Coding…. the new literacy
Ong is concluding the fact that writing and the development from oral to literal culture is the reason for consciousness transformation. Ong continues to say that writing has created a context-free language (Hirsch 1977, pp. 21–3, 26). I disagree. Even if the words are not physically attached to the source “the mouth” if the reader is reading out of context he/she will never create a proper understanding. This is exactly similar to Ong’s book. Ong analysed the history “context” and then explained his conclusions. If such flow of history analysis is missing we “the reader” may not be able to relate to the findings. The written word can be questioned and we see this practice in religion when the source of the written word is weak either by not complying to the major position of the religion itself or by having one of the references known to be a weak source.
A recent study titled “Google effect on memory” reveals that our brain is becoming less of a storage and more of a search/analytical machine (Sparrow, Liu, Wegner 2011). This was also evidence when text was introduced. Should we consider this a negative phenomena? It depends! If this change makes someone less likely to succeed in his/her career in the future then we need to worry about it. Yet luckily technology adoption is on the rise and people are not expected to memories simply because information is available and reachable anywhere and at any time.
Coding and programming languages today are perceived by people who do not understand it as magic. This can be compared to the oral cultures who considered written words magic that allows process to take place such as ships coming from the sea to the port (Meggitt 1968, pp. 300–9). The development of understanding programming language is similar to the Learned Latin in between AD 550 AD & 700 AD.Today children are recommended to learn coding at early age. This is due to the increasing awareness by parents on the importance of this language. Yet it is not common to find coding classes in schools simply because the educational management system do not know where to fit it within the curriculum (Pierce 2013). Moreover, the fact that programming languages are designed and built by software engineers makes it different in structure from the language we use to communicate (Gabriel, Goulão, Amaral 2011). It maybe useful to develop a hybrid coding language similar to the communicate one.
Gabriel, P., Goulão, M., & Amaral, V. (2011). Do software languages engineers evaluate their languages?
Hirsch, E.D., Jr (1977) The Philosophy of Composition (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press).
Meggitt, Mervyn (1968) ‘Uses of literacy in New Guinea and Melanesia’, in Jack Goody (ed.), Literacy in Traditional Societies (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press), 300–9.
Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science, 333(6043), 776-778.
Pierce, M. (2013). Coding for middle schoolers. Education Digest, 79(2), 38.
Coding and programming languages have been inventing and practicing a way to control the machine generally called a computer (to utilize full potential of CPU). I somewhat agree with you that it is a new literacy that can be learned through “focusing.” Also, it helps to develop and polish critical thinking and problem solving skills among the required skills for the 21st century. The new literacy is used to control the artifical mind by giving direction through machine language.The language literacy is completely independent function that has impacted the economics of the world in such a way that every other fuction has become a dependent variable. In my view this litercy is a part of assisting technologies for mechanized writing. However, even during the process of writing codes/programmes we interiorized (Ong, 1982) our logical thoughts and then puch our codes (words) and test.
Ong, Walter. (1982.) Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. New York: Routledge.
Fascinating how you were able to connect computer programming to literacy. Two points I would like to bring forth. First, having done so much reading between Ong and now Bolter, I am a bit confused as to who said this. But either Ong or Bolter citied the differences between orality and literacy. One of their points is that literacy is free from the rhetoric violence associated with oral communication. In other words, literacy is not able to defend itself like orality and is free from the rhetoric of spoken language. In that sense, the author passes on the literary work and generally disconnects themselves from it. Compared to orality, the reader has greater freedom to interpret the “defenseless” literary work.
That brings me to my second point. I’m not so sure computer programming can be considered the new iteration of literacy (pun fully intended). I studied comp-sci in the 90’s and I now have the privilege of teaching a full year programming course to my senior students. The problem I have with programming as a form of literacy is that there is no alternate way read computer code. It can only be interpreted or compiled in one way. The analysis of a section of computer code is much different from a literary analysis where you can extract different meanings based on different personal background and experiences. That issue alone, the singular interpretation of computer code, may disqualify programming as a form of modern literacy.
However to consider the other side, there are many similarities. Creativity is possible in computer programming. And at its heart, a programming language is an interface that allows us to communicate with a computer. That is not too different than orality or literacy. Spoken or written language is a way for us to communicate with each other. If we both understand English, it is because we all agree on the meaning of the words, the pronunciation and grammar rules. This is similar to programming languages. Both the computer / compiler and the programmer agree on the meaning of the words, the programming syntax (grammer).
Thanks for the insightful post, it really made me think!
Grammar (sp)
🙂
Having no real knowledge of coding myself, I do not feel that I am apt at commenting on whether or not coding is the new literacy, but from the conversations I’ve had both with computer programmers and through the readings i’ve previously done in the MET i’m led to believe that it seems to be an up and coming form of literacy, however it is not a literacy in its truest sense. I think Daniel raises an interesting point that with coding, there is no room for interpretation like there would be in traditional literacies. Since coding involves creating problems for computer programs to execute, it seems (at least to my limited understanding) that until artificial intelligence can interpret and execute commands beyond what they are programmed to do, perhaps it is not a form of literacy in its truest sense?
Fundamental to literacy is both composition and comprehension. With coding, comprehension seems like its achievable – plug a command in, and the computer can either understand it, or not. The issue that I see with coding is that the composition portion is not achievable, in that computers are limited to executing certain functions based on capabilities and cannot rewrite their commands themselves.
That being said, if we understand literacy to be broadly defined as the ability to interpret and understanding symbol systems, then coding could be the new literacy; I guess it’s all about how we define the terms.
Great post Nidal!
There are many issues with the affirmation of the status of coding as a literacy. Not because of coding, but because of the recently updated understanding of literacy as a social practice, and not so much a a teachable skill. That been said, yes, it is a new literacy. One that could bring amazing benefits, not only in terms of being able to program (of course), but precisely because it could bring together some things that we might need in schools: problem solving oriented inquiry, logic, and knowledge of the means of production of digital texts, among others.
According to Ong (1983), “technology, properly interiorized, does not degrade human life but on the contrary enhances it…writing, in the strict sense of the word, the technology which has shaped and powered the intellectual activity of modern man, was a very late development in human history”(p.83).
In page 137, Ong mentioned the transformation of the orality and literacy from the first stages to the secondary stages. In my opinion, orality has not transformed to literacy but rather to secondary orality. In addition, literacy is being transformed to a secondary literacy because of the technology revolution. The relation between secondary orality and secondary literacy will continue relatively but in different forms. Further, someone may think that we are eradicating illiteracy but due to the influx of technology and trying to apply many theories in a rush in the educational system, there are always other problems that may arise. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (2013), as cited by Sam Blumenfeld (2012), in explaining another form of literacy,” 13 percent of American adults are highly literate, 56 percent have intermediate literacy skills, and that 43 percent of American adults are virtually illiterate”. It is interesting to read about functional illiteracy and see the figures that are mentioned above, regardless to the billions of dollars spent on educational investments in North America. Coding is another example of a specialized literacy needed but not for all. As a nurse, I don’t find myself in a position to need to learn coding for my patients in the operating room, it is not my priority, but, for others it may be.
I agree that everyone should learn something about programming but not as an obligatory way to literacy. It could be as mentioned earlier in one of the posts towards improving the chance to enter the job marketplace. Regarding the communication between people, I agree that writing and speaking is the way to communicate between people, but the challenge now is the communication between people and machines, or, machine to machine. At the end, at this stage I don’t see a definite boundary to the literacy concept in this contemporary technological world and the discussion will be more intense in the next few years.
Bassam
Blumenfeld, S. (2012). What is Functional illiteracy. Retrieved June 2015, from http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/13860-what-is-functional-illiteracy
Ong, Walter J.. Orality & Literacy : The Technologizing of the Word. Florence, KY, USA: Routledge, 1982..