Metal Fish Eggs

In Elevate Web Design at the University Level Leslie Jensen-Inman puts forward some solid ideas on how we can begin to rescue the mess that is web design education. As a self-taught web professional who has taught in community colleges, universities and workshops this is a topic that is near and dear to me. It’s also important to me as an employer looking for the talent I need to build my business.

There is little question that the current offerings are pretty poor. Things have improved somewhat over the years but there is a long way to go. Leslie talks about some of the reasons behind the failure of these programs and suggests some solutions. Let me put forward one more reason.

Every program I have seen first hand has a problem confusing tools with knowledge. Being able to navigate the latest web development languages and standards is only useful if you fully understand the goals behind them. It’s a rapidly changing ecosystem we work in and specific technologies become quickly outdated. Programs need to teach the specific technology and the principals behind them together at the same time.

When it comes to the work we do a very under-appreciated skill is picking the right technologies to learn. There is a constant series of decisions that need to be made to selecting the best tools (hardware, software, languages, development tools, code libraries, etc.). The criteria range from ease of use to efficiency, adoption rates, future prospects, compatibility issues, documentation and costs.

Students need to learn how certain tools came to dominate and why. They need to understand the basic problems the tools were created to address and their limitations. In other words they need to know how to pick the winners (and avoid the losers) in the rapid flow of new technologies. And to do that they need to understand the goals and principals behind the tools we use.