Permit me to set the scene. It's 2012, the world it turns out isn't ending and the Queen of England has just skydived into an Olympic stadium. 5,500 miles away, I am being introduced for the first time to programming with Python.
At first I struggled a bit to get my head around these new abstract concepts, but then one day I was introduced to a library called Python Turtles. Suddenly I was bitten, the Boolean operators and the loops had a purpose. Getting that little turtle to roam around the screen and coding it to draw little lines and shapes, at will, fascinated me and showed me a physical example of the working code. Slowly it started to fall into place. I have created an HTML canvas here with a replica of one of the first programmes I ever enjoyed writing.
More than a decade has passed since those first faltering steps into programming and my life has taken a variety of surprising twists and turns. Through them all I have continued to try to find ways to practise coding and teach myself new and exciting ways of using digital tools. Some examples of this over the years:
In my most recent roles I have had the opportunity to spend more time working on websites. I am part of the team that developed and maintains two websites for different charitable organisations. While working on these websites, and subsequently managing them I strongly desired to understand the process better and to be better equipped to work with the websites. So, when the opportunity to participate in the IT Online Web and Software Developer training programme arose I was instantly interested.
It has been a very exciting process and while challeging at points, it has been very satisfying. I have found myself amazed at how much there is to learn and yet how quickly I have been able to start to make progress.
I am looking forward to continuing to dig deeper into coding and software development and I am excited to find opportunities where I can continue to grow and develop.
Mini web server controlling infrared remote
Mini JavaScript calculator for kidney health calculations
A Variety of projects completed during my course.