CST 205 Week 1

Week 1

Learnings

There were a bunch of topics covered this week. I've learned a bunch about file formats this week. I had never really considered or investigated the difference between image (.jpg, .png, .tiff, etc.) and audio formats (.mp3, .mp4, .mov, etc).  In addition, we finally started some actual programming. Going through the basics of Python has been fun. I haven't ever programmed in Python, so it's been fun to see the differences between what I've learned in the past and Python. I love how simple it is to get up and running. It's perfect for beginners. The integration with Code Academy has also been great. I really enjoy and appreciate the various ways we are learning here (mainly the more hands-on approach). We've also learned about how images are created and what happens when they're compressed into various formats. These are useful to know to make smarter decisions about how we're storing content on whatever devices we're using.

Struggles & Obstacles

I can't say there have been too many struggles or obstacles. Getting used to the quiz structure in the course has been a bit frustrating. My first few quizzes I kept missing items and it was completely frustrating me. However, I think I've learned the teacher's quiz technique and can better read the questions now. Another small obstacle was obtaining pictures for the group assignment this week. We had to collect images of letters that spell the work "Python". I ended up spending a morning before work stopping and taking pictures of random businesses and signs on my way to work. That kind of threw my day off a bit, but it was the best time to get it done. Overall, getting together with a group that doesn't have a devoted class time can be very difficult. We all get on at our time and don't really end up all online at the same time, so that can be a bit frustrating since it takes us much longer to finish a task than it should.