Could you go into detail about what you're doing now and what you were doing before?
I'm a GIS (geographic information systems) developer working for the state government and I'm pretty miserable in my day job. I've been thinking about what I could do in the green tech sector.
I tried to get into programming several times before it finally stuck. I ended up with a collection of c++ and java books that I never got further than a few chapters in. JavaScript of all things really got me into programming. I stuck with it long enough because I received nearly instantaneous gratification. I could actually make things happen on screen. Manipulating strings and tossing numbers around in a terminal window gets boring fast and the bar to entry for GUIs in java or c++ is tedious and frustrating. Once I understood the basics of programming, it wasn't much for me to pick up python, java, ruby, AS3, etc.. So, you're bang on with starting him building a web app. For so many reasons really...
To answer your questions directly...
1. I'd start with JavaScript because it's fun and useful (despite its warts) and either python or ruby.
2. Stackoverflow.com, The Pragmatic Programmer
3. I had a client/server computer science course that was making me build very small apps but it wasn't until I had an idea for something I really wanted to build that I started staying up all night learning. Before I had either my own "itch to scratch" or a professor requiring me to building something I floundered and got bored quickly. I needed a clearly defined goal to accomplish.
4. Sadly, no. My professor wasn't really interested in his students. Google was my only friend.
5. For someone to sit down and clearly explain fundamental concepts to me like OOP, MVC, etc. It's one thing to read about it but someone over my shoulder pointing at things and explaining why a block of code sucks or not would have really helped.
Best of luck. If you nephew sticks with coding, he will really thank you later!
I'm a GIS (geographic information systems) developer working for the state government and I'm pretty miserable in my day job. I've been thinking about what I could do in the green tech sector.