Digital humanities; the mere existence of the field shows that there is space to explore the intersection of the humanities and computer science. Learning computer science opens up a lot more opportunities for humanities students to communicate their ideas. While no field should be required for students, coding should be encouraged to humanities students as a new medium of communication.
Programming is about choices and constraints, and about how you choose to model some select slice of the world around you in the formal environment of a computer.
Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Hello Worlds (why humanities students should learn to program)
Matthew Kirschenbaum’s description of programming being a model of the world perfectly encapsulates how the skill of programming can be creative. There are many opportunities in coding to explore various methods of presenting ideas. This could be textually, visually, aurally, or any other forms. Are all of these possible to do off the digital space? Yes, of course. However, like learning a new language, learning programming allows a whole new group to consume that. Let’s say for example that there is a new discovery in a humanities field. One option to convey that is to a local audience who most likely would need some sort of background in the field to understand the significance of the discovery. Alternatively, this could be published in multiple formats online which would allow it to be spread to a wider audience. I feel that this is where the intersection of computer science and the humanities shines.
<a href="https://www.google.com/" accesskey="g">Google</a>Having some Computer Science experience before, I was able to explore some of the intermediate and advanced tutorials of HTML, CSS, and Javascript. The section I found the most interesting was the Accessible Links in the HTML tutorial. In one of the examples I wrote above, you can see the that the hyperlink has an accesskey leading to Google. This means there is a keyboard shortcut to the link. This not only makes it convenient for some but is also more accessible to those who may not be able to use a mouse or trackpad as comfortably. Programming makes most information more accessible. To ensure this continues to stay true, the converse of the argument also has to be true. That is, CS students should also learn the humanities so they understand what people need in the digital space and how to create that. Overall, programming and the humanities are very complementary of each other and it would benefit the students of each to explore the other.
6 thoughts on “Should humanities students learn to code?”
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Your suggestion that CS students learn about the humanities is very interesting, and something I hadn’t thought about until I read your post. It makes perfect sense that the intersection of the two fields goes both ways, especially if the existence of areas such as the Digital Humanities necessitates collaboration between them.
I agree with your claim that if humanities students learn to code, they can reach a wider audience. For example, one can advertise their own website(which has been created by coding) on social media like Facebook and Instagram. With paid advertising, there is no limit to how many people one can reach. Furthermore, your statement that there is creativity involved in programming resonates with me; one can describe a block of code to be “beautiful” or “aesthetically pleasing”, amongst others.
The access key thing that you used in your example was quite cool. I didn’t realize you could do something like that with links. Things like that always remind me that there is an unlimited amount of computer science to learn. Which is some ways is very intimidating. But also it’s crazy all the things that are possible the more you learn. In some ways, examples like that are very convincing for why humanities students should learn to code. The types of things you can do with it are wild.
I really like your argument about the value of publishing in a digital format. there are a lot of new and compelling ways to structure an essay or research publication that utilize a digital format. I think this is sorta where digital humanities is situated but i think from an accessibility standpoint there is a lot to take advantage of.
I love how you think that because Digital Arts and Humanities exists, students should learn to code. It’s such an upfront and easy argument that I think has been overlooked in our class. Why question somethings existence if it already exists? I also love your code example, I didn’t know that’s how shortcuts were coded.
I agree that humanities and computer science are complementary, and that students of both can learn from each other’s disciplines. I also think that the accessibility created by digital tools is of value to those sharing humanities knowledge, and that new tools are being created that make this easier to do with less digital knowledge.