Learning to code is a great tool to strengthen students’ problem-solving skills, regardless of humanities or computer sciences. According to Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, programming is
A kind of world-making, requiring one to specify the behaviors of an object or a system from the ground up.
Kirschenbaum, M. (2010, May 26). Hello Worlds (why humanities students should learn to program). Mkirschenbaum. https://mkirschenbaum.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/hello-worlds/
It provides a framework for thinking through a problem, breaking it into smaller pieces, and building a model step-by-step. For example, given a prompt to create a game, the first step would be deciding what game is interesting (and not difficult) to model. Then, divide the game and its rules into smaller components. The division will allow students to program manageable code sections and promote their logical thinking. Although debugging might be the most frustrating part of any program, finding out what went wrong and getting the program to work doubles the satisfaction.
Programming is a creative process because no one shares the same perspective on an aspect of an object. In addition, learning a programming language is like learning a foreign language. It enables students to recognize the similarities and differences in syntax and semantics. The process of forming statements and sentences illustrates the need for logical reasoning. Students can navigate these rhetorical spaces and examine different ways of thinking.
I’m currently taking CS Data Structures and working with Java. I have some background in web development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. DOM is a refresher of where I left off in learning JavaScript. Now, I understand the connection between HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the larger world of coding. HTML is the structure, CSS is the style, and JavaScript is the interaction.
This is my first web page
My subheadings
Like this
Or this
Maybe this
How about this
opening tag --> content --> closing tag
Page tag
How exciting! Paragraph
line break- Unordered list
- Nested list
- Fun
- I know
- List item
- Ordered list
- How does this look
- OneNote has abc ones
- Not bullets
- Numbers
Destination "href"
Go to subheadingsThe sample above is a simple HTML web page I coded. It demonstrates that students can play around with their code as much as they want. They can also create something that helps their academic development and personal enjoyment. For example, they can create a checklist, to-do list, playlist, or something more complicated.
1 thought on “Reflective Blog 2: To Code Or Not To Code”
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I think it’s really interesting to think of coding as a creative endeavor. Before I started taking computer science classes, I always kind of thought there was one way to do everything and so coding was a very logical activity. Now, I completely agree with coding as a creative process. It usually involves some sort of initial design, and then some way of executing that design. However, two people can come at the problem from completely different avenues and come up with different solutions and it can be really cool to compare the code that two different people created to solve the same problem. I also really liked the example you put on the page!