Why do we want humanists to acquire digital skills?

I am travelling back home from the IV Congreso Internacional de la Asociación de Humanidades Digitales Hispánicas [Fourth International Conference of the Hispanic Digital Humanities Association] (HDH) in Toledo, Spain. I attended a very relevant panel on master’s level education in digital humanities. One of the issues that came up was why we want to teach digital skills to humanists, and whether this makes sense or not. In fact, this deep and foundational issue was sort of going around for the whole conference and at different panels and sessions, but unfortunately it didn’t get to be properly discussed. I will try to address it here, at least partially.

So, why do we want humanists to acquire digital skills? Let’s start by defining our terms. What are “digital skills”? Actually, what do we mean by “digital” in “digital humanities”? Does using a blogging platform like this one to reach out to others constitute a digital skill? Do digital skills include programming, scripting, modelling, managing databases, applying algorithms…? To answer this question, I will use the following distinction. Imagine that someone tells you that someone else knows a lot about cars. What idea forms in your mind?

1. The referred to person is a good driver, knows how to use their vehicle properly, can check the oil level, top up windshield washer fluid, or replace a flat tyre.
2. The referred to person has encyclopaedic knowledge of car makes and models, engine specs, and the history of car making.
3. The referred to person is an engineer who designs and builds cars for an automobile manufacturer.

Note that these possibilities are not incremental; in fact, they are quite independent of each other: a car engineer may even lack a driver’s license, and an excellent driver and car owner may be totally ignorant of the engineering under the hood (if you pardon the pun).