I somewhat support the notion that digital humanities scholars should learn to code, at least to the extent that they can understand concepts and communicate effectively with hard programmers, is essential in bridging the gap between these two seemingly disparate disciplines. As the quote suggests,
Many of us in the humanities think our colleagues across the campus in the computer-science department spend most of their time debugging software. This is no more true than the notion that English professors spend most of their time correcting people’s grammar and spelling.
“Hello Worlds (Why Humanities Students Should Learn to Program).” Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, 26 May 2010
While they may not need to become great or good “full-stack developers” or proficient debuggers, grasping the fundamentals and data structures allows them to engage in meaningful conversations within the technologically-oriented field. This interdisciplinary dialogue fosters innovation, enriches research, and ultimately propels the digital humanities forward in a world increasingly shaped by technology. Regarding my prior coding experience, I have a fairly decent foundation, which made the HTML dog not too challenging but rather quite familiarizing.
3 thoughts on “Lab 2”
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I like your thoughts about how learning to code allows people in the digital humanities to better communicate with other people in digital humanities and computer sciences. This is an idea I had not thought about but since such a big component of digital humanities is online discourse, this is a great point.
I liked how you elaborated that a person doesn’t need to learn to hardcore code but, only to the extent to where you can communicate with others. The idea of having to learn to code at a high level in order to engage in humanities seems more exclusive which I believe can bring more harm than good relating to the studies of digital humanities.
I agree, Ntense! Even though I advocated for students to be able to study digital humanities without prior coding experience, having some level of coding knowledge will help the discussion. I also enjoy your provided sample code and the results it generates. I intend to build my own portfolio website someday, but obviously better ;).