Sam Hamilton is the former Web Content Administrator at the Edmonton Public Library.
When the weather outside gets colder, we turn to indoor activities—like coding! There’s no better time to learn than during Computer Science Education Week, which takes place this year from Monday, Dec. 7 to Sunday, Dec. 13.
Learning a new skill can be intimidating. That’s why Code.org started Hour of Code, “a one-hour introduction to computer science designed to demystify ‘code,’ to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science.”
If you have access to a computer, tablet or smartphone and an internet connection, you too can code! We’ve put together this list of free resources to help get you started.
Just for Kids and Teens
Did you know that kids as young as five can begin learning the basics of coding?
ScratchJr
Ages: 5 to 7
“Coding is the new literacy! With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) can program their own interactive stories and games. In the process, they learn to solve problems, design projects, and express themselves creatively on the computer.” — scratchjr.org
Tynker
Ages: 5+
Tynker’s philosophy is that kids learn best when they’re having fun. These interactive courses, games and tutorials let kids learn at their own pace.
Code.org
Ages: 5 to 18
“Code.org is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by young women and students from other underrepresented groups.” — code.org/about
Scratch
Ages: 8 to 16
“With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations—and share your creations with others in the online community.” — scratch.mit.edu/about
Hopscotch
Ages: 10 to 16
“Programming is an art as much as a science. You can express your ideas in Hopscotch through games, apps, animations, and more.” — gethopscotch.com/about
Take a Course
Codecademy
Codecademy offers free online courses in multiple coding languages—including HTML, CSS, Python and JavaScript—as well as subjects like web development, machine learning and data visualization. Browse their course catalogue.
edX
Created by Harvard and MIT, edX is a nonprofit that has partnered with top universities and companies to offer online education. Explore their computer science courses to “[l]earn programming languages and concepts to prepare for a career in hardware or software development.”
freeCodeCamp
freeCodeCamp is a nonprofit whose mission is to help people learn to code for free. In addition to videos, articles and interactive lessons, it offers verified certifications in web design, data visualization and more. Plus, there are hours of challenges to help you prepare for coding interviews!
Gale Courses
Free with your Edmonton Public Library card, Gale offers instructor-led computer programming courses. Each course is six-weeks long; please read the syllabus and hardware/software requirements carefully before enrolling!
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is another nonprofit whose mission is “to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere.” They offer a range of computer programming courses that includes HTML, CSS, JavaScript and SQL. Try their Hour of Code activities to get started.
LinkedIn Learning
If you prefer to learn at your own pace, access the LinkedIn Learning library, free with your library card. Browse the EPL catalogue for coding videos from LinkedIn Learning.
MIT OpenCourseware
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) publishes its course content online, making it freely available to anyone with internet access. Check out their course finder for computer programming languages.
Read a(n) (e)Book
Online courses not for you? Our library collection includes hundreds of books and eBooks about coding!
Narrow your search by selecting one of these topics:
Visit a Website
Code Conquest
Code Conquest is an online guide to coding created just for beginners. It starts with the very basics—What is coding?—and progresses to free tutorials in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python and more.
Codewars
Codewars gamifies learning by presenting each coding challenge as a kata, which you will need to solve to earn ranks (and honour).
GitHub
In web development “Git” isn’t an unpleasant person, it’s a version-control system for tracking changes. GitHub is a commonly used platform for development teams to collaborate and organize their work.
Learn how to use GitHub with these resources:
The Odin Project
The Odin Project is “designed to fill in the gap for people who are trying to hack it on their own but still want a high-quality education.” Its open-source curriculum features learning paths for web development foundations, Ruby on Rails and JavaScript.
W3Schools
W3Schools provides free, text-based tutorials for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, SQL, XML and more! This resource is valuable whether you’re just starting to code or have years of experience (and need to look up that one rule for the dozenth time).
Now that you’ve got the tools, it’s time to get coding! From Monday, Dec. 7 to Sunday, Dec. 13, join coders around the world for an Hour of Code.
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