This week I did the introductory HTML and CSS courses. I had known some HTML and CSS but as most of it was learned on the fly at a summer Digital Humanities institute, I wasn’t entirely sure I had a decent grasp on all the basics. I took the introductory Computer Science class and both my brother and dad are computer scientists so I have at least a very basic starting block for coding. Basically, I can look at things and attempt to change them. I’m not the best at writing new programs (except for my final project Sorry! game which I’m overly proud of). My coding experience makes me think that everyone should be taught at least the very basics of how to code. I don’t think that everyone needs to take an intro CS course, but there needs to be just a bit of training. Something that my school did in 6th grade is sort of that middle ground. We were forced for a couple weeks to do block coding in our science class. Block coding is sort of like LEGO coding, sticking blocks of prewritten programs together to create what you want. It has all the benefits of coding for real, the technical abilities and the problem solving, but without the overwhelming-ness of all of the rules and the sheer amount of characters. It pretty much gets rid of the most frustrating parts of learning to code, things like syntax errors where you’re searching for 2 hours for where you left out 1 comma or looking at your program and realizing it’s all in gibberish to anyone else. Kirschenbaum writes about coding as a foreign language:
I successfully made the case that given my interest in the digital humanities, this was far more practical than revisiting my high-school Spanish.
It is this notion of coding as a foreign language that tends to get tossed around. If that’s true, then doesn’t it make sense to treat it as one? People learning foreign languages get dictionaries and grammars, providing the basic vocabulary and structure of that language until the learner masters the basics. I think that giving students in middle or high school just a unit or two of block coding could be a decent middle ground between forcing everyone to learn how to code to the extent required by an introductory class or not exposing people to the technologies that run our modern world at all. It’s a bit like us using WordPress instead of writing out everything in HTML.
I learn best by doing. I’m not a particurally gifted tutorial follower, so I admit that I did just start messing around after I finished doing the tutorials. I’d just finished my Greek homework and so it was on the brain. Anyway, I was going for the aesthetic of those reall old 2000s sites that just have that really bright saturated look to them or, in other words, I wanted it to look bad. I then just started writing about whatever ancient author was annoying me at that very second in time. Here’s what it looks like:
(Quick disclaimer I made all of this as joke, mostly forgetting I had to share it. So if the title offends, it was meant to come off as as joke about me having strong and very modern opinions on ancient writers!)
But even something as rudimenrary as that took a decent amount of time in HTML. And a lot of code, take a look:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hot takes on people who've been dead for 2,400 years</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style2.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1> A collection of random classical thoughts completely unedited</h1>
<blockquote cite="Socrates gets a lizard dropped on his head.">
<p>πρώην δέ γε γνώμην μεγάλην ἀφῃρέθη
ὑπ᾽ ἀσκαλαβώτου.</p>
<p>Socrates has a lizard fall on his head. <cite>The Clouds</cite>, Aristophenes</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Hot takes on people who've been dead for 2,400 years</h3>
<dl>
<dt><h4>Socrates</h4></dt>
<dd>Annoying. Doesn't stop asking questions. The first proper name you learn in ancient Greek, which is a shame. Responsible for modern annoyances (long story).</dd>
<br>
<dt><h4>Plato</h4></dt>
<dd>Plato just means "wide", it's a wrestling nickname. His writing makes my eyes hurt. Doesn't understand the value of a sentance less than a page long.</dd>
<br>
<dt><h4>Aristophenes</h4></dt>
<dd>Wrote about the women of Athens and Sparta stoping the Pelopenesian war through a sex strike. Would make a killing at stand-up today, or late night.</dd>
<br>
<dt><h4>Herodotus</h4></dt>
<dd>I want to ask about the ants. How and why, speciffically. Reads like a gossiping 17 year old girl, "I heard that this happened and they said that omg Amazons". Doesn't understand the value of a finite verb. </dd>
<br>
<dt><h4>Euripides</h4></dt>
<dd>Yes. Just Yes. Should've won the rap battle in the Frogs. The hippie of Athenian tragedians. Would've loved the 1960s.</dd>
</dl>In WordPress that list and formatting (though not identical) takes so much less time and effort.
Hot takes on people who’ve been dead for 2,400 years
- Socrates
- Annoying. Doesn’t stop asking questions. The first proper name you learn in ancient Greek, which is a shame. Responsible for modern annoyances (long story)
- Plato
- Plato just means “wide”, it’s a wrestling nickname. His writing makes my eyes hurt. Doesn’t understand the value of a sentance less than a page long.
- Aristophenes
- Wrote about the women of Athens and Sparta stoping the Pelopenesian war through a sex strike. Would make a killing at stand-up today, or late night.
- Herodotus
- I want to ask about the ants. How and why, speciffically. Reads like a gossiping 17 year old girl, “I heard that this happened and they said that omg Amazons”. Doesn’t understand the value of a finite verb.
- Euripides
- Yes. Just Yes. Should’ve won the rap battle in The Frogs. The hippie of Athenian tragedians. Would’ve loved the 1960s.
And even though I used WordPress, because I understand the basic logic blocks of how this was created, with a dictionary of tags and a grammar of syntax I could go into the code editor to customize it and create what I want. To me, the whole debate is about giving people the tools to go out and then learn more, without having to find time for another class in their schedules.
2 thoughts on “Lab Week Two- Coding Introductions”
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I appreciate your point, Sam, especially about the uses of block coding. To me, however, I would argue that the existence of block coding sites means that humanities students don’t need to know how to code at all. You wrote that formatting your page in WordPress took much less time and effort than coding it by hand, with essentially the same result. While knowing how to code allows you to edit the code directly, if the same result can be achieved without that knowledge (and by a person who is not employed in the computer sciences), isn’t the skill unnecessary for all humanities students?
Hi, Sam! I really enjoyed reading your post! Your reflections on learning coding and its importance are spot-on, especially the idea of block coding as a “middle ground” for introducing students to programming! It’s such a practical and accessible way to reduce the intimidation factor of coding while still teaching problem-solving skills. Your analogy of coding as a foreign language was thought-provoking. I agree that having a “dictionary” or structured basics could help demystify the process for beginners. Also, your humorous take on old 2000s aesthetics and ancient authors was a fun touch! Looking forward to seeing more of your creative projects.