Over the past two or so years, I have wanted to be able to code websites and apps from scratch. The problem was, I didn't really know where to start. Most of what I found was places to code that required you to already have experience. I didn't want to watch a video tutorial because I prefer to learn by actually practicing the thing I'm trying to learn. Since then, I have found a number of free websites that have very good beginner programs.
I came across the website CodeCademy.com and found that they have very comprehensive beginner tutorials. On their website, you can pick from a variety of different courses for many different languages of code. I started with the Fundamentals of HTML and CSS course. Throughout the lessons, there are easy to understand instructions. Most of the exercises are challenging but doable. Since then, I have taken their Python, Javascript and GitHub courses. Each of these is filled with the same comprehensive instructions. CodeCademy was a very easy way to get into coding, and practice my newly learned skills.
SoloLearn is a website and an iOS app that teaches almost every coding language that you have heard of and many you haven't. Their lessons are explained pretty well, although I prefer those of CodeCademy. In each course, there are several circles that represent the lesson plan. Inside each circle are the lessons, and they build off of the previous lessons, so it only allows you to unlock one new lesson at a time. In each individual lesson, there is an explanation followed by a question. At the end of each group of lessons, there is a quiz. It usually consists of four to eight questions that test your comprehension and show you if you need to go back and review a lesson.
In most of the explanations, there is an example code. You can usually click on it and it will bring you to the "Code Playground." You can adjust or edit that code if you want and save it for future reference.
Overall, I found SoloLearn to be a good place to review things I had already learned. Contrary to CodeCademy, SoloLearn doesn't have you type the code from scratch, but rather just has you fill in a blank or two in an existing line of code. I think SoloLearn is a great place to reference if you forget something need to know for a project you are working on.
You can also challenge other users to compete against you on several of the languages. The questions are usually similar to what you would find on the quiz at the end of a lesson group.
In the Code Playground, you can write code from scratch that can be displayed within the SoloLearn site, but if you write a website or something, you won't be able to publish it publicly to the internet.
Khan Academy has a decent beginner program for commonly known coding languages such as HTML and CSS, but other than that and a few others, they don't offer many learning programs for real languages. In these lessons, you usually watch a video or read a quick explanation, then fix, edit, or play around with existing code. There are requirements to pass each segment, but you can usually get away with taking shortcuts that you wouldn't want to do in real life.
Khan Academy also offers a super-beginner program called CodeMonkey. This is basically a way to explain coding to somebody third grade or younger. It teaches them to give the computer commands and guide a monkey through a maze.
Although I have never used this resource, I know that Code.com offers some lessons, so if you want to learn more about coding, that may be a good place to start.
If you have an iPad or tablet, there are lots of other apps that teach coding available in the app store.
After you have started learning a language, you can start to write code using a NotePad file on Windows devices, or a TextEdit file on Macs. When you save the file, be sure to title it with the language's suffix. For example, an html code would have to have .html at the end for the computer to interpret it correctly. Each language has its own suffix, so be sure you find out what it is. For some languages such as Python, you can download the program from the internet and code inside that.
I hope this was helpful. Feel free to email me if you have suggestions for future topics, or would be interested in being a guest writer!
Easy Places to Start Coding
Over the past two or so years, I have wanted to be able to code websites and apps from scratch. The problem was, I didn't really know where to start. Most of what I found was places to code that required you to already have experience. I didn't want to watch a video tutorial because I prefer to learn by actually practicing the thing I'm trying to learn. Since then, I have found a number of free websites that have very good beginner programs.
I came across the website CodeCademy.com and found that they have very comprehensive beginner tutorials. On their website, you can pick from a variety of different courses for many different languages of code. I started with the Fundamentals of HTML and CSS course. Throughout the lessons, there are easy to understand instructions. Most of the exercises are challenging but doable. Since then, I have taken their Python, Javascript and GitHub courses. Each of these is filled with the same comprehensive instructions. CodeCademy was a very easy way to get into coding, and practice my newly learned skills.
I came across the website CodeCademy.com and found that they have very comprehensive beginner tutorials. On their website, you can pick from a variety of different courses for many different languages of code. I started with the Fundamentals of HTML and CSS course. Throughout the lessons, there are easy to understand instructions. Most of the exercises are challenging but doable. Since then, I have taken their Python, Javascript and GitHub courses. Each of these is filled with the same comprehensive instructions. CodeCademy was a very easy way to get into coding, and practice my newly learned skills.
SoloLearn is a website and an iOS app that teaches almost every coding language that you have heard of and many you haven't. Their lessons are explained pretty well, although I prefer those of CodeCademy. In each course, there are several circles that represent the lesson plan. Inside each circle are the lessons, and they build off of the previous lessons, so it only allows you to unlock one new lesson at a time. In each individual lesson, there is an explanation followed by a question. At the end of each group of lessons, there is a quiz. It usually consists of four to eight questions that test your comprehension and show you if you need to go back and review a lesson.
In most of the explanations, there is an example code. You can usually click on it and it will bring you to the "Code Playground." You can adjust or edit that code if you want and save it for future reference.
Overall, I found SoloLearn to be a good place to review things I had already learned. Contrary to CodeCademy, SoloLearn doesn't have you type the code from scratch, but rather just has you fill in a blank or two in an existing line of code. I think SoloLearn is a great place to reference if you forget something need to know for a project you are working on.
You can also challenge other users to compete against you on several of the languages. The questions are usually similar to what you would find on the quiz at the end of a lesson group.
In the Code Playground, you can write code from scratch that can be displayed within the SoloLearn site, but if you write a website or something, you won't be able to publish it publicly to the internet.
Khan Academy has a decent beginner program for commonly known coding languages such as HTML and CSS, but other than that and a few others, they don't offer many learning programs for real languages. In these lessons, you usually watch a video or read a quick explanation, then fix, edit, or play around with existing code. There are requirements to pass each segment, but you can usually get away with taking shortcuts that you wouldn't want to do in real life.
Khan Academy also offers a super-beginner program called CodeMonkey. This is basically a way to explain coding to somebody third grade or younger. It teaches them to give the computer commands and guide a monkey through a maze.
Although I have never used this resource, I know that Code.com offers some lessons, so if you want to learn more about coding, that may be a good place to start.
If you have an iPad or tablet, there are lots of other apps that teach coding available in the app store.
After you have started learning a language, you can start to write code using a NotePad file on Windows devices, or a TextEdit file on Macs. When you save the file, be sure to title it with the language's suffix. For example, an html code would have to have .html at the end for the computer to interpret it correctly. Each language has its own suffix, so be sure you find out what it is. For some languages such as Python, you can download the program from the internet and code inside that.
I hope this was helpful. Feel free to email me if you have suggestions for future topics, or would be interested in being a guest writer!
I came across the website CodeCademy.com and found that they have very comprehensive beginner tutorials. On their website, you can pick from a variety of different courses for many different languages of code. I started with the Fundamentals of HTML and CSS course. Throughout the lessons, there are easy to understand instructions. Most of the exercises are challenging but doable. Since then, I have taken their Python, Javascript and GitHub courses. Each of these is filled with the same comprehensive instructions. CodeCademy was a very easy way to get into coding, and practice my newly learned skills.
Comments
Post a Comment