In January, I was doing my typical thing and doing two things at once. Ironically, one of the activities was a #AppleEDUChat Twitter chat dealing with goal setting. One of my big goals was to not take on so much and do fewer things better. It wasn't really a good start. During the evening, I was asked about doing a "90 Days of Coding" activity. I run into a lot of people with questions about app development and design. That night was no different. For those that don't know, this is a challenge where you explore a topic every day for 90 days and journal your activities on Twitter. I run into a lot of people with questions about app development and design. That night was no different. I was wanting to get back into Swift Playgrounds and play around again.I had not been able to do anything with it since starting my Masters degree.This seemed like a good way to do two things at once. It would also force me to limit the amount of time I spent on coding each day. I was all in.
So, I got started. I cleared out all of my data on Swift Playgrounds and began exploring. It was a lot of fun. I became reacquainted with the app and had the chance to explore many new challenges within it. It was really great to be able to try things out and again. It was also a little bit intimidating to have to create a video reflection each day. I was putting myself out there in a whole new way. But, this was just the beginning. The Blink app reminded me of digital simulations I had seen before, such as the wolf-sheep predation simulation from Netlogo (https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/WolfSheepPredation). Without thinking twice about it, I started to see if I could change up the Swift Playground book Blink to be a predator/prey simulator. It wasn't easy. In the middle of it, Apple released a Mac version of Swift Playgrounds. I took the opportunity to see if that would help me with my goal of redoing the simulation. I was able to get farther, but still not get things working correctly. So, without looking, I just jumped off the next ledge. I started building an app from scratch. I had not built an app in a long time. This wasn't going to be easy. I started building and realized that I had never worked with SpriteKit before. SpriteKit is a way to use graphics, called sprites, in an app. It is used in most games in the App Store. I needed help. So, I turned to a website that I have used for coding lessons that go beyond the Everyone Can Code curriculum. I like the raywenderlich.com website. It has a lot of free tutorials and examples for people to use. They also have a huge library of videos and books to go deeper into coding concepts. I purchased a guide on 2D games. It was a great purchase. I journaled my learning as I gained the skills needed to make my simulation. It's not easy saying you don't know something. It's even harder to let people watch you go through the learning process. I did it anyway. By the end of the 90 days, I had a rough app that worked. I had solved a lot of problems and issues along the way. I still have a big one to solve, though. I can't get the grass to "die" yet. But, I'll get it yet. I want to finish this app and actually get it into the store. This has been a fun journey, but it isn't over yet. Learning never stops. Check out the archive of all 90 days here.
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About me & this blogThis blog is for things related to my class, PL, coaching, or just teaching in general. You can follow me on Twitter @myakSTEM Archives
June 2021
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