Dr. Chuck’s brilliant explanation for what a function is (in Python) alone makes his Coursera class worth taking. None of my previous efforts – including reading Dr. Chuck’s book – clarified the concept. But his video lecture brought it all together. This is why we need teachers, even when learning code, at least for people like me. The common perception is that programmers are self-taught. Hats off to them. But imagine how much time can be saved with the help of a decent teacher!
It is rather ironic, when I think about it, that the last lesson I did in Codecademy was titled “Student becomes the teacher”. Functions made up the core exercises for that lesson and I got stuck. Students do have a lot to offer, and teachers can learn a lot from students (I know I do, all the time). But a student cannot be a teacher unless a student can teach. There exists yet another gap in the teaching-learning continuum.
A shoutout to openclipart.org for their collection of excellent graphics.
Code by Line 