Tips, web design book reviews, resources and observations for teaching and learning web development.
This excellent article by Miraz Jordan, ATPM 13.03 – Web Accessibility: The Flip Side of the Coin, is partly about helping Mac users. But it’s more than that, it’s a clear explanation of why accessiblility is important to all web users.
Technorati Tags: web design, accessibility, web standards
Case Studies in Training and Professional Development for Web Accessibility | ATHEN: “Institutions of higher education who take Web accessibility seriously must create systems of training and professional development for their staffs and faculties. Case studies were gathered from 8 authors who are tasked to assist their institutions with Web accessibility.”
Technorati Tags: web design, Accessibility, web design education, web standards
I watched a fine interview with Molly at backstage.bbc.co.uk the other day, and it hit me that education and teacher training are the last link in the web standards chain. Well, okay, so Molly had a few things along this line to say. But not exactly what I’m about to say.
The technical people have all figured out that web standards work and make life easier. The corporate interests have all figured out that web standards bring a better return on investment and make good business sense. The accessibility advocates have all determined that web standards promote accessibility. The browser makers have all (finally, mostly) come into compliance with web standards. Everything is in place, everyone is convinced, but new sites are still being created using less-than-standards compliant code. Is education holding us back?
I’m going to generalize a bit now. It seems that all those busy, over-scheduled teachers in all the large and small colleges and universities around the country haven’t gotten the word yet. They haven’t had the training they need. They haven’t had time to figure out CSS for themselves. They don’t have the textbooks and resources they need. They are hamstrung by outdated requirements and antique regulations for technology education. And, as a result, they are not turning out students trained in standards, ready for industry jobs, who can produce sites based on best practices.
Of course, there are examples of colleges and universities where teachers are given the needed training, resources and opportunities to learn. When I find such examples, I’m quick to point to them here. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? There haven’t been many good examples to point to.
Teacher’s need to kick and scream to be sent to seminars, conferences, and classes; to have expert trainers brought to them; to hear what industry wants from their students. Yes, education is a bureaucracy, a slow-moving behemoth. But teachers can go to department heads and demand travel money to attended the right conferences, to have the right trainers, to plan a budget that will promote change.
I write books I think will help teachers teach standards. I review books to find the good ones that will help teachers teach standards. I can come to your college and help teachers learn about standards. If there is anything else that I can do for any college to make change happen, just let me know. I’ll be glad to do what I can.
Technorati Tags: web design education, web standards
Sheri German wrote the first of a series of standards-based lesson plans for Dreamweaver at Community MX. The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series – Part One. She says,
There is a concern among educators that web design is often being taught poorly–even at the college level–and without regard for standards. In some cases it is because the instructor has not updated her skills since the turn of the century. In other cases it is because there is a perception that it is too hard to teach and learn CSS. Yes, it is true that one must go slowly, start simple, and build skills in a systematic way. Still, after some experimentation and a few of my own lessons learned the hard way, I came up with some beginning exercises that seem to instill the essential concepts without overwhelming the students. In this series I would like to share some of these lesson plans with my fellow educators who, like me, would like to start their students out with ‘best practices’.”
Keep an eye on this series for future lesson plans.
Technorati Tags: web design, web design education
A well organized site about CSS3, CSS3 info, comes from Joost de Valk in the Netherlands. In addition to a blog, the site describes its contents thus:
At the moment we have three sections: a CSS3 Preview, which shows you individual CSS3 features that are implemented in browsers today, and how great they are. Next to that, we have the CSS3 weblog, where we have introductory articles and news concerning interesting CSS3 stuff as it comes along. The last section is the modules section, where we keep a list of the current modules and their status, and where we will add more and more compatibility tables.
This looks like it is going to be a valuable resource as more bits and pieces of CSS3 are implemented by the browsers and the W3C moves closer to making CSS3 the current standard.
Technorati Tags: web design, CSS, web design education, web standards
A new group dedicated to promoting the global use of standards to ensure an equitable Web is the International Liaison Group – The Web Standards Project. According to the announcement written by Molly Holzschlag,
ILG is formally led by two incredibly dedicated women, Stephanie Troeth and Glenda Sims, whose individual contributions to professionalism and excellence in our industry are simply outstanding.
Glenda Sims has been a force in the accessibility movement for years. Stephanie Troeth is a member of the WaSP education task force as well as the ILG, and is my presentation partner for our presentation on “Best Practices in Teaching Web Standards” at SXSWi this year. (We’re scheduled for Sunday afternoon.)
Technorati Tags: web design, accessibility, usability, CSS, web standards
See my post today at BlogHer on the use of headings to improve accessibility, search engine results, and mobile usability.
Technorati Tags: web design, accessibility