I'm looking for examples of what I'd refer to as "progressive tutorials". Coding or other tech-related tutorials that introduce progressive ideas and themes, without being overtly political.
Slide deck for my #monkigras talk 💬 "I Didn't Grow Up Speaking Code": GitHub Copilot as a Programming as a Second Language Tool 💬 is now live and accessible via my website!
>nitter is dead
>twitter is going full #LearnToCode on Taylor Swift
Elon fucked up twitter, but ultimately limiting public viewing of twitter is a good thing. I don't give a fuck what people say on Instagram or Facebook or whatever, and now Twitter can enter that category of social media as well.
Happy Friday, Fediverse! 🎉 What cool stuff are you using or working on today?
🐧🧑🏫📚🔏🧑💻🕹️
We’re especially interested in hearing about open source, edtech, local-first tech, privacy, learning to code, and things related to game development. 👀
UMaine New Media and Computer Science just finished a groundbreaking 4-month experiment comparing AI with traditional digital methods in creative tasks. From essay writing to game design, 50 students tested AI's capabilities head-to-head with conventional tools https://blog.still-water.net/ai-versus-old-school-creativity 🧵1/7
As mentioned in our latest Kickstarter update, we'll continue live-streaming the creation of our #FujoGuide website tomorrow August 24th at 3PM PDT (timezone converter in replies).
Join us on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/essentialrandomness) as we recreate our character cards using Astro Components. We’ll then pair these with Astro Content Collections to easily add more characters to the roster and keep up-to-date information for their artists, all across our website!
course in the coming weeks - designed for anyone who has never coded before. It will be run with small class numbers so I can support learners as needed.
🙋🏻♀️ If you have friends who might benefit - do share with them!
I'm attempting to teach myself how to code using Python, MicroPython and CircuitPython. I am using a device called "Pygamer" that also lets me code games using Microsoft's makecode arcade. I am using a raspberry Pi 4b as my main computer. I chose to use a raspberry Pi 4b for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is power consumption (8 watts vs 100+ watts) but the other reason is that it forces me out of my comfort zone. I also just wanted to see if it were possible to learn this stuff without a faster computer. It is possible but it's not plug and play that is for sure!
I am teaching myself this stuff becuase I became disabled around 4 years ago and was no longer able to work doing what I used to do (construction). Disability income is not enough to live on and grow unless you work really hard at learning a skill that doesn't require a large financial investment.
My ultimate goal is to reach a point where I can start tutoring programming and maybe even start a summer camp style electronics thing in the future!
So for now, as I learn, I document everything. I am attempting to build somewhat of a curriculum while I also learn the fundamentals. One day I'll use these materials in my lessons!
I'll be working on this stuff for the next few years as I have a roadmap that leads into 2028. Here is hoping by 2028 I can laugh at my terrible attempts at programming today!
I will mostly be using microcontrollers for my journey as devices like the adafruit Pygamer and pimoroni PicoSystem are relatively cheap and they give you a choice of a few possible languages to learn. Not only that, the extremely limited hardware forces you to focus on game design principles and coding with memory in mind. This will keep me from running away with ideas like I did back when I was playing with Godot as I am very limited in what mechanics I am able to implement!
Those tiny game systems are going to be the basis of ALL my projects moving forward. The Pygamer especially as I was able to grab a few right before they sold out for good!
My favourite genre of games are RPGs and text based adventures. Ever since coming on Mastodon I have been thinking about what it would take to make a vision impaired or blind friendly rpg/tba. This would be my ultimate goal, to code accessible games but for now unfortunately I'm going to have to use the materials that already exist which don't have vision impaired people in mind whatsoever. That is okay though. I will be keeping accessibility in mind once I start actually coding my own game!
I never shared anything on the old social media sites but Mastodon seems infinitely more friendly and filled with similarly motivated people. I look forward to sharing with you guys and meeting others who are doing the same!
I would like to explain how to develop software with C#, but not use a console program as an example for this.
That's why I tried it with a graphical program. I'll start simple with Turtle graphics and at the end I want to have some kind of four-in-a-row game ready.
Over the past ten years or so, I experienced a gradual shift from (a frustrated) "to get the most out of free software, I'm going to HAVE TO LEARN TO CODE!" to (a gratified) "the more I learn to code the more I get out of free software."
In short, it was the cumulative, very high-feedback, very low-barrier-to-entry list of idiosyncratic desires for tweaking my #Org mode workflows, then customizing my #mu4e workflows ... before I knew it I had written a couple of major and minor modes to mitigate my own #ADD.