Should everyone learn how to code?
With the rapid development of the World Wide Web (WWW), the world has become increasingly interconnected. Today, websites play an important role in people’s everyday lives, whether we are getting the latest news, ordering products online, or taking courses remotely. At the core of every website is a system that connects users to information and data through a user interface (UI).
As websites and digital technologies become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, an important question arises: does every student need to learn how to code a website? In today’s context, especially with the emergence of genAI, I do not think that every student needs to learn website coding. However, I do believe that every student should have a basic understanding of how websites and user interfaces work. Students should also understand the history and development of the Internet, since this knowledge can help them better understand the digital world they interact with every day.
However, I do not think students necessarily need to learn how to code websites or write HTML. As HTML Dog explains, “HTML is nothing more than fancy structured content,” while the visual formatting of that content comes later through CSS. This suggests that learning HTML is mainly about understanding how content is structured, rather than being necessary for everyone to build websites. Much of this process involves translating what we want to communicate into a language computers can understand, something that can increasingly be assisted by generative AI. Instead, students should focus on understanding how websites actually work: how user input affects the results they receive, how websites retrieve the information users request behind the scenes, and how databases are structured and connected to websites. Understanding these underlying mechanisms would give students a deeper understanding of the digital systems they interact with every day.
My Web Page
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to Rigley's Website</h1>
<p>first paragraph</p >
<p>second paragraph</p >
<p>third paragraph</p >
</body>
<h2>Thank you!</h2>
</html>my coding experince
As a prospective CS major, I have quite a lot of experience with coding. I find it really fun to use code to solve problems through different algorithms and approaches. Since computers can compute extremely quickly, we can take advantage of their computational power to solve a wide variety of problems. In general, I think coding is very open-ended. As long as you have the knowledge and an idea, you can create almost any project or program you can imagine.
I think you made some really interesting points. As generative AI continues to improve, I’m sure coding and writing in HTML will become significantly easier. I also would agree that it is important to know how websites actually work. The only thing I would argue is that even though AI might make this process easier, I feel it is still important to understand the basics.
Hello Rigley,
I really like the fact that you believe students “should have a basic understanding of how websites and user interfaces work,” but not “website coding”. As a prospective history major, I think that although people highlight the importance of coding all the time, humans could be replaced by AI in the coding process itself, while people who have knowledge of coding could control that AI. However, it is important to realize the boundaries of using AI, but I think it would be essential for developing future products.
Hi Rigly, you are making some interesting points. I am resonated by your idea about artificial intelligence. I have some experience of building a website before, and large language models are really powerful assistants. I also agree with your idea that understanding how websites work is essential. When I used AI to write code for my website, I was struggling to find bugs in code. If I have some basic knowledge of html, it will be much easier.