wu-mimo
Mimo is an app which claims to teach coding “on the go”. As a long time Duolingo user, I could relate to this approach – particularly as I was becoming increasingly interested in achieving some degree of basic Swift literacy in the coming weeks.
Mimo是一款声称可以“随时随地”教授编码的应用程序。 作为Duolingo的长期用户，我可以与这种方法相关联-特别是因为我对在未来几周内实现一定程度的Swift基本读写能力越来越感兴趣。
In an attempt to objectively assess the app’s ability to teach people new things, I decided to look at what it’s offering and see if it’s something I can recommend to people just starting out with a new language.
为了客观地评估该应用程序向人们传授新事物的能力，我决定查看它所提供的功能，看看是否可以向刚开始使用新语言的人们推荐它。
The application is free for the first one or two lessons of every course, at which point you’re asked to either spread the word on social media, or pay to unlock the next one. The next one after that, however, has to be paid for.
该应用程序在每门课程的前一到两课中都是免费的，此时，您需要在社交媒体上进行宣传，或者付费解锁下一门课程。 但是，此后的下一个必须付费。
Like Duolingo, Mimo uses streaks to gamify learning, keeping track of how many consecutive days you’ve been using it. To further gamify things, the app features a bunch of badges and achievements to collect, though the real killer feature would be a Duolingo-like “follow user” approach which also allows for direct communication on certain lesson slides.
像Duolingo一样，Mimo使用条纹游戏化学习，跟踪您连续使用了多少天。 为了进一步游戏化，该应用程序具有大量徽章和要收集的成就，尽管真正的杀手级功能是类似于Duolingo的“关注用户”方法，该方法还允许在某些课程幻灯片上进行直接交流。
Obviously, there’s quite a bit of collecting and achieving to be done in Mimo!
显然，在Mimo中有很多收集和实现的工作！
The app lets users set their own desired learning frequency, but all this does is dictate how often the app will remind you to use it – it has no other effects on the app in terms of course length or content.
该应用程序允许用户设置自己想要的学习频率，但是所有这些操作决定了该应用程序将提醒您使用它的频率–在课程长度或内容方面，它对应用程序没有其他影响。
It’s a sad world where 20 minutes of learning per day is considered insane, isn’t it?
这是一个悲伤的世界，每天20分钟的学习被认为是疯狂的，不是吗？
At the time of writing, Premium access costs a whopping 54.99 GBP per year, or 4.58 GBP per month, but only payable annually. It seems the app’s developers are well aware of the fact that most people abandon learning and self-improvement apps on mobile after a month.
在撰写本文时，高级访问每年的费用高达54.99英镑，或每月4.58英镑，但仅需每年支付。 该应用程序的开发人员似乎已经意识到，大多数人在一个月后就会放弃在移动设备上学习和自我完善的应用程序。
The biggest problem is that with what’s offered for free, it’s hard to justify spending this amount.
最大的问题是免费提供的东西很难证明花这笔钱是合理的。
The application offers individual language courses – PHP, HTML, Swift, “Hacking”, etc. but also course tracks that include several courses in order, aimed at teaching a bigger whole. For example, the Make a Website course has the sub courses: Programming, Programming 2, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.
该应用程序提供了单独的语言课程-PHP，HTML，Swift，“ Hacking”等，但课程轨迹包括依次排列的几门课程，旨在教授更大的整体课程。 例如，“制作网站”课程包含以下子课程：编程，编程2，HTML，CSS，JavaScript等。
This course doesn’t whet the appetite, however – what’s covered is a very basic and language agnostic concept of variables, and then the paid content begins. That’s 2 out of 43 lessons free – hardly enough content to make an educated purchasing decision. Also, despite what seems like a lot of content (43 lessons), it should be noted that lessons are typically 10-15 minutes long.
但是，本课程不会激起人们的胃口–所涵盖的是一个非常基本且与语言无关的变量概念，然后开始收费内容。 这是43堂课中的2堂-内容不足以做出明智的购买决策。 同样，尽管内容似乎很多(43节课)，但应注意，课程通常为10-15分钟。
The individual courses dive into the same thing (the free content at least) but explained in terms of the language being learned. So when starting the PHP course, you learn about PHP variables…
各个课程都涉及相同的内容(至少是免费内容)，但会根据所学的语言进行解释。 因此，在开始PHP课程时，您将了解PHP变量…
And when doing the Swift course, you do the same there.
在进行Swift课程时，您也可以在该课程中进行相同的操作。
Again, hardly a reason to purchase premium at this point. The approach does seem logical, however – if it really aims to be the Duolingo of programming, then it makes sense to present the same concepts you’re already familiar with in another language you’re not familiar with. What better way to learn than to solve the same problem you already solved in a new language? It’s just that these aren’t actual problems being solved.
同样，此时几乎没有理由购买保费。 但是，这种方法看起来确实合乎逻辑-如果它的真正目的是成为编程的Duolingo，那么用另一种您不熟悉的语言来介绍您已经熟悉的相同概念是有意义的。 有什么比解决用新语言已经解决的相同问题更好的学习方法呢？ 仅仅是这些并不是要解决的实际问题。
The biggest issue I see here is environment setup (predictable, seeing as I care so much about the subject I wrote a book on it). The application immediately dives into variables and other programming concepts, but a person just starting out with any of the languages has absolutely no idea how to really start. There are no instructions on how to install the runtime, compiler, or IDE, and no indication of what operating system or environment might be needed. I can easily imagine a user going through all of these courses, and then being completely stuck when sat behind a computer. This is akin to someone learning how to swordfight by playing an RPG on a mobile device – your avatar will swing the sword, but you won’t be any more competent with it once you finish the game.
我在这里看到的最大问题是环境设置 (可预见的，因为我非常关心我写过的一本书 ，因此这是可预见的)。 该应用程序立即进入变量和其他编程概念，但是刚接触任何一种语言的人绝对不知道如何真正开始。 没有有关如何安装运行时，编译器或IDE的说明，也没有指示可能需要哪种操作系统或环境。 我可以轻松地想象一个用户完成所有这些课程，然后坐在计算机后面时完全陷入困境。 这类似于有人通过在移动设备上播放RPG来学习如何进行剑术–您的头像会挥舞剑，但是一旦完成游戏，您将不再能胜任剑术。
Other than the repetition of the phrase “so-called” and some typos across the courses , the content is well written, easy to consume and generally very newbie-friendly.
除了在课程中重复使用“所谓”一词和一些错别字外，这些内容写得很好，易于使用且对新手很友好。
In the free section of the app, there are four simple approaches to teaching:
在应用程序的免费部分中，有四种简单的教学方法：
guesswork 猜测 deductions 扣除额 learning by heart 内心学习 riddles 谜语Guesswork will have a user guess a solution to a question, without being previously primed for it. A wrong guess will not allow the user to progress further, allowing for an infinite number of retries, and the right guess will explain the solution to an extent.
猜测工作将使用户无需事先准备即可猜测问题的解决方案。 错误的猜测将不允许用户继续前进，从而允许无限次重试，而正确的猜测将在一定程度上解释解决方案。
Deductions will usually prepare the user to answer a question with an answer they were given on the previous slide, or several slides earlier.
推论通常会使用户准备好用上一张幻灯片或几张幻灯片上给出的答案来回答问题。
Learning by heart will just throw definitions, theory, and explanations at the user, hoping it’ll stick.
内心学习只会向用户抛出定义，理论和解释，希望它能坚持下去。
Riddles will require re-ordering code sequences until they make logical sense and look like valid code.
谜语将需要重新排序代码序列，直到它们具有逻辑意义并看起来像有效代码为止。
These approaches are fine for theory, but I would still recommend Mimo add some manual input of code to develop people’s muscle memory. I would also recommend adding a boxed, limited REPL at the end of each lesson, where people can test out what they’ve learned thus far.
这些方法在理论上很好，但是我仍然建议Mimo添加一些手动输入的代码来开发人们的肌肉记忆。 我还建议在每堂课的末尾添加一个盒装的有限REPL，以便人们可以测试到目前为止所学的知识。
While the concept is interesting, I don’t think it’s possible to get to any meaningful degree of programming literacy with an app like Mimo. To learn how to program, one needs to develop the muscle memory of typing. One has to develop the ability of searching for solutions to problems (known as StackOverflow-fu) and the ability to find important pieces of information in a programming language’s manual. One needs to interact with the community of the language in question, and learn from examples that need to be hand tweaked to be applicable to the problem at hand.
虽然这个概念很有趣，但我认为使用Mimo之类的应用程序无法达到任何有意义的编程素养程度。 要学习编程，就需要培养打字的肌肉记忆。 必须开发一种能力来寻找问题的解决方案(称为StackOverflow-fu)，并能够找到编程语言手册中的重要信息。 人们需要与所讨论语言的社区进行互动，并从需要手工调整的示例中学习以适用于当前的问题。
Mimo has none of these important factors – it is effectively a “learn by heart” application which presents you with more theory than practical use. On its own, it can be helpful as an introduction to terms you might meet in a real project, but its practical value is highly questionable.
Mimo没有这些重要因素-实际上，它是一个“由心学习”的应用程序，它为您提供的理论多于实际用途。 就其本身而言，它可以帮助您介绍在实际项目中可能遇到的术语，但其实用价值值得高度质疑。
Admittedly, I may be missing out on some killer features in the Premium side of things, but 55 GPB for a year and payable only annually feels like an app-tourist-trap, especially given the lack of quality evident in the free sections of the app.
诚然，我可能在高级方面缺少一些杀手级功能，但一年55 GPB且仅按年支付的感觉就像是一个应用程序旅行者陷阱，尤其是考虑到免费版中明显缺乏质量的情况应用程式。
As an educator, I’ve never had problems recommending third party (non-SitePoint) content providers to people – my desire is to see people trained well, and immediate profits are not a priority. The pie is big enough for all of us, and a well trained community of devs profits everyone in the long run – many people started out applying as authors for us, then were pointed to some skill-honing resources, and came back years later, welcomed as capable contributors.
作为一名教育工作者，我从来没有遇到过向人们推荐第三方(非SitePoint)内容提供商的问题-我的愿望是看到人们接受良好的培训，而眼前的利益并不是重中之重。 馅饼对我们所有人来说已经足够大了，从长远来看，一个训练有素的开发人员社区可以使每个人受益—许多人开始为我们申请作者，然后被指到一些技能丰富的资源，几年后回来了，欢迎成为有能力的贡献者。
Mimo, however, is not one such resource – but it could be. With upgrades such as an emphasis on the social side of things, a simple REPL for languages that could support it (PHP, JS, Ruby, HTML), some improvements to the free parts of courses (typos, explanations, phrasing – general copy editing and course design, really), a different pricing model, and a more hands-on approach, Mimo could be a significant factor in many people’s education plan. The times I’ve been stuck in queues or traffic for 10+ minutes are many, and being able to use these idle times for learning something useful on the go in such an easy to consume way would have been invaluable.
但是，Mimo并不是这样的资源之一，而是可以的。 通过诸如强调事物的社交方面的升级，针对可以支持它的语言的简单REPL(PHP，JS，Ruby，HTML)，对课程的免费部分(打字，解释，措辞–常规复制编辑)进行了一些改进和课程设计)，不同的定价模式以及更实际的方法，Mimo可能成为许多人教育计划中的重要因素。 我被困在队列或交通中超过10分钟的时间很多，而能够利用这些空闲时间以一种易于使用的方式在旅途中学习有用的东西将是无价的。
I wish Mimo luck, and will check them out in future iterations of the app.
我希望Mimo祝您好运，并会在以后的应用程序迭代中检查它们。
翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/duolingo-php-much-php-can-apps-like-mimo-teach/
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相关资源：MU-MIMO的信道容量