Damnit, Codecademy, you're so close. As someone who had to bang their head against the wall for years to learn how to program, you're now doing a great job solving steps 2, 3, 4 and 5 (whereas before you did a great job solving steps 4 and 5). But for people starting out, the problem is that
this is all still theoretical.Sure, you are now actually building a project, but still only in this cute little console. What is a text editor? What is hosting? What does DNS mean? How can I make what I typed into my text editor show up on mydomain.com? What do I actually do with all of this HTML, CSS and JavaScript you're teaching me how to write?
"Let's build the airbnb website" is infinitely better than "this is a 'for loop in JavaScript,'" but it still doesn't solve the main problem of understanding how I can build technology. Solve that problem, and the motivation to learn to program goes up 10x, because all of the sudden it's real and it's live. Stop teaching us how to dick around in apps you built and teach us how to make something real.
Sure, you are now actually building a project, but still only in this cute little console. What is a text editor? What is hosting? What does DNS mean? How can I make what I typed into my text editor show up on mydomain.com? What do I actually do with all of this HTML, CSS and JavaScript you're teaching me how to write?
"Let's build the airbnb website" is infinitely better than "this is a 'for loop in JavaScript,'" but it still doesn't solve the main problem of understanding how I can build technology. Solve that problem, and the motivation to learn to program goes up 10x, because all of the sudden it's real and it's live. Stop teaching us how to dick around in apps you built and teach us how to make something real.