Swift Coding Course
Getting started with Swift had a few hiccups. The first is that the language is geared specifically to Apple platforms and while it is easier than some other languages to learn, it has some drawbacks. The primary stumbling block for me was the necessity to have a Mac that could run XCode. I had only an IPad Pro and while the Swift Playgrounds app provides some really nice basic instruction in the language, building, and running simulators isn't possible at the time of this writing. Luckily, I was afforded the opportunity to use an older iMac in one of the offices I have access to. And while it is an older machine, I was able to get an older version of XCode up and running on it and things worked smoothly until I needed to use the simulator, apparently, there have been some bug fixes and the extra processing power of a newer Mac would come in handy.
One of the really positive aspects of working with XCode and the course, in general, is that you get to envision the app you could build and to limit the first efforts to something manageable. For me, this will be a game that can be replicated with page linking though with some randomization built-in. Combining the ideas of the real game of life with the decision-based assignments, and then putting that into an app form would make a manageable and hopefully publishable first app, so I can experience the process of getting onto the app store as well.
The course so far relies heavily on the apple supported and published iBook App Development with Swift, which is very informative and useful, a good start for the language and I especially like the integrated quizzes at the end of each section. The real learning comes from the practical hands-on that we get using XCode and the exercises that are provided in the book. This has included the basics of app development combining videos, articles with the coursebook and activities - it is a good model for online course structure and I appreciate getting to be on this side of the instruction, as I'm also designing an online course concurrently with taking this one. The primary frustration has been the technology, using an older iMac has produced long wait times for the simulator to run and possible errors that are part of using an outdated XCode with exercises that are meant for the latest iteration. Even still, I was able to get through debugging and have only first come into real problems using the interface builder. I've been watching some videos on YouTube (a great resource) to assist in figuring out exactly what I'm doing wrong. I think the other thing would be to reach out on the forum to try and figure out what's going on while compiling.
In all, it has been exciting and enjoyable (still study and work, but enjoyable) and I hope to be able to complete it in a couple of weeks during the winter break, and then shoot for a Masters of Education in Learning Technologies beginning in the fall of next year.