31 A professor's perspective

I teach web design at a university.

The principal question for me is whether university educators should focus on fundamental concepts and enlightened discoure about web design or particular details of current approaches such as specific tools, techniques and vendors.

For example: Adobe Dreamweaver is hot right now, so should our classes use that program extensively or advocate only generic text editors for writing code?

For example: Should we explain in detail how to create CSS sprites as it is the clever idea of the moment, or emphasize a more philosophical and less technical discussion of seperation of presentation and content?

I personally believe that the university level is not so much intended provide a toolkit of skills, tricks and hacks, but instead to engage creative and intellectual capacities and foster deep contemplation and discussion. There are some facts which must be learned by memorization (like common CSS properties) but I really am much more interested in students who can explain the difference between <i> and <em> than those who can recite all the CSS positioning types on command. Dreamweaver, likewise, is a perfectly wonderful tool, but I feel that teaching students to use that application is biasing them toward a company which is about as academically appropriate as insisting they take notes using only Bic pens.

This is not to say that students do not need these skills and nor that there is no place where they should be taught. Universities have a long, intentional tradition of neutrality and academic freedom, and locking in to one vendor or one technique eats away at that storied principle.

Finally, I am personally rather wary of the claim that universities should fully prepare students for careers in web design. Students who complete our certificate program should have all of the knowledge and intellectual capacity to become a professional web developer without any further formal education. Where they learn the techniques and tools popular right-this-instant is up to them and their employers.

posted at 12:48 am on January 21, 2009 by Robby Slaughter

32 This Post-Title Has No Hook

So I’m a high school senior. I taught myself HTML 6 years ago, and now I’m in the advanced level web development class at our school, in charge of programming- i.e. Javascript, PHP and such for the school’s website. To get into this class, you have to have completed (or show mastery over) the first-level web design course, which with its restricted curriculum covers HTML, Dreamweaver, the oversimplified workings of the web, and possibly copy/pasting javascript/CSS. And it honestly seems as though nobody else knows how to use Dreamweaver’s code view. Just the other day a classmate asked me why her layout ‘“messes up in firefox, I thought Internet Explorer was the one that was retarded”:http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/communityengine/index.cfm?event=showdetails&productId=1&postId=682 ‘. Most of these kids will never touch CSS, and have never coded a line of javascript on their own. So you have the kids who have a heavily outdated foundation in basic HTML (before I was placed in the advanced level course last year, I got up to FONT tags and nearly cried, while the first few weeks were full of frustrated kids dropping the class), and then they jump straight from there to managing a real site; you also have the people who know what they’re talking about who feel like everyone else is just hopeless. There are no challenges, no colleagues to discuss with, and I doubt a web development firm would hire a 17 year old. What does one do with either of these camps?

posted at 01:38 am on January 21, 2009 by Ankeet Presswala

33 Good idea

This is good idea, however post itself is too long (I read like main points only).

When I attended university in Latvia I found web classes to be covered quite good. Let me explain:
1) Programming languages – you don’t have to learn only one programming language. We were learning one programming language per week. You just have to understand concept of programming languages and you can do it
2) SEO & Web design was thought by person, who had his own company therefore knew what’s new out there

To be honest, you can’t teach students about everything in web. There is too much going on. You have to teach them basics and let them explore themselves. When they finish university, they will have to learn how to find news in web anyway.

posted at 07:22 am on January 21, 2009 by Gita Malinovska

34 Untitled

I must admit since graduating with a first class BA(hons) degree in Design for Interactive media in July 08, I feel like I’ve been thrown to the wolves somewhat. I’m sure uni helped, and I’d rather have my degree than not, but I just wasn’t prepared for the world of work at all. We were given so long to do everything, chance to do research, told we didn’t need to learn software, just how to design. I like that philosophy, but if you can’t use the software to convey your design, then you’re severely limited. Yes we should have explored ourselves and spent time experimenting and what not, but not everyone does. I don’t know what my excuse is for not doing that to be honest, but few people on my course did. I feel they should have kicked us more with regards to this, and they did say something about giving us a few short projects to show us what working on a real time frame would be like, but never did. I think this would have helped massively.
tl;dr

Just wanted to say I agree.

posted at 08:08 am on January 21, 2009 by Roxy Ghost

35 This is exactly what I'm trying to do!

I’m glad I was pointed in this direction. I’m currently at University to try and improve my web skillset and open up some doors. Nothing I’ve learnt in the classroom (apart from some XML/XSLT and IA) is going to help once I leave for a proper job.

The problem is that the modules tutors think link to the web don’t and if they do it isn’t as expected. I found myself bored in lectures because I had already taught myself how to validate an XHTML page and didn’t need 2 hours to work out what had obviously been missed out on the page, and this was in my second year.

This is why I created the Web Developers Conference (http://www.webdevconf.co.uk). I started it up with help from the University of the West of England (also do very well with guest lectures) and one very web savvy course leader who had actually worked in the web industry. The aim has and always will be to show students exactly whats going on in the world of the web away from any classrooms or lecture halls and to help keep them on top of new technologies. It also gets them sat in front of real professionals who know whats going on and haven’t read it (all) from a book).

It’s a chance for students to ask questions and meet professionals which can lead to placements and even jobs after University. It is the first of many steps I’m taking to improve an amazing subject and area that students and professionals alike need to know more about that what an academic can read out of a book thats older than the web itself.

I’m glad other people have also seen these issues!

posted at 12:44 pm on January 21, 2009 by Alex Older

36 High School Student's Perspective

This recent discussion of university level web design/development education has been especially relevant to me: I am an 18 year old designer/web developer and, for little awhile, was searching for a reputable university program that would match my interests. I couldn’t find anything, and am instead pursuing a degree in computer science. What I’ve realized, however, is that design and development are inherently limited in their ability to be “taught� in a classroom. In place of a college degree in web design, I plan on continuing my education through online/print resources, work experience, and internships.

posted at 01:01 pm on January 21, 2009 by Abi Noda

37 Awsome!

Alex Older is my new hero. It’s amazing for a student to step up and deliver on that level. Great work! This looks as good as some of the “proper” conferences I’ve seen. This is really something you put together just for your fellow students?

posted at 02:10 pm on January 21, 2009 by Derek Pennycuff

38 Derek!

Derek, Yes in the simple answer. There is loads behind it. It is a professional event in the fact that it’s open to web proffesionals too. The 2009 site is going live next week. Want to know my email is on the site somewhere.

posted at 02:45 pm on January 21, 2009 by Alex Older

39 One approach to teacbhing web design

I teach web design in a technical college in the UK and a lot of the points made in the article mirror my own views.

I’m writing now, not to echo some of the points which have already been made but to draw your attention to a Web Application and Development course that is run by the Open University here in the UK.

The course consists of 6, 12 week course. 3 at university level 2 and 3 at level 3. While the course is considered an academic course, it still covers a lot of practical aspects of web design.

But what I found to be most interesting is that the courses are presented 3 times a year and the course materials are update after each presentation, were the course teams feel it to be necessary. As a result the courses remain reasonably relevant to todays technology.

I only wish that I could employ the same model in our local technical college, where we are bound be the syllabus set by the awarding body.

Thanks for writing the article.

Cheers

Michael_H

posted at 05:15 pm on January 21, 2009 by Michael Hickland

40 What we are doing

I am a teacher/administrator for The Art Institute of Portland’s Web Design and Interactive Media program.

Like any program, ours is not perfect, but I can at least say that is good.

What do I mean by good?

I mean that our two full-time instructors have numerous years of web-industry experience. Our curriculum was designed by web-designers. And our adjunct faculty are industry professionals who have a talent for education.

These pieces are very important. Because the only people who are able to inspire useful thought and exploration of web-design are web-designers. The catch is that the only people who can teach, are teachers.

I once was watching a video presentation by David Heller, author of Becoming a Digital Designer ( http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Digital-Designer-Broadcast-Animation/dp/0470048441 ). And there was a teacher who asked, “so should we be teaching tables?”

This question represents, I think, a fundamental problem with the thinking behind teaching the web. Someone who doesn’t get the web as a paradigm will teach someone HTML and get caught up on questions about tables.

It’s like teaching someone graphic design with an intro class on the printing press.

We focus on teaching people how to think like web designers/developers, how to “speak computer” (to quote Steven Heller), problem solve using technology, and how to research and learn technologies on their own.

Instead of teaching people the ‘right’ way to do things, we teach people how to assess problems so that they can discover the best way to solve them.

We teach people not to expect to know everything, but to know where and how to find everything and everyone so that we can leverage what makes the web so powerful: Access to communities of people who know more than you.

Yes, we do teach specific technologies…
http://wdim.aidepartments.com/placemat.asp

But we pick technologies based on input from the local Portland Web Community.

I am realizing that I could talk FOREVER about this topic, so I’ll sum it up.

We have 0 job placement.
We focus on careers in the web.

Here are some awesome graduates…
www.tylersticka.com
www.peterwooley.com
www.allenmatt.com
www.jungcompany.com

I would say our biggest challenge for us is the difference between compensation for teachers vs. compensation for web designers. The two rarely match up which make it challenging to attract teachers.

posted at 09:39 pm on January 21, 2009 by Daniel Chapman

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