Coding... For Communicators?

Coding… For Communicators?Cindy Royal, Ph.D.ProfessorSchool of Journalism and Mass CommunicationDirector, Media Innovation LabTexas State Universitycindyroyal.com@cindyroyal

Background• Teach web development, coding and digital concepts

at Texas State University• Digital Media Innovation Degree• Knight Fellowship at Stanford• CodeActually.com – tutorials and examples in a

communication context

Teaching Coding - @cindyroyal

Why?• It’s the language of the Web and mobile• It’s a problem-solving skill• You can use coding skills to tell stories• There is a range of programming expertise

Teaching Coding - @cindyroyal

Tweak content in CMS

Develop a special project site

Create a data-driven project

Work on a collaborative team on digital projects

Why?• New positions and roles• New opportunities in new industries• Every industry needs strong

communicators who are tech savvy• Other organizations are seizing the

opportunity to teach coding

Teaching Coding - @cindyroyal

What?• HTML/CSS• Responsive Design• Web Design and User Experience• Self-hosted Wordpress• Working with a framework, like Bootstrap• JavaScript/JQuery• Scraping and APIs – using tools and programming• Charting tools and libraries• Web development frameworks, like Rails, Django or Flask• Database management• Mobile development• Version control – Git and GitHub• Digital entrepreneurship Teaching Coding - @cindyroyal

What?• The main point is that coding is a vast range of skills and

concepts that can become very complex, very quickly• These concepts are constantly evolving• New approaches to courses and curriculum are

necessary to provide students with the coding skills they need to be successful using them in their careers

Teaching Coding - @cindyroyal

How?

Teaching Coding - @cindyroyal

• Introduce HTML/CSS in fundamentals course

• Web Design • Coding and Data Skills • Advanced Code Camp• 1-credit-hour coding workshops• New major that immerses students

in digital literacy• Introduce data and programming

concepts across the curriculum• Invite guest speakers who work in

emerging roles• Hire people in these areas

Projects

Teaching Coding - @cindyroyal

Projects

Teaching Coding - @cindyroyal

Resources

Teaching Coding - @cindyroyal

• Lynda.com – video tutorials• Codecademy.com – interactive tutorials• Books - HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites

by John Duckett• JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End

Development by John Duckett• Learning Web Design by Jennifer Robbins• CodeActually.com - designed for communicators to

learn to code (by me - Cindy Royal)• Can check out my sites: webdesign.cindyroyal.net,

coding.cindyroyal.net, summercodecamp.cindyroyal.net

• YouTube, Stack Overflow and GitHub