Making coding fun and quick
In the world of tweets and facebook statuses, and snapchat pictures, it seems that we like bits of information short and sweet.
We don’t always have the time or desire to sit down and take the time to do something, especially when it comes to learning. I know I’ve had this problem. When I was in college more often than not I was assigned a textbook in my Computer Science classes that I had to read in order to understand a topic or a concept. I can tell you right now that the majority of students in my classes never did the assigned readings. Some students wouldn’t even bother buying the textbooks.
What’s the problem
There’s two problems here. Programming is hard. The thing is I believe that the actual writing code part is the easy part, the hard part is wrapping your head around the programming concepts. From my experiences there needs to be more focus on teaching how to start thinking logically and making your mind think about how things work and are built. I firmly believe that once you develop this programming mindset you start to see the world differently. You start to break down things in real life and think about the steps it took to make something you see on the street or in your home. Thats why I think preparing your mind to think logically before taking a CS course is very beneficial.
The second problem is cramming too much information in at once. The classes I learned from the most in school were the ones that taught me a lesson and then made me apply that lesson into practice right away.
Working on that code or topic I just learned while it was still fresh in my head was when I learned the most and remembered the most! Unlike when I would sit through a one or two hour lecture covered multiple topics and then I would have to do an assignment on what I just learned. Forget about it, I had learned so much during that 1 or 2 hours that it was hard to remember everything and put it into practice. But by breaking it down into smaller steps and practicing along the way as opposed to waiting till the end I learned so much more.
So what do we do about this
I went through a lot of difficulty trying to learn to code. I even failed a basic class once (Data Structures) which I eventually retook and got an A but it was a lot of work! I feel like if I had a pre introduction to the concepts or programming before taking my classes I would have had a lot less struggle.
Having been through the process of getting a Software Engineering degree I know its not the easiest thing for everybody so I want to help out someone who may be currently going through what I had to go through or preparing to dive into their computer science courses.
I’ve created what I’m calling “Ruby Cards”. They are essentially cards with one programming topic on them. They are quick hit cards meaning they are meant to be simple and easy to understand and you can knock one out in 5 minutes.
I chose to use the programming language called “Ruby” because of all the programming languages I’ve tried it’s one of the most friendliest languages to learn because it reads like plain english. You’ll notice this when sometimes you are coding in other languages and its like trying to decode the matrix. You look at the language and are are like “Whaaaat???”.
These cards aren’t too in detail because I’m not trying to overwhelm you with a ton of information. I’m just going to try to give you the quick and simple concept. Then I’m going to tell you exactly what to type to make that code work. I’ve also added a little bit of humor which I hope you will enjoy.
The goal is that you can just pick any one of these cards and quickly learn something about programming that you may have not known before. I’d love your feedback as I’m building these so please email me with any comments or suggestions you may have at andrewcastro5@gmail.com
Feel free to share this with someone who may be looking for a little help with programming concepts or is about to take a programming course.
How to get started
We need a way to type this code in and see what it does.
The easiest way to get started is to use a site like http://repl.it/ , type your code on the left. Then hit the little play button to see what it does.
You can also just read the cards and quickly learn new topics.
The Basics
