Project
I am attempting to do a final project using language to teach people how to create databases. This is a long term interest of mine that may or may not fit into the project’s parameters. SQL (Standard Query Language) is the computer language that all databases use, in some form or another, to search. It is one of the easier computer languages to learn and generally a skill that almost anyone can use to make everything from academic research to Google searches better. Most of my academic life has been spent making software easier to use, and information easier to find and navigate.
I started grad school in 1994, when the Internet began to become popular and my first publication out of grad school was explaining how the internet search tools worked. Then we used the metaphors of print. (Yahoo! = Table of Contents and AltaVista, HotBot (this was before Google) etc. = a back of the book index. ) Print metaphors made these more accessible to people who had a fear of technology and believed it was impossible to understand these issues without an understanding of math. Algorithms, Boolean etc.
Even today, many people do not have an understanding of how these things work. Most people do not care since most of the time these things are handled behind the scenes and the information they get handles the request most of the time. Even so, I believe that computing in general and databases specifically would be improved if more people could learn them using language skills which are more prevalent than math skills.
Most database instruction is geared toward computer efficiency and spend way more time explaining how to make searches run faster than making searching accessible. This is very important for computer programmers, but not all that useful for most people who need use them.
Database instruction spends chapters on datatypes, (what kind of data fits in what kind of field, ie number, text, hypertext) while never really discussing how to create tables or how people build queries. Both pieces of information are important, but considering the available computing power, it is much more important to ensure ease of use than speed.
Whether I can fit this into the project parameters is still a bit up in the air. I need to have the concepts we have discussed in class direct the project. It is relatively simple to use signifiers in this project. Sentence structure = table structure, sql query as a sentence etc., I am still working on the other concepts. Theoretically, I could make it a Mystory, but in addition to being a cop out, it is more than a reach to make it relevant.
Database as media is a possibility, but again, I think it is a reach. There may be something in Ulmer’s pedagogy discussions, but I havent had a chance to reread them yet.
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