For those who ever wanted to learn programming, but, for some reason, never had the opportunity, here is a great way to do it: codecademy.com.
Codecademy is a website specialized in teaching programming. Seriously? How? Does the website teaches you how to proceed? Are there video classes? How does it work?
Well, it is pretty simple, but, before I answer those questions, let me give you some background over Codecademy.
Codecademy is a different educational institution, committed with developing the ways of teaching in order to provide a great experience of learning and teaching online. All of this is based on how the public educational system of the USA was not thought to evolve the way it did since the XIX century, They wanted to be different, so they started this movement building their concept of education from the beginning to the very end. The online world, then, was thought to be a great way to create learning and teaching experiences, unlike the old (but not inefficient) classrooms.
The website is extremely intuitive and user-friendly, with very clean screens. They don't use video classes (at least not on the courses I've taken so far), but their way of guiding the students is really nice. Here is how it all works:
First, you can choose what you want to learn. There are six core programming concepts and syntax that you can learn before you start taking the project classes that will allow you to master those abilities. They are HTML/CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, Python and Ruby. After choosing what you want to learn, they show you a summarized content of the course so that you can have a preview of what is about to come. Well, you might get confused and scared at first when seeing the content, but, believe me, it is not hard. They even show you what's the level of knowledge you need to start the course and how many hours it will take for you to learn that skill and, when you see the "beginner" word smiling at you, it calms you down.
Each course are divided into sections that will guide you through it all, explaining the basics, how each function works and how to manage them, even giving you, when applied, alternatives on the use of the functions. So, you can choose what suits you better.
If you like collecting rewards, they even give you badges for finishing classes and projects. For each new skill you learn, there will be always challenges for you to do yourself based on what you've learnt so far. It works pretty well for me because "challenge" is kind of one of those words that gives me the feeling of excitement.
Do they issue certificates?
Well, they don't. But all of your achievements and results are recorded on your profile page (yes, you have to create an account in order to keep a record of what you've learnt) and you can always share with a possible employer or whomever you want.
From my experience, I can tell you: if you ever thought of starting to learn programming, I suggest you to do it now with Codecademy. I am a Chemical Engineer, but programming has always been one of the skills I've dreamt of having. There has always been excuses of time, money and other stuff that stopped me from learning programming and I found a way of doing it with Codecademy (I may post something I've done with my new skills in the future). It's for free, you can set the pace to do it and it may open new opportunities in your professional life.
So, let's rate:
XP Score: ✭✭✭✭✭
My recommendation: It's a new skill that will improve your professional life (or for your own use). So just do it. Definitely worth it!
Learning points: Well... programming! But not only that. Self-education! Many employers value this nowadays and, even if you don't apply for a job on programming, presenting that you are able to learn new skills by yourself, believe me, it's an advantage you have.
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