Even if you think the buzz around "learning how to code" is overkill, you have to admit it's here to stay.
Just like it's easier to learn a foreign language if you start in
grade school, getting an early grasp on mark-up and programming
languages such as HTML, CSS and Java ensures you'll have an idea of what
makes our digital lives and devices tick, even if you don't plan on
becoming a software developer.
Zach Sims, co-founder and CEO of Codecademy, tells Mashable that learning how to code is reasonably easy for beginners, especially people under 18.
This year, Codecademy set up initiatives in England, Estonia and
Argentina to bring coding education to young students — England and
Estonia both added coding to their national curricula. As a result, Sims
and the team found that "people in high schools can start with actual
programming, and more advanced students in middle school can do the
same,” he says.
The key, though, is making the learning process interactive. A
favorite catchphrase of those who advocate coding education is "learn by
doing," and Sims repeats the sentiment. In the past few years, this has
led to a surge in educational tools that favor project-driven learning
over lectures. The good news is, there aren't any prerequisites.
Start off easy with these five online resources, for kids and adults alike, to help on your way to becoming well-versed in code.
"It's never too early to start with something like a Scratch," Sims says.
Scratch is an MIT project that builds a graphical processing language
("Scratch") out of which you can make animated characters on a screen
move. While Scratch isn't something you could use to build a website, it
does teach algorithmic thinking as well as the the concepts of a
computer language, and it can smooth the transition to using HTML and
CSS.
Code.org's mission is to
expand the number of students, especially women and people of color,
with access to the learning tools for coding languages. The exercises
available on its website are formatted like games with drag-and-drop
tiles, but users can view the code they're building during the challenge
and when it's completed.
You can even make Elsa from Frozen walk 100 pixels, make a
right turn by 90 degrees and walk another 100 pixels, just by typing
"moveForward(100); turnRight(90); moveForward(100);" in Javascript.
As soon as users sign up
with Codecademy, they can start learning how to design their own
websites with HTML and CSS, and animate their own names with Javascript.
Sims says that Codecademy helps students by allowing them to "write a
line of code, and you see what happens immediately," instead of
passively watching an instructor. Students also benefit from being asked
to build recognizable websites, such as Etsy, with Ruby on Rails.
CS50, Harvard University's intro computer science course, enrolls
more than 800 in-class students and thousands of online auditors. The
syllabus includes general concepts as well as languages, and there are
videos and problem sets online that allow students from all over the
world to follow along.
While it's not as hands-on as Codecademy, people looking for a more traditional computer science education should check it out.
While Team Treehouse isn't
free — it costs $25 for a basic plan and $49 for a pro plan (which gives
you access to exclusive workshops and interviews) — it's arguably the
most in-depth learning tool for coding and covers a wide variety of
topics.
Treehouse also has special tracks, such as web design and iOS
development, for users who have specific endpoints in mind for their
coding education.
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