Codecademy Profile: https://www.codecademy.com/Xof88

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/xof88/hello-world

HTML Reflections

Codecademy was super easy and helped jog my memory of other intro HTML classes I’ve taken. I hardly retained anything from those 1-day courses, except that these 2 lessons probably made a bit more sense to me than they would have otherwise. (This article — specifically the slides and list — rocked! Really pulled the Codecademy lessons together for me into a narrative. )

That being said, I was totally lost when it came to GitHub. The lesson was easy enough to follow, instructions-wise, but I had no context for what I was doing or why? The repository will hold the code for my project? And I will test things uses the branches? Is it a CMS?

I find the web inspector functionality cool, kinda fun, but again, I am at a loss for it’s purpose. Why would I even use it, or need it? Is it simply a learning tool? Or does it help me should there be an issue on my website — flag the problem for me? I’ll be interested to hear some of it’s application in our next class.

Codecademy Link: https://www.codecademy.com/alliefoard

Test Repo Link: https://github.com/alliefoard/hello-world

After our first class, I was feeling very apprehensive and overwhelmed by all of the content and vocabulary that web editing and creation brings to the table. However, after the readings and assignments this week, I feel like I have gained a basic understanding when it comes to HTML programming.

The Getting Started: HTML & CSS article and Basic Intro to HTML/CSS article were extremely helpful when explaining the tags, and creating a list of the most basic tags that one will use when coding in HTML. The metaphor about a website being like a house was very helpful when looking at the land as a server, and the structure of the home being HTML. It allowed for me to put things into perspective and understand what before was gibberish.

Prior to these lessons and readings, I didn’t really comprehend that HTML and CSS work together. I originally believed that they were two separate languages. When in reality, CSS can be inserted directly into html tags.

As a PR professional I felt a direct connection to the Getting Started articles concept that to introduce web development to journalists and PR professionals, you must think like them, and how they care about headlines, content, and timing. This is very true and will help me in the future if I need to communicate web development with clients. The Getting Started article also touched on how we forget how to code faster than a foreign language, so I did my best this week to space out the time working on the assignments so that I can continually refresh my memory on the subject.

As far as the assignments go for this week, I found the Codecademy to be very hands on and helpful. However, I didn’t fully understand GitHub. Although the formula was easy to follow, I can’t say with full certainty that I understand the need for using it and how it can help my coding abilities.

As I completed the first two assignments on CodeAcademy, I couldn’t help but be super grateful for the detailed instructions that Codecademy gave as it walked me through each piece of the lesson. I found that the first lesson made a lot of sense and I was able to pick up the concept and general structure of an HTML code quickly, but I struggled more on the second lesson and putting even more specific concepts together. I was able to work through most of them, but I definitely wondered how I would memorize and make sure to not miss tiny details that are required for clean, workable code.

The GitHub activity was simple but confused me, as I wasn’t sure how this fit in with our HTML learning – I am assuming that repositories will be where we place our code once we start writing it, but there was less explanation and hand-holding in this exercise compared to the Codecademy assignments. Following the instructions was very difficult for me, and I hope that in this week’s class we will go over the importance of this program, how it fits in with our programming knowledge, and walking us through repositories and how we will be using the pull/merge requests throughout the semester. I’m also not totally sure if I submitted the right GitHub repo test, but I have included the link below. The GitHub guide link that was provided as reading for homework this week was somewhat helpful, but I think it would be even more beneficial to hear this part of our curriculum explained in person — especially how it will be incorporated into our learning this semester. Hoping for a lot more clarity on this topic in the coming week, and looking forward to diving further into our Codecademy assignment and analyzing each piece that we have learned so far!

GitHub test: readme-edits/readme-edits

Codecademy Profile: https://www.codecademy.com/lucynegash

First off, I really enjoyed the Codecademy exercises. They are a tad tedious (I’m sure that will increase), but it made a seemingly messy and complicated idea make logical sense. Or, simple sense at least. (My brain isn’t particularly logical.) I’m also glad that I chose to read the articles in order instead of skipping around like I did last week. I liked Mindy McAdams’ piece as it both reiterated what I needed to know from Codecademy and exactly how this process relates back to me–a journalism student. (I’m also not particularly interested to see how Codecademy tackles CSS. I know developers are finicky folks when it comes to the hows of coding, so I’m curious to see how that unfolds.)

OK. The web inspector stuff is mildly blowing my mind. If I’m understanding this correctly it means that I can go on any webpage and then see the code that created it? That’s some crazy talk. Like, I understand that languages like CSS and HTML are totally available to whoever uses them, but don’t huge companies have their own private languages? This has revealed a giant tangled nest of legality questions.

Mostly appreciating this article for the TLDR. Lol. But, also because after the previous article I immediately opened a bunch of webpages and inspected their code. I appreciate being able to now understand what is going on! This seems to be a great learning tool. I can see what it’s SUPPOSED to look like–in it’s cleanest best edited form. I really am curious to delve more into what different code looks like and why. When to use what.

So, is GitHub Flow basically the Slack of GitHub? I’m interested to see–once I actually start creating more branches etc.–if the way they have it set up will be helpful or more confusing to me. It reminds me of being in Video Journalism and having a few different “final” edits of a single video, but rarely making any big changes to the final product. I look forward to learning what is the best practice and why certain branches make it into the master and others don’t. I understand that at my level that the concerns will be fairly cosmetic; however, when a team of great coders are all working together on one project, why do some things make it in and others not? I look forward to class this week!

Codeacademy Profile
GitHub

Reading through the Week 0 assignments was fascinating and really opened my eyes up to the inner workings of the Internet – something I definitely don’t think about on a regular basis, and definitely take advantage of. I especially liked the YouTube video about How the Internet works. Though it was quite simplistic, it gave a good overall view of how we actually receive and send information via the Internet.

As I continued to read through our assignments, particularly the Timeline of Software Languages, I was stunned to see how many I didn’t recognize, as well as when their birthplace happened during the 20th century. It amazed me to see how the beginnings of modern computer technology really stemmed from previous decades of new math and science. I did notice how my curiosity was peaked during many of the sections, so much so that I found myself Googling additional information to learn more about a particular subject or vocabulary term, or even looking for other explanations to help me learn the concept better.

My favorite article we were assigned to read was the Pragmatic Programmer’s Quick Reference Guide. Even though I didn’t quite understand what each of the tenets we’re referencing, it helped me frame what we would be learning in our first class, and definitely emphasized the fact that coding and website design was very precise, clean, and detail-oriented. Code could not be sloppy or hard to follow, which would then make correcting edits and fine-tuning different design pieces easier. I’m sure this will make more sense to me in the future as we learn more and more about the various coding languages and etiquette, but I think this article did the best for preparing my thinking for the first class to come.

I definitely felt overwhelmed about our assignments to come and the pace at which we would be learning and completing them, but I was hopeful and optimistic that I would be able to pick up the pace with the help of my fellow students, and of course Google. 

GitHub link:  https://github.com/lucynegash

As I did the lessons, I was reminded of the many reasons I do not speak another language fluently. Grammar is a beautiful but challenging thing, especially when you just start to learn it. That is exactly what this felt like.

I started learning French years ago. For awhile I was very good at it. So good in fact that I could translate for friends and family. I could read and write easily and quickly. I even had dreams in French, as strange as that sounds. How did I become so fluent? I practiced everyday. I incorporated speaking it into every aspect of my life.

That is what I will have to do to become at least slightly proficient at HTML and eventually all of the other languages. It is actually very simple. Especially since these are the building blocks, but like with English or French grammar understanding and then remembering where to put what is the challenging for me.

I was reminded of this at the end of each lessons. I thought I had absorbed enough and remembered enough of the steps to know where each line of HTML went. But each time, I had to go back and read through the lessons again before completing the assignment. Both fortunately and unfortunately, Codecademy does not save your progress if you hit the back button at the bottom of the screen. While this was annoying, it was actually very helpful. It pushed me to go back over the lessons I apparently did not understand. It made me work just a little bit harder to understand the grammar.

Thankfully after a few tries it is coming along. I am fairly confident that I could build a basic, not so pretty web page. I am also very confident that I can break it, and hopefully then fix it again.

Codecademy profile

Test repo

Completing this week’s assignments was not difficult. But obviously, I have no experience in coding so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It turns out that coding is like learning a new language.

After going through all the readings, I made thorough notes on the biggest things I need to learn. I wrote down the tags and the meanings of what terms like <!DOCTYPE html> and <html> meant. Codecademy did a great job of trying to synthesize coding to be as simple as possible, but it still took me a solid hour and a half to complete the exercises. As a tech-loving millennial, I am used to things being fast and instant and I have to remind myself that learning to code will take time. I can’t get good at it right away.

One of my favorite excerpts from this week’s readings were from “Get started with Web coding. Part 1: HTML and CSS,” because the author mentioned that like anything, we have to code every day for us to get better at it. I apply this to all the other skills I have learned in the past: speaking Spanish, singing, playing instruments, and editing video. Obviously, I wasn’t great at them when I started out but after practicing and working at it diligently for a while, those things became muscle memory to me. I realize that if I continue to be diligent at learning how to code, it will be the same for me. We all have to start somewhere, right?

Doing the Github exercise by making my own repository was pretty straightforward. The reading did a solid job of helping me understand how to navigate it better. One thing I love about the Georgetown program is that I have grown from being someone with not a lot of digital skills to learning how to navigate all kinds of programs. After all, that is what I love the most about learning: growing from becoming an amateur to an (almost, maybe, kind of) expert.

“Meet the Web Inspector” was helpful for what we did in class Wednesday. It is going to be so cool to be able to go into a web page and learn how to change things. This will be so helpful in helping me understand how to build content and websites. “How to inspect styles” also build on the details I learned about web development.