Comments on: Of tags and clicks and CSS http://www.methodtree.com/branches/2008/04/of-tags-and-clicks-and-css/ The voice of Methodtree, Inc. Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:44:47 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: rick http://www.methodtree.com/branches/2008/04/of-tags-and-clicks-and-css/comment-page-1/#comment-528 rick Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:21:29 +0000 http://www.methodtree.com/branches/?p=49#comment-528 I think they might be bored if you teach them from the ground up. I know my nieces get bored when I try to show them stuff. They want to see results fast. I'm thinking of just showing them WordPress and letting them hack away at a theme as a way of getting their feet wet... I like your work, by the way. I think they might be bored if you teach them from the ground up. I know my nieces get bored when I try to show them stuff. They want to see results fast. I’m thinking of just showing them WordPress and letting them hack away at a theme as a way of getting their feet wet…

I like your work, by the way.

]]> By: Tony http://www.methodtree.com/branches/2008/04/of-tags-and-clicks-and-css/comment-page-1/#comment-525 Tony Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:49:14 +0000 http://www.methodtree.com/branches/?p=49#comment-525 I was once invited to teach a session of a graduate seminar on "Technology in Humanities Research," by Martin Mueller, who at the time was the chair of the Northwestern English department. I spoke for about an hour about various ways that XML markup can be used to help analyze, introspect and understand ancient texts. At the end, they were still staring somewhat blankly at me, and when I called for questions I got a lot of extremely basic questions that had nothing to do with what I'd been talking about. A lot of which was ground that I figured Martin would have covered beforehand. What I learned from this experience was the following: you are likely to either over- or underestimate your audience's ability to follow what you're doing. I would try to either a) gather some information about the kids' level of knowledge beforehand, or b) don't plan out the curriculum too far in advance. Plan a couple of initial exercises and be prepared to adjust up or down accordingly. I didn't get to do this, because I was only there for one hour. I'd try to emphasize design patterns, and then back that up with specific coding examples. I wouldn't suggest it as a text (it's the size of a telephone book) but _The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites_ is a pretty good pattern language book for web design, written by some chief muckety-mucks from Google, Yahoo, etc. You might try to teach them the Cliff's Notes version of that. I was once invited to teach a session of a graduate seminar on “Technology in Humanities Research,” by Martin Mueller, who at the time was the chair of the Northwestern English department. I spoke for about an hour about various ways that XML markup can be used to help analyze, introspect and understand ancient texts. At the end, they were still staring somewhat blankly at me, and when I called for questions I got a lot of extremely basic questions that had nothing to do with what I’d been talking about. A lot of which was ground that I figured Martin would have covered beforehand.

What I learned from this experience was the following: you are likely to either over- or underestimate your audience’s ability to follow what you’re doing. I would try to either a) gather some information about the kids’ level of knowledge beforehand, or b) don’t plan out the curriculum too far in advance. Plan a couple of initial exercises and be prepared to adjust up or down accordingly. I didn’t get to do this, because I was only there for one hour.

I’d try to emphasize design patterns, and then back that up with specific coding examples. I wouldn’t suggest it as a text (it’s the size of a telephone book) but _The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites_ is a pretty good pattern language book for web design, written by some chief muckety-mucks from Google, Yahoo, etc. You might try to teach them the Cliff’s Notes version of that.

]]> By: Phineas http://www.methodtree.com/branches/2008/04/of-tags-and-clicks-and-css/comment-page-1/#comment-524 Phineas Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:54:13 +0000 http://www.methodtree.com/branches/?p=49#comment-524 <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Web-Standards-Jeffrey-Zeldman/dp/0321385551/" rel="nofollow">Designing with Web Standards</a> would definitely be my textbook. If the kids are as sharp as advertised. One thing I'd want to get across is that what a page looks like is maybe half or less of what web design is. And no WYSIWYG. Make them write code. Designing with Web Standards would definitely be my textbook. If the kids are as sharp as advertised.

One thing I’d want to get across is that what a page looks like is maybe half or less of what web design is.

And no WYSIWYG. Make them write code.

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