I truly cannot believe how quickly this term is going, as well as my entire CS degree as a whole. It’s little hard to believe that there are just over 4 weeks until graduation! While I’m definitely excited, there is still some solid work to put in for our Capstone project before that point, including some debugging… so these blog prompts come at a great time!
How do you work through being “stuck” on a problem?
At the moment, I am working on fixing up some small bugs in our project (for example, getting images to display with a click of a button) as well as implementing some larger aspects that are new to me (such as creating sessions so multiple users can access our website and play our game simultaneously). My first go-to when trying to figure out a problem is simply doing an internet search on what I’m trying to solve to see what resources are out there. When available, I prefer to look at educational tutorials and blogs over crowdsourcing websites such as StackOverflow, since I find them more reliable. As a second option, I look for video explanations and walkthroughs. I am typically a better learner when reading information, but sometimes a visual demonstration is exactly what I need and solves my issues much quicker. For this particular project, it’s been great to work so closely with a team so that we can also troubleshoot together when needed. And in general for coursework, I find the Ed Discussion boards overall extremely helpful for getting tips and advise from peers and staff.
Do you use chatGPT or other AI tools? In what way?
To date, I have only ever used chatGPT for Google-like searches and for getting letter writing ideas or templates. I have not yet used it for coding but I am planning to explore it more in this way during the next sprint for our Capstone project! The fact that it’s allowed, and in a way encouraged, for this course is exciting to me. I’m looking forward to seeing what the hype is all about and I’m hopeful it can help solve some of the bugs I’m working on faster and allow us to confidently reach our team goals. My assumption is that if/when I get working code from chatGPT that solves a bug or problem I’m working on, that it will also help me learn that content better. Seeing a working example teaches me a lot, as long as I carefully study it versus simply copying it in and moving on without really understanding it. While I can see some of the dangers and hesitation in using it, I think AI can also be an extremely powerful and positive source of learning.
How do you approach learning something new, like a new technology?
When learning a new technology, I most typically like to jump straight in and play around. If I quickly realize it’s not intuitive or hard to understand, I go to the official documentation and supplement that with other online tutorials or resources. However I believe that experience is truly the best teacher. The more hands-on I can be, the more growth I see and the faster my skills and knowledge develop. This is probably one of the reasons I love being a CS student so much! I am constantly being thrown into new topics, languages and technologies and have to work my way through a number of assignments and challenges each term. This is definitely something I will miss after I graduate, and I hope I can land a job that feels somewhat like being a student – at least in the sense of constantly learning, working on fun and exciting projects, and being part of collaborative and supportive team!
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