“There has been much needed criticism leveled at the free programing interface Codecademy. Had the creators worked with scholars in educational studies might they have produced a more accessible learning tool? “
Moya Z. Bailey, “All the Digital Humanists Are White, All the Nerds Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave“
When I was in high school, my teachers emphasized the importance of knowing the form and resulting function of a certain literary characteristic, such as a character in a novel. I’m sure I was not the only one who needed to learn this for their classes, and I thought that this practice was completely useless for my education.
Over time, I have started to understand that form and function are not coincidental, and throughout disciplines, certain techniques are used to convey specific information. In law, the words written in law are carefully chosen to reduce confusion. In advertising, following psychological principles, certain ad design techniques are better than others in persuading people to purchase a good. The form can impact how people perceive information.
More specifically, I never understood that online projects use specific forms like the form of an interface structure, impacting how the reader understands the data included. This makes a lot of sense, as the design of projects and tools may influence how one uses them. In the quote, Bailey discusses the programming interface Codeacademy and related criticism of the platform. This quote reminds me that many different tools are needed, and careful planning is needed to increase online platforms’ inclusivity. Also, the digital humanities are essential in many disciplines to increase accessibility to information.
In this class, I’m excited to learn more about how digital projects are structured. Using digital tools, one can change material information into digital mediums to inform others about various subjects. In addition, I think many academic fields, such as the fields of psychology and medicine, could benefit from this form of information diffusion as it can enhance non-experts’ understandings of certain topics.
