ALA No. 276: Web design education
In Issue No. 276 of A List Apart, for people who make websites:
Elevate Web Design at the University Level
by LESLIE JENSEN-INMAN
Web education is out of date and fragmented. There are good people working hard to change this, but because of the structure of higher education, it will take time. As part of a year-long journey to discover where we are in web education and where we need to go, Leslie Jensen-Inman interviewed 32 web design and development leaders. The consensus: technology moves too fast for college and university curricula to keep up. How, then, can educators create a sustainable foundation for the future?
Brighter Horizons for Web Education
by AARRON WALTER
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. Yet web design education consists mainly of introductory Flash classes and the occasional 90s-style HTML table layout tutorial. How drastic is the web design education gap, and what can be done to close it? Designer, developer, and web design educator Aarron Walter of The Web Standards Project surveys the state of the curricula.
Filed under: A List Apart, Advocacy, Design, Education, Publications, Publishing, development
[...] View original post here: Jeffrey Zeldman Presents : ALA No. 276: Web design education [...]
I’m sorry to say that I’m starting to lose faith in higher ed, at least when it comes to industries like ours. I think our industry has adapted a form of community driven digital apprenticeship that is actually much more effective than a traditional university education in providing the skills we need. I say this as someone who has both an Associates of Applied Science and a Bachelor of Science in web design. My bachelors was amazing, but that’s solely due to the influence of the program director, who is no longer with the program. Education can’t thrive when it’s based on a cult of personality.
Think about it. How much could a potential student learn by spending 12 hours a week reading all the great resources we have available online, for free (such as ALA)? Spend another 10-20 hours making an honest effort to put those ideas into practice, and you’ve got a work load roughly equivelant to a full time university student. If you’re lucky, you may even be able to turn some of that effort into paid work. If you’re really lucky, you’ll have a community of like minded learners to use for critique and peer review. After 4 years of that, I think such a “student” could stand toe to toe with most recent college/university grads.
Education is important, but I’ve spent enough time as both a student and a staff member to know that it’s extremely rare for an institution of higher learning to adapt as quickly as this industry requires (yes, even when you calculate for the 20% market share of a 7 year old browser). I both fear and hope that the current economic crisis will spark a sea change in higher ed to address that particular problem, because I think it causes problems in many industries, not just our own. That may be a bigger issue than we as a community can address. But I also think we may be more effective trying to supply online environments to address the elements currently missing from the toy box of the self guided learner.
How do we enable the organic growth of communities of “students” who can bounce ideas off each other, share expertise, and give constructive criticism to each other? Hell, that’s probably a good question even among university students and working professionals. (A quick aside, some studies indicate that a good portion of the value gained from a university degree stems from the “social capital” gained through the process. In other words, the community building and networking that occurs among students may be just as or even more important than anything actually learned, at least when it comes to predicting future financial and personal success. Spending that tuition money on a couple of conferences a year may work just as well.)
How do we connect budding web designers with the sort of small non-profits that could greatly benefit from even a student’s work on their web presence?
Maybe the answers already exist, and we just need to spend some time showing people how to make better use of Ning and CraigsList and Guru.com and Facebook groups and MeetUp.com and…
Did my comment get eaten or is it being moderated? :(
In case it’s gone, I’ll quickly recap: 12 hours reading ALA ect. + 20 hours tinkering with those ideas on projects (for pay, for publication, or just for the hell of it) + a conference or 2 per year > 4 year degree. And I say that as someone with both 2 year and 4 year degrees in web design and currently working on a masters (not in web design).
For the sake of clarity, I mean 12 hours per week reading ALA and other such resources and 20 hours per week putting those ideas into practice. My poor comment-fu made it sound like I meant spending a few hours per year on such tasks.
Honest question, is there no diversity in the web dev community? I get the feeling like there’s this clique of people who get recycled over and over. I mean it’s gotten so that I’ve started to think of everyone on that list as being part of “The Usual Suspects.”
Am I wrong?
I was referring to the people on this list: http://teachtheweb.com/monograph.php
Ara:
It can’t be the usual suspects if I’m not on that list. :)
Jeffrey:
Touché! :-)
Damn. Now my 1st comment shows up like normal. Sorry for the comment spam, Jeffrey. This is obviously something I’m passionate about and as you may remember I’ve written about it before. :)
@ Ara Pehlivanian re: http://teachtheweb.com/monograph.php , that ‘usual suspects’ doesn’t say much to me, and here is why:
CSS is the most important skill (84%) to teach students? While HTTP and URLs are at 4%? HTML comes second to CSS at 73%?
Here is what I would propose (yes, this is just my two cents):
1. HTTP, URI, and HTML are the fundamentals of the Web. Make sure they ‘get it’.
2. Data ownership and rights
3. Communication, business sense, project management
3. UI, IA, ~ CSS, Server-side scripting, JS
I’m rather proud of our smallish Community College in British Columbia, Canada. we’ve got a standards-passionate instructor in our Digital Arts and New Media program . She teaches the students ONLY accessible XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS in her first-semester DA 131-3.0 Introduction to Web Standards, Accessibility XHTML and CSS class. And they don’t get to touch WYSIWYG tools until second semester—plain-text editor only. :D She teaches it exactly the way I would.
The course is also available online and outside the program, which is pretty cool. And she makes sure she stays up-to-speed on the latest best practices—we were at An Event Apart Seattle last year.
All the best!
[...] ALA No. 276: Web design education [...]
My question for everyone is that if current education is not properly preparing people for the real world, then what is the best way for someone to break into web design.
Thanks
One definitive way of learning the intangibles of web design is to experience the process of web creation and execution in lieu of memorizing it (See How to be a free thinker. In my undergraduate days, I introduced myself to several nonprofit organizations and humanitarian groups in my locale (Atlanta) who literally burst into tears when people like me took an active role in their groups. For example, there is a website called Designism Connects which can serve as a starting point for any creative who is just getting started. All of the subtle interactions, communications, styles, and eventually the deliverables can be explored and critiqued. In addition, much of the creative license is in the hands of the newbie. Most orgs don’t have a preference as to the final product, as long as it serves its underlying purpose of their group.
Take it from me, learning this way is very gratifying and it can actually be a great relief from the future non-humanitarian projects that will inevitably stifle any creativity in favor of a larger bottom line…I challenge every designer and developer to try this philanthropic approach once to see how much happier your / our craft can be when the purpose supercedes money…
Sorry about my website link on the last post (fixed)..
I don’t think acquiring debt to learn web design is not worth it at all. The greater issue is whether people are motivated enough to learn themselves, and if you can apply yourself to get straight A’s in class, you can likely teach yourself web design. I firmly believe that classroom education will always fall short of actual experience. And if you need actual experience to improve, why waste money on education? If one doesn’t have it in themselves to learn on their own, then perhaps that person should find something more personally fulfilling to pursue.
Sorry – that double negative in my last comment should be a single negative…