I have discovered the difficulty of learning Javascript through an online course, particularly when the textbook is less than stellar. I can’t say I’m overly surprised though. I had read the reviews for the textbook on Amazon and there wasn’t a single positive one. It does an alright job of telling you how to do one thing and follow instructions for the examples, but as soon as you need to alter the parameters or code, you’re kind of on your own. If it wasn’t for my knowledge of Java and help from a couple classmates, I don’t think I’d be doing very well. It’s also very difficult to get help or ask questions when you get stuck because of the delayed response and the fact that questions don’t always get fully answered. There’s no conversation and no input, suggestions or questions from classmates that could help as well. A message board can only do so much. I just find that the learning experience itself is better inside a real classroom. Even the online, virtual classrooms aren’t that great. I’ve done some of the virtual classroom stuff before and it’s still not quite the same.
I also should note that trying to debug your own code can be quite difficult. I’ve tried using Firebug and IE Developer Tools as debuggers, but unless there’s a glaringly obvious error, they don’t really do much. A few of my errors were logical, which basically makes debuggers useless.
In other news, I finished my graphics project and have now uploaded the site to my other domain, jenniferlewis.ca. It’s my online portfolio and hopefully will help me when I start looking for a job. I’m not entirely sure I am happy with the colouring, but I wanted to use a complimentary colour scheme and I loved the blue colour I chose. I didn’t think monochromatic was colourful enough for me and I didn’t want to have too much colour since I would be showcasing my work which ranges from black and white to lots of colour.
