After several hours of following the "Codecademy" learning activities and quizzes, I feel I am only about half a step further than I was at the beginning of the project, while I had planned to be miles farther. I did not get to the point of comprehension I had set out to reach for this learning activity, there is simply not enough time in a day to accomplish that, yet I feel I did gain a basic level of understanding.
For many the thought of creating or writing code might seem like a very dry activity, perhaps much like accounting, but for me it is actually quite the opposite. I am trying to figure out why this particular activity is something I always wanted to learn, and how the activity managed to engaged me to a level that is both exciting and challenging. I think I do have an answer to it though, it came to me while talking to a colleague of mine, here at SAIT, who thought that coding is much like putting together a recipe. Using the different available ingredients to create something special, something that can be decorated, accompanied with, and enhanced with whatever the creative mind inspires us to do. Perhaps I was drawn to the activity by a sense of adventure, similar to that what it takes when creating new food or menu items, something which has become second nature to me throughout my career in culinary. One has to follow exact formulas and directions to achieve the desired outcome, but there are no limitations to what can be done and to what extend things can be embellished.
photo credit: Bennilover <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/75885098@N05/30839547045">Tea Towel Recipes</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/">(license)</a>
