National Coding Week (17th September 2018)

Monday 17th September 2018 sees the start of National Coding Week. National Coding Week is all about encouraging people to give coding a go and with that in mind, and to help encourage anyone that reads my site and has not yet tried coding I thought a pre-National Coding Week blog post was needed.

For those that would like to try coding online from the comfort of their own home (or from a school or public library) there are options such as:

FreeCodeCamp – Free Code Camp has hundreds of hours of training content that teaches HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They also produce video guides and provide advice on moving into programming careers.

Scratch – If writing in a programming language seems a bit daunting then why not give Scratch a go. Using click-together-blocks that build programs, Scratch teaches the underlying principles of programming in a fun way.

OpenLearn – Open Learn is free learning provided by the Open University and has modules on programming and IT.

Other online learning resources also include EdX, Microsoft Virtual Academy and W3 Schools.

If you want to meet up and learn some coding then consider:

CodeUpUK – CodeUp UK hold regular coding sessions/meet ups for adults to get together and discuss/learn coding.

Raspberry Pi Jam – Raspberry Pi Jams are sessions held for Pi fans to come together and share ideas, learning and their enjoyment of Pi.

For the younger readers try a Code Club or a CoderDojo – both are brilliant places to learn to code in a fun environment.

If you find yourself wondering which coding language to start with then consider what you want from your code:

Scratch – perfect for learning how code goes together

HTML / CSS – great for building webpages/sites and learning the foundations which JavaScript builds on.

JavaScript – the language that makes webpages do the awesome things most people want.

Python – a long time favourite of mine, great for everything from making games to crunching data.

There is also Basic, C++, C#, Java (no relation to JavaScript), Swift, Ruby and many many more. My opinion and advice, unless you are after a career in a particular programming field, find the language you like and learn it.

If you would like to read more on National Coding Week, see what events are happening or want to get involved then check out the links below.

Official Website:

https://codingweek.org/

Official Twitter:

https://twitter.com/codingweek

Wikipedia Page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Coding_Week