Learning to Code #1: You wanna learn whaat??

Over the course of this semester, as part of TME, each student is required to undertake a major digital creative project, which will culminate in a presentation of learning at the end of the year. The task is actually completely open, but I surveyed some of the suggestions, which included iBooks, composition tasks and creating digital artwork. Around halfway down the list one of the options caught my eye:

"Learn to code HTML5 and build an animated website"

And before you start to think that I'm some kind of tech nerd who loves spitting bars about Python and my forays into the deep web (for research purposes only, of course), I must confess that technology is for me more like the sweater Grandma knitted me last Christmas. I'm really thankful for it, it fills my life with warmth and joy, but I've got absolutely no idea how it was made or how it works. I'm just a user.

But there was a strange pull to the idea of learning HTML (which I discovered stands for hypertext markup language) and CSS (yeh you can Google that one). Before I could commit, however, I consulted the Internet to decide whether I should learn to understand the Internet. And, in its beautiful paradoxical way, the Internet gave me many hyped-up reasons why I needed to learn coding, and it also hosed down the fires that had been lit in my mind.

Ultimately I found Howard Tullman's analysis sobering but helpful: coding will not necessarily lead you to get a job, have a great idea or fix the internet. But, I'm a sucker for a new skill, so I decided to plunge on in anyway, with little idea of what I would use HTML for. I figured, at the very least, I will understand the internet a little better, and hopefully be able to make a semi-decent website at the end of the semester.

Wish me luck!