“Do you even code, Bro?”

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I would like to talk about bringing coding into humanities classes by responding to questions like these:

  • Why should we learn to code?
  • Why should we teach students to code?
  • How can we integrate coding into our classes in construcitve and beneficial ways?
  • Could we use coding to facilitate transfer of concepts from the general education humanities courses to major-specific courses and the workplace?
  • What kinds of programs can be used to help students learn enough coding to develop basic literacies?
  • How can we have time to do all-of-the-things?

I would love to hear from anyone who has done this before, but I would also like to play with some possible solutions during the session (contengient on time). If someone else has had expereience with this and would like to lead this session, that would be awesome. However, I would be happy to moderate/lead or co-lead this session if people are interested. I have a very basic understanding of HTML and CSS, so I am certainly not an expert. I am hoping to further develop those literacies through my own work, and I am very intersted to think about the ways basic work with websites, wikis, and other Web 2.0 (and beyond) applications can help students develop and practice literacies that have the potential to improve their overall communication skills for the future.

 

**Update** This is the Google Doc we created during the session. docs.google.com/document/d/1x_93YdvlqqMWZ333qVB4gAGMf4sMG4CzAkxs6TTVqrs/edit?usp=sharing

2 Responses to “Do you even code, Bro?”

  1. I know a bit of Java and have coded projects for classes before. I would be happy to talk a bit about coding, the difference between coding and markup, current projects I am working on, etc.

  2. I do coding for simulations of social behaviors in multi-agent model. I do this in service to the study of religious behaviors and cultural systems. So I am interested in systems-level study of cultural and social dynamics that facilitate transmission of cultural resources. It forces humanists to think about the mathematics of cultural dynamics, quantification of qualitative changes, etc. I am interested in the kinds of blow-back one can get from humanists who claim this is not the important thing humanists should be studying and that it is reductionistic towards the qualitative changes culture exercises on culture possessors, culture curators/elites, or students of culture who “should” expect to be enlightened by interpretive exercises rather than being turned into “bean-counters”.