Presentation by Nancy Naluz
InfoNexus Conference 2015
NANCY NALUZ
@nancynaluz
nancy@ladieslearningcode.com
Front-End Engineer // Community Manager // Speaker
Ladies Learning Code is a Canadian women-run, not-for-profit organization that offers workshops for women (and men!) to learn programming and other technical skills in a social and collaborative environment.
CITIES
(ACROSS CANADA)
STARTING IN MONTRÉAL IN JANUARY 2014, WE ARE THE 1ST CITY TO OFFER IT IN BOTH ENGLISH & EN FRANÇAIS
EVENTS
(and growing)
PARTICIPANTS
OF OUR LEARNERS ARE COMPLETE
BEGINNERS
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/diversity-in-tech/
Read full study here.
YEARS
OVER THE PAST
...
THE NUMBER OF CANADIAN WOMEN GRADUATING IN STEM IS DECLINING.
WOMEN ARE PAID
...
THAN THEIR MALE COLLEAGUES
LOWER
of HIGHLY QUALIFIED WOMEN in STEM QUIT THEIR JOB
ACCORDING TO THE ATHENA FACTOR
https://modelviewculture.com/
It's 2015. Is it really getting better?
http://www.codecademy.com/
http://teamtreehouse.com/
https://www.codeschool.com/
With a focus in UX, we are finally understanding how to best optimize presenting information and ease of accessibility.
https://thimble.webmaker.org
http://codepen.io/
http://jsfiddle.net/
Google Chrome Developer Tools
Firebug Developer Tools
Documentation is only getting better.
http://css-tricks.com/
http://getbootstrap.com/
http://stackoverflow.com/
Nevertheless, I wouldn't say that the environment to learn code online is "perfect."
StackOverflow is very opinionated and based on a point system.
Developers can be very opinionated. Just getting started can be intimidating at first.
Allow for diversity.
DON'T talk down on beginners and create documentation that is easily accessible to beginners.
Chris Coyier's List of Words to Avoid in Educational Writing
http://css-tricks.com/words-avoid-educational-writing/
Scott Gray from O'Reilly School of Technology:
1. Learn by making
2. Project-based learning
3. Don't be afraid to make mistakes
http://bit.ly/18SKrmw
"Teach one girl how to code, she’ll teach four" - Reshma Saujani
Things I learned from being a part of the community...
Don't just learn code.
Thanks for listening!