written by
Andrew Coy.
Every educator and student should know HTML.
To me, this is the digital equivalent of saying: "Every student should be able to write an essay." And in truth, their are a lot more similarities between these two than differences. An essay is nothing more than a mode of communication -- an attempt to convince, prove, or at least argue a point of view. A blog post (in many ways) is an abbreviated, relaxed, at times more personal, and more interactive younger brother to the essay. Interestingly enough, however, whereas an essay has an audience of 1 (the teacher) -- a blog post has an audience of potentially millions physically
anywhere.
And blog posts are written in HTML, which makes using HTML the equivalent of knowing how to use Microsoft Word (or OpenOffice, or Pages, etc.). HTML is how you put your thoughts on digital paper. And as this blog suggests, teaching is possible without paper -- a fact society is demonstrating every day in
more areas than just teaching.
But if you have missed opportunities, have yet to get around to it, or simply haven't know where to start learning HTML, then now is a good time to change that.
HTML has been around since the web -- in fact,
HTML is the web.
Tim Bernes-Lee proposed the idea in 1989, created the framework shortly thereafter and over the past 20+ years it has proved to be the most flexible, simple, and enduring means of organizing the web. As Wikipedia puts it, "
HTML elements form the building blocks of all websites."
The good thing about HTML is that everyone who uses it, puts things out on the web -- which means there are nearly endless amounts of resources at your disposal. I have highlighted 5 ways you can start learning HTML for free.
W3Schools.com
W3Schools.com is how I started learning HTML. Their site is a bit cluttered with advertisements perhaps, but nothing outdoes their
Try it yourself » feature. They understand that there really is no better way to learn than by doing. And at each step of learning HTML W3Schools does a great job of breaking it down with "Try It Yourself" examples. Similarly, their
reference section is also excellent. I still find myself there on a regular basis when I have a question. And if you get into more coding, their
CSS,
PHP,
JAVASCRIPT,
ASP, and
SQL tutorials are also worth a visit.
WYSIWYG
If you have a blog (such as
Blogger,
WordPress, or the like) than you know that they have typically made it is easy to bold or underline text with a simple button. You may have also noticed there is usually a tab to toggle between "
Compose" mode and "
HTML" mode. The great thing about this is that you can learn HTML simply by going back and forth -- changing one thing in the "Compose" (
WYSIWYG) mode and and then looking to see the HTML code behind it.
Online Books
If you are the type that just wants it spelled-out in a book, there are plenty of options for you. You don't even have to leave your computer or spend any money. Simply use something like
Google Books to find one that is free. I found this "
Basic Guide To HTML" by Jesse Dallas without much trouble at all (just limit your search to those with "full view only" to narrow your results). is a very simple to follow, thorough, and surprisingly not outdated option.
YouTube It
Put the power of
YouTube to work teaching you how to code HTML. It's easy; is great for the visual learners; and will make sometimes complex steps much simpler to understand. While there is certainly a lot more out there in text, and the text is much easier to search and use as a quick reference, sometimes there is nothing better than watching someone else walk you through the steps while explaining them to you in plain english.
(
another example video)
Friend / Library
 Finally, if nothing I've suggested works for you, find a friend, check out your local library, or see if there are classes near where you live. Maybe you just need someone right there explaining it, or a book to hold, or a class to make you accountable to someone. |
Conclusion
The great thing about learning HTML is that it empowers you to put your ideas out there in front of the world while simultaneously freeing you from the confines of the little buttons on any given website. You can resize images, add tables, change font colors, and do whatever else you want all with simple commands that don't take too much to learn. Once you have learned HTML, your ideas do not need to be confined to the single-space Times New Roman with 1.25 inch margin defaults that the essay was before you learned how to use Word/OpenOffice/Pages.
