Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with learning

I can FizzBuzz! Where do I go from here?

Phire — Mon, 06 May 2013 08:26:41 -0800

I am teaching myself how to program. But there seems to be a big gap between intro courses/resources (CodeCademy, O'Reilly books, Learn X the Hard Way) and Actually Doing Things. Help me figure out a road plan? I know HTML and CSS pretty well. I know a teeny bit of PHP and JS and MySQL, and even less of AJAX/JSON, but enough to mess around with existing CMSes and hack together simple custom solutions from StackOverflow and Google. I'm starting to learn Python (I've gone through Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard Way). I've also done the Javascript track on CodeCademy, and I'm starting on the "build a search engine" CS 101 course on Udacity.

I'm finding that a lot of the recommended intro resources for these things kind of start off at the same place - basic logic, loops, conditionals, etc. - and then say "Okay, go do stuff". But the stuff I want to do tends to be several orders of magnitude beyond what the intro books have taught. Shaw's book is a good example of this: I can build a CYOA game in terminal! Great. How does this translate to...actually writing a program with a GUI and how do I integrate this with some form of data storage and oh god there's this thing called garbage collection that everyone talks about and ahh.

A lot of advice you see out there is "just start programming!" but I honestly don't even know where to begin. I see cool projects on Github and I can't begin to understand the source code. I also know enough to know that it's really easy to screw things up, and I feel like I don't know nearly enough (or anything at all) about best practices for writing secure code, minimizing run time.

What I'm looking for:
I do really well with structured/project-based learning, which is why the Udacity course seems promising. Just straight-up reading the documentation of the various languages tends to make my brain spin. Can you recommend a guide / a road plan for how to incrementally step up from FizzBuzz to something resembling Actual Skill? Maybe something like Project Euler that isn't quite as math based.

[Extraneous info, possibly useful]
What I'm already doing:

Trying to work on personal projects that are just a little bit beyond what I feel comfortable with. This is fun, but I also can't help but think I'll have a lot of gaps in my knowledge if I only work on things that I can envision, and I can only envision things that are based on the skills I already know.

Reading StackOverflow to see other people's code, posting stuff on CodeReview when relevant.

Slowly (slowly) working my way through the Python Challenges.

What I would like to do with this skill:

Professionally: be a kick-ass web developer. I work as a front-end dev now, but most of what I do is CMS customization (WP, Drupal) and while that is its own niche, it also seems very limited in terms of professional advancement.

Personally: be one of those people encounters a problem / has an idea and can write a script to fix it. This might include stuff like "I need to find a way to integrate RSS content from disparate sources into a uniform-looking output" or "I want to interact with the Twitter API and do cool textual analysis with it" or anything else.

Blue-sky thinking: get to a place where I could build a web-app/service that is actually helpful (or entertaining) for other people. Not because start-up VC blah, but because helping people is awesome. For example, a thing that I'm building for myself right now is a habit-tracker with lots of built-in data-wankery with respects to streaks, averages, trends, etc. It's just PHP and MySQL right now (I haven't gotten to the "graph this data" stage yet) but I could see this being something that people might want.

Who should I send early copies of my book to?

sdis — Sat, 04 May 2013 03:17:14 -0800

I'm writing a book about language learning and the science of memory for a major publisher. We're a couple months away from sending galley copies around to various people for blurbs and reviews, and they've asked me for input as to who might be interested. So! Who should read this thing? Name some people who, if you saw their name on the back of a science-y book on language learning and memory, you'd buy it.

How can I relearn high school subjects?

Grandysaur — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:49:56 -0800

I want to relearn algebra, chemistry, basic mechanics, and basic physics this summer. For free? I was an excellent student in high school but haven't taken a math or science class in about five years (yay liberal arts!)

I know I have the capacity to know this stuff, and to relearn it, but show me the quadratic equation and all I can muster is "yup, that's a thing."

So how can I brush up on what should be basic knowledge this summer? I'm looking for high school, advanced high school or "101" type of information. How should I go about redoing high school, preferably for free?

I'd also love any general tips for successful self-guided study.

Any and all suggestions welcome, for any and all of the subjects I'm looking to learn.

Help me name my book!

sdis — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:18:57 -0800

I'm writing a book for a major publisher on language learning, and we're currently in the process of figuring out/fighting over a title+subtitle(+sub-subtitle) combo. Here's the issue: the book crosses two genres. Originally, it was simply a how-to book, with a step-by-step method for learning any language quickly. But over the course of writing and researching it, it's turned into a discussion about the science of memory and learning, how we learn languages, why we generally don't succeed at learning them in school, and what to do differently. It's become interesting, not just on a how-to level, but on an intellectual how-do-our-brains-work sort of level. This is great news from an audience standpoint – we've added a whole new potential audience (people who aren't looking for a how-to-learn-a-language book, but *are* interested in how their brains work) – but it's very tricky from a title standpoint. How do you choose a title that conveys the How-to nature of the book and the How-your-brain-works part at the same time? In terms of other material that comes into the mix, one of the constant themes running through the book is Play - that if you're not enjoying yourself, you're going to have an extremely difficult time remembering anything. Most of the methods in the book turn language learning into a kind of game. Ideally, the title would reflect that.

In terms of the aspects of science covered, the book is *primarily* about memory, although it does get into discussions about humans learn to intuit grammar and a bit of computational linguistics (using computers to figure out the most useful words in a language).

In terms of tools, it builds a language from the ground up, starting with sounds, adding simple vocabulary using pictures, and learning grammar and more complex vocabulary based upon that foundation of simple vocabulary, effectively cutting out any English translation from the beginning.

It is relatively computer/web focused, drawing on a lot of free internet resources, things like using Google Images, internet exchange communities, Forvo.com's recording databases, etc.

So! Any help in the brainstorming process would be much appreciated! I have a pile of 20-50 titles so far, which I can add to the discussion, but I'm not sure whether they'll help or hinder, so I'll at least wait a bit and see what happens before adding them. Many thanks

Head start for the advanced learner

kristymcj — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 06:19:54 -0800

My almost 3 y.o. has been accepted into the head start program in the summer. Will they be able to work with him as an advanced learner? I'm concerned that he'll have to spend his time re-learning things he has a strong knowledge of and will dislike school.

I can't afford preschool and I'd love the free time to spend with his baby brother.

For frame of reference, he knows his shapes, colors, letters, letter sounds, sounding out simple words, and counting pretty well.

Help keep a wannabe autodidact on track!

abbagoochie — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:53:38 -0800

So, I really like learning new stuff and spend a fair bit of my spare time reading. If I won the euromillions I'd retire and spend the rest of my life at uni. In the real world, I have to keep paying rent/eating, so have been exploring MIT's open courseware - writing essays will give a focus to my reading and structure my repsonses to it more effectively, but it ends there. The feedback on my thoughts and arguments a lecturer would give me, or points to improve on, are still missing. This is what I need help with! Is there anywhere online - forums, etc, where you could put an essay up for review? I realise this may be wishful thinking. Do people pay people to review their work? My areas of interest are literature, linguistics, media, film, cultural studies and gender studies.

Any tips? Even just to laugh in my face and tell me it ain't happening? How do autodidacts check the rigour and worth of their work?

I have to take a video-based course. This is not how I best learn. Help!

JoannaC — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:27:01 -0800

I am taking an on-line course that is mostly video-based. This is not the best way for me to learn. I am falling very behind and struggling with it. More inside. The course is an on-line certification for a program I use at work. It has ten modules, each of which has ten lessons each with multiple 20-minute videos, and then assignments. There are several issues for me with how this whole setup works :)

- Firstly, I learn best by reading. If the material were written, I could learn it in a fraction of the time. I feel resentful and annoyed that I have to sit through these long videos and have to sometimes do it more than once if there is a lot of information. I could literally absorb it in a third of the time if it was a book or webpage.

- Secondly, the videos require a certain setup to play correctly. Our work computers don't have the right setup, so I have to do it at home, and after a full day of work, I am tired. I think I would be able to manage all of this video a little better if I could at least download it to my phone or something to watch during my commute. But no, I have to be on a computer, logged into their silly site...

I just am really struggling with it. I don't think there is a way around it other than to just make myself sit there and do it, but even though I understand this and even though I know the credential will be useful and am, on that level, motivated to do it, I am really struggling. I am falling very behind on it, and my attitude isn't great because I feel so resentful at having to do things in what I perceive to be such a needlessly difficult way, on my own time when I am tired at night (even though I have time during the day) and in a pointlessly time-consuming fashion.

At ideas or suggestions for making this suck a little less?

What's the point of getting fit if I can't go out and injure myself?

Punkey — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:32:22 -0800

I've recently finally gotten really fit and in shape, after spending most of my 27 years...not doing that. I've been looking for something local and athletic to do, both for fun and for fitness, but since I haven't played sports since I was 12 or so, my skills are lacking. However, all the local instruction is oriented towards youth, so I turn to you folk for aid. How can an sports newb adult learn how to play? I live in northern Orange County, CA, and I'm mostly interested in soccer or basketball, but if anyone here knows of a sport I simply have to try, I'll certainly give it a shot.

Help me learn more about the labor and leftist movements via audio

rebent — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:17:44 -0800

I'd like to learn more about the history of the left, particularly the far left, particularly as it relates to me, a late-20's north american male. I'd love to learn more about the left, labor, unions, communism, socialism, labor laws, etc., particularly in what factors and machinations gave and took away rights and freedoms. Here's the kicker - I'm really, really hoping to find them in audio format so I can learn while I exercise. Audiobooks, podcasts, lectures, etc. There is a great list of books covering almost exactly what I'm after in this related question, but I am also interested in broader coverage of the topic. Also - not all audio books are created equal if you know what I mean. I'm interested in hearing opinions about the quality of the audio - the reader, the sound, etc.

thank you all very much!

I want to see what my code is doing

crosten — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:43:51 -0800

I am taking an entry-level college class in programming. We are using Javascript "playground" that works within a web browser. I am a visual learner and the textbook and exercises are useless to me. We're only six weeks in and I'm in the weeds. Is there a tool that shows what exactly is happening at each step in the Javascript code? I'm stuck at variables and we're now moving on. I'm afraid that if I don't "get" this, I will be left behind. Specifically, I have an issue with local and global variables and the difference between them. I see variables names being used in functions/modules that are not used elsewhere and it confuses me. I also don't get the passing of variables into functions/modules and how different things come out with different names. Is there a way (video/alternate language, etc.) to visually show what happens at each step?

Ideally, I would like to have two windows: one that shows the code and one that somehow illustrates what is happening in a friendly way, i.e. cute buckets holding the contents of variables and how they are passed around. I know there are programming languages for children. Would they have some relevance to someone learning Javascript?

What are the "beginner pianist" cliche songs and melodies?

davey_darling — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:43:57 -0800

I'm looking to compile a list of those piano songs that "everybody" learns because they are simple, memorable, or good skill builders. Any genre is acceptable. I am a decent guitarist and singer and I would like to learn piano.

Right now my biggest obstacle is that I obviously don't want to learn badly enough that I am willing to work very hard at it. I understand how to play chords and can bang out the chords of songs I know on guitar, but I feel pretty wooden in that I'm not able to get my hands moving to play melodies or bass lines. My sheet music reading ability is pretty basic - again, I know it's something that I will have to work at, but I'm hoping this "shortcut" will give me faster success to help motivate my playing.

What I am looking for is a list of all of the beginner piano cliches - the songs that sound difficult or complex but aren't, the easy songs that every beginner pianist can play the first dozen bars of, the old pop chestnuts that everybody knows and are easy to play. My theory at the moment is that I will be able to learn these parts as building blocks for my eventual piano mastery. Ultimate goal is to be decent enough to play for friends and family in casual settings.

So, lets hear it piano teachers and music store employees. What is the "Smoke on the Water" of the piano? What song do you wish you never had to hear again?

(I promise I will use this knowledge for good, not evil)

There's learning additional skillsets. And then there's my ethics.

Kitteh — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:05:07 -0800

Want to up my game as a vegan baker, but feel weird about going to a pastry school that doesn't use ingredients common to my chosen field. A few snowflakes inside. Obviously, I love what I do. I bake, I get paid for baking (not often enough but that's a whole other AskMe), I want to establish myself as a viable dessert alternative for a growing percentage of the population, and I have been offered an opportunity to attend pastry school to sharpen my current skills, and to learn some new skills to apply to new things.

But...considering there are no vegan baking/pastry schools--this was the only thing I could find via Google but it's 7 hours and another country away from me--should I go to the regular pastry school in my town? Aside from the fact it will be terrifyingly and completely in French, I will be handling and using ingredients I don't use: butter, eggs, milk, etc. Wouldn't this be sort of redundant? Or would it be good to go so I can make notes of how I would use substitutions as I participate?

I'm not comfy with the idea of putting my animal rights-ethics aside by using ingredients I no longer use/eat, but at the same time, I also like the idea of upping my game to help me advance my nascent business.

Any advice/suggestions/alternatives?

How best to improve my written and spoken Spanish skills in 6 months?

queens86 — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:40:20 -0800

Ayudeme a decir a la gente que tienen alta presion arterial. Last week, I took a test at NYU to enter into their medical Spanish interpretation program, which I desperately want to enroll in. I scored a 62/100 on the written exam, and 79/100 on the spoken portion of the exam. Written was vocabulary, translating sentences from Spanish to English and vice versa, paragraph interpretation, and choose-the-correct-word to complete the sentence. The oral was basically a conversation between the proctor and I alternating between Spanish and English.

It has been about 2 years since I spoke Spanish on a regular basis, and about 5 years since I would have considered myself immersed in it (speaking it for several hours per day). The test requires an average of 80% to pass, so I need to raise my overall score by 10 points in about 6 months, when I can re-take the exam. I figure it will be easier to raise my written than my oral score, and I mostly learned Spanish through immersion rather than in a classroom, so, for example, I have no idea where accent marks belong and I mix up 'el' and 'la' a lot.

What is the best way to raise my score up to passing? Workbooks? Flashcards? Podcasts? Volunteer helping Spanish-only speakers? A pen pal? A class? ( I would rather not spend more than $100 on this but am open). I especially need suggestions for the written portion but I would like to raise my oral score as well. I am in New York so New York-specific suggestions are great. Answers focused specifically on improving medical Spanish are extra appreciated.

Gracias!

Name my university learning blog

Paragon — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:28:33 -0800

Looking for a descriptive and short name for a blog about university study. Save me from bad puns and opaque acronyms! I'm starting up a blog for students at my university. The focus will be on study skills, assignment and thesis writing, and university events and resources relating to those topics.

Because it's an official blog it has to have a fairly vanilla name, but that usually translates to odd acronyms, puns, and/or neologisms, and I'd like to avoid those if possible. I'm looking for something short (2-4 words), descriptive, and memorable.

Names incorporating "learning" or "study" are especially welcome. Something similar to "The Learning Nation" would work well (except there's already a blog by that name).

Using ten days to prepare for an online course, then acing it?

mdonley — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:08:17 -0800

I’m about to start a six-month-long online course that I'd like to do really well on. The next ten days are very quiet at work. How can I use this time to help myself prepare, given that I’ll need to be in the office for part of each of the ten days...and then keep up with the course while going back to full-time teaching? After the ten days are up, it’s back to the normal 35-40 hours of planning/teaching/grading/meetings/etc. a week, on top of the 15-20 hours for the course a week. But I really do have no other significant responsibilities for the next ten days, except to prepare for the course and organize myself, and I’m sort of at a loss over how to best do this. I do need to come into the office for at least a few hours a day.

Here's what I've thought about so far. I'd love to hear what worked for you!

- Do I need to train up to use Moodle, the course platform? I don't want to spend an hour messing around the day the first assignment is due trying to find a "submit" button or something.

- I can do some pre-reading from the reading list, but I don't have a syllabus/list of assignments yet. How can I make this time effective?

- I’m doing the dry-erase-marker wall calendar thing to organize everything at home.

- Batch-cooking and freezer meals?

- Should I back up my coursework on Dropbox/online somewhere, or pick up an external hard drive?

- Put bills/transit pass onto auto-pay/direct debit; make a little weekly housework schedule to follow.

- The course will take up every spare moment of my vacation time for 2013, but I'll still have normal weekends and public holidays. How can I best maintain my sanity/balance and thrive from the challenge, rather than be exhausted by it?

Big unanswerables until we start: how responsive the course coordinators are, how astute my fellow students (only 11 other participants!) will be, how to make asynchronous conversations work well. Any advice on these (or other!) during-the-actual-course matters would be great as well.

Thanks in advance!

How to Sharper my Memory? A mental workout?

TRUELOTUS — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:48:49 -0800

Ok, HiveMind, I want to sharper my memory. What have you tried/implemented with success? I decided to pick up Sudoku again, but, what else is good for a mental workout and more focused on memory strengthening? I have heard of the 7 Sins of Memory, and Moonwalking with Einstein. Although, I am not sure if either give tips per se on strengthening your memory. I am going to look at my diet- so if you have tips on that as well- great. I have also heard of a game called Brain Age and seen ads for a site called Luminosity- are either of those actually helpful? What other tips do you have? ?? There is a store at the mall called Marbles: The Brain Store- anything good there?

Finding a tutor for front-end coding.

gertzedek — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 10:58:48 -0800

After a more than 10 year long hiatus spent in the business side of technology, I'm looking to get my hands dirty again. I'd like to find a tutor. I used to be fairly competent in HTML/CSS/JS but I'm finding it hard to *really* get back in the saddle again. I am reading books and taking tutorials about HTML5, CSS3 and JS frameworks like Backbone, but I find myself a bit overwhelmed by trying to learn too many things at the same time and also a bit directionless.

Then I remembered seeing or reading about young coders earning some extra cash tutoring high school kids, and I thought that's kind of what I need: structured environment, project-based learning, one-on-one interaction - even though I am far from being a high school kid (my wife may disagree at times).

I would say that right now I am at advanced beginner level, trying to move back into intermediary. Can a good tutor help me with that? How can I find one? What are the hourly rates I should expect to pay?

Simple French-language fiction?

thirdletter — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:35:05 -0800

I spent 4 years learning French in high school, and have retained just enough since then to vaguely eavesdrop on a fellow commuter's French novel the other day. I would like to brush up on my reading comprehension, and could use some suggestions for some simply written fiction to pick up. I read Le Petit Prince in school as well as a bunch of historical texts. I'm looking now for something contemporary and entertaining... I've lost most of my grip on complicated/formal tenses... maybe YA fiction would work for my skill level?

Bonus points for books available cheaply on Kindle.

30th Adventure

Calicatt — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:43:48 -0800

I'll be turning 30 in April, and I'm planning a trip in celebration. There are a lot of places in the world I'd love to go just to hang out and look around, but I decidedly do NOT want to do that for this trip. I want to travel somewhere and do something active. To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, my front runner so far is a one week stay in Jamaica learning how to make wood fired pottery. What similar "enriching" type experiences are out there? Parameters:
I want to do something active, like make something or learn a new skill
I want to leave the country (US)
The whole thing including airfare (from the east coast) has to be under 4000
I'd like it to be all-inclusive
I'd like it to be 1-2 weeks
I don't want to volunteer (personal reasons, please don't argue with this, just take it as a parameter)
It needs to be happening around the end of April 2013

I found a fantastic site: www.shawguides.com for arts and crafts ideas (which is where I found the pottery thing) Other ideas I've considered but haven't found any program that matches my requirements: a meditation retreat, an exercise-type retreat, etc

Thanks!

Teach a kid to Raspberry...

Currer Belfry — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:35:03 -0800

Raspberry Pi online forum or F2F user groups for kids? I'm thinking of giving a Raspberry Pi to my favorite 13-year-old (MFK for short). I'm not entirely sure of the wisdom of this itself but he is a smart kid and likes gadgets; if he's not quite ready for it intellectually right now, he will be soon. Comments on the appropriateness of the gift are welcome.

Assuming that the gift itself is a good idea, I won't be around very much to help him find appropriate online forums or local F2F user groups to guide him, and his parents aren't very computer- or gadget-savvy. I checked online a little bit, including the Raspberry site itself, and I don't see anything devoted to kids. (Naturally, I'm a little concerned about online forums aimed at kids anyway - lurkers anyone?)

I do have a feeling that someone at his school might be able to direct him to resources, or maybe the school will make a class project out of it if enough interest is shown. I'm thinking some of the kid's friends will probably want one if MFK has one.

Any thoughts? Kiddo is north of Boston.

Thanks.

What are some good books or articles on second-language acquisition?

pynchonesque — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:36:22 -0800

What are some insightful well-written books or articles, academic or otherwise, on the mechanics of how we learn second-languages and anything about the application of linguistics to learning languages? I am both an intermediate Spanish learner and an English teacher here in Mexico City. Despite this, or because of this, I feel my next-to-non-existent knowledge of how exactly people learn languages is inadequate.

My knowledge of teaching and education comes from an M.A. in teaching English literature to high school students and my experiences here in Mexico. I t gets me by but I would like a more solid foundation.

Mad skillz

corn_bread — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 19:43:20 -0800

I want suggestions for new skills to learn. What are the best and/or most practical skills that you have acquired in life? What did you find was worth really taking the time to master? I am equally interested in short and long term skill sets.

Looking for book recommendations, etc.

mermily — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:14:48 -0800

How do you help children develop impulse control? I am a first grade teacher and generally have a wide skill set for remediating kids' academic difficulties. However, I'm finding that frequently the kids who struggle the most academically or socially have serious impulse control issues that make them unable to focus their attention on the task at hand. I wanted to see if I could find any recommendations from parents or people who work with kids about how to help children develop impulse control, or metacognitive skills to help them direct their attention. Any advice, or book recommendations in particular would be appreciated. Thank you!

Foreign Language Dictionary App for iPhone?

undercoverhuwaaah — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 12:42:14 -0800

Any good dictionary apps for foreign languages on the iPhone? I was on an international flight sitting a few rows behind a gentleman that was using what appeared to be a dictionary app. He was reading a hard copy magazine article in English, looking up words in this app that he didn't know (the definition was in English), then he was able to "save" the word he just looked up to some sort of list. I guess it's possible it was just an English dictionary app. I'd like similar functionality, but for French and/or Spanish. The ability to look up a word, read it's definition in the target language, and save the word to some sort of "I looked up these words recently" list for future reference. Any recommendations for iOS apps available in the US that fit the bill?

History of Sociology of Religion; Why Bellah Doesn't (Much) Cite Eliade

ibmcginty — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:52:25 -0800

Why does Mircea Eliade get short shrift in Robert N. Bellah's Religion in Human Evolution? Am just starting in on Religion in Human Evolution, and I notice that Bellah scarcely cites Eliade, even in his discussion of bridging the divide between "the sacred in contrast to the profane" (that exact phrase). Later on Bellah cites him, on the beliefs of one particular group, then explains that Eliade's views have been "demolished" by later scholarship.

I wasn't surprised to see, say, Jung without all that many citations in the index. But I'd thought that Eliade was kinda the go-to guy on this sort of thing. Is it that Eliade fits more into philosophy or cultural history as opposed to Bellah's background in sociology? Is it that Eliade has fallen out of favor, or that I was overestimating his influence? Is it that Bellah just doesn't happen to agree with Eliade?

(As you can see, there's an awful lot I don't know about sociology & philosophy of religion; if there's a general resource you think would be of use to me in learning about these things, I'd be grateful for that, too).