In the middle of a Udacity.com lesson! 🙂
Recently, I found this great website where you can learn how to program.
I thought I’d give my experience and thoughts on how things are going and what Udacity provide and who they are.
So what is Udacity.com?
The site essentially offers free courses where you can learn programming. Right now, I’m studying the first unit of programming (CS101) and I’m in the process of learning Python. I’ve installed the Python interpreter and Java as well, for that matter. (Though, I’ll be learning Java later on, once I get the gist of Python)
CS101?
CS101 is a course on the Udacity website and essentially it tells you the basics of programming and it is a step-by-step guide into programming with Python. At the end of CS101, I should have completed programming my own search engine equipped with a cool little robot website indexer.
Links:
Review of UNIT-1
I’ve gone through UNIT 1 and I feel I have more of an understanding with Python, although I’m still confused in some areas. – This may mean I have to go back through the entire UNIT again, so as to ensure I haven’t missed anything. I’ve written only 2-pages and should have probably noted down a lot more. I’m actually quite excited in learning Python as this type of interactive learning is quite fun and not too confusing. Although on some occasions it has been a little confusing for me.
I hope to make it through this course alive and well, with hopefully a new understanding of programming. – I’ve also found another website which has also been helpful called “Codecademy.com”, that is equally as good although there aren’t any university professors explaining things, you have a highly interactive interface helping you along the way.
I just hope I can focus on this one thing and not get too distracted. I think this is a great opportunity and I hope I can get something out of this. I have to give thanks to whoever set this up and especially to the professors who assembled all of this. Now I have homework to do! 🙂
Update
I’ve decided to take a different direction. I feel that for me the Udacity.com course was a little confusing. I feel as if I couldn’t understand a lot of the questions as the course furthered on. I feel this is due to a lack of practice. While I did repeat UNIT 1 again, I still had the same issues. In the mean time, I’ve been using Codecademy.com. – I feel that the examples and the longer explanations there are more understandable for me. Once I complete the Codecademy course I feel I’ll have a better understanding of the Udacity course and of the requirements in order to create the search engine.
So what’s the major difference?
Udacity explains and teaches too much of the theory, while Codecademy explains and teaches a lot of hands-on approaches. I’m not saying that is all of what Udacity does, but Codeacademy is specifically telling you how to do things with better examples. (I feel that this is a little easier for people who are just starting out learning Python) It does indeed (Codecademy) hold your hand along the way, but if you are just starting out, how else are you going to learn? If it doesn’t hold your hand and you get confused then it can totally put you off of programming. At least with this approach you can learn the right way to do things then apply it in other scenarios.
So, perhaps you have had the same issues as me and the Udacity course is a little confusing, well, I feel that the Codecademy course will ease you in with better explanations and examples.
Step 1:
Codecademy.com (Python)
Step 2:
Udacity.com (CS101)
Why do Codecademy first then Udacity?
As said previously: I feel this way, you can can have a better understanding of Python before heading onto the Udacity course. While I like Udacity.com, I feel, perhaps, that a lot of explanations are quite difficult to grasp. Which is why I think Codecademy is a little better at the explanations. I almost feel that once you complete the Codecademy courses you can take that information you have learned and use it on Udacity.com.
I’m trying really hard to get this and I know it will take time, as my mathematical abilities suck, but we’ll see where this gets me. I have been writing down lots of notes so hopefully when I go out and I can just pull them out to remind myself what I’ve learned. I’m also trying to remember how to code and what the layout should be. I’m thinking of buying a book on Python just so I can read it when I’m out. I think I need to make this like an idol-worship thing and become fanatic about learning the language, in order to improve.
Life is tough shit, here in the real world. Being lazy, doing nothing is nice and relaxing, but that won’t get me a good paying job in the future. Plus, if I can learn a programming language, then if at any point I go to university, it won’t be so difficult on me. (i.e. It’s like preparing for university) — I’ll probably have quite the advantage in comparison to not having much knowledge on programming itself.
