I am a student who is passionate about technology but has no experience coding. I am currently taking an introduction to computer science course online at Stanford, but I feel like hands-on experience with a startup would be better than cookie-cutter course work. I am hoping that somebody has a position open for an unpaid intern who is willing to work in exchange for being taught how to code.
You're right that hands on experience is way more useful than course work. You should simply build stuff, lots of stuff. Stuff you might use, or stuff that might be cool to build. No one can really "teach you" coding as much as you can teach yourself. When you get stuck, try to solve it on your own. Google the errors. If you still can't get it, ask a friend or post on StackOverflow. Repeat this process, and you'll be a coder before you know it!
Know your basics (syntax/MVC/OOP..etc) Once you're done with the cookie cutter stuff, hack hack hack. This includes the learning, Coursera, Udacity, and Codeacademy all provide some top level content - you don't have to finish it. Just learn the necessary concepts and run with it.
In my opinion, it is better and easier to learn programming by building something you're passionate about, rather than something that someone else is passionate about.