tl;dr - I think I fixed this problem in my app (iheartpy.com) using AIML. Caution: Still a work in progress. The whoe thing - I am a self-taught programmer. And I had been an extensive user of codeacademy myself. I realized this rather serious design flaw early on and tried to do something about it. Initially, I tried to right my own engine based on JSON but midway I discovered AIML. It suited the task perfectly. So…
This conversation seems to be getting a little off-topic. So if anyone feels that, please feel free to send me a word at
I too tried my hand at it in a side project: iheartpy.com See if there's anything you find useful in it. Although, I think this comment needs to be someplace else.
Checked out iheartpy. Nice and interesting UI! THough I wonder it asked me to sign in using my Google account. Is there an option to use the site further without signing in?
The application would have access to see your email address i.e. @gmail.com
The app uses it to send a welcome message to users.
Unfortunately that's the default minimum permission set granted by App Engine Users API. Further, I promise not to be evil:
iheartpy.com/privacy.txt
Feel free to write to me for any feedback and/ or help.
As it stands, I only see codeacademy being useful for programmers who are new to Javascript. If you're completely new to programming, there are too many problems, like the article mentions, that are difficult to get past without knowing... programming!
Even then it is frustrating. I know basic to medium level Java and Python. I wanted to learn Javascript and decided to take codeacademy for a spin. The experience was so frustrating, I gave up after the first few exercises (after shouting at my computer a few times). There was no useful feedback - just an error message like 'Oops. Try again'.
I prefer Zed Shaw's style of teaching. Guess, I will wait until he publishes LearnJavaScriptTheHardWay.
Semi tangentially, the 'backspace = go back' shortcut has accidentally deleted countless posts and emails of mine (and I'm sure many other people's). I really think that shortcut needs to go away.
Not sure about the other browsers, but this is mostly a solved issue in Firefox: it has grown clever enough to remember the contents of a text box even after going back, closing the tab (reopen it with ctrl+maj+t), or even quitting Firefox.
I thought my 10y.o. daughter might want to learn programming. So I pointed her to codecademy and said if she got stuck, to call me over. She was excited to try, but ran into the exact same problems this article surfaced. She was being a real trouper about it, but it was plain that her patience and temper were running short. That said, once we got past the first steps and I taught her how the website was supposed to w…
I highly recommend Scratch. I teach 8 - 12 year olds using scratch. It teaches computational concepts in a fun (certainly not intimidating way). I am now planning to experiment using Scratch for adults as well as a starting point before introducing any of the common programming languages.
I was a complete beginner at coding a few months ago. I really really wanted to learn, so I've tried going to local meetups designed to teach newbies to code and I've tried Codecademy. The problem I found was this tendency to start with the terminal as the teaching tool. The terminal is a black and intimidating hole to a beginner. Sure, I happily typed in 2+2 and got 4 as a result, and I understood how to store varia…
Is there a link to this Karel the Robot exercise or is it a hand out? We're in the amidst of creating something complimentary (different too) to Codecademy called http://CodePupil.com . We're eager to see different styles of teaching; especially examples where gaming is used! As noted in the OP's article creating a new experience and especially one that teaches all the Elizabeth's how to code is a big challenge. We'v…
I made my (non-programming) girlfriend try codecademy and she had the same kind of troubles. I had to go at lengths to explain to her what a console was. She also told me that codecademy assumes too much stuff is known, like booleans or whatever. All the things that we take for granted and innate are extremely complicated to teach through a human-computer interaction. In the end she went and googled "javascript tutor…
Slightly offtopic: I also have a non-programming girlfriend and she recently expressed an interest in learning what programming is all about. This is because she often sees me coding, knows that I like it and that it's a big part of my life, and feels bad when I start talking about how I started some new project and she knows that I cannot tell her in detail what it's about because she wouldn't understand me (I ususa…
"Should I just make a simple website with her and show her how to do basic stuff using javascript"
I think the easiest way to learn is to take a simple page or script that already does something and change it. With that you get a little excitement that motivates you to learn further.
The classical computer learning books normally start with a "hello world" program and then move on from there.
Is there a link to this Karel the Robot exercise or is it a hand out? We're in the amidst of creating something complimentary (different too) to Codecademy called http://CodePupil.com . We're eager to see different styles of teaching; especially examples where gaming is used! As noted in the OP's article creating a new experience and especially one that teaches all the Elizabeth's how to code is a big challenge. We'v…
I too tried my hand at it in a side project: iheartpy.com See if there's anything you find useful in it. Although, I think this comment needs to be someplace else.
Whoa! Try zooming on the page (command+/- or control+/-). It's like watching a caterpillar walk.
I did the same thing with my sister(who doesn't know any code) and the same issues came up with her as well. This is definitely a design issue. How to make the UI better? In the initial stages of learning of learning a concept, have a dialogue appear for each error saying something like: When you're coding in the real world no one is going to tell you this, but we've got your back! You forgot the quotes around your n…
Just in case any non-programmers are reading this, the quotes around a string (like your name in the Codecademy example in question), have nothing to do with case, or being case-sensitive. Programming languages have basic building blocks called primitive data types, and for many programming languages, strings represent one type of those building blocks. Traditionally, strings are indicated by putting double- or single-quotes around the letters of the strings, but they just as easily could be indicated by two parentheses, or dollar signs. It's a convention for denoting a string, no more, just like quotes in English and certain other natural languages represent certain features of the language, often direct speech.