Tkc0100: preface  (Page 6/7)

Finally, another reason that I prefer JavaScript over Ruby for teaching purposes is that JavaScript is very easy to experiment with after completing the course. Allthat is required is a browser and a text editor.

For example, if you use a text editor to copy the text shown below into a plain text file with an extension of htm or html , and then open that file in your browser, the JavaScript code between the beginning and ending script tags will be executed.

The text shown above will cause the following text to appear in the browser window:

Hello from JavaScript

Codecademy Web Fundamentals

This course will teach you how to code HTML and CSS. HTML and CSS are not programming languages per se, but they do fall in the category ofcoding. Virtually every web page is based on HTML and web pages are often made more attractive through the use of CSS. Therefore, every coder needsto know how to code using HTML and CSS.

Like JavaScript, HTML and CSS are very easy to experiment with after completing the course. All that is required is a browser and a text editor. Simply create your HTML and CSSfiles using a text editor and then open the HTML file in your browser to see the results.

Codecademy Ruby

While JavaScript is the ubiquitous programming language for interactive web pages, Ruby is fast becoming one of the most popular programming languages forlarge-scale commercial websites. Those students who plan to go in that direction will do well to learn to program using the Ruby programming language.

Unlike JavaScript, some effort is required to get your computer set up to experiment with Ruby after you finish the course. You will probably need to dosome web research to learn exactly how to do that.

Codecademy PHP and Python

The curious among you may wonder why I didn't include the Codecademy PHP and Python courses in my list of preferences. The answer is simple. As of thiswriting, I haven't had time available to work through and evaluate those courses.

Udacity - Introduction to Computer Science

The curious among you may also wonder why this is near the bottom of my list of preferred courses. I put it there largely because it is aninteractive video course and I don't consider video to be a very effective way to learn how to code.

This is a free course in computer science intended for beginners. You must establish an account to take the course, but as of March 2013 the course isfree. Having an account is an advantage. If you need to log out and do something else before completing a lesson, the next time you log in, the Udacity systemallows you to resume at the point where you left off earlier.

Online video with interactive quizzes

This course makes an interesting and relatively seamless use of video content with interactive quizzes, but it is not for younger learners. It moves at a fairly rapid pace and I have noticed that sometimes the author includesmaterial on the quizzes that has not yet been discussed in the videos. Don't be too concerned, therefore, if you are unable to answer the questions on thequizzes the first time through.