Re: Certification and/or Education/Outreach

Hi Karen,

thank you very much for this detailed answer.

Le 23 nov. 2004, à 09:00, Plummer,Karen A a écrit :
> topics.  Through these classes, I became very familiar with the W3C 
> standards.  I'm now a co-instructor at IWA/HWG for their Introduction 
> to Cascading Style Sheets course. I think some of the students in my 
> class are tired of my constant harping on the W3C recommendations.

IWA/HWG has produced contents and curriculum.
	Is there a process to verify this content?
	How IWA/HWG verifies the level of knowledge that  a student has 
reached?

>   Maybe it's my library training, but I'm very driven to adhere to 
> standards -- in my chosen field of cataloging, we have so many 
> standards to adhere to :-).  Of course, I'm a bit unusual; I read 
> standards documentation like other people read novels!

that's interesting. Because often some developers think that there is 
only in their world that the standards exist and that they have to 
respect them. :))) They don't see that in many jobs, professions it's 
the same, and sometimes even more constraining.

> IMHO, a "professional" makes the time to learn the standards and tools 
> of the trade.  I've heard the "we don't have time to learn new stuff" 
> excuse too many times.  If we are calling ourselves professionals, we 
> have a responsibility to continually update our skills and be aware of 
> trends and changes in our field.

yes that's one of the most surprising thing of the Web development 
world. Many persons think that once they have learned a technique, they 
can stick with it and nothing should change, and they will do their 
business for ever with this level of knowledge. I don't think I know an 
industry which considers that the technologies should not evolve. I 
would say even that in the most successful technologies, the evolution 
is very fast and people have always to learn new things: Genetics, 
Pharmaceutical, Cars and planes, etc.


> Certification is a great thing, particularly as a baseline for hiring 
> and evaluating personnel and possibly as incentive to professional 
> growth, but education and outreach are far more critical.

Interesting comment as well. I believe strongly in Education and 
Outreach.

> I lurk on a number of discussion lists and absorb the conversations 
> there like a sponge, learning and refining my skills as I go along.  I 
> visit the W3C web site a few times each week to either review some 
> details of a recommendation or visit parts of the site I've never seen 
> before.

	Could you create a list of things, you usually do on the W3C Web site 
and why?
	Could you do the same of things, you can't do, or you think, that the 
W3C Web site is really difficult, or  impossible to use.

> I urge my students to consider the W3C site as their primary reference 
> source.

	What do they say? What are their good and bad critics about it?
	Do they say what they would like to find?

> I have a tendency to run sites I like through the HTML and CSS 
> validators to see if they adhere to standards.

	 Are validators part of a teaching tool?

> I guess the bottom line for me is that there is no good excuse for not 
> following the W3C recommendations, so whether you believe that web 
> developers should be certified or not, education and outreach efforts 
> should be our focus.

Thank you very much Karen. I hope other people will express their 
concerns, ideas, etc. as well.



-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager
*** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Friday, 26 November 2004 15:56:57 UTC