A web sized education problem?

A “Web-Sized”
Education Problem?

Chris Mills, Opera Software, OWEA/Open Edu

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Let’s talk about...
Web education
• The problem
• Potential solutions
• What the community is doing
• Improving things together


The education problem
Skills shortage in the web industry
• Many web developers need
educating
• Well-trained graduates also needed
• But these needs aren’t being met


Think of other
professions
Such as
• Accountancy
• Architecture
• Law
• Medicine


These have features
Such as
• Regulatory bodies
• Codes of practice
• Qualiﬁcations
• Faculties at university


The Web is different
• We have the W3C...
• ...but this is a standards body
• And what we call standards...
• ...are actually recommendations


Codes of practice?
• There are best practices
• But mostly we just view source...
• ...and copy and paste


(Low barrier of entry)
The Web is easy (sort of)
• It has a low barrier of entry
• Which made the Web what it is today
• But there’s a lot of bad code out there
• Which hangs around forever!


There are exams
• At some universities
• But these are few and far between
• And vary widely in content


Many educators get it
Including many of you guys!


But many don’t
Courses vary
• Some teach bad front-end practices
• Some don’t teach them at all
• Some teach a really odd mix of skills
• Some are just comedy


So ... WTF?


Standards becoming
standard?
Didn’t happen at the very beginning
• For example HTML only became
standard at about HTML3
• Before that things weren’t standard
• Browsers took a while to catch on


Browser support...
Was a nightmare for ages
• So tables for layout were needed
• We weren’t thinking about
accessibility so much
• Or progressive enhancement


Outdated courses
This is when many courses were written
• Things have changed so much
• 10-15 years is a lifetime in web terms
• Updates in courses and teaching
skills desperately needed


Courses should have
• HTML/CSS/JS + best practices
• Universal design - REAL accessibility
• Proper production skills, like
workﬂows, testing, teamwork
• Web sites not looking the same
across all browsers!

We should get rid of
• Tables for layout, spacer gifs, inline
JavaScript
• Resources on HTML3, Netscape
DHTML
• Courses that try to ﬂy before crawling
• Dumb sysadmin policies (IE6 lock)

Also, web is an orphan
Where does it ﬁt in to education?
• Comp/sci is a solid technical
discipline
• Web design is technical, artistic,
social, linguistic, media, publishing...


Not taken seriously
It doesn’t get taken seriously
• Comp/sci folk think it isn’t real
programming
• Design folk think it is scary as it
involves code


Why oh Why??
• Lack of web standards teaching
experience
• Updating curricula too hard/
expensive?
• Lack of support from department?
• Lack of teaching resources?

Enough
moaning already!


Now for
the solutions...


Solutions
We want to get rid of the excuses!
• Create supporting resources
• Evangelise/do outreach
• Mould better web developers!


The pera WSC
The Web Standards Curriculum
• Over 60 articles
• All the web design basics you need
• Translations underway in over 10
languages
• Released under creative commons

Open knowledge sharing
Is absolutely vital
• Spirit of the Web
• Makes everything easier
• Build up useful network of allies


WaSP InterAct
Web design curricula
• Course structures, rubrics, sample
assignments, exam questions, etc.
• Perfect complement to the Opera
WSC
• Also released under CC

InterAct with Web
Standards
“The book of the ﬁlm”
• Written to meet the needs of
educators
• Written in collaboration between
educators and industry folk
• Holistic view of web design

Mozilla/P2PU school of
Webcraft
Community led accreditation
• “Student” builds a project
• Assessed by industry professionals
• Gives them a portfolio
• Works outside university structure -
useful as not everyone has access

OWEA
Open Web Education Alliance
• W3C incubator group
• Looking to provide a “standard for
web standards” education
• Also performs outreach activities


Reach out!
Trying to get everyone doing outreach
• Educate the ones that don’t get it
• Point them to our resources, and
share your own
• “Train the trainers”


University tours
Started by Opera
• Deliver guest lectures
• Evangelize standards and good
teaching practices
• Getting local representatives on
board too

Other meetups
From big to small
• WE Rock events
• Highjacking Ignites, bar camps, etc
• Ad hoc discussion meetups


It’s not just educators...
Existing web devs and non-technical
team members also need educating
• Existing web devs: improve practices
• Edu administrators: hold the power
• Marketers/managers: non-technical
team members need to understand

Summary
Final thoughts...


How does it all work
together?
Improve Create
Curricula Resources

Examination/ WEB
Accreditation PROFESSIONALS!

Train educators/ Evangelise
students Best Practices


Forging links between
industry and educators
Is two-way
• Industry updates educators on
curricula and best practices
• Educators provide industry with
validity, respect ... and fresh meat!


Government,
international?
Both of these already in consideration
• Working on government (hush hush)
• Eventual aim is to spread this
worldwide


Thanks for listening
• cmills@opera.com
• @chrisdavidmills
• http://dev.opera.com
• Web standards evenings in
Manchester!
http://standards-next.org/

A web sized education problem?

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