A Tour of Programming on Khan Academy

We'll take you on a tour of what it's like to learn programming on Khan Academy - taking the tutorials, creating new programs, making spin-offs of other people's sweet programs, and helping each other out along the way. Join us at http://khanacademy.org/cs

Okay, so now you've seen how cool
just a short program can be

so hopefully you're
really excited to keep going

with programming on Khan Academy.

We want to give you a little
tour of what you can expect.

When we want to teach new concepts
we'll use coding talkthroughs

where we'll write code
on the left side, over here,

and we'll see the result
on the right side,

constantly updating
as we change the code.

We'll also be talking
about what we're writing,

so make sure you have your
headphones or your speakers on.

To get started with a
talkthrough, just click Play.

And Pause if you want to study
something that we've done.

You can even change
the code yourself then,

and see the result update.

Like maybe, I think that
Winston is actually an alien

from this crazy planet
with purple faces,

and I just think that he should
have really, really big eyes.

Whoa! Bug eyes!

Programming isn't just about

going through the tutorials
that we've given you.

Our favorite part about programming

is the exploration
and the creativity of it.

That means that when you wake
up in the middle of the night

with an idea for a completely new program,

just log on and click New Program.

Once you've done that, you'll get
a blank editor and a blank canvas,

and the world will be
your programmatic playground.

So, you might not remember
how to do things.

You can look down at the
documentation,

and remember, "Oh yeah, okay,
I want the ellipse function,

and then I'm going to use
the draw function, okay."

Alright so we go up here,

and we use some variables there.

And then we hope it runs.

Oh! But we got a problem, uh-oh:
'mouseZ is not defined.'

Oh, okay...okay, that's fine.

It's actually supposed to be 'mouseY.'

Oh! And now it works.
And so here's the point:

It's totally okay to make mistakes.

You should make mistakes.

That's what we programmers do,
all the time.

We just break things,
and make mistakes,

and then we learn from them.

Now once I've made my
amazing new program,

and I'm really satisfied with it,

I can save it,

give it a really nice, descriptive name,

like Circle Drawy ThingyBobber.

Maybe, Mister Circle Drawy ThingyBobber.

I can save that,

and then other people
can actually find it!

But creativity isn't just about
creating completely new things,

it's just as much about building
on top of existing things,

and taking them in new directions.

That's the power of the spin-off.

So now that I've saved this program,
I could actually go and modify it.

And if I consider my new
program to be different,

I can just go, oh!
Save as a spin-off.

Alright so this one's like
Mister BIG Circle Drawy ThingyBobber.

But you don't just have to
spin-off your own programs,

you can spin-off anyone's programs,

so we've made it really easy for you
to find other people's programs.

You can browse the Hot, the
Spotlight, the Top, the Recent.

I mean, I spend my Friday nights

just browsing programs on Khan Academy

because I find so many cool things

that I would have never thought of!

So some people make games,
like Doodle Jump--

you ever played that on the mobile phone?
It's a really fun game,

and somebody made
this version on here, and--

Oh man!!...okay...

Ohh!... oh I've almost got it!

Aargh!

Alright...alright...
I'll play that again later.

People make simulations,

so if you want to understand
how a pendulum works,

like if you're in physics class,

you're going to do it
in a much more fun way

by using this simulation here.

And then you can go
and modify things on the side

to see how different variables
affect the pendulum.

People make drawings,
like of their favorite cartoon characters.

This is my favorite,
the TARDIS from Dr. Who.

And if you're not watching
Dr. Who yet, you really should,

because as you can see,
from all the programs

and spin-offs on Khan Academy,

it's a really cool show.

People make charts or
even animated charts.

Some people make really trippy
animations, like this one.

I could just watch this for hours,
and get hypnotized by it.

And you can see that
lots of other people liked it, too,

because they made
all these spin-offs of it, right?

Because that's the thing,
if you find a program that you like,

you can just start tinkering with it,

and seeing, like, "Oh, well what if
I change this, and I change this...

and maybe I change this, here.
How does it change it?"

And you may not even
understand it entirely at first,

but the more you tinker with it,

and the more you play with the code,

you get a better feel for it,

and then maybe
you come up with this variation

that you think is really cool,

and then you'll save it as a spin-off
and say, like, "Alright!

This is my Really Cool version
of the Hypnosaic.

And then you can save it,
and other people can find it.

But maybe you want to ask
a question about it, right?

Maybe you don't quite
understand how something works.

Well, just go to the Questions panel,
and say like, oh, okay, well...

"Why did you start your variables with 'i'?

Do you work for Apple?"

And you can ask your question,

and hopefully the person
who created it will answer it,

and if you find a question that
you know the answer to,

then answer them, and say, like,

"Hey! Yeah, you can,

here's where I did it:"

And a lot of times you can answer
with actually a link

to another scratchpad,

where you actually
answered their question.

Now if you just want to say
how awesome it is, or give a tip,

you can go to the Tips & Feedback panel,

And say, like, "Wow! This is
the coolest thing I've seen today."

And then the creator will feel really good

because they got this compliment from you.

And that's one of the awesome
things about programming,

is that you can put out
these things in the world,

and you never know
who's going to find them,

and whose day you're going
to make better, because they found

this really cool, creative thing
that you came up with.

So, we want this to be a community
of people learning from each other,

and sharing their creations
with each other.

Because that's a big part of what
we love about programming.

It will definitely be hard at first,

and your first programs,
they'll start off small.

But as you keep going,
you'll be able to do more and more,

until one day you realize that, wow!

You can do almost anything
in programming!