I believe I learn a lot from my computer.
My relationship with my computer recently has gotten more complex.
It’s reached the point where we’re trying to figure out what goes on in each other’s heads. Or maybe it’s just me.
I can’t speak binary yet, nor will I ever, probably, and I can’t imagine my computer trying to fathom me ““ carrying it with me wherever I go, dropping it, running too many programs at once, but at the same time not feeling completely prepared for the day without it.
I want to be able to communicate more clearly with my computer, so for the past few years of my life, I’ve been learning to program.
Writing code is beginning to teach me a lot about my learning process.
I set out to write the world’s most elegant array of data, and most efficient for loop, repeating my program’s condition to execute an action.
It’s beginning to feel a bit like trying to write a novel with crayons and elementary school vocabulary.
But then I return to my roots and my belief that I am always learning something, or at least should be trying to learn from my experience.
My writing process has also taught me about myself, but my coding practices have begun to teach me about the logical structures with which I think.
Or maybe I’m beginning to realize I wasn’t very logical to begin with.
Using a computer, even without having coding knowledge, can show us things about ourselves.
“My computer is a reflection of my organized self,” said Amanda Jessen, a third-year international development studies and women’s studies student. “(It) becomes a vehicle for improving my abilities to multitask and stay on target.”
The parallel between writing code, writing, and organizing oneself is, in my mind, inevitable.
It is like learning a language, said Cecilia Chiu, a fourth-year bioengineering student enrolled in a programming class.
Chiu said she sees parallels between the structure of learning a human-to-human-communication language, and a human-to-computer language.
Patrick Tierney, a third-year Design | Media Arts and architecture studies student, has been programming since he was in seventh grade.
Tierney said he feels he has a deep understanding of code because at the same time he was formulating an identity as an individual and patterns of thought, he was also learning about the structures of code.
To Tierney, the revelation that a program is looping ““ or constantly re-executing its own code, allowing for the immediacy of the interactions we have with our coded devices ““ was a turning point in his life as a programmer and a learner.
Tierney is more interested in the organization of code and what is possible with it than the details of foreign language.
The organization and the structure of the computer can enter into our lives and overwhelm us, or we can choose to leave it separate.
But while I’m figuring it out, I’ll have the words “I know nothing of … “ taped at the top of my window, so I remember to approach whatever is happening within the screen as a beginner.
E-mail Rood at drood@media.ucla.edu.