I've known that programming/CS education is often broken since I had to tutor several (very smart) friends who had a hard time with CS1, which served as their introduction to programming.
There are better CS1 professors to be sure, but I imagine a lot of the problems they encountered were common throughout most people's first experience with trying to learn programming. There was a lot of assumed knowledge, and the students who had prior experience left feeling it was just as mysterious as when they started.
This bothers the hell out of me, because I think these people would enjoy programming a lot more if their first experience was better, and I wonder what I would think of programming if CS1 was my first experience.
I had the good fortune to learn by myself long before college. I think I know why it was easy for me, and I was finally able to articulate it only recently. I talk about it here[1] and explain what I hope to do.
The short version is that I'm going to make a series of Bob Ross-style JavaScript tutorial videos. I think that its a great time to learn programming, since every person with a modern browser installed has everything they need to begin learning (the developer console is an absolutely amazing place to start, and the first tutorials will focus on nothing but working inside of it).
I had considered taking some time off work to do this full time, update the MDN, and hold office hours in StackOverflow chat. Be like a "monk of the web." That's not totally feasible right now, so its taken up status as a side project, though it means that producing the videos will take some time.
So no technical analysis, market research, or monetary potential. I just want to make resources to help people. That's what makes me "go for it". Sometime during StackOverflow I realized that the people I'm helping are the only encouragement I need. http://i.imgur.com/POZmt.png
If you can't personally run "office hours," but still see the value in them, have you considered finding some "Teacher's Assistants" with motivations similar to yours to help out? I'm only one year into my formal CS education, but I think even I could handle intro programming questions. I'm sure there are more people out there who would want to help.
There are better CS1 professors to be sure, but I imagine a lot of the problems they encountered were common throughout most people's first experience with trying to learn programming. There was a lot of assumed knowledge, and the students who had prior experience left feeling it was just as mysterious as when they started.
This bothers the hell out of me, because I think these people would enjoy programming a lot more if their first experience was better, and I wonder what I would think of programming if CS1 was my first experience.
I had the good fortune to learn by myself long before college. I think I know why it was easy for me, and I was finally able to articulate it only recently. I talk about it here[1] and explain what I hope to do.
The short version is that I'm going to make a series of Bob Ross-style JavaScript tutorial videos. I think that its a great time to learn programming, since every person with a modern browser installed has everything they need to begin learning (the developer console is an absolutely amazing place to start, and the first tutorials will focus on nothing but working inside of it).
I had considered taking some time off work to do this full time, update the MDN, and hold office hours in StackOverflow chat. Be like a "monk of the web." That's not totally feasible right now, so its taken up status as a side project, though it means that producing the videos will take some time.
So no technical analysis, market research, or monetary potential. I just want to make resources to help people. That's what makes me "go for it". Sometime during StackOverflow I realized that the people I'm helping are the only encouragement I need. http://i.imgur.com/POZmt.png
[1] http://simonsarris.com/blog/696-the-importance-of-geocities