The title goes a long way to describing my intentions with this post, I want to explain why it is I’m taking CS:111 Intro to Computer Science as a junior history major.
As we’ve been discussing the relative merits of humanities students learning to code, I’ve been reflecting on my own choices this term, and the fact that I am currently wrestling with learning four programming languages (HTML, CSS, Python, and Java Script). I think the reason I’m able to do all of this is because my goal isn’t to master all four of them, but reach the kind of language proficiency that I might hope for when taking a vacation to a foreign country. I would want to know how the language worked and learn the key phrases, but I wouldn’t be undertaking any groundbreaking sociolinguistic research in my time abroad. In the same way, I don’t expect to be able to write code that can sequence a genome after this ten week foray into coding, but rather build the skills that will enable me to participate in what Evan Donahue calls “computer scientific discourses” when he relates them to the discourses that occur in the humanities.
“programming will indeed usefully equip one better to understand computer scientific discourses, it should NOT be taken as the necessary precondition to engaging with the computer sciences”
Evan Donahue “A “Hello World” Apart (why humanities students should NOT learn to program)”
As Donahue states, and I agree, coding is not a prerequisite to undertaking projects that engage with computer based processes. My freshman year, I helped design an app that is being used in a museum in England having never coded before, and I think it wasn’t half-bad. I’ve chosen to learn to code not because I feel like I need to, but because I think that the process of learning a language will help deepen my ability to engage with the digital subject matters that interest me.
Extending on the metaphor of language acquisition, considering learning to code in light of Carleton’s language requirement has been an interesting frame of reference. If learning another spoken language can allow students to “cross linguistic borders, experiencing another language ‘from the inside’” then why can’t code? and why shouldn’t I feel empowered to do so just because I’ve spent most of my time at Carleton in the humanities?
So just like io posso parlare Italiano et parler Français, I can go into the code editor on this page and:
write some code that links to a tutorial about HTML links!
While the analogy breaks down slightly in terms of cultural interfaces between humans and computers, I think it still goes a long way to describe why I’ve made the decision this term to go from absolutely zero experience coding to dive in headfirst, because I see the value in cultivating a new lens through which to view the digital world.
So code I will, and while I’m sure I’ll fall flat on my face more than a few times before this winter is over, I believe I will be a better student and participant in the digital humanities for it.
