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I've tried Bloc, well I've tried everything! (Code School, Codecademy, Treehouse and many more) None of them address the frustrations of WHY other programs don

by helen842000 14y ago

I've tried Bloc, well I've tried everything! (Code School, Codecademy, Treehouse and many more) None of them address the frustrations of WHY other programs don't stick. After an in-browser coding course - the pupil isn't left with anything. (except a false sense of achievement) There's no project to put in your portfolio. Nothing live on a website, no repository in GitHub. It's also pretty much impossible to show others what you have learned outside of the website. After a course, comes the question, "if I want to start my own project or replicate what I just learned outside if the learning environment, how do I go about it?" That makes you feel like you're back at square one. Learners don't get a sense of achievement from "Hooray, you built your first app" they get it from building something they can either use or at least show to others that it works. To actually teach people to program, you can't do it in an online environment that is far removed from actually building real projects. I look forward to seeing something that combines the support that Bloc offers with the working projects of Udacity - helping to set people up with their own development environment that they can use for their own ideas.

anthonyb 14y ago
This is something that I tried to cover when I wrote my book (Hello! Python). Most experienced devs will have a library of stuff which they crib from to get going, or which solves tricky problems or library issues that they had. Beginners don't have that, so I picked as wide a variety of programs as I could get away with for each chapter. Presto! More-or-less-instant set of bits for creating simple UIs, games, business-y programming (csv, web scraping+parsing, emailing, etc.)
helen842000 14y ago
The solutions I can see appearing soon are either 1)An in-browser coding environment that starts with classes and then supports any project you build. Once this type of environment exists and experienced developers prove that it works with impressive applications - people will see it as a viable learning route. This could be monetized as a SaS, monthly subscription. 2)A package to download/install that creates a local development environment. It could even be some progression of Light Table, with classes, forums & support!
endlessvoid94 14y ago
You may have tried our first product, trybloc.com. We're doing www.bloc.io now, which is very different. Give it a look and apply if you want that portfolio :-)

anthonyb 14y ago

This is something that I tried to cover when I wrote my book (Hello! Python). Most experienced devs will have a library of stuff which they crib from to get going, or which solves tricky problems or library issues that they had. Beginners don't have that, so I picked as wide a variety of programs as I could get away with for each chapter. Presto! More-or-less-instant set of bits for creating simple UIs, games, business-y programming (csv, web scraping+parsing, emailing, etc.)

helen842000 14y ago

The solutions I can see appearing soon are either 1)An in-browser coding environment that starts with classes and then supports any project you build. Once this type of environment exists and experienced developers prove that it works with impressive applications - people will see it as a viable learning route. This could be monetized as a SaS, monthly subscription. 2)A package to download/install that creates a local development environment. It could even be some progression of Light Table, with classes, forums & support!

endlessvoid94 14y ago

You may have tried our first product, trybloc.com. We're doing www.bloc.io now, which is very different. Give it a look and apply if you want that portfolio :-)