"I Don't Speak Geek"
The first two assignments for my XHTML/CSS class felt extremely basic - mostly html stuff that I had already picked up from simply posting on blogs/journals//forums. So much so that I was getting a little worried that I should have just skipped on ahead to the next level course.
This week our assignment is right where I feel like it should be, though, and I hope it stays that way.
We've started learning CSS and I think the most interesting thing about it so far is that it's the first computer language that actually feels like a language* and not just code, imho. html like italics reads very much as "code" to me and not so much "language" - I think because while there is a specific vocabulary and order to it, the order is more along the lines of flipping switches or making sure your circuits are built correctly. But for some reason the whole "selector {declaration}" setup reminds me more strongly of grammar rules.
I dunno - it may just be how it's being introduced to me. It's not like I read the XHTML chapters from the weeks before very closely, seeing as how I knew a lot of it.
So far, I like it, CSS I mean - but I have yet to do anything with it, only read about it, so we'll see if that changes before the weekend is over.
*well, I suppose LOGO sort of did, but we didn't really play around with it enough during computer class in elementary school for it to really feel like much of anything. except maybe giving a dog orders: "right!" "left!" "forward!" "print!" "repeat!"
random question: why was LOGO supposed to be such a great tool for teaching computer science? After all, when we teach kids how to speak English - or do math - we don't teach them a special language made just for them, we teach them a language that is modified in the sense that the rules are much more lax, at least for a while. For example, it's expected that every child will go through a period where they say "mouses" or even "mices" but hey! they got the most fundamental part right, and they'll get the others right soon enough as long as we keep modeling it for them. So wouldn't the best language for teaching computer science be - not a special language but - an everyday one that is interpreted by a system that is forgiving of small errors?
This week our assignment is right where I feel like it should be, though, and I hope it stays that way.
We've started learning CSS and I think the most interesting thing about it so far is that it's the first computer language that actually feels like a language* and not just code, imho. html like italics reads very much as "code" to me and not so much "language" - I think because while there is a specific vocabulary and order to it, the order is more along the lines of flipping switches or making sure your circuits are built correctly. But for some reason the whole "selector {declaration}" setup reminds me more strongly of grammar rules.
I dunno - it may just be how it's being introduced to me. It's not like I read the XHTML chapters from the weeks before very closely, seeing as how I knew a lot of it.
So far, I like it, CSS I mean - but I have yet to do anything with it, only read about it, so we'll see if that changes before the weekend is over.
*well, I suppose LOGO sort of did, but we didn't really play around with it enough during computer class in elementary school for it to really feel like much of anything. except maybe giving a dog orders: "right!" "left!" "forward!" "print!" "repeat!"
random question: why was LOGO supposed to be such a great tool for teaching computer science? After all, when we teach kids how to speak English - or do math - we don't teach them a special language made just for them, we teach them a language that is modified in the sense that the rules are much more lax, at least for a while. For example, it's expected that every child will go through a period where they say "mouses" or even "mices" but hey! they got the most fundamental part right, and they'll get the others right soon enough as long as we keep modeling it for them. So wouldn't the best language for teaching computer science be - not a special language but - an everyday one that is interpreted by a system that is forgiving of small errors?