Coding is the new literacy. So essential it has become that the president of the United States takes it seriously. Last year, Obama became the first US President to write a computer program.
If Obama thinks it’s serious, so should you. We want to help you take the first steps. Here are twelve internet resources to teach yourself to code. You are welcome.
Codecademy
Codecademy is a first on our list to learn the basics of programming, because of its advanced learning interface and well-structured courses. Once on the page, the lesson begins with an on-screen console that links to every activity you embark on. The courses offered are PHP, Javascript, jQueery, Python, Ruby and APIs.
This website teaches how to write programs and the courses are designed to be entertaining. It teaches three programming languages; HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.
Code School
This website is good for when ramping up your coding skills in a hands on manner. Courses here are divided into four sections, Ruby, JavaScript, HTML/CSS and iOS. Each has informative screencasts with hints and answers to fall back on. While most courses are free, some others will cost $25/month to access including all screencasts and challenges.
Coder Dojo
CoderDojo focuses on community, peer learning, youth mentoring and self led learning.
Udacity
Udacity is a collection of video lectures. It is ideal for learners who don’t particularly like endless hours of reading. Udacity is free.
Khan Academy
Khan is an arena for novice programmers interested in learning animation, drawing and user interaction with code. Users can join the Programming Basics course to watch and learn coding fundamentals and then explore the sample code after the video tutorial for practice.
Scratch 2.0
Scratch was previously offline software that was built to let kids to create, upload and share projects. It is now web-based with the release of version 2.0. Scratch presents visual blocks of commands that tell assigned subjects how to behave. Using visual command cues, programmers quickly learn how to break a problem down to smaller blocks and solve one by one logically.
SQLZOO
SQLZOO teaches SQL using an interactive interface. The tools asks the user to replace variables like population numbers or city names, and then raises the difficulty levels as a user progresses. This one is for people who’ve gotten some coding experience under their belt though, and want a challenge.
MIT Open Courseware
The website offers free course content for beginners. Courses here include introduction to programming in Java, computer science, programming and practical programming in C.
Google University Consortium
The Google University Consortium offers free courses on mobile/Android development, web development and other programming languages. Although the materials are created for more intermediate to advanced users, there’s content for beginners too. And it’s free.
Cousera
Cousera is a website that offers free massive open online courses (MOOCs) from different Universities. Users can easily search courses on coding, or zone in the area they really want to pursue as a programmer. There are usually tons of those.
HTML5 Rocks
HTML5 Rocks is a project that features google pro contributors bringing latest updates, resource guides and slide decks for all things HTML5.
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