I can't say coming to this class i haven't learned something each and every day. My knowledge of PHP and Java grows exponentially ever class considering they both started at 0.
Often though i feel discouraged and behind in the class, like I'm standing in a bucket and trying to lift myself up. There are several individuals in class, Joshua, James and Terry to name a few that seem to breeze through iteration after iteration.
The blogs that i have read have placed great hope within myself after seeing many others sitting in the same pitfalls i have been in or are currently. The advent of project requirements provided by the professor also help me narrow my scope within these projects. For many so far i have found that the requirements in my mind far overshoot the neccessity for the iteration.
Though i have grown tired of doing them, the mini status presentations before class have helped me keep a pace with our project in comparison to the other groups.
The class format of Lecture then Lab i feel has been a little constrictive on my group continuity. Often i come to class fresh with idea for the project that i think on my hour drive to class, then loose some as i start to retain knowledge gained through lecture. Often after lecture the starting stages of burnout have begun to take hold.
I recommend perhaps a short period of group work before the lecture, perhaps 30 mins should be enough to help cohere groups to the projects at hand.
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As to your last recommendation, I can understand the potential advantages to do lab before lecture. However, I'm afraid it would be hard to re-orient the class's mental flow back to the lecture if we had a group meeting first. I'll give it more thought though and see if there is some solution that would meet both requirements.
ReplyDeleteMaddox,
ReplyDeleteI can assure you I have spent countless days just getting small pieces of functionality on my website working. The learning curve is extremely high using javascript due to the fact that Eastern did not provide or require a prereq of javascript programming. Hang in there, my only fear is that this learning curve will ultimately lead to a lesser grade :(
Prof. Drake, though i don't feel that we should put the whole lab time before the lecture, i feel that we should just a little group time before hand.
ReplyDeleteJoshua,
ReplyDeleteJavaScript is traditionally taught in IS 247. There were a couple semesters where it was not and unfortunately, you probably took the class in one of those semesters. But I do take such things in consideration when determining your grade. In fact, I have been very proud of every group's progress so far.
I understand your struggles. I find that the blogs are very helpful. I feel that some people are way more advanced than me and when you look at individuals iteration it's far more advanced than mine. I recommend just asking classmates. Colin was extremely helpful explaining to me how to use the weather rss for iteration 2. Unfortunately I didn't have time to implement it yet.
ReplyDeleteMaddox,
ReplyDeleteI share your pain. Coming from a "non coding" background this doesn't come easy and it takes me hours (6 to 8) for each iteration. It's a great feeling when it finally works but I don't have the time to really make it perfect or as I would really like it to be. Thanks for sharing this because I thought it was just me.
Maddox, You are definitely not alone. I have spent hours goofing with stuff. I have learned a lot but it has been a struggle at times. Also, I was in IS247, in 2007, and we used jQuery rather than JavaScritp and, jQuery is quite different.
ReplyDeleteThere's no doubt that a lot of the stuff in this course hasn't really been touched on in our previous courses as CIS majors. As advice to Maddox and the others struggling in this class, the best way to learn this stuff is to practice it over and over again. I fortunately am working at Eastern as a Web Developer, so JavaScript and PHP are somewhat second nature to me, but there are still plenty of things this class brings to the table that are difficult to understand at first! As Terry and Joshua said, you just gotta put in the time to learn this stuff, and from my experience you eventually get to a place where it just kind of clicks and all makes sense.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few of people in class who have more knowledge of the topics we cover. I'm guessing that some of them have prior experience from their past or current jobs. I'm pretty sure that Dr. Drake can see this and is not comparing what others do these individuals. Having a few people with experience helps contribute more ideas and information that others can learn from.
ReplyDelete