I left this Codecademy lesson probably more confused than when I started. I found myself searching for whatever code would allow me to progress to the next page with very little to no grasp of what I actually did. No matter how many times I looked back on what I did, I could not figure out why or how I managed what it is I did.

My JavaScript experience in Codecademy was like night and day to how I felt when I had completed HTML. And yes, I do know that HTML and JavaScript should not be compared because we’re talking about two way different things, but it’s a pretty bad feeling to be sitting behind your computer for hours and still not feel that overwhelmingly short rush of victory once it is completed.

I would prefer the answers to be given to you at some point beyond just hints because at several points in this lesson, I found myself just completely off-track. I read one of Rob’s posts before and he made a good point that because there’s no such thing as really cheating, there is no reason why the answers could not be displayed somewhere. After hearing from our guest speakers, I understood that programmers often grab and add-on to other codes they find, so it’s not like it would take away from our learning if we had them as an option. By not having them, I found myself focusing more on how to complete this task on time, rather than really learning. Also, I’m curious if I’m just an extremely slow learner or if these assignments are taking everyone over 7 hours to figure this stuff out.

Now that I’ve complained this entire post, I will admit that I do understand why JavaScript is so necessary for a website to really catch and keep your attention. Even the most basic interactive websites use JavaScript and knowing that, I will continue to struggle but try as hard as possible to figure this out before the semester is over.

It has by far been the most frustrating weeks of learning in the web development course.

JavaScript is not the easiest to comprehend, and yet it accomplishes some of the greatest tasks on the Internet.

The Codecademy lessons were somewhat informative, but also not easy.

Due to a work/vacation trip I had to work on the lessons before Tuesday’s class. Learning from a written lesson is not the best way of learning for me, and the errors on Codecademy don’t provide much assistance. I found myself in the forums a lot looking for key pieces of information, evaluating other coders who also had broken code and comparing them to mine. I finished the lessons before Tuesday class which I imagined would give me a leg up in class, but I was sorely mistaken. There were a lot of key terms and lessons that weren’t even a part of the Codecademy section.

I appreciated Emily coming into the class and diving deep into JavaScript and the console. I think I learned a good amount from it. I’m sure I forgot a lot of it during the trip, so we’ll see how much I retained.

The image gallery we built was by far the biggest frustration so far. After three cups of coffee, 4 hours of googling and repeated cursing, I finally figured it out and it was the simplest work around I could have imagined. Thankfully it works and I never have to look at that gallery again.

General

I never thought web-development was going to be so complex. There are so many details, and different rules that you have to remember. It is a bit insane. So far I am enjoying learning the material, especially the stepping-stones: start with HTML (titles, body, and paragraphs), add some style to the verbiage which you create to make it lively through CSS (create ID’s, change fonts, change font-styles) and finally add some interaction to your HTML and CSS creations through JavaScript.

Codecademy

Codecademy is a great learning mechanism, it provides step-by-step instructions. The only functionality that is a somewhat disappointing is the hint feature. The feature seems to be hit or miss. Some of the exercise have very clear hints others are clear, but not at useful. I have truly learned to appreciate bloggers who have posted their Codecademy questions, especially the JavaScript paper, rock, scissor blogs. That exercise was pretty difficult in my book.

Questions

1. How long did it take you to learn how to code and what language did you start with?

2. What source can I look at to create a form? I want the webpage that I create for class to have a registration sheet which includes a name (first and last), address, phone number (required field), Date of birth, and a free text field which for medical history. Will we be learning about these features in class? Can these functions be written using HTML, JavaScript?

3. Is it possible to gather information from a registration page without a database? If yes, how? If no, which database option is the most effective?

4. What webpage do you recommend for leveraging tab features, specifically: home, about, contact us, testimonies

I am really excited about creating my own web-page, but at the same time am feeling overwhelmed, there is so much to learn.

When Greg sent us that funny little photo saying, “My code doesn’t work and I have no idea why. My code works and I have no idea why,” I had to laugh. I had just spent an hour trying to decode the JavaScript we’d hurriedly written in class enough to add captions with divs. I changed around some tags and parentheses for a while, and all of a sudden, after several iterations that made the photos all disappear, all appear, or refuse to flip, it finally worked. And I had no idea why. I couldn’t even remember what I’d changed that time – it didn’t seem more significant or profound than everything I’d tried before. It was almost more frustrating to see it work for a reason I couldn’t explain than to see it fail.

A couple of roadblocks this week…

This week was the hardest for me yet, and I found myself hitting the wall and reaching out to message boards more than I ever have before. Codecademy, where I had been breezing through in HTML and CSS, started to become more vague and confusing for me. In more and more cases, instead of saying, “type this,” the instructions were “do this.” I found myself looking back through past lessons and trying to find links to what I had learned and what they were asking me to do, but — no matter what — the code didn’t work. (In one case I think that there was an actual bug on the page, when I deleted all of my code and submitted it the display still came up with type as if there was code present). What I ended up having to do was go to the Codecademy forums and look line for line a code that did work, finally finding out how to structure something seemingly out of thin air.

I also had a lot of trouble with the captions, and figuring out how to attach them to the images so they wouldn’t be on the same page. Once again, I went to the message boards (and Google) to help me solve my problems.

What I learned was that I’m always going to have to rely on a community of experienced coders if I’m going to keep experimenting with new tricks. There are times when I’m going to get stumped and the instructions aren’t going to help me anymore, and I’m going to need to keep an open dialogue with others. Fortunately, the coding community is very responsive and friendly, and there is always someone who is able to look over your code and provide a fresh set of eyes.

Most of the time, especially in confusing JavaScript, one beginner’s mind isn’t enough.

This week’s assignments, though very basic, revealed the complex functions that help businesses and organizations interact with their clients, customers, readers, or viewers through the Internet – the most obvious example being the “creditCheck” assignment. It was easy to see how more complex code (specifically functions) can help businesses make decisions and process information quickly, remotely, and more accurately. There is no doubt in my mind that I will forever think about what is going on behind the scenes when I visit websites, having now had a glimpse into the “inner workings.”

I can see why these lessons are important to those, namely journalists, who use the Internet to interact with others for work. For example, just as one written word in a newspaper can change the entire meaning of an article, one piece of code can change the entire meaning of a web entry. Knowing and understanding the construct of that web page can help journalists prevent errors, and quickly correct those that are missed. This helps them maintain control of and protect their written word and personal brand, two things that are vital to journalists that are seeing more of their work on the Internet.

As far as Codeacademy is concerned, I like the method used to teach code on that site. However, there are parts that are extremely difficult and require one to go to the Q&A section for assistance. The problem is that not all of the answers given in the Q&A are correct, and it can be a little confusing. I would like to see a page where one could go to see exactly how the code should be written. It’s true, this could encourage users to cheat, but that seems to be exactly what web developers do anyway – use code that has already been written. So why not just let users see the answer, and let them retype it and manipulate it as they go through the courses?

Last night I had a nightmare that I could not figure out how to add captions to an existing image gallery using jQuery. Then I woke up and realized that this nightmare was reality. It took me awhile (longer than I’d like to admit) to figure out how to add these dang captions. When I finally managed to make it work, I took a step back and thought to myself, “Wow, that was really easy, why didn’t I initially think of doing that!?”

It’s probably because I tend to over-think everything and get easily frustrated. For example, while I was working on one of the functions exercises in Codcademy, I almost tossed my laptop out the window on multiple occasions. JavaScript is intimidating, confusing and downright annoying at times. But, I’m starting to realize that it doesn’t have to be; you just need to try and understand what the code is actually there to do. And let’s be honest, the image gallery does look better with some nice captions and CSS styling, doesn’t it?

So I have come to the conclusion that JavaScript is a good thing (not the devil), and for someone who works at a digital marketing company, it’s important for me to have some knowledge about these programming languages. Earlier today, I informed one of the colleagues that I was taking a web development class, which consisted of learning JavaScript basics. He was impressed and applauded me for making the effort, knowing it’s not easy and not a requirement of my current job position. He also quickly recommended that I read this book “Eloquent JavaScript – A Modern Introduction to Programming.” I glimpsed the digital version and definitely like how it’s intended for people who do not know a lot about JavaScript or programming in general. The descriptions are simple and use plain language. I think it’s worth another glance when I have the time!

If the purpose of this week’s assignment was to reinforce last week’s class, then mission accomplished. The redundancy helped me commit nearly all the basics to memory, and had me typing away towards the end, barely reading the instructions. That said, it seems highly improbable that one could remember all (or even so many) codes without using HTML and CSS daily. That was probably the most disappointing thought – that I will probably forget a lot of what I learned.

I do see how at least the general use of HTML and CSS can be permanently committed to memory, though. And I do believe that is very useful for journalists who may find themselves one day having to tweak a website without the assistance of a web developer. I don’t think it would take much to catch up on the basics; just enough to fix or identify a minor problem with a web page. Also, once one knows how to use HTML and CSS, I think a simple reference guide, book or Internet search could fill in the voids.

Overall I like the way Codeacademy has put their site together. The tutorials seem to be just long enough to instill confidence in the user. I did notice, however, there are parts where even the wrong information could create a positive result and allow the user to advance. I also didn’t think it explained well enough the difference between IDs and Classes. I’m not quite sure why both are necessary.