This week was a very exciting week! I have learned how to perform one of my goals: inserting an image/video into a digital space through coding.
In this week’s activity I was able to create a page that displayed many beautiful gifs that go hand in hand with my reactions thus far. As I mentioned last week, this is something I hope to keep up with (just so all my fans can keep up with me). I’ve decided that taking handwritten notes over specific key terms is the next step for me to becoming an expert coder. It may seem counterintuitive to take handwritten notes over something that is digitally constructed; but I am hoping this will reinforce the meaning of each code and their unique functions. I am not sure if I’m understanding the creation of a folder correctly though. I believe that once you create a few files under one folder name it will automatically create it for you. However, I am not quite sure… I did learn the about some differences between HTML and MD. In my eyes, MD seemed much simpler than HTML and easier to understand to the lay person. However, after understanding terms such as the anchor and what that looks like, it was interesting to compare the two side by side.
I would like to say that coding as a skill reinforces our basic problem-solving tendencies. Even though I have found challenging, there’s a feeling of accomplishment when you correct something you originally created incorrectly. For example, I couldn’t understand why my titles weren’t showing up the way I wanted them to or why my files weren’t being sorted into folders. After categorizing my files properly then adding some quotation, I was able to see the final product (my website) the way it is meant to be seen. Moreover, I created, it not a website builder. As I grow my skills, I learn how important understanding code is. Although, I must say I still am having a difficult time relating it back to English. Yes, we are writing, and yes there is a language facet to coding, but it just feels so structured. It forces to think there’s another side to English that I have yet to discover.
I am still on my quest to discover how coding and English fit hand in hand. On a bigger note, I am unveiling the why coding is so important in general. I am still on the boat of “why would I need this for every day life?” but I guess we will still if I stay on that ship. I recently watched this TED Talk about the importance of coding which really opened up my eyes to some benefits of this skill that I hadn’t previously thought about. He brings up that in 2012 people were thinking about coding as people in 1400 thought about reading. This statement really put into perspective for me how important this language is becoming to our society. This TED Talk also brought up, however, some ethical concerns as well. If a computer program can do the same thing a worker can do but with better efficiency and productivity, why would a company hold onto the worker? Is this progression or digression? To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure but I guess we will see…