FINAL Blog Post

If I have any one piece of commentary, or any one thing I would change about the class, it would be about blogs. I don't think that having consistent blogs did much for me. I found that my suggestions or thoughts changed little, and was only repeating my self, which does very little both for me and the class. I didn't have very much to share that I felt was worth while looking at, and was more scrambling for a grade than anything else. That said, I do think that large blog posts like these at key points in the year serve as a solid and effective means for feedback. Essentially, I think the glut of posts we have to do could be tuned down.
Now, through the year. I think Scratch was an excellent place to start, no comments there. It worked well for what it was supposed to do, and transitioned well into most everything.
Alice, on the other hand, I did not like so much. I think that the amount of time necessary to really be come accustomed to the program out weighs the value it gives you as a transitional tool. I think Alice's purpose should be redefined, or Alice should be removed.
Jeroo was, I think, the best transitional program. It was intuitive, gave a sense for basic programming, and was similar enough to Scratch while still acting in some ways that Java/other programs do. It was also simply fun to program in it, even if its material was a bit narrow.
I found that, once we were through with Jeroo, and moved into Java, Python, etc, that my productivity, I am sorry to admit, dropped a little bit.
I think that the open practice with the programming labs has its pros and its cons. For someone like Mason, and to a lesser extent someone like my self who is easily distracted by what the person next to me is doing, it can be hard to get work done. However, for someone like Cameron, who (when he wasn't looking up strange philosophy material or writing up nonsensical proofs) has solid focus, it can be a great boon to work at your own pace. Over all, considering how I think and work and the environment I was in, got about as much work done as I would have in a more iron-fisted class approach. I think that the real thing to do would be to identify who works best in which situation, and then try to place them in that. The only issue I can see is that this may lead to levels of perceived unfairness.
I really liked the class on the whole, and am particularly impressed that this was on a first run through. I feel I got a lot out of it, far more than I have out of some other programming classes I have been in, and amd really looking forward to taking CS2 next year or senior year.