While the subject of computer science is constantly being thrown around as such an important subject to learn, you may have asked yourself, "How do I learn?" Well here are three basic steps that can get you started on the right direction.
1) Hour of Code. Doing "Hour of Code" is strongly encouraged as a first step in learning computer science. Websites like Khan Academy and CodeHS are just a few that have great tutorials for hour of code. This is emphasized as a first step primarily because it gives a general idea of what is programming, and allows you to know upfront if computer science is something you can do.
2) Learn a Language. Learning a programming language is the logical next step in learning how to program, and as a tool that can be used to make your own algorithms. Although you should know programming is just a tool used in computer science. Often it gets assumed that programming is computer science, it's not, computer science is encompassing the study of algorithms in general, which allows programming to be a useful tool in creating algorithms. When choosing a programming language unless you have an idea of what platform you want to program on, a language like JavaScript is highly recommended as a first language. JavaScript is relatively easy to learn and teaches the key concepts of clean syntax and can be programed using a verity of ide's but Webstorm or iteliJ community edition is probably the most popular, which can be downloaded off of Jet Brains. Also, the programming language Python is a popular first language for some. One downside to Python is because it's so programmer friendly it can be more difficult to learn another programming language with stricter syntax rules, you can download Pycharm or python idle. Once you've chosen a programming language, how do you go about learning it? If you're not taking a class in high school or college, getting a book on the language you're learning as well as watching tutorials on YouTube or khan academy.
3) Create a Personal Program. Once you've learned the basic operations and functions of the language, create a program that has not been given to you through the tutorials or book examples. Think of something that would be cool or useful to you and make it. The important thing of learning how to make your own program is the confidence it gives you that you would otherwise not have. If you only copy or follow the tutorial example programs that are online, have you really learned? It's truly a magical experience when you make your own program from scratch and you work through the bugs and fix and rewrite and finally get the result you wanted it sparks something incredible.
While there are many ways of going about learning computer science and computer programming this article should have given a general idea on how to go about learning. Please leave a comment below or shoot me an email in the contact page.
1) Hour of Code. Doing "Hour of Code" is strongly encouraged as a first step in learning computer science. Websites like Khan Academy and CodeHS are just a few that have great tutorials for hour of code. This is emphasized as a first step primarily because it gives a general idea of what is programming, and allows you to know upfront if computer science is something you can do.
2) Learn a Language. Learning a programming language is the logical next step in learning how to program, and as a tool that can be used to make your own algorithms. Although you should know programming is just a tool used in computer science. Often it gets assumed that programming is computer science, it's not, computer science is encompassing the study of algorithms in general, which allows programming to be a useful tool in creating algorithms. When choosing a programming language unless you have an idea of what platform you want to program on, a language like JavaScript is highly recommended as a first language. JavaScript is relatively easy to learn and teaches the key concepts of clean syntax and can be programed using a verity of ide's but Webstorm or iteliJ community edition is probably the most popular, which can be downloaded off of Jet Brains. Also, the programming language Python is a popular first language for some. One downside to Python is because it's so programmer friendly it can be more difficult to learn another programming language with stricter syntax rules, you can download Pycharm or python idle. Once you've chosen a programming language, how do you go about learning it? If you're not taking a class in high school or college, getting a book on the language you're learning as well as watching tutorials on YouTube or khan academy.
3) Create a Personal Program. Once you've learned the basic operations and functions of the language, create a program that has not been given to you through the tutorials or book examples. Think of something that would be cool or useful to you and make it. The important thing of learning how to make your own program is the confidence it gives you that you would otherwise not have. If you only copy or follow the tutorial example programs that are online, have you really learned? It's truly a magical experience when you make your own program from scratch and you work through the bugs and fix and rewrite and finally get the result you wanted it sparks something incredible.
While there are many ways of going about learning computer science and computer programming this article should have given a general idea on how to go about learning. Please leave a comment below or shoot me an email in the contact page.