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Source:
A List Apart Magazine (ISSN: 1534-0295)
explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special
focus on web standards and best practices.
Elevate Web Design at the University Level
Let’s face it.
Technology moves fast; academia doesn’t. So how should educators teach web
design and development—subjects that change constantly? How should educators
prepare students for real-world expectations? How do educators stay up-to-date?
And how do web professionals help educators to create graduates who fit in and
actually know what they’re doing?
Right now, 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education is out of date and fragmented.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. So while sweeping change can’t happen today, let’s challenge ourselves to
do what we can. Today, let’s begin to make positive, sustainable change to build
a foundation for the future.
Define the problem
Many people
casually, but often passionately, complain about the state of web education.
I’ve heard these complaints at conferences, over dinner, and have read them
online—especially when someone tries to hire a recent graduate as a web designer
or developer.
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.
As James Archer
of
Forty Agency stated,
The culture of large educational institutions has, in my experience, consistently proven itself
unable to cope with the demands of such a varied and fast-moving industry. I
know many good people are trying, but I’ve yet to see anyone come out of a
university program knowing what they’d need to know in order for us to hire
them.
Rip off the bandage
“Ouch!” That’s
what I thought when I read through the
interviews.
Many comments were similar. I know educators who do what they can to stay afloat
teaching web topics. Most of these educators don’t have the resources to do what
needs to be done.
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.
Connect people
We need to
connect educators and practicing professionals through web and educational
conferences. We need to encourage conversation between local web professionals
and higher educational institutions.
Aarron Walter, the lead user experience designer for MailChimp, advised
that,
Departments need to create a culture of learning that requires faculty to stay abreast of new
topics. Schools should make it a priority to send faculty to conferences and
training programs to ensure they’re not falling behind.
Yes, this has to
happen. Web professionals attend web conferences to keep up-to-date with trends
and technologies and to create/maintain a professional network. Travel and event
cost is usually a business expense. It is often paid for by the employer or is a
tax write-off for business owners or freelancers. Educators often do not have
these resources; and, many do not have any budget for travel. This makes it
extremely difficult for educators to afford to attend conferences and workshops.
Web conference
and workshop organizers can be part of the solution by offering deeply
discounted rates to educators. By making these events more affordable,
organizers send the message that educators are welcome.
Businesses can
be another part of the solution. Businesses can reach out to local educators and
offer to sponsor their trip or part of their trip to a web conference or
workshop. This can be great publicity for both the business and the university
and help businesses to participate in producing viable job candidates.
Web design and
development professionals need to speak to classes and offer site visits to
their businesses to connect educators and students with full-time web designers
and developers. Real-world experience is essential, and real-world internships
must be integrated into the curriculum to prepare students to work with real
clients who have real expectations, deadlines, and budgets.
Greg Storey,
Principal of
Airbag
Industries, stated,
I find that students are used to having more time to complete projects than is required in business.
It would be handy if students were taken through a series of real-world
exercises and projects that made them studio-ready as soon as that diploma hits
their hand.
Connections
between higher education and business have to be created, nurtured, and
sustained. These relationships support the growth of educational institutions
and the community’s desire to retain recent graduates who might otherwise leave
the community. Partnering colleges and universities with local companies that
provide career paths in web design and development allows recent graduates to
see the community as a viable place to further their professional interests.
I know that you
are sitting there, reading this, and thinking to yourself, “Yes, this is what
needs to happen.” And I know you’re wondering to yourself, “What can I do to get
involved?”
Here’s how you
can make a difference and start changing the state of web education, today.
When you drive,
bike, or scooter to work each morning, do you pass a university? If so, contact
the web educator at the university and see what you can do to help connect the
school to you, your company, and your professional organizations. Does the
educator need/want a guest lecturer to come to class and speak on your area of
expertise? Yes, you are an expert on something and you should share your
expertise with educators and their students.
Initiate contact
with a web educator. The minimal time and effort that goes into making an
introduction and spending an hour with a class greatly influences educators and
students. The positive influence you’ll get from speaking with students and
helping them achieve their goals might surprise you. It’s a feeling you’ll want
to capture in a bottle to replenish yourself on days when clients are acting
awful, your server is down, and you’ve spilled coffee on your laptop. When
everything goes wrong in the world, you’ll know that you’ve done something
right; you’ve given your time and energy to help shape the future of web
education.
Embrace change
Although staying
up-to-date is essential, the ever-changing state of technology makes it
challenging for educators to stay current. As web designer
Rob Weychert, said,
Hire faculty that are motivated to maintain their own continuing self-education (just as many of us
in the work force do, largely via the blogosphere), and have schools fund it
whenever possible (conferences, workshops, seminars, etc.). I hear too many
horror stories about schools teaching sorely outdated practices. As much as I’m
sure budget constraints are a problem, I can’t get my head around the idea of
hiring professors who lack the curiosity to keep up with what’s going on in the
web design/development world. It moves too fast. Hire people willing to keep up
with it.
Teaching current
technologies is critical. Equally critical is teaching that these technologies
will change and that, for students to stay competitive in the real world, they
will have to change with these technologies. To give students a well-rounded
education, fundamentals and theory must be taught, as well. Although technology
is vital to web design and web development, specific technologies are not as
important as teaching “why” something should be done. As web designer
Dan Rubin stated,
...the thought process involved is the most important thing for me. I like to see that each problem
is approached in a unique way that’s appropriate to the given problem. I don’t
really care how it’s approached, just that a degree of thought has been applied.
Let go
We also need to
let go of the idea that professors in these disciplines must hold a master’s
degree. The reality is that many web professionals are self-taught. A person
with solid experience and a proven track record should be considered an
appropriate candidate to teach web design and development in higher education.
Jeff Croft, web designer and developer at Blue
Flavor, mentioned that he would be interested in teaching at the university
level:
Hire instructors that are relevant. By and large, educational institutions are not doing this…I was
contacted by a large university about teaching web design and was quite
interested. Then they found out I had no graduate-level degree. So instead, they
hired a retired Java programmer to teach, ‘web design.’ Huh?
Most of the relevant folks in the industry today don’t have graduate-level degrees in web design or
development. Why? Because web design and development programs didn’t exist when
we came through school. Most of us stopped going to school as soon as we
realized the schools weren’t teaching us anything relevant.
To be more relevant, colleges and universities are going to have to get over their accreditation
standards and hire the people doing great work on the web today to teach. That’s
really the only way…Likewise, they can’t expect the same folks that have been
teaching graphic design for 30 years to really be competent web design teachers.
They need new blood—people that really understand this stuff and are passionate
about it.
Get organized
Professional
organizations afford the most efficient opportunity to set a framework for the
collaborative process. Several organizations such as
The Web Standards Project (WaSP) and the
World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) are pioneers in this effort.
The WaSP
Education Task Force is developing a web standards-based curriculum
called the
WaSP
Curriculum Framework.
Opera
has been developing and publishing curriculum. Read
Brighter
Horizons for Web Education to get more information on these
endeavors. It’s really exciting to see so many people making positive change in
web education. Combined, these groups can create curriculum that supports the
educational needs of our students.
Although, at
this time, many colleges and universities are not producing the type of web
professionals we need in web design and development, thoughtful effort from
passionate people can change this. We have the opportunity to combine our
resources and professional networks to champion the ideals of web
standards-based curricula that will prepare our students for meaningful careers
in web design and development.
Get depressed, get over it, and get involved
As an educator,
I want to see my students succeed. I want to give them every opportunity to
graduate with skills that allow them to have fulfilling careers—careers where
they contribute to the field. Although, universally this is not happening now, I
challenge us all to change our thinking, to get over being depressed, and to
move beyond complaining.
Here are three
things you can do today to make a difference in web education:
1.
connect with a university,
2.
sponsor an educator, and
3.
volunteer your time.
Let’s
collaborate to create learning environments that students need. Seize this
opportunity to create the education that students ought to have. We can only
improve on the situation, right? So let’s do it. Let’s all decide, today, right
now, that we are going to help change web education for the next generation of
web professionals.
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