Week Three

This week, I felt a lot more confident coming into programming.  While I'm still not one hundred percent sure about regular expressions, I feel a lot more comfortable using them, and have actually found them helpful (and time saving), where as before, I thought they were a waste of time because it took me so long to figure out how to properly write one. I'm excited that we are moving into other methods of programming this week (HTTP, JSON, etc) because most of it is new to me.

I also took your advice from last week and wrote out a plan for how I/my group was going to attack the lab, and found that it went much more smoothly when we had decided on a step-by-step plan for how to go about working on it.  We didn't get stuck near as much, and if we did, we could easily brainstorm an alternative way to address the problem that we were attacking in that step, so there were fewer moments where we sat staring at each other, unsure of what to do next.  While I did like the "To-Dos", I think this new method of labs allows for more creativity, which also helps my problem of getting stuck.

I'm looking forward to using this same method for my Homework this weekend, and hope that it to goes smoothly.

Week Two

After two weeks, the overwhelmed feeling began.  I have this method when it comes to programming: I hit it as hard as I can, until I get frustrated and then I walk away. I come back a little while later, and hope that something goes differently, and so far, this method has worked for me.  Once I come back, I try something new, I turn to Professor Google or one of my classmates, and suddenly, it makes sense.  As my specialization isn't one with a large programming background or base, this has served me well, but I'm worried I need a new method of learning this material.  While things make sense eventually, I usually work slower than the majority of my classmates, which is stressful (though it shouldn't be).  At the beginning of the semester, my goals for this class were vague: I just wanted to pass and get my requirements out of the way.  Now they are much more defined.

I want to learn how to learn programming.  I want to walk out of this class feeling confident not only in my programming abilities, but in my ability to learn other programs down the road. I don't know if that will be possible, but I do know that I am going to work to that end. 

Introduction

For my first post, I thought I would take a little time to introduce myself.  I'm Natalie!  I grew up in White Lake, MI, in a household that stressed love of the University of Michigan from birth (My father has two degrees from this great institution).  After graduating from Lakeland High School in 2007, I came to Michigan as an undergrad, where I majored in Anthropology (Focus: Sociocultural and Archaeological) and minored in Museum Studies.  As an undergrad, I worked for the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum as an Educator, took a Field Course in Archaeology at the University of Michigan Biological Station, in Pellston MI, and interned for a summer for Mackinac State Historic Parks (Also known as Fort Mackinac).

After much debate my senior year, I decided that I loved Michigan too much to leave, and consider myself very lucky that the School of Information was here and that I am able to attend!  My specializations are LIS and ARM, and my academic and career interests are varied: I am very interested in the collections side of both of these fields, as well as the Public Programming and Outreach aspects of them as well.  Ideally, I would like to work in a library, archive, or museum.

I have very little experience with programming: I took a Visual Basic class when I was 10, and promptly forgot everything I learned.  Last semester, I took SI 502, and feel fairly competent in Python and am confident that I will be able to figure out assignments in Python.  I'm taking SI 601 not only because it fulfills a research requirement, but because I felt further exposure to Python could only help my future career goals, and because I think the skills I will gain from this class are those that every MSI-holder should have.  I look forward to a challenging and productive semester!