Jennifer Grayburn (Scholars’ Lab) has written a post about her experiences coding in PHP. In “Novice struggles and expert blindness: How my discomfort with PHP will make me a better instructor,” Grayburn talks about recognizing the “expert blind spot” through her work with the lab:
I wonder if we should perhaps make this discomfort a bigger priority within the graduate curriculum in order to broaden our thinking as researchers and think critically about our methods as instructors…My frustration with PHP is not gone, but my realization that this frustration is a natural part of the learning process–something I expect my own students to experience–helps me push through it. We are now working directly with the Ivanhoe code and the practical application of more abstract concepts allows me to see concrete results. By creating my own localized git branch, I have been able to play with the code on my own terms, to change something and see how it affects the site in a low stakes setting.
