Kassia Posted June 13, 2017 Share Posted June 13, 2017 My dd started using Codecademy and just completed her first course. If she continues and puts in enough hours, can this be used for a high school credit? I don't know what level it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AEC Posted June 18, 2017 Share Posted June 18, 2017 (edited) Can it? Well - you're the teacher/principal, etc (in most states), so you can pick what you want. Should it be? IMO, probably not. FWIW, I don't really like it as a way to learn to program, either, though it's clearly successful for many people. You might be able to augment it a bit and make it more credit-worthy and also address some of what bothers me about it. (context - I'm a SW Engineer). My three issues... 1) there's very little discussion of why. It's quite rote 'type this thing here' wheee....it seems to have produced what the program wanted to see. 2) not much in the way of problem solving. Code is a language - you reason about problems in it. CodeAcademy, from what I've seen, has very little of that. To add it they'd need more open-ended problems. 3) there's no feedback. Code is communication - not that different from essay writing. There are conventions and structure to how you code so it's readable by others, maintainable, etc. This seems tough to do without an actual person reading the code you write, but from what I saw CA doesn't even attempt it (discussion of proper variable names? comments? etc?) It's a great way to get started and to learn a little bit of the syntax, but you might look at some supporting books in whatever language she's using or find a part-time class to sign up for? (AoPS?) Edited July 5, 2017 by AEC 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kassia Posted June 19, 2017 Author Share Posted June 19, 2017 Can it? Well - you're the teacher/principal, etc (in most states), so you can pick what you want. Should it be? IMO, probably not. FWIW, I don't really like it as a way to learn to program, either, though it's clearly successful for many people. You might be able to augment it a bit and make it more credit-worthy and also address some of what bothers me about it. (context - I've a SW Engineer). My three issues... 1) there's very little discussion of why. It's quite rote 'type this thing here' wheee....it seems to have produced what the program wanted to see. 2) not much in the way of problem solving. Code is a language - you reason about problems in it. CodeAcademy, from what I've seen, has very little of that. Do add it they'd need more open-ended problems. 3) there's no feedback. Code is communication - not that different from essay writing. There are conventions and structure to how you code so it's readable by others, maintainable, etc. This seems tough to do without an actual person reading the code you write, but from what I saw CA doesn't even attempt it (discussion of proper variable names? comments? etc?) It's a great way to get started and to learn a little bit of the syntax, but you might look at some supporting books in whatever language she's using or find a part-time class to sign up for? (AoPS?) Thank you so much for your detailed response. It was very helpful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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