Why learn coding?

This repo has been archived. Please see the SMU@DHRI website for the most current information.

Why learn coding?

“It follows, then, that any instructor—-in the humanities or otherwise-—must first ask herself what she hopes her students will accomplish by learning to code. Is it an understanding of how to think algorithmically, so as to better comprehend how certain tasks can be abstracted into a series of steps? Is it a familiarity with the basic components of programming languages, so as to be able to understand how code is structured and produced? Is it the knowledge of a specialized programming language, one with specific applications in a particular field? Or is it the more experiential knowledge of what it feels like to move from defining functions and assigning variables to running executable code?" Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Concepts, Models, and Experiments: Code by Lauren Klein

You don't need to be become fluent if it's not the focus of your interest, but it is helpful to have reading fluency, like any other language that is an important part of your research. Also, like any other language, use will help you retain and gain knowledge.

Recurring questions to keep in mind: What are the affordances of choosing this path? What are the limitations?

"I started to notice that the way people talk about technology is out of sync with what digital technology actually can do. Ultimately, everything we do with computers comes down to math, and there are fundamental limits to what we can (and should) do with it." Hello Reader

Process for DHRI

We will be sharing the links to a Github Repository for each session in Slack before each synchronous session. You can also get to them from the Curriculum page.
This is the first year where DHRI has been planned to have both asynchronous and synchronous components. Here is how we have organized the content.
- As you are reading, we you will see four categories of content:
- Asynchronous Content presentation (unmarked). Please read ahead of time.
- Asynchronous Activity (indicated by green check mark ✅). Please make sure you read this content before a session. Some questions have corresponding Slack channels or discussion, others are just marked so you are thinking about them beforehand as they are topics we will be discussing in the synchronous session.
- Synchronous Content presentation (indicated by a yellow dot 🟡). This indicates a page that has content we will go over together, you do not need to engage with this content ahead of time.
- Synchronous Activity (unmarked). We will do these activities together in the synchronous sessions.
As you read each repository, please put questions/comments in the Slack channel.
If text appears blue in a repository, that just means it is a hyperlink.
- These repositories are structured in such a way that they will direct our conversations during the institute, but also so that you can return to them later to review the material.