08 Jun 2005
The last post on this subject generated a bit of interest, so I thought I’d share some more thoughts on the same. 
Who are you calling attention-seeker? Seriously, though – this time, I’m aiming to share some more constructive thoughts on how to improve the situation.
First up, a response to some of the comments. I think that there’s a very definite need for the teaching of web design in any general IT course in schools or other institutions. Considering they’ve been teaching progamming in these since the beginning of time, a little markup is hardly too much to ask.
You don’t learn web design in year nine, the burden isn’t on a year nine computing syllabus/teacher to teach web design to any great level of competency…
Clearly, they believe you do. “Any great level of competency”, here, is apparently none at all. Existing courses do not render students proficient in web design, but rather in use of a word processor to create unprintable documents. I would suggest that if they elect to teach anything resembling web design, the first aspect of the course should be to examine a basic document structure – first a document type declaration (DTD), then document meta data (header information, links to archives, stylesheets, alternate document formats, etc.), then content using semantic markup.
Only after this should design be explored, in terms of using CSS to adjust positioning, typography, and graphical elements of design.
All institutions seem to teach the WYSIWYG model – but I have stopped griping over it – mainly because I know that most people in these “intro†classes won’t make it very far in Web design – and if they do – they will eventually learn the right way to do things.
I’d argue against this passivity. I note the point, but would suggest that the reason given ignores web design training as an ancillary thing — that is, people do these courses not as graphic designers looking to shift or expand their focus, or people looking to move into web design as a career, but rather as a part of their regular employment. An example has already been given by Steve in his article and comments – his friend wasn’t being educated in order to advise others in web design, but rather as an ancillary part of her job, much like preparing printed handouts. Similarly, many other professions also require a degree of web literacy.
Having said that, I’d agree that adding your own “two cents” to these courses is counter-productive: at least, perhaps, the attendees will achieve a smattering of design knowledge. More to the point, these courses should be changed at an education level, not as a student or attendee!
I’d also don’t think that print experience is irrelevant or unhelpful – quite the opposite. The CSS Zen Garden project attests to this, in that it is primarily about design. Print and web design are not mutually exclusive, and, in many cases, are complementary. There’s also nothing inherently wrong with learning to use Photoshop (or similar utility) to splice images for web production – this is a valid technique for creating graphical layouts with CSS, too – although I personally don’t use this method, others do, and, provided they’re not using tables for their display and are including meaningful alternative textual descriptions (alt text) where applicable, there’s absolutely nothing to be said against this.
Regrettably, an understanding of graphic design for a print medium often instills a false confidence in authors – it is the role of educators to ensure that the differences between web and print design are made clear where they are responsible for the dissemination of design practice knowledge, and there is much that may still be done in this area.
08 Jun 2005
Mediacracy is a bunch of interesting audio pieces, alluded to in an article in Icon in the SMH a few days back, which remix sound bites to produce messages perhaps contrary to the intent of their original speakers.
My personal favorite is “Howard Killed” (not for political reasons, just because it’s so well produced!). This’d be a good text for those in year 12 looking for something to do a portrayal of truth speech on for English…
As an aside, all of that is released on archive.org – it’s good to see artists embracing the service!
08 Jun 2005
I posted a video of an english seminar a week or so ago now, and received this comment from our school captain, Andrew Garrett, via the contact form here.
Mate;
Can’t find your email address, but just wanted to thank you for putting Selo’s Ext English seminar up … Seriously, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a classroom …
Garrett
Since then, I think a funnier thing has been discovered in a classroom, which I’m not entirely sure he knows I’ve got. We have reason to believe this is a photo of him from year 8…
08 Jun 2005
Described thus:
A modern hotel, centrally located on the Pest side of the city.
I have a feeling that’s actually quite an innocuous thing, although it has interesting connotations, especially when speaking of hotels!
07 Jun 2005
Still… teaching… WYSIWYG design principles! My brother is on another computer here designing some webpage using a word processor in HTML mode, and I’m furtively glancing, waiting for the crushing moment when he discovers that his pretty fonts aren’t going to display like that in a real browser.
Accessibility issues aside, people don’t seem to understand that typography doesn’t work like print.
I’d like to go and rant to the teacher who set the project – not because they use redundant and deprecated design practices, but simply in response to their role in perpetuating these. Educators have a greater burden of responsibility here, being a catalyst for the practices of tomorrow. Admittedly, education is not the only catalyst (I think most people my age who understand the notion of the semantic web can attest to this!), but that should not diminish its potential role in this.
I argue that, in their role as educators, they have failed – their influence is a wholly negative one in this aspect for several reasons.
Note that I don’t speak of web design generally – I think, done properly, it provides an excellent grounding in design in a more flexible frame of mind (thinking in terms of fluid layouts, for example, as opposed to static print layouts). My criticism is applied only to the primary use of applications such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver as sole design tools, and more so to word processing and DTP software that perform a secondary function in being able to export HTML. Notably, use of graphic design tools is exempt from such a criticism (Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks… and to a lesser extent Flash – lesser because it is not designed for the primary production of graphical elements, rather for the implementation of these in an interactive and engaging framework) – these have value in the development of design skills, even if these skills are not directly applicable in an electronic context.
The notion of markup is foreign, even whilst the user recognises the purpose of an application as being to create documents in a markup language.
Clearly, such education ignores the core tenet of the technology on which it is based. Given the general pedanticism prevalent in computing-related courses (I do not comment on the depth of education, only the nature of that which is given), one would imagine that the fundamental elements, particularly in a “simple”, uncompiled language, would be addressed. Apparently not — perhaps it was too relevant for consideration?
WYSIWYG creation rejects the notion of separation of markup (content), presentation and behaviour.
The risks are three-fold.
Firstly, that production of quality content should be hindered by the bundled nature of the medium – that is, people will focus on presentation at the expense of content. The semantic web frees content-creators from this – their purpose is simply that, with layout being dictated at the presentational layer. For a broader example of this, see general criticisms of PowerPoint as being a time-wasting and hollow presentation form.
Secondly, that the content should be bound to presentation, and its longevity would be compromised by this link. This is a well-documented risk in relation to the semantic web, and one of the core reasons commonly given in support of this. Ample evidence supporting this exists, so I won’t elaborate further.
A third risk is the general accessibility of information – also well documented. The creation of quality content is still possible, but if this content is accessible to no-one due to usability barriers, it is redundant.
Promotion of WYSIWYG development methods is counter-productive in all areas — content production, general quality of design, and creation of an accessibility/usability culture — and should cease immediately in all educational spheres presently supporting this practice.
*steps off soap box*