With help from our friends at Techsdale, we’ve put together this collection of different resources available to begin learning code for web, design, and video game creation. Take this one piece of advice: documentation and tutorials are your friend! Especially in the case of the game engines, check out the official tutorials; then, search YouTube or Google for more tutorials (e.g., “Intro to Unity tutorial”). You’ll be amazed at how much is out there if you just go looking for it!

All items are beginner-friendly, unless indicated otherwise.

Starter Kit

At CoderDojo we have paper resources for an assortment of skills and skill levels. As you learn to use code more, you will switch to digital learning. We recommend all students start with My First Website as it introduces basic coding concepts, and also introduces students to Mozilla Thimble – which is a coding playground for young coders to experiment and be inspired.

Download kit (.zip) – or, ask for a USB key with the starter kit resources.

My First Website

• Basic web site instruction package of files and exercises.
• Download My First Website kit (.zip)
  

 

Scratch

• Basic game instruction series of exercises.
• Download Scratch gaming kit (.zip)

 

 

 

Coding

Online Resources

• Ages 7 – 10
  • Mozilla Thimble – Code playground w/exercises
  • Hour of Code – Solve problems with code
  • Scratch – Drag & drop game maker
  • App Inventor – Drag & drop app maker (Android only)
  • Read more about teaching young kids code
• Ages 11 – 18
  • Programming Basics – General programming basics in a wide array of languages. Developed my Dr. Ming-Yee Iu.
  • Code.org (free)
  • CodePen – HTML/CSS/JavaScript playground
  • Dash by General Assembly (free)
  • Codecademy (mostly free; some services paid)
  • NodeSchool – JavaScript Programming tutorials
  • Treehouse (1 week free; then paid)
  • CodeSchool (some lessons free; most paid)
  • Lynda.com (free to TPL members; generally paid)
  • DeVry Bootcamp (Free Web Development resources and tutorials) – intermediate
  • Guru99 (Software learning library across topics like Linux, Java, PHP, SQL, Ethical Hacking and more)

Physical Resources (Toronto)

• Bitmaker (offers paid coding bootcamps, but also occasionally offers a free Intro to Web Development class; follow their Facebook for these events)
• Ladies Learning Code and affiliated organizations (national coding classes for women and girls, with related initiative for kids)
• Maker Kids (offers numerous programs, camps and classes for kids in a variety of subjects)
• Maker Festival (annual festival showcasing all sorts of tech and ‘maker’ companies: robotics, science experiments, RC drones…)
• Dames Making Games (member-supported feminist gaming community; many free events)
• Hand Eye Society (a video games arts organization; their Game Curious program is to get people who don’t normally play games to become first-time game makers)

Books & Articles

• Hello Ruby (a kids book to teach computer literacy and introduce coding)
• No Starch Press titles, like Javascript for Kids, Python for Kids
• Help Your Kids With Computer Coding

Gaming

• Unity Engine; Unreal Engine (two of the most popular, (mostly) free engines for professional, 3D games)
• Stencyl game maker (freemium: main version free; additional features paid)
• Twine (simple tool for making story-based games, in a Choose Your Own Adventure style)