Last week in my class I showed the students how to implement some fairly mathematical algorithms. The funny thing about algorithms is that you need to get them exactly right. One false move and the algorithm breaks.
So my live coding had a certain quality of being a high wire act. Everything had to be exactly correct in order for me to “teach by coding”.
But this week, even though I was live coding, I was doing it to build up an animated figure. This wasn’t so much math as it was art — even though I was still using the medium of computer programming.
The tone of the class was much lighter. I could play around, try different things, take suggestions from the class. There was a lot more room for us to explore and experiment.
There is no real answer to the question of which is better — the two experiences are incredibly different, even though they are using the same language of coding.
But I can tell you there is one big difference: After the “making art by coding” class is over, I feel much less anxiety. 🙂