Teaching my Son to Code and Learning a Lot…
I have been slowly introducing the young Mr Wilde to developing, starting with a intro course to Java 2 years ago. It was being taught over the school holidays to teach kids how to make there own mine craft add-ons. It was a great idea but Java is not a language for the novice and certainly not well suited to teaching 10+ year old’s code. That being said, Hunter persisted and had some private lessons. He never actually developed anything himself but certainly learned a lot about the fundamentals of coding.
Forward to present and we are both now working through courses together online at Code Academy . There seems to be a new format for online training, especially with coding, offering an awesome hands on approach. You read through some theory, go over some examples and then get given a practical example to complete. Everything is in browser and so easy to follow. The system will test your code to see if you completed correctly as well provide hints and tips to help you along.
What is really impressive is its predominantly FREE. You can do all of the fundamental courses, no restrictions, no cost. There is a PRO service, that I signed up for, witch allows you to create a complete track as well as more detailed projects. You also get a Pro Advisor you to help you along if needed. I always want to get as much as possible from training but mostly singed up for the PRO to contribute and give back. Having something like this for FREE is awesome but people got to eat.
We have made our way through HTML, CSS, JavaScript and now working on Dynamics with jQuery. The more intermediate practicals give far less hints into what you need to write to complete, just an outline and all the tools you need to complete. We are really enjoying it.
Even though I have been working professionally as a WordPress developer for several years now, I have still learned lot or have come to understand so much more having to help someone else understand aspects and elements of different programming languages. So many things are taken for granted when learning to be a developer and for a long time my focus was to learn what I needed to know to make money. I am know focusing on learning more to understand the fundamentals, everything else seems to fall into place then.
We are on to AngualrJS next, my all-time favorite framework, then onto some server-side language. The course takes us down the Ruby path but more interested in going PHP, then onto Laravel, or perhaps even Python. Will post more as we progress.
Technology has been in my blood for as long as I can remember. Started with Dick Smith kits when I was 10, I was making FM wireless bugs in high school. After several years working, Electronics Technician, Sound and Lighting Technical Director and then IT Sysadmin, I am going with the flow and leaving the hardware behind, mostly. I am now developing solutions for the cloud, focus on WordPress, SharePoint and Mobile devices. Learning more and more every day.