{"id":669,"date":"2016-09-30T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T13:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kcarbajo.com\/?p=132"},"modified":"2016-09-30T09:00:57","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T13:00:57","slug":"why-i-am-learning-programing-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/why-i-am-learning-programing-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I am Learning Programing \/ Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Introduction notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was pleasantly relieved after reading the introduction for this textbook to learn about the unique approach to coding, or what the author Nick Montfort refers to as the \u201ccreative potential of computer computation\u201d I\u2019m genuinely interested in how we\u2019ll explore computation as part of our culture and possibly get a chance to reflect that in our semester projects. I was also glad to learn that this text was produced with students in mind and not for individuals who might already have some prior coding experience. Although I have attempted to learn coding in the past I\u2019m grateful for the refresher and would like to take baby steps back into this realm. I\u2019m also very intrigued by the authors claim to lay a different foundation for beginners that focuses on a more \u201cArtistic and humanistic inquiry\u201d which really calls my attention as a creative person who likes to build and tear things apart to better understand how they work. Overall I think the introduction did a nice job of conveying Montfort\u2019s approach and soothing my own fears about revisiting coding.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why I\u2019m learning: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My history with CompSci and programming has honestly been a rocky one. As a Comm. and digital studies major I\u2019ve attempted twice to take some variation of an intro course for computer science and haven\u2019t had much success. I\u2019ve always been interested in the process but find that the classes I\u2019ve taken move too fast for me even at the beginner level. I think my biggest problem is that I get easily overwhelmed by how complex some of the languages like Python can be and like the quote from the introduction stated \u201cUnless you can think about the way computers solve problems, you can\u2019t even know how to ask the questions that need to be answered.\u201d This pretty much sums up my biggest dilemma; I\u2019m much more of a hands on tactile learner and with coding I have a hard time wrapping my mind around how it all comes together on the screen. On the other hand I have no problem fiddling away with HTML or CSS. I\u2019ve spent pretty much all of my adolescence up until now toying with building and designing webpages so it has always been a source of frustration for me that coding has been so difficult to learn. I\u2019m optimistic about this new approach though, which like the author mentioned I had never considered before as an area where both the computing and arts\/ humanities could be blended. Thinking about it again after reading the introduction, it sounds like the type of approach that would best benefit someone like myself who would like to learn the basics so that I could enhance other projects and avoid the stress I\u2019ve felt in the past about having to undertake an entirely new language. The way the author talks about his guided approach was very reassuring and reminded me of the saying \u201ca mile wide and an inch deep\u201d since we\u2019ll be covering a few languages and techniques.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Goals:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of my goals, and probably the most important one, is to stay on top of all the readings for this book. Now that I have a copy I plan on catching up and staying ahead of the readings so that I have enough time to digest the material. I\u2019m usually a fast reader, but I know there will be parts in this textbook that I might have to read several times before I feel like I\u2019ve fully grasped the concept. I will own that time management has always been a slight struggle for me and since this will be my third time approaching programming, albeit from a new angle, I\u2019d really like to not hinder myself by falling behind and playing catch-up this semester.\u00a0 Another goal of mine would be to create something worthwhile using the tools in this book. I\u2019m excited about the artistic element to this upcoming project and I\u2019d really like to come up with something unique that reflects both what we\u2019ve learned in class and tests my imagination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670,"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions\/670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.mcclurken.org\/adh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}