DEV Community: Marvin Kirkland

Advanced Objects: Course Comparisons

Marvin Kirkland — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 20:18:48 +0000

It just so happens that I’m at the same place in three of my JavaScript courses from Udemy. These are:

The topic I'll be learning and comparing is advanced objects. I'm going to take my time with the material and I will try to bring you the most objective summary I can.

I'm thinking this will take a week or three to get through the material and write a post about it.

Anyone can read the summary, though it's geared to self-learners who would like a sneak peek into the similarities and differences of three different courses on the same topic in JavaScript.

Maybe you're thinking about taking one or more of these. Keep in mind, I'm a self-learner too. I don't expect you to learn anything necessarily new about objects, though if you did, that'd be awesome!

My goal is to give you a head's up concerning the teaching styles of these various instructors, and to show you where I have problems understanding the material and what I think about resolving that issue, which usually includes searching the web for more resources.

These courses aren't the only guides or tutorials about advanced objects in JavaScript. Obiously! There are so many excellent resources out there. I do hope to show you how using more than one resource can enhance your learning experience.

I'll be posting it here when complete, as well as on my blog. In the meantime, I'll occasionally post my progress at My Web Development Odyssey

An Issue with Learning JavaScript

Marvin Kirkland — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 05:33:51 +0000

I've been learning JavaScript for a few months now. I've purchased a few JavaScript courses (some of those advanced) from Udemy. Despite a few errors here and there, I generally find them useful.

Andrew Mead's The Modern JavaScript Bootcamp is probably my primary source for JavaScript. We are building both a notes app and a todo app with some appreciable functionality.

I generally understand the concepts really well, but I have issues when it comes to coding some of this from scratch. Knowing not only why we place code but where we place it. And nested functions. This is my biggest challenge.

From what I can discern from the Web my best bet to build up these complex apps is to simply start practicing on more projects. I have a few personal projects I'd like to work on, but I don't think I'm quite ready for them.

I think I'll finish the JavaScript module from Free Code Camp and then start the projects associated with that module.

Do you have any ideas about what kinds of small projects to start?

It's Time to JavaScript

Marvin Kirkland — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 13:05:58 +0000

This is the most recent post on my blog My Web Development Odyssey

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Change and the ability to adapt are important factors for any successful endeavor. It’s especially important for those learning web development and programming. I’ve had my fair share of stubborn repetitiveness for the sake of consistency despite knowing something had to give. It’s something I’m working on. Here’s proof!

Just recently I had to scale back from learning all the technologies I wanted to learn by the end of this year. These weren’t only the traditional triad of web development (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) but also React, Node, PHP/Laravel/Wordpress, Python/Django, and finally Java.

My latest blog post covered the first major change which involved removing Python/Django, and Java from my preset requirements. The rest is doable to meet my time-frame of being employable by the end of this year.

Second Adjustment

After that first adjustment, I was trying to tackle the entire frontend; HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, jQuery, intermediate and advanced JavaScript, and React all at the same time.

And after a month or two I was to engage with backend technologies. Followed by alternating frontend and backend every month or two. I realize now that I was drowning in too many subjects and technologies at the same time.

I was enamored with all this technology that I wanted to learn and work with. And I wanted to know it all now.

Because I felt I needed to rush through to keep to my schedule and reach the next technology in time I found that I did not adequately review the material I had learned.

According to distributed practice theory of learning one should review fresh material 24 hours after that learning session followed by another review one week later. This activates our recall and helps consolidate the information.

I find that I’m able to focus better when I have only a few things that I want to learn. The rapid switching among the various tech caused me to lose focus and worry about getting through that section of that tech in my expected time frame.

In essence, I was “spreading myself too thin”. Another change was required.

Third Adjustment

My next experiment is to work on one or two technologies at most during the same time period. To learn them as fully as I can as a beginner.

I feel it’s very important, for me at least, to intimately and deeply understand JavaScript. It is the programming language of the web after all. There are three Udemy Courses I’m taking that cover JavaScript alone. I’m almost halfway through each of them.

The Modern JavaScript Bootcamp by Andrew Mead
Advanced JavaScript Concepts by Andrei Neagoie
JavaScript: Understanding the Weird Parts by Anthony Alicea

There are a few JavaScript books and other resources I’m also studying from, but the foundation comes from these courses.

JavaScript is the Prime Mover of the Web as far as programming languages go. If one can gain appreciable skill, frameworks and libraries will be easier to learn and understand. Or so I’m told, and so I reason. I’m betting my React and Node education on it.

Besides really understanding JavaScript, I’m also taking CSS – The Complete Guide (incl. Flexbox, Grid & Sass) by Maximilian Schwarzmüller from Udemy. Not only do I want to really understand CSS3, but it can serve as a momentary reprieve from the sometime monotony of JavaScript.

I believe with two more months of learning and plenty of coding practice I’ll have a decent grasp of both of these technologies. And these JavaScript courses will prepare me for in-depth React and Node courses. I’ll spend about 5-6 weeks each for those technologies.

Most likely, I’ll take Andrew Mead’s The Complete React Developer Course (w/ Hooks and Redux) from Udemy after I finish JavaScript and CSS3. And through the videos and ample coding time it will be a sufficient start. After React will come Mead’s The Complete Node.js Developer Course (3rd Edition) also from Udemy.

After node comes PHP/Laravel and WordPress, which I’m planning to allocate about six weeks to. If push comes to shove I’ll push this back to next year. When I complete those introductions, and to complete the year, I’ll begin learning about JavaScript algorithms, best practices, etc., and also begin to prepare for the job market. That’s the plan though it’s subject to change as the need arises. This is a trial and error process. A long but worthy one.

Have you had to change up your study routine for whatever technologies you might be learning? What are your thoughts about learning many technologies at once? Feel free to offer any suggestions in general or about my plan forward. I’d enjoy hearing what you have to say.

Titles and Images

Marvin Kirkland — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 07:05:29 +0000

Hello, fellow devvers. Does anyone know how to insert an image above the title of a post? Thank you!

Time for a Readjustment

Marvin Kirkland — Sat, 18 May 2019 22:07:02 +0000

This post is taken from my blog My Web Development Odyssey

Due to the continued depression I spoke of last time, it was necessary for me to spend almost two weeks in a mental health unit. I’m now home and feeling much better, despite a recent relationship break-up. Sometimes a small tweak in medications and/or some time in a “safe” place is all that is needed.

Friends, this is what the blog is about. It’s about the struggles that go beyond the typical. It’s about traveling a path of many curves, mountains, and forks. The road less taken. Eventually, I’ll write more technical posts. But for now, it’s mostly about the unbeaten path.

There are a few factors that came to play that may have exacerbated my symptoms. I’ll discuss just the one pertinent to web development.

Because I’ll be on the older end of the age spectrum for entry level web developers, I feel as if I must go that extra mile to make myself more marketable and able to compete.

Not only am I learning fullstack JavaScript development, but I was planning on learning PHP/Wordpress, Python, and Java backend development. All by the end of this year.

I still intend to learn PHP and WordPress as I’d like to dive into freelancing to both function as a side gig and build my professional portfolio with those said gigs.

I clearly expected too much of myself. I’ve decided to scale back and wait to learn Python and Java until next year or until the job requires it. Everything else I’ve extended the learning time range.

Proceeding in this manner will allow me to do required study about 3 hours per day (if I want to stay on schedule) as opposed to the 7 hours that I would have needed otherwise.

My new schedule allows for more personal time and allows some flexibility to catch up if I fall behind.

I’m pressing myself to really understand JavaScript on both a deep and a fundamental level. In my world, theory is extremely important. Knowing how and why things work is the cornerstone to instill best practices in my opinion.

Allowing myself more time to really understand the fundamental and advanced concepts ensures I’ll be in an optimal position of really understanding any frameworks and libraries as well. And of course to write the best code I can.

Honestly, I didn’t think it would take as long as it has, but when life continues to throw curve balls we need to pause, reflect, and readjust.

I’ll soon be undergoing another major life change. I’ll be moving to the Central Valley area in California. Just about 2 hours east of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. I’m hoping location will be a major career advantage.

Overall, I believe it’s a move in the right direction. It may disrupt my studies slightly or even moderately, but I’ll make those readjustments as needed.

In an upcoming post I’ll share my reasons for moving and how it will enhance my web developer career.

Is there anything happening in your life that is disrupting your learning?

Feel free to share in the comments.

The Dumps - In and Out Again

Marvin Kirkland — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 17:26:28 +0000

This is a post from my blog My Web Development Odyssey

This post highlights one of the other purposes of this blog. And that’s how mental illness, in this particular instance, depression, can affect learning. I’ve dealt with depression the majority of my life. My latest round of depression has been ongoing for a few years and peaked last fall. I began feeling better in December of last year and January this year.

I attribute learning web development as one of the factors that helped me get out of that dark place I was in. However, since about five weeks ago I’ve begun to slip a little. Less motivation and less clear goals. When it gets bad I begin to feel hopeless and helpless. Doing dishes, taking out the trash, or balancing a budget are tasks I can’t wrap my head around. Learning a complex subject like web development is next to impossible. It’s still nowhere near the peak as it was late last year, and I’m fighting hard to make sure it doesn’t.

I began noticing that my motivation for learning JavaScript was declining. I’m unsure though, if that was due to depression or the fact that I seem to be slightly stumped by higher order functions and functional programming. That could be causing my depression to worsen. Which caused which? The “being stumped” causing my worsening depression or the depression causing my lack of motivation and clarity to learn? In reality, it’s likely a combination of both.

Whatever the origin, I’ve not posted as soon as I had hoped. This blog was born not to long ago, and I intend for it to have a long and healthy life. And that might mean on occasion to explain how mental illness and life gets in the way of our best intentions.

Life can be messy, but we can get on top things again. So what if we need to kick, claw, and scream our way out of whatever life’s strife may hurtle our way. Fight with all our might. We can do this!

Here are a few things I’m working on. I hope to have a first version of my anticipated timeline of learning web dev soon using my Aeon Timeline app. You will be able to interact with it on my web page to examine more details. I’m looking forward to posting that soon. I hope to see you there.

I recently purchased NodeJS – The Complete Guide (incl. MVC, REST APIs, GraphQL by Maximilian Schwarzmüller from Udemy. I like visual learning and Max likes to show graphs and diagrams. He’s also very enthusiastic. I look forward to finishing this course and also his React course. Using Gimp I will attempt to create a custom logo for my blog!

A Few Notes on Courses

Marvin Kirkland — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 19:12:56 +0000

** A post from my blog My Web Development Odyssey

In the next few posts I’ll be writing about materials I have been using and will be using to learn web development. Courses I’ve taken, what I’m currently taking, and what I will take. I’ll also write about books I’m reading and those in my queue. And other useful links and challenges. I’ll even have an interactive timeline from Aeon Timeline embedded that you can play around with to get a general idea of where I’m headed.

I’ve toyed around with Chrome’s developer tools on occasion before I knew what web development really was. As you might imagine, my early sessions weren’t especially productive. It did, however, lead to a secret, hidden desire to know what’s really going on in a web browser. This hidden desire led me to the web development section of courses on Coursera.

Coursera

I’ve been a fan of Coursera for many years. I’ve taken several courses across several disciplines using that platform. Coursera was introduced in 2012 by two Stanford University professors as a group of courses available to be taken from top universities by the best educators. In my opinion the best and most comprehensive. It has grown substantially since its beginning.

One day in November of last year, 2018, I perused the computer science and programming courses offered by Coursera. Specifically the web development section. I browsed all the courses and specializations available. A specialization is a grouping of courses centered around a topic. Besides a few blog posts elsewhere on the web, this was my introduction to web development.

The Web Design for Everybody (Basics of Web Development and Coding) Specialization is composed of five courses:

I’ve finished and received verified certificates in all but the capstone project. Next month I plan to take that and receive a verified certificate. Which means I will have completed the entire specialization so I get a certificate for that too!

Most of the Coursera courses are free to audit, but require a fee per class or a monthly subscription to obtain verified certificates. Scholarships are available per course for those in need. This is how I was able to take the classes and receive the verified certificates.

All the courses in the Web Design for Everybody (Basics of Web Development and Coding) Specialization are from the University of Michigan and taught by the same professor. The Introduction to HTML5 and Introduction to CSS3 courses were an excellent introduction to front end web development. I found them to be informative and easy to follow. As was the same for Advanced Styling with Responsive Design.

However, I would advise steering clear of Interactivity with JavaScript. The professor tried to cover too many topics in JavaScript without going into sufficient detail in anything. It was way too short a course. There was a measly five minute lecture on functions. The same pale introduction could be said for most major topics in JavaScript. Students deserve better than this. The instructor starts explaining beginning concepts using the DOM, without sufficiently explaining what the DOM was. This course frustrated me to no end. There are so many much better resources out there for learning JavaScript, a few of which I’ll mention.

Coursera has many more web development courses and specializations covering the full stack, especially the JavaScript full stack. I’ve yet to decide whether or not I’ll take any more web development courses from Coursera.

Udemy

The resources for learning web development are wide and varied. My current mainstay are a few courses from Udemy. Note! Make sure the courses are on sale before you purchase them. They can go as high as $200 but are usually on sale from $10 – $20.

I’ve completed the front end component to Colt Steel’s The Web Developers Bootcamp, and am learning the back end of Angela Yu’s The Complete 2019 Web Development Bootcamp. I’ll move on to Angela’s course's front end section when I finish the two JavaScript courses I’m currently taking.

Some Udemy courses are free, but you’ll often find those barely scratching the surface of the subject you want to learn. As I mentioned earlier, wait until the course you’re interested in purchasing is on sale. I’d say about 80% of the time the courses are on sale.

I highly recommend Udemy for getting a sound introduction to web development. As long as you are selective about the course you choose. Don’t pick just anything. Important things to look at include the ratings, reviews, and the number of students enrolled. Be sure to read plenty of thoughtful and meaningful reviews. Keeping these factors in mind will ensure you choose wisely.

Both of the full stack introductory bootcamps I’ve linked to give you a really good introduction to web development. More than that, they give you an idea where you should go next and what you might need to learn in more depth. There are a few JavaScript courses from Udemy worth mentioning:

The Modern JavaScript Bootcamp (2019) taught by Andrew Mead
JavaScript: Understanding the Weird Parts by Anthony Alicea

Even though Andrew’s pace in the Modern JavaScript Developers Bootcamp is too fast (IMO), in general he does a very good job at going over why things are happening the way they do. The course is very thorough. That being said, I’ve also been setback a few weeks because of what I believe to be un-intuitive approaches in some of his lectures. I’m partly to blame in my setback. Learning is a process and sometimes we need to adjust our methods.

Anthony’s JavaScript: Understanding the Weird Parts, though a few years old, is still an extremely valuable source for learning JavaScript. Tony opens up the hood and shows you how JavaScript works. This is the kind of teaching I really appreciate and respond best to. Taking this class alongside Andrew’s has been complementary and tremendously helpful.

Lots of people don’t care much for Udemy, but as for me, as long as I am mindful of the factors involve in course selection, it’s a Big Win.

Treehouse

Another source which I haven’t used much yet, but still may, is Treehouse. Treehouse is a subscription based learning platform where from anywhere from $25 – $90 a month you can learn many things programming related.

I’m currently taking a couple of courses on algorithms and data structures. I’m unsure how many courses I’ll take from Treehouse as I’m getting my foundational knowledge from Udemy. But, I would like to explore this opportunity.

NOTE! Check with your local library and see if they have any digital services to offer. These are almost always free with a current library card. Your library may help you get free access to Treehouse or even Lynda (another learning platform now owned by LinkedIn). Another Big Win!

Final Thoughts

Searching blogs, youtube videos, ebooks (check your library for these too), and of course the structured online Udemy courses has so far been my approach to learning web development. As always, this is subject to change as I learn about more resources.

There are many more options for learning web development and programming. In future posts, I’ll talk in more depth about the courses I’ve taken and and am currently taking. I’ll also talk about other resources, such as websites, blogs, podcasts, books, and challenges.

I’m still setting up my resources page, so check there on occasion to view lists of my recommended resources. This blog is a work in progress and will continually improve. So please, hang in there with me!

How are you learning to code? Where are you learning or where have you learned the foundations upon which you will build or have built your education?

All Systems Nominal

Marvin Kirkland — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 10:24:39 +0000

Hello, fellow devr's!

I'd like to introduce you to my recently launched blog My Web Development Odyssey where I’m writing about my personal experience learning to become a self-taught web developer.

I’m Marvin. I began learning web development about three months ago, in a few spurts, though now I have a plan and am sticking to it. Mostly, so far. This site is about my reflections and my processes of learning web development within a few very important contexts.

Though I have a science degree, it’s not computer science. No formal coding education here. Knowing that, it may be no surprise that I’m seeking information as a career-changer. I’m also entering the arena as a mid forty-something. And as a person who’s dealt with major depression the majority of my life. The most recent dip which led me to being “disabled” and not working for several years. Even though most wouldn’t notice, I am also high functioning on the autism spectrum. Though this has caused some complications it also has many advantages.

So, the cards seem to be stacked really high against me. Does this worry me? Yes. Is it impossible for me to see a favorable employment outlook? Not at all! You can find out more about me here.

What I’ll be blogging about

I’ll be talking about many things full stack web development. What I plan on learning. How I’ll go about doing that, and how it has worked or is working. I’ll be posting about things I understand, and things I don’t. I’ll be sharing thoughts on general learning techniques, and how they may be helping me.

Other topics I’ll include will be career related. Things to keep in mind as my projected date of employability nears. At this point, my tentative date of employability as a junior web developer is Dec 31, 2019. Just under 10 months to go! Of course, that is subject to change as life has a funny way of interfering with even the best laid plans.

I’ll be writing about the methods I use to learn, such as paid and free courses, tutorials, coding challenges and projects, books, and other resources, such as blogs. And more. We’ll be looking into software and apps I utilize and those I think would be beneficial.

Why am I doing this?

I want to share this process as it is happening. Raw and mostly unfiltered. Most importantly, I’ll be sharing this in those contexts in which I mentioned earlier. There are so many of you on similar paths and I hope I can help in any way possible. Even just one of you is worth it. Not only is my aim to assist and possibly enlighten readers, but it’s also a win for me. Getting thoughts onto a page helps us consolidate, compartmentalize, and solidify the knowledge we have. A deeper level of understanding can help us utilize it more effectively.

Final thoughts

My Web Development Odyssey is a work in progress. It will change along the way. When I say change, I’m referring to both the process of learning and the website itself. Especially in the beginning I’ll be adding more resources, pages, and links.

I’ve had a few small blogs before, but nothing at the scale of what I think this site has the potential to become. With time, both quality and usefulness will increase.

I hope there is something here that is useful to you. Since I intend to learn a few back end programming languages I hope this site appeals to both those of you interested in web development and those interested in programming in general but not necessarily web development.

As I create new posts I'll be sure to add them here, as well.

Be sure to leave any thoughts in the comments section below. I welcome and value what you have to say. Lets Learn together!