Hello, my name is Michael Eramo. I am an experienced educator, life long learner, and a self-taught programmer. I hold official Bachelor's Degrees in Music Industry, Education, and Physics, a Master's Degree in Mathematical Science, and a certificate in Software Development from Microsoft. While I owe my extensive knowledge base in Music, Physics, Mathematics, and Education to the many great educators I have worked with, my understanding of Computer Science is all my own.
I have never taken an "official" computer science course; I am completely self-taught. However, do not let that deter you from taking this course! Instead, let it motivate you that you too can learn anything you want to. Not only have I done it, but I've come to realize what works best for the self-taught programmer, and I have perfected the process!
Combining my expertise as an educator and my own personal interest in self-taught computer science led me to a telling realization; most educational material for the self-taught programmer is NOT EDUCATIONAL ATALL. Instead, it falls into one of two categories:
Writing small "snippets" of programs that taken out of context, seem to serve no purpose at all and frankly, are beneath the user.Prime examples include using a for loop to print out all even numbers from 1 to 100 or using if statements to respond to generic user input. Here, users are bored and aren't challenge to create anything with meaning. There is little purpose other than gaining what is essentially factual level knowledge. It is a waste of your time.
Watching others code whole "applications" without a true understanding of what is going on. These are programs whose scope is beyond the user in which there is no clear guide to walk the user through the thought process without just giving them the answers. Here, without proper support and guidance, the user just defaults to letting someone else unfold the solution for them. There is little engagement in watching someone else work and rarely a thought generated on one's own. It is a waste of time.
Yes, I will admit that some learning does take place in doing simple tasks or watching others complete complicated tasks. In fact, much of how I learned was done this way. However, I'm telling you it pales in comparison to the learning that takes place by DOING meaningful and appropriately challenging work. This is the art of doing. In this FREEcourse, I hope to give a glimpse into my teaching style and help you begin your journey to mastering Python and computer science!
