End of Semester Reflection (Monsurat)

What did you learn technically?

I learned how to use the MapBox Api and to make layouts look the way I want on android although I’m still not as proficient as I’d like. I learned how to use a RecyclerView to make a custom scrolling layout. I also learned how to deploy the LAMP stack to a Digital Ocean droplet and host an instance of the Directus CMS. And of course that dealing with Beta versions of Api’s suck because things are always changing and break easily. Dealing with permissions and updating a users location is also something that was a big challenge because our entire app relied on location permissions being granted.

What did you learn professionally? Please note: this is not the same as the above question.

I learned setting goals early on makes development and meeting deadlines way easier. That it’s okay to pivot when something isn’t working and that it’s okay to throw away code 😢.

What do you wish I could have done differently?

I wish all the legs were available from the beginning so we could plan around that. Sometimes we wanted to get ahead but didn’t know what the next leg. It would also be helpful as a checkpoint before the week the leg was due to kind of measure our progress as a team to see if we were currently where we needed to be to complete the next leg well and on time.

If you were to do this all over again, what would you do differently?

If I were to do this all over again, I would pick a project that more aligned with my interests at the time and use it as a way to learn new and exciting technologies like machine learning, computer vision and ar/vr.

If you could make one change to this Mobile Development course, what would it be and why?

I think it would be an interesting challenge to have groups pair up and try to help each other with roadblocks they are having. It would also be really awesome if we could have companies or individuals who needed an app to volunteer a project for teams to adopt. This would make for a great learning experience in terms of the client, developer relationship and holding yourself more accountable since someone is depending on your app to work and it is more meaningful.