The Relevance of Coding in the 21st Century: Why Coding is Important for Students Learn

With how rapidly digital technology is advancing in the 21st Century, especially with Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is extremely important for students to know about web fundamentals and web history so they can learn how to code for the web. Even if students don’t think they’ll use the skills they’ve learned, it is still an asset to have. This knowledge can unlock a new form of creativity for students. For example, something that a lot of students do is learn a foreign language. They spend time studying vocabulary, grammar, etymology, slang, and so much more. Web languages can be similar to that. The more time spent practicing a language, the more “fluent” students will become. I believe that if students actually understand the foundation of the web tools they use, they would have a different sense of appreciation for them. Just like learning how to read and write in a new language, learning about web fundamentals can give students the opportunity to “code switch”-meaning that if they’re in a situation where they need to utilize codes, they are equipped to do so. I truly feel that this skill will make students value the web more and not see it merely as transactional because students from this time period have only known the web/Internet in its “developed” form.

” ‘Young people don’t understand what it took to make the web,’ he said. ‘It took companies giving up their patent rights, it took individuals giving up their time and energy, it took bright people giving up their ideas for the sake of a common idea.’ ”

Julian Lucas, “Tim Berners-Lee Invented the World Wide Web. Now He Wants to Save It,” Annals of Technology, The New Yorker, September 29, 2025.

Learning how to use HTML and CSS was definitely not easy. This is honestly one of my first times coding and I didn’t know much about these platforms. After diving deeper into the “Beginner Tutorials” for HTML and CSS, I slowly started to make sense of what each line does. I will say that I got confused when it came to modifying certain lines. My perception was that it would eradicate the work that was previously done, but that was not the case. With more practice, I am sure that I’ll become more confident in using these web languages.

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>
	<title>My first web page</title>
</head>

<body>
	<h1>My first web page<h1>

	<h2>What this is</h2>
	<p>A simple page put together using
HTML</p>

	<h2>Why this is</h2>
	<p>To learn HTML</p>

	<p>How exciting</p>
	<p>Yes, that really <em>is</em> exciting.
	<strong>Warning:</strong> level of excitement may cause head to explode.</p>
</body>
</html>