A New Platform For Learning To Code
I’m talking about codecademy for mobile!
The Idea
I’ve always been interested in getting people to code. It’s something I love doing & naturally I want to share that with others. With the hype of Learning to Code that began last year there exists a number of way to get into code but surprisingly, if you look in the AppStore. These apps are almost nonexistent.
When the Hour of Code app by Codecademy was released into the AppStore, I was extremely excited until I realised, you couldn’t write or run any code but there was a huge hype & it was even number one in the AppStore at some point.
I garnered that there must be some interest in learning to code on mobile devices. Agreed, the form factor is quite small but mobile will soon surpass the desktop in terms of web traffic. Who says we can’t make this form factor work? I’ve decided to try.
Inspired with this idea, I decided to build a prototype of my idea at the HackKings Hack.
The Prototype
So far, the app has three main areas, Lessons, Challenges & a Playground Mode.
Apart from the typical lessons, the app could have basic challenges(solutions in 10 lines or so) that people could solve to see how far they’ve really progressed & possibly compare with friends.
The last feature is a virtual playground where can use can type & run any piece of code in order to play with the language & learn some stuff on their own.
If you want to have a play with the app, the code is on github & I hope to get a version 1.0 up in the AppStore soon.
I really believe in this idea because by breaking down the barriers to entry to code, it gives people a less of a reason to put it off.
I also think this idea has implications for improving coding literacy in places where access to proper computers may be minimal. I believe those places will more likely/easily get smartphones & could eventually learn to code with this app.
What Do You Think?
I’m writing this to elicit thoughts & discussion as to the basic premise of would you ever want to write code on your mobile device? Do you agree more people would be inclined to learn if they go could through their phone? Should tablets be the focus instead?
Hit me up at @tosinaf, or on branch if you have any thoughts on this.
