It seems to me that the programs we have done this year have alternated in my level of how much I have liked them. The more visual programs really worked for me, but the more complex, wordy ones I had some trouble with, and fear I will have more trouble with in the future, if something is not done about it.
As far as programming its self went, I MUCH preferred Jeroo to Alice. I found Alice to be overly complex for what it was trying to do, with too many unnecessary commands. It became more of a task to actually find what you needed than to actually work through the problem. Jeroo, on the other hand, was very straight forward, it gave a good graphical representation, helped with programming and, most importantly, was fun to work with. Compared to any other labs, I think they were the most enjoyable, next to making the game of Pong in Scratch (a program that I also liked). I think that for future versions of the class, a direct cut to Jeroo and on would probably be more advantageous to the learning process. In Scratch, things were very, very visual, with only drag and drop for word placement, and in Jeroo, there was a very clear representation of what was going on physically. In addition, the verbal code was incredibly simple, Jeroo only needing method calls, a few movements or simple actions, and a constructor or two. Things were drastically different, however, when it came to Alice. While Alice gave some visual and physical representation of how the code was going to be executed and of the things in the program, it was often quite difficult to find what part of the program a certain phrase was in, or the exact terminology used if you wanted to execute a specific command, such as certain kinds of movement.
My worry with Java is that it will be much like Alice, only without any visual aid at all. From my current level of experience with it, I have found the wordings and vocabulary opaque, the necessary terms needed hard to find and/or remember, and the direction and capabilities of the program as a whole uncertain. I really hope that as the class progresses, the pace of Java is slowed up a bit from what it was for Jeroo, as it does not seem to be clicking for me on the same level as the previous programming programs. I do not think I am fully understanding the reason for much of the code, and have been having more trouble than I would care to admit remembering the term required when I have no link to make in my head. This, I feel, is one of the essential parts of making programming “work” in the minds of programmers. There has to be a connection between the words typed out on the page and what they do in the program. In Jeroo, “hop();” ment to hop forward, and “pick();” meant to pick up a flower. In Java, however, such simple things as making it possible to spit out a number require at least 3 lines of basic code, plus start up, and more obscure wordings. Once the connection is drawn between what is being said and what it does is made, the problem will be solved. Until then, I must soldier on.