Image by Julia Wolf CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I discussed the Learn to Code Year with my ENGL232/CULT270: Reading Popular Culture class this last week (naturally, thinking through our cultural construction of computing gets me out of bed with a song on my lips, as they say). After class a student asked whether she’d missed the boat, since 2012 was semi-officially the Learn to Code Year. I’d say it’s never too late. Programming can be tremendously satisfying, and, happily, programming skill isn’t innate, instead it rewards practice. There are plenty of good beginner tutorials available online, and, by setting aside three one-hour chunks of time per week, anyone can get started. It’s also a good deal of fun to think through your experience from your disciplinary perspective. Programming is embedded in history and culture, draws on our cognitive functions, and engages creativity, offering plenty of things to think through for English, Cultural Studies, History, Business, Modern Language, and Psychology students.
You can easily make 2015 your Learn to Code Year!
I recommend the following tutorial sites, but if they aren’t to your liking there are plenty of others out there. Feel free to hunt around for one that suits you.
- The Programming Historian
- Codecademy
- Praxis (slide sets and tutorials for a grad program at the University of Virginia)
- Lynda.com (a subscription service, Lynda has hundreds of tutorials)
If you learn best in a structured classroom environment, it might not be too late to register COSC 122: Computer Fluency or other digitally inflected courses on campus.