My Experience in CIT 261

Learning Experience

This class was a great learning experience. I learned many things about CSS, JavaScript, mobile development, time management, and agile methods. This class has given me new skills that will be invaluable for finding and excelling at a job in the real world. I will break up my experience into three categories: time management, learning, and application.

Time Management and Personal Accountability

One of the most important things I learned during this class was time management, and personal accountability. Though I feel I was already competent in these areas, this class still helped me to grow. One thing I learned from this class was Agile Methodology.

I have seen Agile, Scrum, etc. on job postings, but did not know what they were. Our group used Kanban, and we were somewhat successful in our application. However, things broke down to a certain extent when Daylight Savings Time happened and our 1-hour window of time that worked for everyone dissolved. It was very helpful to learn the terminology and concepts that make up Agile methods.

Another thing that I learned was the importance of accountability and communication. I waited for the first couple of weeks to be given instructions from the teacher. I had other classes with pressing deadlines, and I figured I would start when the information came. I quickly learned however, if I need information, I should ask for it.

I am sure that is very applicable to the real world. I won’t have someone holding my hand or feeding me information incrementally. I need to be on task, working steadily on my own, and reaching out in a timely manner so I have the information I need when I need it. Once I figured this out, I started working steadily the timeline I set for myself.

Learning

The free flowing, learn on your own atmosphere of this class was stressful at first, but then I learned to love it. There are so many resources available on the Internet that are more current than most textbooks. I could work at my own pace and learn the things that were important to me at that moment.

I learned that I needed to be careful of my sources of information. Just because it is on the web, doesn’t mean it is true. Also, outdated isn’t taken down in a timely manner, so it is important to look for current, reputable sources. But overall, learning independently has become my preferred method, and I am sure it is the most likely method I will be using once I am done with school.

I learned so much information that will be helpful for me in the future. I learned that many things required on job postings are not that complex. For instance, many jobs require AJAX and JSON, which I figured were completely new languages. Instead, I discovered that they are simple things that can be learned quickly but will increase my marketability. It made me less intimidated to learn new things. As I look at job listings at the end of this class, instead of saying “I don’t know that, or that, or that,” I say, “I know that, and that, and I’m sure I can learn that with a little effort.”

Some of the things I learned came with greater effort, and with trial and error. I learned that failure is often a better teacher than success. One thing I struggled with was working with multiple XMLHttpRequests, or using them inside functions. I tried returning the results to other functions, but would always get errors. I discovered that I needed to insert the results of the response directly into the page rather than returning to a previous function. That way, the other functions weren’t dependent on waiting for the request. I think that promises might be another solution to my problem and am looking forward to learning more about them.

I learned were how to use the canvas tag. That seems really powerful, and I would like to spend more time delving into practical uses for the canvas tag in a website. I learned about touch events, and feel that is another area where I have only scratched the surface. I struggled to get my touch events to work. My screen would scroll rather than the touchmove event working. These are just a few of the things that I learned and that I still need to learn.

Application

After I learned all these new ideas, I had to put them into action in my app. I struggled to come up with an idea for an app, and even when I did, it was very unfocused in my mind. I tried to design it, but I struggled to come up with a clear vision. By this time, my group had stopped meeting, and my group members had stopped responding to me. I think I would have benefited from their input.

I was running out of time, so I plunged in and started coding. This was good and bad, though mostly bad. It was good because it got me past my “writer’s block.” As I started building my app, new ideas came to me that turned out to be important to my app. It was bad because I wasted a lot of time and had to start over almost from scratch halfway through. I had reused much of the styling from my learning website, simply because it was there. Once my app was somewhat functional, I showed it to my husband, a creative director at HP, who somewhat kindly ripped my app to shreds. So I started over.

My second attempt was much better planned and executed. I learned that design is a huge part of creating an app. The functionality didn’t change much from the first app to the second, but the look and feel was completely different. It went from clunky and old-fashioned to sleek and modern.

I am really happy with the final product of my app. There are still a few things that I could improve, but overall it is a product that I can be proud of.

Conclusion

This class has been a successful learning experience for me. Through it, I have learned how to manage my time, plan ahead, and work with others, as well as many useful skills with CSS, HTML5, JavaScript, etc. I know that what I have learned will help me to be a better programmer in the future.