建网站和开发应用的编程课程在美国很走俏
日期:2014-04-08 10:31

(单词翻译:单击)

Like many 10-year-olds, Nick Wald takes private lessons. His once-a-week tutor isn't helping him with piano scales or Spanish conjugations, but teaching him how to code.
与许多10岁大的孩子一样,尼克·沃尔德(Nick Wald)也会在课外开小灶。不过,一周给他上一次课的家教为他辅导的并非钢琴音阶和西班牙语的动词变位,而是教他如何写代码。
Nick, a fifth-grader in New York, went in with no experience and has since learned enough HTML, JavaScript and CSS to build a simple website. He is now working in Apple's AAPL +0.97% XCode environment to finish an app named 'Clockie' that can be used to set alarms and reminders. He plans to offer it in the iOS App Store for free.
尼克是纽约一名五年级的学生,一开始他没有任何经验,自学写代码以来他学会了足以建一个简单网站的HTML、JavaScript和CSS知识。目前他正在苹果(Apple)的XCode环境下开发一款名为“Clockie”、可用于设置闹钟和提醒事项的应用。他还打算在iOS应用商店免费提供这款应用。
'I always liked to get apps from the app store, and I always wanted to figure out how they worked and how I could develop it like that,' Nick says.
他说:“我一直都喜欢从应用商店获取应用,而且我一直想弄明白它们是如何运行的以及我怎样能开发出那样的应用。”

As the ability to code, or use programming languages to build sites and apps, becomes more in demand, technical skills are no longer just for IT professionals. Children as young as 7 can take online classes in Scratch programming, while 20-somethings are filling up coding boot camps that promise to make them marketable in the tech sector. Businesses such as American Express Co. AXP -0.53% send senior executives to programs about data and computational design not so they can build websites, but so they can better manage the employees who do.
由于编程或使用编程语言来建网站和开发应用的能力越来越受欢迎,科技技能不再只是针对IT专业人士的要求。现在,只有七岁大的孩子也能学习Scratch编程网络课程,20来岁的年轻人则挤满了承诺让他们成为科技行业抢手人才的编程培训班。美国运通(American Express)等企业还送高管去参加数据和电脑设计的培训项目,这么做的目的不是让他们能建网站,而是让他们能更好地管理从事此类工作的员工。
'I equate coding to reading and writing and basic literacy,' says Adam Enbar, founder of New York's Flatiron School, which offers 12-week, $12,000 programs to turn novices into developers. 'Not everyone needs to be Shakespeare, just as not everyone needs to be an amazing developer,' he says. 'But...we're entering a world where every job if not already, will be technical.'
纽约Flatiron培训学校的创始人亚当·恩巴尔(Adam Enbar)说:“我认为编程好比读写和基本的文化素养。不是每个人都需要成为莎士比亚,就如不是每个人都需要成为了不起的开发者一样。但是…我们正在迈入这样的一个世界:每项工作即使现在还没有做到科技化,将来也必将实现科技化,。”Flatiron学校提供为期12周的课程,意在将新手培养为开发者,学费为12,000美元。
Programming languages vary in popularity and difficulty, and it takes hundreds of hours to become even a junior developer. But understanding what 'code' is and knowing what's possible and what's not, when working with an IT team, is generally more important than being able to make apps yourself.
编程语言的热门度和难度各有不同,就算成为一名初级开发者也需要学习几百个小时。不过,在与一个IT团队合作时,明白什么是“代码”以及了解什么是可能的、什么是不可能的,通常比能够自己开发应用更重要。
The Younger Set
青少年培训
Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth offers online courses in everything from essay writing to music theory, but Web-development classes have been 'a juggernaut in terms of level of interest,' says Patricia Wallace, senior director of CTY Online. The courses are geared toward elementary- and middle-school students. In 2009, 63 children signed up for Introduction to Web Design, one of the few coding classes then offered. This year, there are already 762 enrollments.
约翰·霍普金斯大学(Johns Hopkins University)精英学生学习中心(Center for Talented Youth)推出的网络课程涵盖从写作到音乐理论的各类主题。但该中心网络课程部门高级总监帕特里夏·华莱士(Patricia Wallace)称,网页开发课程一直是“极其受关注的大热门”。这些课程的对象为小学生与中学生。2009年,有63名学生报名学习《网页设计入门》,这是当时开设的少数编程课程之一。今年该课程已招收了762名学生。
The classes, which began with Introduction to Web Design and soon may include Intermediate Scratch Programming, are growing because there aren't many opportunities to learn coding in elementary and middle school, says Ms. Wallace. Some parents want children to learn programming as early as possible.
华莱士称,课程一开始教的是《网页设计入门》,接下去可能很快就会教《中级Scratch编程》。由于在小学和中学学习编程的机会不多,此类班级的规模在不断扩大。有些家长希望孩子尽早学习编程。
In-person coding programs for kids are springing up across the country. CoderDojo Twin Cities, a Minneapolis-based volunteer program, holds free, daylong coding programs. It has filled each of its 20 sessions with about 80 students since it launched in April. 'We've had to turn students away at every event,' says CoderDojo Twin Cities co-founder Matt Gray. The kids build games with Ruby, work with Linux, and-in one of the most popular programs-learn Python to build things in the world of Minecraft, a popular videogame.
针对儿童的面对面授课编程课程也在全美各地涌现出来。明尼阿波利斯的志愿者计划CoderDojo Twin Cities便提供连续一整天的免费编程培训。自从在4月份启动以来,该项目的20次课每次都挤满了80名左右的学生。该计划联合创始人马特·格雷(Matt Gray)说:“每次开课时我们都不得不拒绝一些学生。”孩子们使用Ruby开发游戏,运用Linux系统,他们还学习Python语言来在热门电子游戏Minecraft的世界中造东西——这是最受孩子们欢迎的课程之一。
Another group has started in Rochester, Minn., and a girls-only camp, Katie CoderDojo, had its first session last month.
另一组已在明尼苏达州的罗切斯特启动,还有一个只限女孩参加的Katie CoderDojo训练营也在2月份举办了第一次培训。
The Job Seekers
求职者培训
At a recent Web Development Immersive class offered by General Assembly, an education startup that offers coding and design courses, about 25 students-mostly men, mostly in their 20s and each with a MacBook-listened to a lecture on how to use JavaScript to add check boxes to pages. Previously, the students each had completed a project using coding language Ruby. One example: A website showed nearby restaurants' health ratings.
General Assembly为一家提供编程和设计课程的初创教育机构,在其前不久开设的《沉浸式网页开发》课堂上,大约25名年龄大多在20几岁的学生(多数为男生)每人配备一部MacBook,正在听着如何使用JavaScript给页面添加复选框的讲课内容。在此之前,每名学生都使用Ruby编程语言完成了一个项目。其中一个项目是显示周边餐厅卫生评分的网站。
Alina Guzman, 23, recently paid the $11,500 tuition to take the 12-week course. She graduated from Baruch College in 2013 with a degree in digital marketing. 'I had worked in a marketing agency before and did stuff with a small-scale e-commerce website, but I wanted to do something different and I had always been interested in tech and websites,' she says.
今年23岁的阿林娜·古兹曼(Alina Guzman)前不久交了11,500美元学费参加为期12周的课程。她在去年从柏鲁克学院(Baruch College)毕业,并获得了数字化营销学位。她说:“我以前在一家营销机构工作过,也在一家小型电商网站做过些事情,但是我想做些不同的工作,而且我一直对科技和网站感兴趣。”
She took classes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays to learn Ruby and JavaScript. Two months after the course ended, she was hired as a junior engineer by New York-based startup Superhuman, which builds personal assistant applications.

她从周一到周五的上午九点到下午五点上课学习Ruby和JavaScript。在课程结束的两个月后,她受聘成为开发私人助理应用的纽约初创公司Superhuman的初级工程师。

General Assembly also has programs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Hong Kong and Sydney. According to a General Assembly spokeswoman, 95% of its students world-wide find jobs within three months.

General Assembly还在旧金山、洛杉矶、伦敦、波士顿、香港和悉尼开设课程。该公司一名女发言人称,其全球学生中有95%的人在三个月内找到了工作。
Co-founder and CEO Jake Schwartz says that coding is important because it teaches a different way of thinking. 'Programming teaches logic, higher-level math and learning concepts that make you smarter and are useful no matter what,' he says.
该公司联合创始人兼首席执行长杰克·施瓦茨(Jake Schwartz)称,编程之所以重要,是因为它教授了一种不同的思维方式。他说:“编程教给你逻辑、较高层次的数学和学习理念,它们让你变得更聪明,无论在什么方面都有用。”
The majority of students at Flatiron and General Assembly are between 20 and 30. Flatiron accepts 8% of its applicants.
Flatiron与General Assembly大多数的学生在20岁至30岁之间,其中Flatiron会接收8%的申请者。
'The vast majority of our students are those who, later in life, realize that this is a really interesting career and also one where there are a lot of jobs,' he says.
施瓦茨说:“我们绝大多数的学生都在日后的生活中意识到这是一个非常有趣的职业,也是一个就业机会很多的行业。”
James Vanneman, 27, was in the first class at Flatiron School. A former professional poker player, he had been teaching himself to code with books and websites. 'I'd get stuck and it'd get frustrating because I felt like I needed a place to get me over the hump of learning,' he says. A few weeks after graduating he was hired as a software engineer at Concierge Live, a ticket-management service.

今年27岁的詹姆斯·范内曼(James Vanneman)是Flatiron的首届学生。他原来是一名职业扑克选手,之前一直通过书籍和网站自学编程。他说:“我会陷入困境,情况会变得令人沮丧,因为我觉得我需要一个地方来帮助我跨越学习障碍。”他在毕业数周后在票务管理公司Concierge Live找到了一份软件工程师的工作。

企业管理者培训
The Corporate Managers

Even people who don't plan on becoming developers may hear at work that they ought to learn to code.

即使是无意成为开发者的人,他们或许也会在工作中听到他们应当学习编程。

American Express Co., General Electric Co. GE -0.54% , Staples Inc., SPLS -0.09% Merck & Co., Inc. and PepsiCo Inc. PEP +1.32% have worked with General Assembly, Mr. Schwartz says. These corporations have sent senior teams to two-day programs on topics such as Introduction to Big Data and Rapid Prototyping, also known as computer-aided design.

施瓦茨称,美国运通、通用电气(General Electric Co.)、史泰博(Staples Inc.)、默克(Merck & Co.)以及百事公司(PepsiCo)都是他们的合作伙伴。这些企业派遣了高管团队参加为期两天的培训,学习与《大数据入门》和《快速成型》(也被称作电脑辅助设计)之类的主题有关的知识。

Summit Group, an Atlanta-based marketing company, has sent employees for the past three years to learn HTML 5 and basic Web development, says Jill Hood, Summit's director of strategic initiatives.

亚特兰大营销公司Summit Group的战略计划总监吉尔·胡德(Jill Hood)称,过去三年间该公司都派出了员工去学习HTML 5语言和基础的网页开发。

'People learning these skills become more self-sufficient,' says Ms. Hood. Training employees in coding saves the company from having to use additional IT managers to help manage client accounts, she adds.

胡德称:“学习了这些技能的人变得更能独立工作了。”她还说,对员工进行编程培训替公司节约了另雇IT管理员来管理客户账户的花费。
Lynda.com, based in Carpinteria, Calif., sells online education videos on everything from Photoshop to JavaScript. Its customers include Patagonia Inc., Volkswagen Group VOW3.XE +1.31% and Penguin Random House, says co-founder and executive chair Lynda Weinman.

加州卡平特里亚(Carpinteria)的Lynda.com销售从Photoshop到 JavaScript的各类主题的网络教学视频。该网站联合创始人兼执行董事长林达·温曼(Lynda Weinman)称,他们的客户包括Patagonia、大众集团(Volkswagen Group)和企鹅兰登书屋(Penguin Random House)等。
Patagonia, the outdoor-gear retailer, will require its employees learn technical skills through Lynda.com in the next six months, says Ceci Saez, global director of organizational development. Half of Patagonia's 800 American employees have voluntarily taken courses through Lynda.com.
户外装备零售商Patagonia的企业发展全球总监切奇·赛斯(Ceci Saez)称,该公司将要求员工在未来六个月中通过Lynda.com学习科技技能。Patagonia的800名美国员工中已有半数自愿通过Lynda.com学习相关课程。赛斯说:“在过去,科技不是我们要经常去努力学习的东西,但是事情发生了变化。一群不同的人加入了公司,现在它变得必要了。”

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重点单词
  • globaladj. 全球性的,全世界的,球状的,全局的
  • literacyn. 识字,读写能力
  • figuren. 图形,数字,形状; 人物,外形,体型 v. 演算,
  • technicaladj. 技术的,工艺的
  • additionaladj. 附加的,另外的
  • checkn. 检查,支票,账单,制止,阻止物,检验标准,方格图案
  • previouslyadv. 先前,在此之前
  • popularadj. 流行的,大众的,通俗的,受欢迎的
  • voluntarilyadv. 自动地,以自由意志
  • varyv. 变化,改变,使多样化