Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[daveman]

My 15 year old daughter would like to learn coding.  I am trying to figure out what type of coding she should learn and if there is a good online course which someone could recommend.

Any advice?

Thanks 

Dave

[Awesome Donkey]

I know some developers, and they've all told me if I wanted to start learning how to code today I should start with C# (then once I get the hang of it move on to C, C++, Python, etc.). I've just never had the time to devote to it.

There's some pretty good starter C# YouTube videos out there, for example here's a series of starter C# videos to help people get started (created by an ex-Microsoft developer). There's other stuff on YouTube than can be hunted down to help with the journey, like the Microsoft Virtual Academy videos too.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbaEyM-xt9mVQEAXGlRRmbO2Qp_oqF-n

[drmimosa]

https://nostarch.com/pythoncrashcourse2e

I recently read Python Crash Course and thought it was fantastic. It strikes a good balance between code fundamentals, big concepts, and building projects. Most other books I saw skewed too far in one direction or another.

[BryanC]

Most of the kids (and programming clubs) use some type of video game context to start programming (Codeacademy, etc.). I'm not convinced that's the best method, but a lot of people that understand education better than I do say it works. I think it's important to get professional tools into their hands as early as possible and let them tinker with them. Raspberry Pi's make great tinkering devices if she is leaning towards hardware or even robotics. She'll learn more about how computers operate on Raspberry Pi OS than using a Windows or Mac. Next steps would be a GitHub/GitLab account and learning how to use VSCode.

The language she learns doesn't really matter, but I'd probably recommend a scripting language to begin with, and Python has the widest range of applications right now IMO. While it obfuscates the fundamental computer operations, it will allow her to focus on concepts and thinking algorithmically. Save the low-level intricacies for college and beyond.