Working together for standards The Web Standards Project

Back in the early days of the Web, most Web developers were self-taught. Opportunities for formal training were limited and Web developers continually searched for new sources of information pertaining to Web design and development. Along the way we picked up some bad habits. We began to use tables for layout. We wrapped our text with font elements. We stopped using h elements. At the same time, formal training programs began to appear. Unfortunately, many of these programs began to teach the same bad practices.

The first objective of the WaSP Education Task Force is to “Encourage instruction of Web standards and accessibility best practices in all Web design, interactive media, informational and computer science programs in order to prepare students for Web-related careers.” During the past year, the Education Task Force has discovered that a number of programs have been moving in the direction of teaching Web standards and best practices.

Steph Troeth had the opportunity to interview José Trudel, a teacher in design in the “professional” branch at Cégep de Saint-Jérôme in the Laurentides, Quebec, Canada. The Cégep system has two branches of study; the “professional” branch and the “pre-university” branch. Find out how José prepares the next generation of web professionals for the job market.

This interview also available in French.

Your Replies

#1 On May 22nd, 2006 10:53 am Steve Tucker replied:

After reading the interview transcript I find it good to know that educational figures take such a personal interest in their work and the knowledge they pass on to others. Teachers such as José will no doubt be largely responsible for the shift towards web standards by the developers of tomorrow.

#2 On May 23rd, 2006 3:18 am Lloyd replied:

People who are teaching and managing to keep on top of the changes in the Web world are few and far between. How does one find out more about the Education Task Force (Sorry if this is a stupid question). If anyone could email me info that would be great ( [email protected] ).

:)

#3 On May 23rd, 2006 6:26 pm April replied:

More information about the WaSP Education Task Force can be found at:

http://www.webstandards.org/action/edutf/

#4 On June 25th, 2006 8:43 am Milos replied:

I want to improve my web-programming knowledge. How can I join the Education Task Force?
Greetings :-)

#5 On September 18th, 2006 3:21 pm Mark replied:

After reading your post I realised that this problem still goes on. I spent 3 years in Germany carrying out a Web Development Diploma and our professors were teaching the old boy stuff. I was a master with frames and tables. I woke up half way through my course and started teaching myself standards using XHTML and CSS. Sadly there arent enough people out there that can actually teach everything that is required to be a good developer / programmer.
The majority of programmers out there are still using bad habits and creating sites that cant be used throughout the web.
Im not perfect but I think im on the right lines.
Please keep up the good work. Maybe you will visit my site sometime when its finished, then you can see my little bit to keeping the web clean.

#6 On October 28th, 2006 6:41 am Max replied:

“I want to improve my web-programming knowledge. How can I join the Education Task Force?
Greetings :-) ” I’m also interested in improving my skills so please write something about e-learning?

#7 On December 13th, 2006 1:50 pm Gitarreninstitut replied:

I want to improve my design. How can I join the Education Task Force?
Greetings :-)

#8 On January 9th, 2007 12:24 pm Thomas replied:

“At the same time, formal training programs began to appear. Unfortunately, many of these programs began to teach the same bad practices.”

that´s always the same. the first professionals start teaching some stuff and earn good money with it. then there are some other who don´t act like real professionals but they call themself professional also also earn good money too at startup until the people realize that there are some real good teachers and some bad ones.

another problem now is that we have got a great diversity of different browsers and OS and so it´s getting harder for starters to design a page which is compatible to all browsers.

Some more infos about the Education Task Force would be really interesting

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