What does it mean to engage critically with a digital computer? This Co-Learning Encounter is designed to dive into what it implies to “think” like a computer, how these machines reckon, and also, more practically, to demonstrate what it means “to program,” “to encode,” and/or “to manipulate data.” We will address ourselves to the very basics of Python, and compare them to what HTML does, and also what digital spreadsheets do. At the end of this encounter, participants will better understand what “learning to code” actually means for their own practice(s), and, moreover, what role (en)coding activities might have in their future work.
Reckoning, or Thinking Like a Computer
A Co-Learning Encounter designed by Kate Joranson and Alison Langmead
Proposed Schedule of Topics
| Unit 1 | What does it mean to “reckon” and how does human judgment differ from computing processes? |
| Unit 2 | Python |
| Unit 3 | HTML |
| Unit 4 | Excel |
| Unit 5 | How will you continue to take up the universe of computing strategies in your life, knowing what you know now? |
Time Commitment Requested
| Asynchronous Engagement
About 30-40 hours total |
Synchronous Engagement
About 12 hours total |
Foundational Learning Foci
- What does it entail, for you, to “learn to code?” Why engage in this practice, now?
- Once you know what the practice entails, what will it take, for you, to “learn to code” to your desired level?
- What does it mean to hold sustained attention in a supported, solitary practice in times of trauma and uncertainty?
- What is the difference between reckoning and judgement and what do you find to be the appropriate moment to use each of these modes of engaging with the world?
- What are the implications of the fact that contemporary, classical, binary, digital computing a technology produced by the patriarchal white supremacy?
Experiential Outcomes
In these Co-Learning Encounters (CLEs), we try to balance synchronous time as a group with ongoing asynchronous projects that function as the touchstones, or the baseline drone, of the work we are doing together. This work takes the form of experiential outcomes, and it cannot be over-stressed that the amount of learning you reap from these outcomes will be proportional to the amount of energy you pour into them! For this CLE, we are focusing on the following:
1. Learning How to Learn Technical Skills
Each technical unit in this CLE focuses on a different technology (Python, HTML, Excel). The resources have gathered here to help guide your hands-on interaction with these tools also come from a variety of different providers (Coursera, Codecademy, LinkedIn Learning) that take a variety of different approaches to their task. Such variety is mindfully intentional on our part.
This CLE will surely not constitute the last time you opt to learn a new digital computing skill, and so not only do we think it is important for you to consider how suitable a resource’s content might be for your needs in future, it is also important for you to gain practice articulating the approaches and structures of these resources that match your learning preferences best. As you move through these different environments, make note of what is more and less successful to you in terms of your own learning style. We mean it! Keep a journal! The other two experiential outcomes will also tie into this journaling habit we would like to instill. We will be discussing our different likes and dislikes in terms of both the content and structure of these platforms during our synchronous meetings, and so your notes will serve you well.
2. Learning Technical Skills
Of course, throughout this CLE, you will also be gaining technical skills by engaging with a variety of platforms. Please note that one of the issues we anticipate that you will find is that it is more difficult than it appears to take the learning you will achieve in the generalized context of Coursera, Codecademy, and LinkedIn Learning and apply it to the work you actually wish to do. Your ongoing journal can be useful to you here, not only for traditional note-taking, but also as a site that you can jot down ideas about how you might use the skills you are learning in your home context(s).
Throughout this CLE you will, of course, have detailed questions on the technologies and will almost certainly get stuck from time to time. Your first line of defense will be a small, breakout group of classmates that will serve as your direct community support. Indeed, they will be called your Support Community. In this CLE, no individual person can or will serve as support without also receiving support from others, including the host(s); we will communally support one another. All questions you might have about the techniques you are learning should first go to any online discussion community offered by the resources (not all of them have one!), and then to your Support Community. If you remain stumped, there will be a discussion board available for you to ask your question(s) of the entire CLE! Our synchronous time together will not be for troubleshooting. Instead, those precious minutes will focus on contextualizing what we are learning within our own individual and collective ecosystem of needs.
3. Metacognitive Reflection
Over the course of this CLE, we would like to encourage you to make a particularly conscious effort to make note your questions and reflections on this experience, and take the time to write them out each day you engage with it, whether together, synchronously as a community or asynchronously in solitude.
We would like to encourage you to produce a summative document at the end of this CLE designed to share out what you have learned, opinions you have garnered, resources you find helpful, or any other such information that might be useful to our wider community.
Here are a few overall questions to prompt reflection, but of course, please let your own mind be your guide. What do/did you want to learn in this CLE? What are you learning/have you learned? What did you find surprising? What are you curious about? Of the things you have learned, what are you never going to do that you learned? What seems possible, and what seems impossible?
Co-Learning Activities
Unit 1: Reckoning
Using the work of the philosopher Brian Cantwell Smith to start us off, let’s discuss what it means to think like a computer and why we might want to do such a thing in our own work. After all, to be able to tell a computer what to do will necessarily involve learning to think a bit like them, no?
Asynchronous Work Plan
Theoretical Framing
- Brian Cantwell Smith, The Promise of Artificial Intelligence: Reckoning and Judgment, xiii-41 (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2019).
Intentional Practice
- Why are you doing this work? What are your goals? What pressures do you feel to participate in the digital space? What do you make of the distinction between reckoning and judgement made by Cantwell Smith in the context of your own work and plans?
Synchronous Work Plan
Two, 45-minute engagement periods, offered once per unit
First Engagement
- Let’s get to know one another and why we are here. Please think deeply about the theoretical framing and intentional practice for this unit.
Second Engagement
- We will create shared group practices and discuss our plans for Unit 2, including the creation of our smaller Support Communities. These groups will be hand-picked (with the co-learners’ input) to collect people of similar skill levels together.
Unit 2: Python
Python is a general-purpose, interpreted programming language commonly used in interpretive research. It handles strings of text nicely, and we think it serves as a good first programming language–or even a second or third!
Learning Technical Skills
- Charles Russell Severance, “Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python),” Coursera.
Intentional Practice
- We will engage with what is easy and what is difficult both in terms of the content of the Coursera resource as well as its structure.
- We will also strive do the work of steering the conversation during our synchronous time away from the discussion of detailed logistics. That work is to be done on Coursera (if possible), asynchronously within our Support Communities, and on the discussion board–in that order!
- Our overall job in our precious time together is to talk about how the learning process is going, and even more importantly to delve into our meta-cognitive reflections on the enormity of the task that “learning to code” proves to be, and therefore what part of that huge umbrella concept each co-learner wishes to engage with.
Synchronous Work Plan
Two, 45-minute engagement periods, offered twice per unit
First Engagement
- Support Communities meet together to discuss the quality and, if needed, the content of the asynchronous work the teams have done since the last synchronous meeting.
- They will compare their experiences, which will also help to prepare for the larger group conversation. What did the members of your Support Community note in your self-reflective exercises that you would like to bring to the group?
Second Engagement
- We will meet as the full CLE and engage with our reflections on what it means to “learn to code,” “use computers,” and the like for us in our environment(s) and with our particular needs.
Unit 3: HTML
HTML is a truly infrastructural technology that underlies the World Wide Web. It is not a programming language, it is a markup language. The difference between “coding” and “encoding” will become part of our lexicon in this unit, and with luck, we can begin to have some conversation around why some digital technologies are (incorrectly) seen as “more important” or “more worthy” than others.
Learning Technical Skills
- Codecademy, “Learn HTML.”
Intentional Practice
- We will engage with what is easy and what is difficult both in terms of the content of the Codecademy resource as well as its structure.
- We will also strive do the work of steering the conversation during our synchronous time away from the discussion of detailed logistics. That work is to be done on Codecademy (if possible), within our Support Communities, and on the discussion board–in that order!
- Our overall job in our precious time together is to talk about how the learning process is going, and even more importantly to delve into our meta-cognitive reflections on the enormity of the task that “learning to code” proves to be, and therefore what part of that huge umbrella concept each co-learner wishes to engage with.
Synchronous Work Plan
Two, 45-minute engagement periods, offered twice per unit
First Engagement
- Support Communities meet together to discuss the quality and, if needed, the content of the asynchronous work the teams have done since the last synchronous meeting.
- They will compare their experiences, which will also help to prepare for the larger group conversation. What did the members of your Support Community note in your self-reflective exercises that you would like to bring to the group?
Second Engagement
- We will meet as the full CLE and engage with our reflections on what it means to “learn to code,” “use computers,” and the like for us in our environment(s) and with our particular needs.
Unit 4: Excel
Microsoft Excel is an infrastructural technology in its own way. It is the lingua franca of many environments. It is, at its heart a spreadsheet, but did you know it also contains a programming language? Maybe you need to engage with that language, but even if not, the way that Excel’s functions work are inherently (of course) computational! By this point in the CLE, we will also surely be able to dive into the similarities and differences between digital technologies, and begin to identify the ones that suit our needs best.
Learning Technical Skills
- LinkedIn Learning Path, “Master Microsoft Excel.”
Intentional Practice
- We will engage with what is easy and what is difficult both in terms of the content of the LinkedIn Learning resource as well as its structure.
- We will also strive do the work of steering the conversation during our synchronous time away from the discussion of detailed logistics. That work is to be done on LinkedIn Learning (if possible), within our Support Communities, and on the discussion board–in that order!
- Our overall job in our precious time together is to talk about how the learning process is going, and even more importantly to delve into our meta-cognitive reflections on the enormity of the task that “learning to code” proves to be, and therefore what part of that huge umbrella concept each co-learner wishes to engage with.
Synchronous Work Plan
Two, 45-minute engagement periods, offered twice per unit
First Engagement
- Support Communities meet together to discuss the quality and, if needed, the content of the asynchronous work the teams have done since the last synchronous meeting.
- They will compare their experiences, which will also help to prepare for the larger group conversation. What did the members of your Support Community note in your self-reflective exercises that you would like to bring to the group?
Second Engagement
- We will meet as the full CLE and engage with our reflections on what it means to “learn to code,” “use computers,” and the like for us in our environment(s) and with our particular needs.
Unit 5: Thinking Like a Computer
Do you feel you think a little more like a computer? What complexities can you bring to this concept here at the conclusion of this Co-Learning Encounter?
Asynchronous Work Plan
Theoretical Framing
- Brian Cantwell Smith, The Promise of Artificial Intelligence: Reckoning and Judgment, 115-147 (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2019).
Intentional Practice
- Why are you doing this work now? What are your goals? Are they different than they were four weeks ago? What types of pressures do you feel to participate in the digital space? What do you make of the distinction between reckoning and judgement (and any other concept from any other reading we select).
- On the day after our last synchronous meeting take time to reflect on the CLE, and offer your technical and meta-cognitive findings to the discussion board. Consider what you might now say to someone else if they came up to you and said, “Do I need to learn to code?”
Synchronous Work Plan
Two, 45-minute engagement periods, offered once per unit
First Engagement
- Discussion of what reckoning and judgement might mean to us in our work and life, having experienced this co-learning encounter.
Second Engagement
- Discussion of how we plan to move forward, individually and as a group, now that we have garnered greater knowledges of both digital technologies and our own learning styles. What does “learning to code” mean to you now?
