here. It's not because I'm mean, it's because you've got to start with some fundamentals. Good luck!

Here's an online book that purports to teach Java programming, and it seems to start at the beginning. I have respect for Hobart & William Smith, so it has my tentative thumbs-up, even though I haven't read it yet.

Textbook

It looks to be a serious teaching textbook (the kind that professors at small, teaching-focussed colleges like HWS tend to produce). You could do worse than to try and follow along for a few chapters :) I can't promise you I would have made it that far when I was starting out :)

peter wrote: So yeah... I'm not going to teach you how to develop Android apps here. It's not because I'm mean, it's because you've got to start with some fundamentals. Good luck!

That's exactly what I'm looking for, thank you! Your post had a lot of specifics that I can look into and learn, thanks.