Project 1

Well, the first project is now officially done. I'm not sure how much I liked it, but it was overall pretty good. I mean, I understand the need for a particular rubric in order to make sure people are solving the problem in the right way, but I'm just not quite sure how I like having a specific rubric like that. Its probably just that I've gotten used to the Lab style of grading, but it still kind of bothered me.

Loops

Some of the loops are kind of confusing. Its not so much the implementation of them, that's easy, but its knowing when to use certain things. For some reason, I just have a bit of trouble with while and for loops in particular, as the times when they would be appropriate can kind of blur together. It was a little bit aggravating on the project, as I didn't notice when it specifically requested a for loop, and had to set up a fairly convoluted while loop before I thought of using a for loop. Its not a huge deal, but it can be a bit irritating.

Coding Bat

I like Coding Bat. For one thing, it had extra credit involved with it, which is always a plus for me. Not only that, but I like the format of it. Rather than a single large problem for a particular concept, it splits it up into a group of smaller, disconnected problems. Not only does it keep things fresh, but it also allows a better implementation of a difficulty curve, as each problem can get harder than the last one, so as to keep it challenging. So, overall, I'm hoping we keep doing stuff with Coding Bat, preferably with extra credit involved again.

Meta!

I'm having a lot of difficulty coming up with things to write in these blog posts lately. I mean, I try to be relevant to what we've done over the last week in Computer Programming, but seeing as we just keep doing more things about Python, I just can't think of something to say about it. I could just keep reiterating things I said in weeks past, but that just seems kind of pointless. I guess as we learn new things about Python I'll have more to say, but as it is I've kind of hit Blogger's Block, which is why I have a late blog post at the moment.