:) good work Jimmy G, and thanks for the good press! looking forward to coming out there... you know if there was ever a chance to teach the usability I'd jump at it!
lisa > -----Original Message----- > From: James Gollan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, 14 February 2006 8:00 AM > To: [email protected]; Russ Weakly > Subject: Re: [WSG] Web design education > > > Chris Taylor wrote: > > And, a larger question for us all: what are we as web standards and > > accessibility evangelists to do about the continued > ingorance and apathy > > towards this vital subject, especially in academia? Let's > hope that the > > recent Target website court case in the US highlights the cause. > > > > > I feel it is worth pointing out that not all educational institutions > are still teaching table based design. As an educator I feel > I am in a > great position to make a difference at a 'grass roots' level. > Students > studying web design at our college (Ultimo TAFE) are exposed > to about as > much evangelism as they can take! There is a brief mention of > tables for > design, but as a primer for what they may find themselves > working with > in industry. Every site that they design should validate to a strict > doctype (they choose between HTML and XHMTL after being > presented with > the arguments for and against) and use CSS for all aspects of layout. > They spend an hour and a half per week studying usability and > accessibility, they have access to multiple browsers, > operating systems, > and even JAWS (until recently :( ). First lesson they are directed to > join this list! > Past teachers have been such luminaries as Lisa Herrod and > Roger Hudson, > and, at the end of semester when they are dizzy from this barrage of > evangalism, they get a good talking to from people such as > Russ Weakley, > Lindsay Evans, Peter Ottery, Lisa Herrod and Roger Hudson (not all on > the same bill, unfortunately). > I know of other TAFE's (particularly Blue Mountains) that > have a similar > approach toward standards. > Unfortunately it often comes down to the teachers at the educational > institution to promote this viewpoint, as syllabus documents are > normally vague and hopelessly out of date. We are currently > working of a > training package that was first developed around 1997 (may have been > 1999, but hell, it's old). It mentions tables for layout etc. > I am sure that other institutions would be taking a similar > approach to > web design as us If not, hopefully the word will get out and > the course > will either drop off or modify its content. We do have > mailing lists for > educators in TAFE to try to disseminate the knowledge and facilitate > discussion. > I agree that there can be an apathy in educational > institutions - often > as a result of the institutional structure - but it is not > necessarily > the case. > Just wanted to point that out ;) > ****************************************************** > The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ > > See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > for some hints on posting to the list & getting help > ****************************************************** > ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
