Web Teacher » EduTF

Education leads the latest issue of A List Apart

vdebolt — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:36:05 +0000

Two of the important members of the WaSP Education Task force who have been hard at work on the WaSP Curriculum Framework (WCF) were featured in this week’s issue of A List Apart.

Brighter Horizons for Web Education is by the WaSP Edu TF head Aarron Walter.

If you’ve interviewed candidates for positions in the web industry, you’ve probably heard firsthand the heartbreaking stories of recent graduates who are woefully unprepared to enter the workforce. When this happens, we usually respond by cursing the school that miseducated the applicant and return to our work, only to relive the experience with every new round of interviews.

No industry can sustain itself if it doesn’t master the art of cultivating new talent—an art that requires close ties between practitioners and educators. Passively watching education struggle to bridge the divide only contributes to the problem.

. . .

In our ongoing fight to establish wide adoption of standards in our profession, those of us involved in The Web Standards Project have begun trying to tackle the education issue. Industry experts and veteran educators on the WaSP Education Task Force are currently working to develop the WaSP Curriculum Framework (WCF), a modular curriculum that can be used to improve existing curricula or serve as the foundation for emerging programs.

Aarron also describes similar programs from Opera, the Information Architecture Institute, IxDA, and Web Directions North.

Elevate Web Design at the University Level by Leslie Jensen-Inman.

About a year ago, I embarked on a journey to discover where we are in web education and where we need to go.

I interviewed thirty-two web design and development leaders. Each of them expressed interest in the formal education of the next generation of web professionals. Most emphasized a challenge common to higher education: technology moves too fast for curriculum to keep up with it.

. . .

I understand these frustrations. We’re not preparing students and that has a lot to do with the educational bureaucracy and institutions. However, educators should have help shouldering the burden. In partnership, web educators and web professionals can be pioneers for change.

Leslie mentions a number of ways web professionals, businesses, and educators can work together for change.

The thing to do at Web Directions North

vdebolt — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:06:40 +0000

The popular conference Web Directions North will be running a full day workshop called Ed Directions North: Education the Next Generation of Web Professionals. Here’s a quick description of it:

Ed Directions, a highly focused, in depth whole day symposium will help teachers, trainers, course and curriculum developers, and others in the education field keep abreast with the latest developments in standards and best practice, and to develop and deliver the best possible curricula and courses.

Other presentation will be given on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Accessibility best practices by industry leaders including Dan Cedarholm, Ben Galbraith & Dion Almaer, Dave Shea, and Derek Feathrestone. Each presentation will be followed by information about how to fold these concepts into the classroom.

When: Feb 2-7
Where: Denver Co, USA
Info: Ed Directions North – Educating the next generation of web professionals is on Feb 3.

WaSP releases curriculum survey results

vdebolt — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:17:39 +0000

Education professionals were asked about what they are doing and what they think should be done in terms of teaching web design courses at the college level. The survey results were released by the WaSP Education Task Force at Curriculum Survey Results.

The WaSP Education Task Force hopes to make the survey available again so that results can be kept current. Keep in mind that Opera just released a web standards curriculum and WaSP is getting ready to do the same. Some of the issues raised by participants of the survey (which was taken several months ago), such as the the lack of appropriate materials and reference materials, may be addressed by these two new curriculum projects.

Opera Web Standards Curriculum

vdebolt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:54:40 +0000

Opera announced their Web Standards Curriculum is now available. This is a big deal to many of us working on web standards and education. Here’s their intro:

Learning Web Standards just got easier. Opera’s new Web Standards Curriculum is a complete course to teach you standards-based web development, including HTML, CSS, design principles and background theory, and JavaScript basics. It already has support from many organizations (including Yahoo! and the Web Standards Project) and universities.

The introduction and table of contents, written by Chris Mills, explains what is there now and what is still in development, who will find the curriculum useful, and how to use it.

Chris Mills is also a member of the WaSP Education Task Force that is also developing a web standards curriculum.

EduTF Report Highlights Curriculum Project

vdebolt — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:29:44 +0000

At the Web Standards Project site, this report highlights the education task force curriculum project.

The Curriculum Project will be a resource that could be used by those in education, as well as, anyone needing to update knowledge on Web related technologies.

If you’re involved in delivering curriculum relating to web technologies, you’ll find a mailing list and other ways to participate mentioned in the article.