> -----Original Message----- > From: Herrod, Lisa [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, 8 September 2005 9:48 AM > To: 'wsg@webstandardsgroup.org' > Subject: RE: [WSG] Educate the educators (was) Barclays > standards redesign > > There are actually a few excellent teachers at Sydney > Institute (ultimo > TAFE) who understand and teach web site design and > development with a real > focus on web standards. Their knowledge is extremely current > and while the > old addage of > > 'Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach.' > > is sometimes true, it isn't always. and defineitely not in this case. > > Lisa > >
To the defense of the university/tafe lecturers: it is extremely hard to stay up-to-date with the latest technology if you don't have any possibility to practically implement it. I used to teach at university for 2 years and then decided to stop when I realised even after that short period of time I was not keeping up with the latest developments. I returned to the practical work of development for a few years, which really helped me get back to standard quickly. You just have to work in the industry to really understand what it is all about and to be able to prepare your students for the "real world". Now I have decided to do a few guest lectures at university, which will allow me to keep working in the industry, but at the same time I can teach the students the kind of stuff I would have loved to know when I was in their shoes. But not everybody can afford this kind of employment mix. If you are a full time lecturer all you can rely on is books, training courses and seminars to learn from. That's actually no different to being a student, with the exception that the lecturer has got a full time job in addition to having to learn all the stuff they have to then teach. This industry makes it really hard to be a good long-term teacher, I think. If you are professor of mathematics you can pretty much rely on things not changing too much over the years. But teaching web development or something similar requires you to be learning new things non-stop. Hmmmm.... This is going way off-topic, right? ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
