How to Learn 3

Version 3 of my series of talks on learning. This one gives you 3 tools to help you stay motivated on your journey of learning to code. This talk is for teachers, mentors, students and learners of all sorts.

Transcript

1. How to Learn Toby Ho
2. About Me • Toby Ho • Veteran software developer 14 years • Blogger tobyho.com • Previously lead teacher at for an 16-week immersive code training program at DigitalCrafts • Organizer of ATL.JS
3. Connect.Tech 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HcbjChlKjM
4. 2016 I became a fulltime teacher.
5. My Classes • up to 16 students per cohort • 16 weeks • 9-4 each weekday • lecture + hands on coding every day • 1 - 2 one week group projects • 2 - 3 week final project
6. What I’ve learned about learning
7. This Talk is for • Teachers • Mentors • Students • Learners
8. Learning to Code is Hard
11. My Classes • up to 16 students per cohort • 16 weeks • 9-4 each weekday • lecture + hands on coding every day • 1 - 2 one week group projects • 2 - 3 week final project Only 16 weeks? Really?
12. Why Learning to Code is Hard • No recipe • The TMI problem • Elitism/Ego in the community
13. Programming as Cooking
15. The TMI Problem
19. Motivation is Everything Motivation is Everything
20. How to Stay Motivated 1. The Big Picture 2. The Goldilocks Principle 3. The Growth Mindset
21. 1. The Big Picture
24. Toby’s Career • Masters degrees at Georgia Tech 2003 • First job day 1: start learning Hibernate ORM • Second job day 1: start learning struts and servlets • Third job day 1: start learning J2EE and Weblogic • Fourth job day 1: switched to Python! start learning Turbogears and SQLAlchemy
26. What should I focus on?
27. Technology Pyramid
34. Just because you are not using X tomorrow doesn’t mean it was a waste to learn it
35. The bottom stack gets deep • Functions: higher-order functions, closures, functional programming, pure functions, currying, function composition, functional reactive programming, functors, monads • Objects: classes, inheritance, object-oriented programming and design, design patterns(observer, factory, MVC, strategy…) SOLID principles
36. 2. The Goldilocks Principle
38. The Experience Sampling Method
39. flow The state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.
40. What people in flow say • “It was like floating” • “carried on by the flow” • “In the zone” • “one with the mountain” • “In the pocket” • “Time stands still” • “Time flies”
41. When you are in flow • You are really focused. • You are really engaged. • You are really having fun! • You are learning at a rapid speed.
42. When you are in flow • You are really focused. • You are really engaged. • You are really having fun! • You are learning at a rapid speed.
43. Conditions for Flow • Undistracted • Clear goals and feedback • Task should match your current skill
44. Conditions for Flow • Undistracted • Clear goals and feedback • Task should match your current skill
46. The Flow Channel
47. Not too hot, not too cold
48. Goldilocks Principle Dan Pink’s Drive • Match the task to your current ability to maximize your enjoyment, motivation, and learning • If the task is too easy, make it harder • If the task is too hard, make it easier
49. Strategies for making it easier • Choose helpful tools • Break it up
50. Strategy for making it harder • 7 Stages of Competence
51. Choose Helpful Tools Strategies for making it easier
52. Helpful Errors
55. Programming Languages
56. JavaScript is a horrendous first programming language. Try Python.
57. Helpfulness: Things to look for • Good/easy to understand error messages • Good/easy to understand documentation • Good learning resources in the community
58. </choose_helpful_tools>
59. Strategies for making it easier Break it up
95. Did you know? Working Memory can only hold up to ~7 things
96. Learn piecemeal Solution: Don’t eat the whole thing at once
98. Kevin Wang - founder of Launch School
105. Snowball effect?
106. Did you know: Each of these skills is orthogonal to each other. React Redux JSX Classes Arrow Functions Webpack
107. </break_it_up>
109. 7 Stages of Competence
110. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching
111. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching 2. Follow a recipe
112. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching 2. Follow a recipe 4. Modify to do different thing
113. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching 2. Follow a recipe 3. Redo w/o guidance 4. Modify to do different thing
114. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching 2. Follow a recipe 3. Redo w/o guidance 4. Modify to do different thing 5. Make new thing from scratch
115. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching 2. Follow a recipe 3. Redo w/o guidance 4. Modify to do different thing 5. Make new thing from scratch 6. Experiment to find out how things work
116. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching 2. Follow a recipe 3. Redo w/o guidance 4. Modify to do different thing 5. Make new thing from scratch 6. Experiment to find out how things work 7. Reverse engineer your tools
117. “I did Codecademy, and TreeHouse, and FreeCodeCamp, but still don’t feel like I know how to code.
118. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching 2. Follow a recipe 3. Redo w/o guidance 4. Modify to do different thing 5. Make new thing from scratch 6. Experiment to find out how things work 7. Reverse engineer your tools Stuck at 1 and 2
119. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching 2. Follow a recipe 3. Redo w/o guidance 4. Modify to do different thing 5. Make new thing from scratch 6. Experiment to find out how things work 7. Reverse engineer your tools Always get to 5
120. Stages of Competence 1. Reading and watching 2. Follow a recipe 3. Redo w/o guidance 4. Modify to do different thing 5. Make new thing from scratch 6. Experiment to find out how things work 7. Reverse engineer your tools You have to get here yourself.
121. </stages_of_competence>
122. </goldilocks_principle>
123. 3.
124. The Power of Yet Carol Dweck
126. How do you react when met with a challenge?
127. What if I fail? I might look dumb.
128. I love a challenge! I was hoping I would learn something!
129. Fixed mindset Growth mindset What if I fail? I love a challenge! I might look dumb. I was hoping this would be informative.
130. Fixed mindset: the belief that your intelligence and abilities are fixed.
131. Growth mindset: the belief that your intelligence and abilities increase with effort.
132. The Praise Study
134. Praise Template 1 “Wow, you got eight right. That’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.”
135. Praise Template 1 “Wow, you got eight right. That’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.” Ability Praised Group
136. Praise Template 2 “Wow, you got eight right. That’s a really good score. You must have worked really hard.”
137. Praise Template 2 “Wow, you got eight right. That’s a really good score. You must have worked really hard.” Effort Praised Group
138. When given more difficult challenges
139. Enjoyment • Ability praised group: “It’s not fun anymore.” • Effort praised group: “The hard ones are the fun ones.”
140. Performance • Ability praised group performance plummeted • Effort praised group performance improved
141. When given a choice to take a challenge
142. When given a choice • Ability praised group chose to skip a new challenging problem • Effort praised group (90%) chose to work on the new challenging problem
143. Self reporting
144. Self Report • Ability Praised Group: lied to boost their scores • Hiding their weakness • Cheating (finding answers online)
145. The Fixed Mindset • Failure is proof you are not smart • Choose easier paths assure themselves of their smartness • Avoid challenges • More likely to cheat or lie about their performance • Cover up their knowledge gaps • Performance plateaus
146. The Growth Mindset • Failure is an opportunity to learn and get smarter • Embrace challenges, persist longer • Not afraid to make mistakes • Uncover knowledge gaps • Performance continually improves over the long run
147. Mindset can be changed
148. Changing your mindset • Start to notice your own thoughts • Is it a growth mindset or a fixed mindset thought? • If it’s a fixed mindset thought, fix evidence to the contrary and try to change it
149. Change your mindset
150. Growth Mindset Classrooms • In one year, a kindergarten class in Harlem, NY scored in the 95th percentile on the national achievement test – many of those kids could not hold a pencil when they arrived at school. • In one year, 4th grade students in the South Bronx, way behind, became the #1 4th grade class in the state of NY on the state math test. • In a year to a year and a half, Native American students in a school on a reservation went from the bottom of their district to the top, and that district included affluent sections of Seattle. So the Native kids out did the Microsoft kids.”
151. </growth_mindset>
152. Summary How to Stay Motivated 1. The Big Picture 2. The Goldilocks Principle 3. The Growth Mindset
153. Resources • How it Feels to Learn JavaScript in 2016 - Hacker Noon • Why Learning to Code is so Damn Hard - Viking School • Programmers: Please don’t ever say this to beginners • The Power of Yet - Carol Dweck • Flow - The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi • Growth vs Fixed Mindsets - https://www.pinterest.com/ jackiegerstein/growth-vs-fixed-mindsets/