Re: Part 1 of beginner's course written

On 4/15/13 1:28 PM, Chris Mills wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Today I've put together a first draft of the beginner's course:
>
> http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/beginners/the_beginning
>
> Let me know what you think. Does the language hit the mark for complete beginners? Is this too much theory up front? The next Part dives straight into practical coding, and I've tried to keep this as short as possible.
>
Hi Chris,

Thanks for writing this! However, I think that yes, it is too much 
theory up front. This is mostly stuff that gets between the learner and 
making a web page, which is why they came here. In addition, it conveys 
a sense of "Careful! The Web is complicated and you might break it!"

About the most essential parts of this seem to me to be:
* What is a web browser? (The rest of the web architecture can wait 
until needed.)
* Tools of the trade (Just browsers and text editors; leave aside FTP 
for now.)
* What web standards do we use to build the Web? (I'd rename to "What 
languages do we use to build the Web?" Indoctrination about web 
standards can wait until later.)

My challenge to you is: What are the learning outcomes for this section? 
What will the learner be able to *do* when they've finished? (For more 
info, see http://www.library.illinois.edu/infolit/learningoutcomes.html)

-- 
Janet Swisher <mailto:jREMOVEswisher@mozilla.com>
Mozilla Developer Network <https://developer.mozilla.org>
Technical Writer/Community Steward