With all my heart, I want to see the web reach it’s full potential. To do that, I think we must stop wasting our time coding for different browsers and focus on developing with web standards. Yes, yes, that means that the browser vendors have to play by the same rules. Good news is, IE8 is coming out soon with the best standards mode ever released in a Microsoft Browser. I do believe that MS has seen the light!
So, while it may seem surreal that we no longer have to beg browser vendors to care about web standards…this opens up a whole new arena for web standards adoption. The arena is education. Have you dropped into your local high school or college web class to see what is being taught there? Is their curriculum up to date? Or (shudder) is it the same curriculum that the instructor has been using for 10 years?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the web community worked together to build a Web Standards Curriculum that was up to date? Well, close your eyes, make a wish and then head over to the Opera Web Standards Curriculum. And realize that this is only the beginning!
In addition to the 23 articles that have already been published, 30 more are on their way. And (drum roll) Aarron Walter and the WaSP eduTF are developing a Web Standards Curriculum Project that includes a collection of tools for educators including:
- A course overview
- Recommended course dependencies indicating what students will need to know before beginning each course
- Learning competencies describing what students must master in order to receive a passing grade
- Assignment recommendations and test questions that allow educators to measure a student’s mastery of each competency
- Recommended readings from Chris Mills’ article series on Web standards and other reputable sources
I’m thrilled to see this progress in the web developer/designer curriculum. Time for me to go read the latest articles to see what I can learn. Mmmmm, look at this one, “Designing and Developing Mobile Web Sites in the Real World” by Brian Suda. Yum!
Hi Glenda,
I work for TCEQ in the Procurement and Contracts Section. I attended the meeting yesterday at Brown Heatly. Is your presentation slide show available for me to show our TCEQ staff? I found your information very helpful and I think this will provide in-site to our users to start thinking along the accessibility prepreation and the things that will be affected.
Thank you,
Sherry Jaecks
239-0193
Hi Sherry, I’m glad you enjoyed the presentation on Accessibility and Procurement. I’ve posted that content at http://glendathegood.com/access/peso/
Let me know if you have any questions!
G