Teach Your Child Nodes Well: Helping The Next Generation Of Web Geeks (And Yourself) Build A Better Web

Teach Your Child Nodes Well:
Helping The Next Generation Of
Web Geeks (And Yourself) Build A
Better Web

Dylan Wilbanks
Refresh Bellingham, July 2010

Friday, July 23, 2010

Let’s be clear:
I’m not talking about
child nodes


Bellingham = hippies


http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/robindude/223433102/

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/robindude/3491016619/

OK, enough
stereotypes already.

(insert your own Seattle stereotype here in revenge.)


This talk is about how
we learn to build
websites.


First, a quiz.


The __ element forcibly
breaks (ends) the current
line of text.


The BR element forcibly
breaks (ends) the current
line of text.


So which of these is the
correct way to code a
BR tag?


1. <br>
2. <br/>
3. <br />


Hold that thought.


So I found myself
teaching a web
development class.


From: Scott Barker
To: Dylan E. Wilbanks
Subject: INFO 340 Teaching
Date: Saturday, February 06, 2010 10:09:12 AM

Dylan -

I am currently looking for someone to teach INFO 344, Web Tools and Technologies, for the Information
School in Spring quarter. I am discussing the class with a couple possible instructors but haven't been
able to finalize anything yet so I wanted to reach out to a few others as the Spring quarter starts in just
seven weeks.

INFO 344 is a primarily a server side web development class for us and is the 3rd class many students
take in a series. They start out in the first class learning basic HTML, CSS, Javascript etc., the second
class (INFO 340) is a database class so they learn SQL and basic database concepts, and in this 3rd
class they put things together and build a fairly sophisticated web application on top of a database or
maybe a web services backend. They've also had a couple quarters of Java programming in two
Computer Science classes they take before this (CSE 142/143).

I really don't care about the technology used in this class, it could be done using .NET/SQL Server or
could also be taught using the LAMP stack (PHP, MySQL). The concepts are what is important. It is
designed to be a heavy duty "building" class however where students really get down and do something
that pulls many things together like integrating a backend database, using a web service, using Ajax on
the client to build a better more sophisticated UI etc.

It is a 10 week/5 credit course, meets twice a week for an hour and a half. There also is a 2 hour lab
each week. The number of students is expected to be 25-35, and the pay is approximately $7,000 for
the quarter. There will be a teaching assistant provided, probably for 10 hours a week to help run the
labs or do grading - that type of thing.

Let me know soon if you have any interest in possibly teaching this and when we might chat if so.

Thanks and I hope all is going well!

Scott Barker
Information School

7 weeks to design a
web curriculum


5 hours of teaching +
10-15 hours of grading
and prep work per week


And oh, you still have a
full time job.


Insanity.


$7000!


Skills vs. concepts


Can’t teach the skills
without the concepts,
can’t teach the concepts
without the skills


10%

Participation
40% 25% Labs
Individual Assignment
Group Project

25%

How your grade breaks down

65% of their grade =
build two websites


Projects meant

•They would have to learn both skills
and concepts

•In a group, they’d learn to leverage
their strengths and learn to play nice

•They would be building something


None of the
prerequisite courses
had projects.


And then there’s
INFO 343.


INFO 343 Web Technologies (5)
Explores the best practices of usability and
accessibility of design, styling of visual
content and scripting to support interactivity
including client-side protocols, markup,
technologies and algorithms for building
effective pages, sites, and web presentations.
Prerequisite: CSE 142.


HTML Deliverables


HTML Deliverables

Writing a paper


HTML Deliverables

Writing a paper

WTF?

If your class is about the
practice of web design, why
not make them practice it?


A brief digression
(in which I demonstrate my
lack of an education degree)


Three learning styles


Three learning styles

•Visual
•Auditory
•Kinesthetic


Auditory learning

Visual learning

Kinesthetic learning

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/fajalar/3093976104/

Kinesthetic learning

A history of how we
teach people


Individuals and groups would
learn/discover, but then need
to transfer the knowledge


Eventually, it’s easier to teach
people through experience.
Apprenticeships.


http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/jobingmiked/4101086244/

Some of that knowledge
can’t be transferred
through work, though.


Thus the university and the
idea that a degree gives a
person credentials.*

* - No, it’s not that simple,
but that’s another talk.

So how should web
development and
design be taught?


The web is a visual
medium that most of us
learned kinesthetically.


In the early days, everything
was new, and we had to
make it up as we went along.


Eventually, the books.


After the books, the
conferences, videos,
podcasts, more books,
more conferences, etc.
etc. etc. etc. etc.


So where’s the
educational system in
all of this?


Stuck.


Four reasons


1. Professors gotta lecture
-- trying to teach the web
as an auditory experience


2. The web as practice has
been moving faster than
education can keep up.


3. The web is only 20 years old,
web development only 15. (So best
practices are a work in progress.)


4. The people who
should be teaching the
web aren’t.


But here’s the thing.


Medicine doesn’t
have this problem*.

* - Well, the problem isn’t as big a deal.


http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/roadsidepictures/1363445504/

I don’t have my tonsils,
because 30 years ago it
was meet and right to take
them out.


Tonsillectomies are rare
today, because medical
practice has changed.


Medicine, accounting,
law, they all require
continuing education.


Most of us designing
and building websites,
in fact, do just that.


We just don’t get it
from universities.


But I think we get
stuck, too.


HTML5, for example.


If you use XHTML, you should deliver it with the
application/xhtml+xml MIME type. If you do not do
so, you should use HTML4 instead of XHTML.

The alternative, using XHTML but delivering it as
text/html, causes numerous problems....

Unfortunately, IE6 does not support application/
xhtml+xml (in fact, it does not support XHTML at
all).

-- Ian Hickson, 2002


I believe HTML5 is
motivated by anti-XML
sentiment.


WHATWG is packed
with anti-XML members.


It’s a remnant of the
HTML vs XML battle of
the early 2000s.


But here’s the
problem: HTML won.
And I can prove it.


They’re ﬁghting the
last war.


The Maginot Line

We don’t know the
history of the web.


1. <br> HTML 1.0-4.01, HTML5
2. <br/> XHTML
3. <br />


1. <br> HTML 1.0-4.01, HTML5
2. <br/> XHTML
3. <br /> ?


The space was for compatibility
with older browsers, none of
which are in use anymore.


But the space persists.


We need to ﬁnd a way
to teach the web
effectively.


That’s where you come in.


You need to pass
your knowledge on.


We need to agree to best
practices for the web.


Two ideas


1. WASP InterAct


WASP InterAct
•Launched 2009
•Intended to be an open curriculum for use
by schools and colleges and by individuals

•Taking contributions from anyone willing
to write content

•A single, open curriculum will help
advance values like usability and
accessibility

2. Volunteer


You’d be amazed how
far behind school web
design courses are.


He was building
websites as he was
taught in high school.


There’s a void of good
web teachers out there.


And not just web
design, but coding,
UX, accessibility....


Not everyone is a
kinesthetic learner.


The more you teach, the
more you learn about
what you know.


Teaching helps you practice
what you know. Practicing is
what makes you an expert.


Bourdain


http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/manspeaker/3407907875/

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/jpgauer/3903728361/

Justo Thomas


Justo picks up the chef ’s knife. “I sharpen
myself. Once a week.” I can’t help asking,
“Once a week?” ... Cooks much less
conscientious than he labor over their blades
on a daily basis. The very essence of knife
maintenance... is that the sharper the knife,
the better. Not necessarily, explains Justo. “I
like medium sharp,” he says, pointing out
the cartilage of the skate.... “Too sharp? You
get part of the bone. When it’s sharpened
correct, it passes over the bone.”
-- Anthony Bourdain, Medium Raw

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/alancleaver/4619170567/

The best pianists spent
an average of 10,000
lifetime hours practicing.

Ericsson, K. A., R. Th. Krampe, and C. Tesch-Römer, 1993, ‘The role of deliberate practice
in the acquisition of expert performance.’ *Psychological Review*, 100: 363-406.


You already know
“medium sharp.”

You have the practice.


Any knowledge you transfer to
someone else is that much less
practice for them (and more
time to learn other things).


The faster they become
experts, the better the
web will be.


20 years of web browsers


It’s time to teach the
new generation.


Thank you.
Web: dylanwilbanks.com
Twitter: dylanw
Email: wnalyd@gmail.com

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