I knew when I started at UAGC, programming would be a
challenge for me. Although I use
computers every day, I know very little about programming, but I am eager to
learn. I had never used or even heard of
Scratch before this week. When I logged
in for the first time, I felt intimidated and overwhelmed as the site is aimed
at school-aged kids. As I continued to
look at other projects posted, I noticed many programmers had been using
Scratch for years, but I was still intimidated.
I watched several tutorials, but I didn’t find them very helpful, and
they didn’t give me much confidence or direction in my first outing.
I learned that programming is a lot of trial and
error. Obviously, certain rules and
commands are absolute when programming, but things don’t always work out as
planned, especially when working on something extremely complex or creating
something new. My experience with
Scratch was a lot of trial and error. I didn’t
complete my program to the level I would’ve liked, but I plan on working more
on Scratch to improve my skills. I did,
however, think that Scratch was easier than the program examples and activities
in our textbook or tutorials of other programs omline.
From the examples in our textbook, “TEC 101: Fundamentals
of Information Technology & Literacy”, Vahid, V. et al. (2023), I believe
that Python will be the easiest for me to learn and will also be the first
programming class I will take. Per Lokkila,
E. et al. (2023), “Python is an easier-to-grasp programming language and is,
therefore, highly recommended as the stepping stone in introductory courses.”
The most popular languages are currently Python and Java, with Python being the easiest to learn (Lokkila, E. et al. 2023). I believe Python would be the most effective for beginners and basic programming. Java would be more beneficial when being used to process multiple tasks at once. (Wang J. et al. 2023). I plan on learning Python first and then following up with Java. After that, I am unsure of my next steps in learning programming languages.
This week’s lessons made me realize I am starting at the
bottom of the computer technology field and have a long road ahead. The insight I gathered this week has already
helped me in learning about computer languages and what the technology field
encompasses. It also helped me choose the first programming languages I will
learn to build a strong foundation for my future studies.
Scratch Link - Beach Ball Tag on Scratch
(mit.edu)
*original submitted 07.08.2024, edited on 07.31.2024
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