Tags: learning

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cassidoo/HTML-CSS-Tutorial: Tutorial for HTML and CSS

Here’s a great free curriculum for teaching HTML and CSS.

Teaching and Brainstorming Inclusive Technical Metaphors - Features - Source: An OpenNews project

Some great ideas here about using metaphors when explaining technical topics.

I really like these four guidelines for good metaphors:

  • Complete
  • Memorable
  • Inclusive
  • Accessible

Material Conference 2017: Psychology and the Web - Amber Wilson - YouTube

Here’s Amber’s great talk from the great Material conference last month in Iceland.

Amber Wilson worked in the field of Psychology for many years and is now a budding Web developer at a design agency in Brighton. New to Web development, she is continually eager to improve her skills.

(The silhouettes of Jessica, me, and Joschi in the front row make it look like Mystery Science Theater 3000.)

advanced-js-resources.md

Following on from that intro-level book on JavaScript, here’s a handy list of resources for learning more advanced JavaScript.

bpesquet/thejsway: The JavaScript Way book

This looks like a good introductory book to JavaScript, DOM scripting, and Ajax.

You can read it for free here or buy a DRM-free ebook.

Hello codebar Sydney! | Charlotte Jackson, Front-end developer

People of Sydney, you’re in luck. Charlotte is starting up a Sydney chapter of Codebar. If you know someone there who is under-represented in the tech industry, and they’re looking to learn how to code, please tell them about this.

Some want to become full-time developers, whereas others want to learn the basics of coding to enhance their current jobs. Some want to learn programming as a hobby. Whatever the reason, we’d love to see you there!

Also, if you’re a developer in Sydney, please consider becoming a tutor at Codebar.

I promise that tutoring is not scary! We ask that you let us know which areas you feel comfortable tutoring when you sign up, so you choose what you teach. It’s absolutely okay to not know answers during sessions, but knowing how to look for them is helpful.

Oh, and if you’ve got a space in Sydney that can accommodate a class, please, please consider become a Codebar sponsor.

codebar.io Donations

Donate money to support Codebar:

By donating to codebar you are helping to promote diversity in the tech industry so that more women, LGBTQA and other underrepresented folks will be able to get started with programming and raise their skills to the next level.

It’s simple

I think “it’s simple” shouldn’t be used to explain something.

Reflections on Two Years of Indieweb

Alex Kearney looks back on two years of owning her own data.

With a fully functional site up and running, I focused on my own needs and developed features to support how I wanted to use my site. In hind-sight, that’s probably the most indie thing I could’ve done, and how I should’ve started my indieweb adventure.

This really resonates with me.

One of the motivating features for joining the indieweb was the ability to keep and curate the content I create over time.

Terrific post!

Here’s to two more years.

Introducing the Made by Many professional development programme – Made by Many

This resonates a lot—we’ve been working on something similar at Clearleft, for very similar reasons:

We rode the folk knowledge train until it became clear that it was totally unscaleable and we struggled to effectively commute know-how to the incoming brains.

At Made By Many, they’ve sliced it into three categories: Design, Technology, and Product Management & Strategy. At Clearleft, we’re trying to create a skills matrix for each of these disciplines: UX, UI, Dev, Research, Content Strategy, and Project Management. I’m working on the Dev matrix. I’ll share it once we’ve hammered it into something presentable. In the meantime, it’s good to see exactly the same drivers are at work at Made By Many:

The levels give people a scaffold onto which they can project their personalised career path, reflecting their progression, and facilitating professional development at every stage.

It’s Time to Make Code More Tinker-Friendly | WIRED

We don’t want the field to de-­democratize and become the province solely of those who can slog through a computer science degree.

So we need new tools that let everyone see, understand, and remix today’s web. We need, in other words, to reboot the culture of View Source.

Off the Beaten Track · Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer

I love the way Matthias sums up his experience of the Beyond Tellerrand conference. He focuses on three themes:

  • Rediscovering originality,
  • Storytelling with code, and
  • Adopting new technologies.

I heartily agree with his reasons for attending the conference:

There are many ways to broaden your horizons if you are looking for inspiration: You could do some research, read a book or an article, or visit a new city. But one of the best ways surely is the experience of a conference, because it provides you with many new concepts and ideas. Moreover, ideas that were floating around in your head for a while are affirmed.

1 month in to my first developer role – Zara – Medium

I love seeing people go from Codebar to full-time dev work. It’s no surprise in Zara’s case—she’s an excellent front-end developer.

prettydiff/wisdom: Building better developers by specifying criteria of success

I frequently see web developers struggling to become better, but without a path or any indication of clear direction. This repository is an attempt to sharing my experiences, and any contributions, that can help provide such a direction.

It’s broken down into four parts:

I don’t necessarily agree with everything here (and I really don’t like the “rockstar” labelling), but that’s okay:

Anything written here is open to debate and challenges are encouraged.

Starting a React-Powered Comment Form | CSS-Tricks

This is a really great screencast on getting started with React. I think it works well for a few reasons:

  • Sarah and Chris aren’t necessarily experts yet in React—that’s good; it means they know from experience what “gotchas” people will encounter.
  • They use a practical use-case (a comment form) that’s suited to the technology.
  • By doing it all in CodePen, they avoid the disheartening slog of installation and build tools—compare it to this introduction to React.
  • They make mistakes. There’s so much to be learned from people sharing “Oh, I thought it would work like that, but it actually works like this.”

There’s a little bit of “here’s one I prepared earlier” but, on the whole, it’s a great step-by-step approach, and one I’ll be returning to if and when I dip my toes into React.

Mentoring for the junior mentor | Charlotte Jackson, Front-end developer

Charlotte shares her thoughts on the elements of a fruitful mentorship:

  • Learn from each other
  • Find the right level of challenge
  • Reach out
  • Meet with intent
  • Offer feedback and ask for feedback

Design in the Era of the Algorithm | Big Medium

The transcript of Josh’s fantastic talk on machine learning, voice, data, APIs, and all the other tools of algorithmic design:

The design and presentation of data is just as important as the underlying algorithm. Algorithmic interfaces are a huge part of our future, and getting their design right is critical—and very, very hard to do.

Josh put together ten design principles for conceiving, designing, and managing data-driven products. I’ve added them to my collection.

  1. Favor accuracy over speed
  2. Allow for ambiguity
  3. Add human judgment
  4. Advocate sunshine
  5. Embrace multiple systems
  6. Make it easy to contribute (accurate) data
  7. Root out bias and bad assumptions
  8. Give people control over their data
  9. Be loyal to the user
  10. Take responsibility

Codebar Coach Guide

It’s a short list, but this brief guide for coaches at Codebar is packed with excellent advice for anybody getting into teaching or training:

  • Do not take over the keyboard! This can be off-putting and scary.
  • Encourage the students to type and not copy paste.
  • Assume that anyone you’re teaching has no knowledge but infinite intelligence.

Offline Web Applications | Udacity

This is a free online video course recorded by Jake a couple of years back. It’s got a really good step-by-step introduction to service workers, delivered in Jake’s typically witty way. Some of the details are a bit out of date, and I must admit that I bailed when it got to IndexedDB, but I highly recommend giving this a go.

There’s also a free course on web accessibility I’m planning to check out.

Brighton digital companies just did something brilliant… | Declan Cassidy

A write-up of the BrightSparks programme that Clearleft is taking part in.

Each company agreed to help support one local child from a low-income family, on free school meals or with a yearly household income of under £25k.