Pixel Mountain Web Design and Development

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Educate Yourself!

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I love my job in large part because I love to learn. Half of the fun of what I do is learning new things! But like most of us, I often find myself thinking I don’t have enough time to deliberately study.

Today I’m reminding myself that as a coder, I must take the time to keep expanding my skills and reinforcing those I already have.

I’m enrolled in Know the Code, but I haven’t been keeping up on those studies. Time to get back on track!

For anyone wanting to learn knew web design/development skills or beef up the knowledge you already have, here are some great resources:

There are plenty of others, too – these are just some of the learning resources I’ve either worked with myself or heard great things about from colleagues.

Keep learning!

Lynda.com for Learning

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Lynda.com

Over the years I’ve found Lynda.com extremely useful for learning new skills and beefing up my existing skillset. I have paid for a membership for years and considered it just part of the necessary cost of keeping up to date and expanding my knowledge.

Then my local library added free access to Lynda.com as one of their many membership perks. I love it! Definitely check to see if your local library has done the same.

I’ve used Lynda.com courses to fill in gaps in my knowledge, to learn specific skills that I need for an upcoming project, and to reinforce and refresh my knowledge of programming languages in which I’m proficient.

Today I’m looking at Lynda.com’s new “Learning Paths.” I’m intrigued by the Front-End Web Developer path, since that’s the track I’ve been on for a while. But since I’m also considering going deeper into development, I’m also interested in their Full-Stack Web Developer and PHP Developer paths.

Others might lean towards the Web Designer, User Experience Designer, or Ruby on Rails Developer paths. And they’ve set up a bunch of other paths for other technology and art fields.

And while you’re looking at their offerings, keep in mind that there are many videos in other fields that you might enjoy just for the fun of it, or to reinforce other areas of your business or your personal interests. I often watch their photography videos, for example. I’m not a professional photographer, but I love taking pictures as a serious avocation. And there are a myriad of courses in marketing, finance, business relations, etc., that can be useful to anyone in any field.

Facebook Groups for Web Development Information

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I recently began following a few Facebook groups to keep up to date and continue learning new WordPress techniques and skills, as well as information about Genesis theme development, and other web development subjects. I’ve found several Facebook groups to be extraordinarily useful:

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