On 29/01/07, Jermayn Parker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
OK so how do we help the lecturers??? Is giving them links and offering services as a guest lecturer help? Would not this undermind the old practices that they teach???
Yes, it would undermine the old practises they are currently teaching. The way I see it, that kind of the whole point. :) We WANT to undermine these practises, because they aren't good practises. It's just a matter of picking the right way to suggest it. No good saying "We want to come in and teach something completely different to you, and in the process make it look as if you know nothing." Funnily enough, that's not going to bet a very positive response. But what if, instead, we did more than just offer to guest lecture? What if we also offered to give them some materials they could draw on for their own lectures, and if they are interested enough but don't feel confident about tackling it alone we could offer to go through it with them before they have to present it so they are sure they understand it? Sure, it won't see table-based layouts dropped from the syllabus overnight, but it will at least mean that it's not the only thing these up-and-coming developers learn. The attitude seems to be that web development isn't real IT. The funny
> thing is that people in the webby area also seem to feel this way. I > brought this up on another list and quite a few were adamant that an IT > professional was one that hooked up networks. To me, an IT person is > someone who can work with either information or computer systems, from > either the technical or human standpoint. That is probably the biggest problem that needs to be solved first and before we try to teach the next generation of devolpers. The problem I see with this arguement is that I do not get 'myself off' by the latest 'geeky' talk like most IT people, I just love coding web pages and im sure majority or some of the developers are the same. Yes we are IT but do we behave and act like IT??? (maybe this is a new arguement/ debate)
I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry at this one, to be honest. It's sad that with technology such a major and integral part of our lives these days, IT people are still seen as geeks who 'get off' on gadgets and code. Sure, I won't say they don't still exist, but it's a very limiting view of IT. I consider myself an IT professional. There's probably people out there who'd classify me as a geek, both because I'm a web programmer for a living and because I like things like fantasy and science fiction novels. *shrug* I can't really say that I 'get off' on geeky talk or any of the rest. Yes there's a certain amount of enjoyment to be had in discussing things that relate to my work with other like-minded individuals - that's one of the reasons I'm on this list. I see that as just not wanting to live in a box though. If I never interacted with other developers, I'd never get any better because I wouldn't know that there's other ways of doing things. To my mind, you don't need to wear thick black-rimmed spectacles held together with sellotape and carry your pens in a pocket-protector to be an IT professional. Cheers, Seona. ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
