So here I am.... With regard to the recent rant about my teaching materials:
Most of the material on that site dates from 2003. It was due to be revised last summer but I left for a new job. If the new incumbent has not yet changed it, there's not much that I can do about it. I still have a version of that material which I use in a different way in my new job, but when it does get used (as reference rather than direct teaching), I do point out to students that some of it is out of date. Had I completed the revision in 2005 it would certainly have included CSS positioning and de-emphasised the use of tables for layout. Students were told in a different lesson about the need to ensure that tables linearise and are accessible to different browser types, screenreaders etc. Their grading system reflected this. The course was designed to be taken by non-specialists. It was made clear to students that at the end of the course, those who had been grabbed by the subject would need to look more deeply into issues such as accessibility and emerging technologies such as CSS positioning before they could consider themselves "web designers". Maybe in the eyes of some the above is just a set of excuses for what you consider a big crime against accessibility, but one of the things I always did was encourage feedback - that is precisely why the material was publicly accessible and not restricted access - though as you have proved this also opens up the material to criticism from those who may know more about it than me (like many junior academics I am - or was at the time this course was created - obliged to teach in subjects which are not my specialism). It does strike me though that the best response of the original poster might have been a polite e-mail to me about it (which to be fair some other posters did do) rather than ranting on a private list about how terrible it all is. All the latter does is exacerbate the appearance of WSG and similar fora as being cliquey. But that is by the by. The feedback has been noted. i would also support the other recent post regarding the great difficulty of persuading IT administrators to accept the need for alternative technologies. For a time in 2003-4 ONLY IE was available to students until Mozilla was grudgingly added in 2004. The situation in my new job in Manchester is slightly, but not much, better. Anyway, that is another topic. Thanks, Drew -- Dr. Drew Whitworth, School of Education, University of Manchester "ID cards 'protect you from the flu'" - UK Government (possibly) ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
