Learning without a net

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# Learning without a net

## aprendiendo sin una red

### Alison Presmanes Hill, Ph.D.

### LatinR 2020 &mdash; 2020-10-07

<a href="https://alison.netlify.app/latinr-learn">alison.netlify.app/latinr-learn</a>

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## .big-text[Hello.]

???

So hello- I'm so happy to be invited to join you all today.

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### Alison Hill

[<i class="fab  fa-github "></i> @apreshill](https://github.com/apreshill)  
[<i class="fab  fa-twitter "></i> @apreshill](https://twitter.com/apreshill)  
[<i class="fas  fa-link "></i> alison.rbind.io](https://alison.rbind.io)

???

My name is Alison Hill, and I'm a data scientist and professional educator at RStudio.

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# What does a professional <br> educator do?

1) Learn complex things

2) Explain complex things

3) Rinse and repeat

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# What I (try to) bring:

1) Ph.D. in human development (learning!)

2) Perseverance

3) Patience

4) Ability to sift through mounds of information

5) Ability to cope with the unease of not knowing

6) Awareness of what I know (and what I don't)

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# What have I learned <br> on my own (recently)?

+ R

+ .emphasis[Literate programming]<br>(with R Markdown)

+ .emphasis[Static website development]<br>(with blogdown + Hugo)

+ .emphasis[Machine learning]<br>(with tidymodels)

+ .emphasis[Data science pedagogy] (WIP)

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.footnote[<https://alison.rbind.io/talk/2018-cascadia-bigmagic/>]

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# But things have changed.

We are in a global pandemic.

Learning does not feel so great now.

Asking for help does not feel so great right now.

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# What do I do?

Today, I'll share my own strategies for learning without a net.

Every time I do it, it is scary.

But also every time I do it, I get better at it.

And having a system helps.

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.footnote[<https://documentation.divio.com/>]

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<https://third-bit.com/2019/04/10/what-docs-and-when.html>

<https://third-bit.com/2019/04/16/what-docs-when.html>

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.pull-left[

## You want:

### To get somewhere fast 
]

.pull-right[

## You need:

### To orient yourself
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> "An orientation is a general overview that makes people aware something exists."
> 
> &mdash; [Greg Wilson](https://third-bit.com/2019/04/10/what-docs-and-when.html)

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# Delivery of orientations

+ Webinars

+ First bit of a workshop

+ First lecture of a course

+ Early chapter(s) of a book

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# Stage 1: Get oriented

+ .emphasis[Search!] Try adding *"intro to"* or *"for beginners"* &mdash; this is where you are.

+ .emphasis[Ask!] *"Can you share 3 or 4 key blog posts or resources that you recommend as starting points?"*<br>(also works for forums like Discourse, Slack, Twitter)

+ .emphasis[Edit!] Be very picky here- you'll likely have options. Pick friendly voices. Select for kindness.

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# Edit!

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# A "good" orientation

+ Lists .emphasis[prerequisites]

+ Defines .emphasis[key terms] simply

+ Includes .emphasis[visual aids] (think: diagrams)

+ Gives you .emphasis[leads] (What else do I need to know? What should I learn next?)

+ Does some .emphasis[hand-waving] ("Never hesitate to sacrifice truth for clarity." &mdash; [Greg Wilson](https://third-bit.com/10rules/#teaching))

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# Examples

+ [Machine learning for everyone](https://vas3k.com/blog/machine_learning/)

+ [Tidy data by Hadley Wickham](https://vita.had.co.nz/papers/tidy-data.pdf)

+ [The modeling process by<br>Bradley Boehmke & Brandon Greenwell](https://bradleyboehmke.github.io/HOML/process.html)

+ [Sharing on short notice](https://rstd.io/sharing)

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.pull-left[

## You need:

### To orient yourself
]

.pull-right[

## You don't need:

### Q & A like StackOverflow<br>(not ready yet!)

### Reference documentation<br>(not written for you!)
]

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## You want:

### To get organized
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.pull-right[

## You need:

### To get to a happy place
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# Stage 2: Get happy

.emphasis[Comfortable with GitHub?] Work in a [repository](https://github.com/katiejolly/data-resources) to learn.

.emphasis[Feeling introverted?] Operate undercover on [GitHub](https://github.blog/2019-01-07-new-year-new-github/).

.emphasis[Happiest making slides?] Create a deck.

.emphasis[Love writing?] Start a blog post.

.emphasis[Don't love writing?] Maybe still start a blog post.

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### "Learning will only stick if you feel good while doing it."

### &mdash; me

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.pull-left[

## You want:

### To get to work
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.pull-right[

## You need:

### A mental model
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# But also...

You need some small, early wins.

*"Tag to toes, hands in holes, and flip!"*

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# Lessons that build mental models

+ A .emphasis[tutorial] is a planned lesson designed to help you build a mental model.

+ A .emphasis[worked example] shows you how to solve a specific problem, but a good one also conveys something more generalizable.

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# Stage 3: Building mental models

+ .emphasis[Search!] Try adding *"how to"* or *"tutorial"* along with keywords to help you filter (like R package names)

+ .emphasis[Show up!] Find a workshop to attend

+ .emphasis[Ask!] *"Can you share 3 or 4 key blog posts or resources that you recommend about `_____`?"*<br>(also works for forums like Discourse, Slack, Twitter)

+ .emphasis[Edit!] Again, someone you want to spend time with.

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# A "good" tutorial

+ Good .emphasis[scope] (not too broad, not too narrow)

+ Good .emphasis[structure] (information is chunked sensibly)

+ Good .emphasis[sequencing] (order helps, not hurts)

+ Good .emphasis[successes] baked in (just enough)

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.pull-right[
### "There is no trophy for doing it the hard way."

### &mdash; me

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# Not good enough?

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# Examples

+ [Up & running with blogdown](https://alison.rbind.io/post/2017-06-12-up-and-running-with-blogdown/)

+ [Data wrangling](https://suzan.rbind.io/categories/tutorial/)

+ [Get started with tidymodels](https://www.tidymodels.org/start/)

+ [A predictive modeling case study](https://www.tidymodels.org/start/case-study/)

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## You want:

### To know how to do exactly X
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## You need:

### To know how to do exactly X
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.pull-left[

## You want:

### To know how to do exactly X
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## You need:

### The right help,<br>in the right place,<br>at the right time
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# Stage 4: The world is your oyster

+ Reference documentation

+ "Cookbooks"

+ Q&A forums like Stack Overflow

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.footnote[<https://xkcd.com/1168/>]

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# Stage 4: Pause + pay it forward

<https://alison.rbind.io/post/2019-12-23-learning-to-teach-machines-to-learn/>

<https://masalmon.eu/2020/02/29/hugo-maintenance/>

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<https://education.rstudio.com/learn/>

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<https://isabella-b.com/today-i-learned/>

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# What questions do you have?

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# Thank you!

### Find me at...

[<i class="fab  fa-twitter "></i> @apreshill](http://twitter.com/apreshill)  
[<i class="fab  fa-github "></i> @apreshill](http://github.com/apreshill)  
[<i class="fas  fa-link "></i> alison.rbind.io](https://alison.rbind.io)  
[<i class="fas  fa-paper-plane "></i> alison@rstudio.com](mailto:alison@rstudio.com)