It’s always been on my bucket list: learn how to complete basic coding. I’m excited because finally the Networked Media course is giving me the opportunity to learn the basics.

In our introduction to HTML, we are going to be writing two very simple web pages, learning how to hyperlink and embed images. In my initial research for the task, I came across Code Academy – a website which teaches all kinds of coding for free, with a current enrolment figure in the 20 million+. I definitely want to revisit this source and try my hand out at some more interactive coding. So watch this space on my blog to see me showing off my fancy new tricks like making my text go like this and like this! I can even do this 😉

As per Adrian’s recommendations, I’m also going to read over Dave Raggett’s ‘Introduction to HTML’ here to see what tips I can pick up. So far I’ve learned about webpage metadata (including the document type, the head, and the title), headings, body and paragraphs, hyperlinks, images, and alignment.

In Ed Rex’s article, ‘You Can Already Code – You Just Don’t Know It Yet‘, he raises some interesting points about the way that coding basics are integrated to our lives already.

Code is instructions. You write the instructions, and the computer follows them. Any time you’ve given someone directions to your house, or typed in a sum on a calculator, or lined up a row of dominoes, you’ve essentially been coding.

He creates the analogy that coding is essentially employing an obedient servant with your fingertips to enact the instructions you set for it, as long as it’s precise and tidy. This really makes away with the Hollywood stereotype of thick-rimmed-glasses-wearing socially awkward ‘nerds’ hunched over their computers for hours on end, and makes coding something much more accessible to the masses.

In his bio, Rex explains that he writes music, code and words, and finds that they are largely interchangeable. I like this idea, because it reaffirms just how entwined and entangled our networked lives really are.

(Image via flickr)