CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap @code-documentary - Tumblr Blog

Researchers find software repository GitHub approved code written by women at a higher rate than code written by men, but only if the gender was not disclosed

codeorg

This 3D printer makes human tissues and bones that could replace real ones

(x)

theinfogeekblog

This Quick Keyboard http://ift.tt/1on1jtG This Quick Keyboard Hack Will Give You Tons Of Emoticons February 16, 2016 at 04:37PM

thesprite

5 Disney Film Meme: Favorite quotes (Lilo and Stitch)

vulthuryoll

i’m good at being a god i swear

micdotcom

Watch: Jessica Williams also explained how the message has been in Beyoncé’s music all along.

keepcalmandprogram

The 7 Best Ways to Learn How to Code

It’s never been a better time to pick up programming.

No matter your age or experience, a plethora of tools are available to get you started or to help you refine your programming chops. Best of all, many of those resources are free.

You no longer have to spend countless hours trying to deconstruct new programming languages with no help beyond sparsely updated message boards and the good graces of patient IRC chat buddies. (In my day…) Now there are expertly written tutorials, helpful videos, and a wealth of other resources online.

Maybe you’re just curious about what all this programming stuff is about. Maybe you’re just bored. Or maybe, you’ve got the kernel of an idea for the next Facebook. Below, check out seven resources that could help you become a coding genius.

Codecademy

Perhaps the most renowned online training resource — and for good reason, Codecademy offers easy-to-understand interactive tutorials for popular languages like Python and Ruby. Totally green? Codecademy can also help you learn the fundamentals of the web, HTML and CSS, to create your own website from scratch.

You won’t be going it alone either. The site allows you to join up with friends to take programming lessons together (and it’s a helpful way to keep you motivated). Fast learner? You can also build your own lessons as a course creator.

Price: Free Skill level: Novice

OpenCourseWare Consortium

While the “OpenCourseWare” (OCW) concept was originally popularized by MIT’s 2002 move to put its course materials online, hundreds of other higher education institutions are now doing the same thing. The Consortium’s site lets you easily search for lessons across all of its member schools — and, yes, there’s much more than just programming help here. While you’ll mostly be left on your own with the material, it’s hard to deny the usefulness of having full courses online.

Price: Free Skill level: Novice to advanced

Above: Coursera founders Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller

Coursera

Like the OpenCourseWare initiative, Coursera aims to bring college courses online — but it’s specifically focused on making the “best” courses available. Here you’ll find a wealth of computer science courses from schools not participating in the OCW program. While the classes themselves are free, you may have to pay if you want certifications from some schools, as well as for proctored exams down the line.

Price: Free (but expect fees for other services) Skill level: Novice to intermediate

Khan Academy

One of the most renowned examples of the online learning movement, Khan Academy started out with its creator, Salman Khan, creating video tutorials for math lessons. It’s since branched out to other subjects, including science, economics, and yes, computer science.

Here you’ll find programming lessons in the form of short videos, buoyed by practice lessons and tools for teachers. Khan Academy also supports a wide variety of languages, thanks to translation help from volunteers.

Price: Free (Functions as a non-profit, with support from donors) Skill level: Novice to intermediate

Treehouse

“No experience, no problem!” While most of the services on this list are free ways to dip your toes into programming, Treehouse claims its premium offerings can prepare you for a developer gig, even if you’ve got no experience. A helpful iPad app also makes it easy to learn on the go.

Treehouse offers training videos, a real-time “Code Challenge Engine,” and a forum for members. Pay a bit more, and you can get even more features, like feedback on your projects and workshops on new technology.

Price: $25 a month for silver; $49 a month for gold Skill level: Novice to intermediate

Local accelerated training programs

If you need more hands-on and face-to-face interaction with an instructor, consider seeking out an intensive training program like Dev Bootcamp, AppAcademy, or one of the many courses offered by General Assembly. You’ll pay far more than any online training, but in exchange you’ll get dedicated instructors and much-needed inroads to engineering jobs.

Price: Variable, typically starts around $10,000 Expertise: Novice to expert

Local university courses

While it’s not as cool as saying you learned to code on your own using just the web, your local universities or community colleges are still useful resources for programming skills. They’re a good option if you need more structure in your lessons, and having the in-person interaction with a professor and colleagues isn’t something you can easily recreate online. And while they won’t be free, these courses will be far cheaper than an accelerated programming course.

Price: Variable Expertise: Novice to intermediate

via VentureBeat

stayplucky

My Top 5 Coding Resources

This website would not be alive if I was not able to look up instructions for html, css and even javascript to make the pages and layout look the way it does. Although let it be known now and forever that me and javascript have a really tough relationship. It’s true- I’ve been angrily doing javascript tutorials and failing since I got a D in Java Programming my sophomore year of college.

Javascript fueled anger aside, one thing I love about using tumblr is that I can access the code of my blog anytime I like and edit what I need to edit. Themes designed by people way more skilled than I am are great, but sometimes there are things in the themes that aren’t exactly right. That’s where these websites come in. These are my go to resources to figuring out how to make it right (if I don’t just type the question directly into google, which works as well)

1. W3 Schools

I don’t know how long W3Schools has existed but I swear it’s always been there. From my early days on the internet trying to figure out how to change the color of what I’m writing on a Harry Potter forum discussion, to a couple weeks ago figuring out how to make those cute rounded boxes that I see all over the internet on my about me page- W3 has been there. If you type into google:

How do I write HTML for…

they are usually one of the first results. They have extensive tutorials on HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Javascript and even some stuff on the server side like PHP and SQL but I find myself almost exclusively up in their HTML section or making sure the CSS thing I’m trying to do is actually a real thing.

Annnnd- they also offer certificates, i’ve never done it, but it sounds cool.

2. Bootply/Bootsnip

Bootstrap is super cool and it helps you make super cool looking websites, don’t get me wrong. It’s snazzy and as soon as you learn about it you wanna start using it like right now- but it’s kind of daunting.

Luckily, we have the Bootply and Bootsnip. Bootply has a text editor that comes with useful templates for making bootstrap-tastic navigation and tons of other cool stuff, also coming with just templates for your basic bootstrap website

Look at that majesty. It’s just fabulous and easy. They also have a drag and drop visual website maker, but honestly I find drag and drop code makers more trouble than their worth.

Bootsnip rather than all out templates, is a community of people that post cool stuff that they made in bootstrap in different categories.

Like you can look at every navigation menu anyone has ever had (as you can see I’m a little fixated on navigation- tbh I’m still not happy with the state of this blog’s menu)

Look at that. I love these sites. Even if I can’t make everything in these exactly happen, looking at the code that makes the things that these people made happen can help me look at the code that works for me.

3. GitHub

Speaking of getting help from other people, Github is the hub. It’s the place where everyone posts their code and looks at it and helps eachother with it. The idea really is amazing. With it I can do searches and look at tools people made. And fun fact for us non-programmers: a lot of people post tumblr themes on here. Even more, a lot of people post boilerplate themes to help other people develop from because that’s what they use and I find it incredibly useful.

4. Code Academy

As you can tell, I flit on and off of the site. Sometimes it’s useful and sometimes it isn’t.

Maybe Code Academy isn’t perfect, but it’s a site I end up going to again and again. You could look up all the code in the world but if you don’t understand it, it’s gonna be super hard for you to make it work. I would say that the guided lessons don’t necessarily help me memorize or know languages by heart- you know no way, it doesn’t, but it helps you get familiar and there are classes for everything on there. I’d say if you even want to exist on Tumblr and want to really impact the way your blog looks- go on Code Academy. You can search through all the themes in the world and you’re never going to find the one that fits you completely. It could just be little things. But just do it. You can make the blog you want with your head held high. I’d say with Code Academy and any of these other sites, it’s not being fluent in the language. That’s only going to come with practice. But if you take the lessons, you’ll have a roadmap.

5. Free Code Camp

Free Code Camp is one of the coolest things I’ve ever found. I don’t even remember how I found it, I think it was promoted on twitter or something. But it’s a comprehensive program that takes you through each of the languages and eventually pairs you with a nonprofit to help them with their website and to help you build a portfolio. Their goal is to get people on their site jobs when they finish. Not to mention, they’re registered as a school on LinkedIn, so you can add it to ‘Education’ on your profile. I do it when I can and I’ve fallen off the boat recently but I really think it’s a great resource. The lessons are great and when I’m on there it really feels like something clicks.

And there are tons more resources out there

I’ve watched so many videos and gone on so many websites and there are communities everywhere so that if this is something you want to learn, it really is an option. These 5 are just the tipping point and I hope you use them.

codeorg

Teacher of the month: “We need to shift students’ mindsets when it comes to computers.”

Jonas Raab technology teacher 1st-8th grade

Three years ago, Mr. Raab was brand new to his school and recognized a big opportunity for his students. He get his entire school to participate in the Hour of Code, and continued teaching computer science. He continues to go above and beyond for his community, inspiring faculty and students alike. Today, Mr. Raab is working to make certain that all students in grades 1-8 to learn to code, sparking excitement for the whole school.** **

Why computer science?

We need to shift students’ mindsets when it comes to using computers and the internet. We need to turn them from consumers to creators. Students now are in a unique and fortunate position. They live in a world that is becoming ever more controlled by technology. By learning to control and manipulate this technology, students learn to shape their future. By starting students now at a young age, we are setting them up to succeed later in life.

How do you get students of all ages interested in computer science?

With the younger students, I do a fun activity to introduce them to coding. At the start of class, I tell them that I am a robot. They need to come up with a list of commands so that I will walk from my current position to the door of the classroom. I follow their directions exactly. I end up walking into walls, or bumping into chairs and desks. We all have a good laugh and then this leads directly into a lesson on algorithms and programs.

For the older students, video games are so popular with both the girls and boys. I show them how they can easily code their own fully functioning video game. I even run a week-long “Create Your Own Video Game” camp here at school over the summer, which was featured on a local radio show.

Tell us about getting your entire school involved.

It is important for all faculty and administration be introduced to coding. By introducing our entire faculty to coding, they began to better understand the world in which our students currently live and the challenges they face. The everyday life of a current 7th grade student is light years different than that of a 7th grade student even just 5 years ago.

If we, as educators, refuse to enter that world and understand it, we do our students a great injustice.

Any advice for a teacher brand new to computer science?

You can do this too! It will help your students in all other areas of study. It helps them become better problem-solvers. You will notice a difference almost immediately. You can use coding to help deliver content in just about every subject area.

We’re sharing this story as part of our new Teacher of the Month series. There are teachers around the world who are changing the face of computer science. Do you teach with a rockstar teacher? Nominate them to be a Code.org Teacher of the Month.

refinery29

Watch The Founder of Girls Who Code Perfectly School Trevor Noah On Why Culture Makes Or Breaks Women In Tech

On The Daily Show with Trevor Noah guest Reshma Saujani, an Indian-American lawyer and politician, discussed the initiative to encourage young women and girls to pursue studies and careers the booming tech field, where they are falling behind. But there are two moments in a girl’s life where we can reverse the trend.

Gifs: The Daily Show/cc.com

qualcomm

We pulled together the week’s top tech stories, just for you:

1. Could Sweat Be The Next Goldmine For Wearable Data? Sure, this all sounds great for now. But just wait a few years till that “athlete” you met on Tinder turns out to just be really sweaty. via: @forbes

2. So, Dutch Cops Are Teaching Majestic Eagles To Hunt Drones If you keep up with falconry news long enough, you’ll start to wonder if they keep coming up with new jobs for birds because a world without falconers would be a little bit darker. via: @wired

3. Indycar Driver Tests Smart Shirt To Track The Perils Of Racing Gone are the days of simply putting your fitness tracker in the drawer. Soon your entire wardrobe will let you know that you still haven’t done much of anything lately. via: @engadget

4. This Robot Changes Color Like A Chameleon A lot of novel robotics innovations are presented as having some grand societal benefit. Of course, you have to at least applaud the temerity it takes to announce a robot whose only function is to trick human eyeballs. via: @gizmodo

thinkfulfilled

Coding Bootcamp Scholarships for Women

Many coding bootcamps provide scholarships for women to cover all or part of tuition and living expenses. Coding bootcamps are eager to have women apply so that more women can get into the tech field. There are lot of people in tech who are passionate about changing the ratio of men to women in tech! In fact, if you are a particularly outstanding candidate some bootcamps will look at applicants on a case by case basis for additional financial aid so don’t let finances stop you from applying!

Keep reading