RE: Introduction: Mark Lee

Hi Chris, and everyone!

I've had a chance to spend some time looking through the wiki, and the more I see the more I am impressed with the breadth and depth of all the materials that have already been created. Seriously, kudos to all who have helped with all the work that's been done.

I don't see any major pieces missing or anything bad so  far, it's all been very good. The one suggestion I would make at this point, and this is just my initial impression, is that the home page of the wiki (http://www.w3.org/community/webed/wiki/Main_Page) could be made more clear for a first-time visitor, whether that's an educator looking for curriculum or an individual looking for self-directed learning materials. I think a lot of the key information is already there, just needs a really strong but succinct section right up front that says "here's what this site is and if you're an educator, here's how you can use it, or if you're an individual looking to learn, here's how you can use it." Does that make sense? Basically, it took me a little while to understand and find my way around, and am afraid I might not be the only one.

I can make some more specific suggestions if that's agreed to be a need for improvement. Otherwise I'll just keep going through the pages in more detail to familiarize myself with the whole thing.

Mark
    
  
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From: Chris Mills [cmills@opera.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 4:09 AM
To: Mark Lee
Cc: public-webed@w3.org
Subject: Re: Introduction: Mark Lee

Welcome to the group Mark: it is a pleasure to have you with us!

As an educator, I would love to hear feedback from you on what you think our material needs to be more useful to educators. What is good, what is bad, what is missing? To start off, have a look at all our stuff on the Wiki:

http://www.w3.org/community/webed/wiki/Main_Page

You've got:

1. tutorials - http://www.w3.org/community/webed/wiki/Main_Page#Web_Standards_Curriculum_table_of_contents
2. reference material - http://www.w3.org/community/webed/wiki/Main_Page#References
3. ready made curricula for teachers to use - http://www.w3.org/community/webed/wiki/Main_Page#Curriculum_structures

I'm intending to create some actual teaching materials (slideshows, etc.) to go along with the curricula as soon as I can find the time.

Best,

Chris

On 19 Mar 2012, at 15:33, Mark Lee wrote:

>
> I'm happy to be joining this group and looking forward to helping out with the work you good folks already have well underway. I've worked on the web, specifically in higher education, since 2000 and have seen a lot of variability in the quality of web design/development curriculum. There are good teachers and programs out there educating people on standards-based techniques, but there are many other programs that fail to teach even fundamental good practices and fail to prepare students for this type of work. I'm excited about how this group is well-positioned to make real positive change for current and future students.
>
> I work at a liberal arts college, not teaching but on the staff side, in web communications and new media. This means I do everything from front-end development (HTML, CSS, JS), some server-side development (PHP, ASP, Velocity), visual design, content strategy, user experience, accessibility, online marketing strategy, social media, etc, you name it. As you might guess with such a broad range of topics, I'm FAR from an expert in any of it. I'm self-taught in most areas related to web design/dev, which really means I lean on the shoulders of all those giants who have shared their knowledge online over the past  decade or so, from webmonkey and ALA on forward, but I also have a masters of education in instructional technology.
>
> I'm really looking forward to pitching in and getting to know the rest of you. Let me know if you have any questions or if you have something I can help out with right away.
>
> Mark Lee
>

Received on Friday, 23 March 2012 04:11:03 UTC