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Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

codecademy.com

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Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#211

Post by aik »

dusklight wrote: post #196
aik wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few things: 1. I think you have a good argument concerning how they may seem to be belittling the complexities of programming. Again, I'm interested in seeing where they will go from here... I believe they have a good (early) start, and I believe the worth of the site will be determined by how effectively it can teach anything beyond the very very beginner level. 2. The site just recently was made available -- it's c…

People hate math because they are cowards and people are cowards because we have math 101 in school but not courage 101 ... I have spent a lot of time teaching myself how to learn, so I agree that current institutionalized methods of education are very flawed. But it's like, life is hard. It's not going to get any easier just because you pretend it's not hard.

Teach a courage 101 course?

I agree with this for the most part, but I don't agree that being a coward is a natural state unless taught otherwise. I believe it results from the mindsets we form based on what we perceive societal values to be. Parents/peers/culture seems to value good grades, or simply looking good at whatever you're doing, and being accepted by following the norm -- superficial, damaging, and mostly pointless things -- and as a result, those things become priority for people over learning. If we stop pretending those things matter so much, and put more focus on the beauties of learning and curiosity and discovery and exploration, things would be different.

When and how did you learn to become such an autodidact? Have you been one your entire life? Or when did you realize the system can't and shouldn't force learning upon you and you have to take it into your own hands? I made some of these realizations not all too many years ago, and am fascinated by how others have made the transition.

Thanks, your views I find interesting...

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#212

Post by dusklight »

aik wrote: post #211
dusklight wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People hate math because they are cowards and people are cowards because we have math 101 in school but not courage 101 ... I have spent a lot of time teaching myself how to learn, so I agree that current institutionalized methods of education are very flawed. But it's like, life is hard. It's not going to get any easier just because you pretend it's not hard.

Teach a courage 101 course? I agree with this for the most part, but I don't agree that being a coward is a natural state unless taught otherwise. I believe it results from the mindsets we form based on what we perceive societal values to be. Parents/peers/culture seems to value good grades, or simply looking good at whatever you're doing, and being accepted by following the norm -- superficial, damaging, and mostly…

I am not saying that being a coward is a natural state, rather I am saying that courage can be taught.

If you want to work in software engineering you have to teach yourself pretty much everything -- identifying what you need to learn is a big component.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#213

Post by HiroshiSan »

tolmasky wrote: post #138

Interesting feedback: I had my gf do it, and she got stuck in the .length portion, because she kept typing: "name".length. This is because the prompt said: Well done! How long is your name? Find out by typing your name in quotes and ending it with .length. For me, that'd be "Ryan".length. Apparently its not clear enough what is code and what isn't. While you and I can tell that the last period belongs to the sentence…

This is amazing feedback, I'm going through the lessons with my 13 year old cousin and she had similar trouble, we got to the arrays when it asked you to add "Monday", "Tuesday" AND "Wednesday" to positions 0, 1, 2. It wasn't explicit enough so she thought that she was suppose to type var weekDay["Monday", "Tuesday" and "Wednesday"];

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#214

Post by liquidcool »

nicki_easy wrote: post #203
jpd wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging by the text of the hint you gave us, I believe it's trying to make you type: var six = numbers[2] I am not sure where the hangup is, considering I just copy-pasted that from two parts of the hint. Have they described arrays to you yet? Perhaps the problem is that they insufficiently described what an array was and what it did? I have not tried to use the site, so I'm not sure.

Yes. This is the problem for me. The only description of arrays is what I've pasted above from the lesson. I'd never heard of them before and all I currently know about them is that I will use them when I "need to store an ordered list of values." I'm not sure how much I need to know or understand about them at this point, either--I speak some human languages that are not my native tongue and I was very lost when I f…

I see what you're saying. The analogy I would use is a numbered list in a word processor.

That got me thinking, just about every intro to programming book I've seen explains arrays with a picture. I then thought to do a Google image search for JavaScript array and found this:

http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/diaries/1...

Would that have helped? (I also wonder if that's a good tutorial as well.)

It seems the focus at Code Academy is on doing, which is fantastic, but more (any?) images will help get the point across faster, esp. for visual thinkers (like designers, who are the perfect audience for learning JavaScript).

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#215

Post by zds »

HiroshiSan wrote: post #213
tolmasky wrote: post #138

Interesting feedback: I had my gf do it, and she got stuck in the .length portion, because she kept typing: "name".length. This is because the prompt said: Well done! How long is your name? Find out by typing your name in quotes and ending it with .length. For me, that'd be "Ryan".length. Apparently its not clear enough what is code and what isn't. While you and I can tell that the last period belongs to the sentence…

This is amazing feedback, I'm going through the lessons with my 13 year old cousin and she had similar trouble, we got to the arrays when it asked you to add "Monday", "Tuesday" AND "Wednesday" to positions 0, 1, 2. It wasn't explicit enough so she thought that she was suppose to type var weekDay["Monday", "Tuesday" and "Wednesday"];

We're going to try to make this change within the next few hours. Thanks!

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#216

Post by zds »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #210
nicki_easy wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am no one's girlfriend, and I am stuck on lesson five :P I think that if this is aimed at beginners it needs to be dumbed down more--I am a reasonably intelligent absolute beginner curious about coding and whether I'm interested in learning some, and in this lesson you have completely lost me; I no longer understand what I am doing or why, and I don't know how to proceed: Everything we've talked about so far has on…

The way I would describe an array to a novice is that it's a more complex and potentially useful type of variable, similar to the ones you've been making so far, only instead of having a single "slot" for data, they are organized in a way that allows for multiple slots for information, and you can reference each slot by their position in the array, starting with position 0 (0, 1, 2, etc. describing the first, second…

Thanks so much for the feedback. This lesson needs some improvements and we'll be shaping it up over the next few days.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#217

Post by buff-a »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #210
nicki_easy wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am no one's girlfriend, and I am stuck on lesson five :P I think that if this is aimed at beginners it needs to be dumbed down more--I am a reasonably intelligent absolute beginner curious about coding and whether I'm interested in learning some, and in this lesson you have completely lost me; I no longer understand what I am doing or why, and I don't know how to proceed: Everything we've talked about so far has on…

The way I would describe an array to a novice is that it's a more complex and potentially useful type of variable, similar to the ones you've been making so far, only instead of having a single "slot" for data, they are organized in a way that allows for multiple slots for information, and you can reference each slot by their position in the array, starting with position 0 (0, 1, 2, etc. describing the first, second…

I need some milk! Let me add that to my shopping array.

Back in the real world, I see non techies deal with lists every day. Ordered lists. Given a list, with numbers in the margin, they can easily answer "Who came first?" or "What's next on the list?", or "What's item 5 on the agenda".

But noooo. We have to call them arrays. Lists are something else. o_O

The way I would describe an array to a novice is that it's a more complex and potentially useful type of variable

Fuck me no!!!! Shut up Moss!

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#218

Post by FuzzyDunlop »

I love tools like this. I was using a mongoDB one the other day which was pretty nice, too.

No better way to learn than by example, and you can take a lot more from it than reading a 20-odd page tutorial.

This may be a matter of opinion, but I think the order in which new concepts are introduced could be tweaked. You're first introduced to string literals. Then variables are introduced. Then it's back to string literals. Then some variables. Then a tiny bit on numbers which suddenly shifts back to string literals in the same lesson.

It seems that introducing the concept of variables is a little premature in those first four lessons considering they're rarely, if at all, manipulated, and aren't applied consistently enough to really understand what they're for.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#220

Post by beefman »

zds wrote: post #142
beefman wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome, thanks! I've always thought the use of books to teach programming was a bit ironic, especially for interpreted languages. Back in the early '90s I had a book called Master C, which came with a floppy that ran a similar type of tutorial. http://www.amazon.com/Waite-Groups-Master-Book-Disks/dp/1878... Seems like a long gap between then and now. Also, please let me request a course on Clojure. That would rule!

one course on clojure, coming right up!

I, for one, would prefer clojurescript.
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