Raising the Bar on Web Development in Schools

Presented by Peter Fujiwara

Presentation Objectives

• Where we’ve been…• What we tried to do…• What we’ve got now…• Where we can go now…• How do we get there?

Where we’ve been…

• Learning from scratch…• No real standards for web development• Limited tools… nice but not real tools…• Constantly shifting and changing what we do

and how we do it…• Lots of questions, few answers (e.g. notepad,

simpletext, Claris HomePage, MS word, WordPerfect etc…)

What we’ve tried to do…

• Look for standards of development practice• Look for industry trends• Find appropriate tools for development• Buy one of everything• Develop less than perfect methods of getting

students to learn the industry standard tools and practices will little time for each student to work with the tool.

What we’ve got now!!!

• Macromedia Studio MX – an industry standard development tool– Dreamweaver MX– Flash MX– Fireworks MX– Freehand MX– ColdFusion MX Developers Edition

• Adobe Photoshop Elements

Where can we go now?

• Final Culminating Outcomes– Registration Systems– Surveys– On-line portfolios– Art Galleries on-line– Interactive educational tools (flash/coldfusion)– E-commerce???– The sky’s the limit… we have the tools to do

anything you can do in industry…

How do we get there?

• Great tools does not mean great pedagogy• Do not jump into the use of Macromedia

Studio MX before you consider the learning process of your students and what outcomes are best for them…

• If a student has a potential exit outcome going into a college or university program focusing on technology where do you start? What if they plan to go into business, the arts, into the workforce?

How do we get there?

• Let’s talk about the majority who are simply interested in this kind of technology – not necessarily as a career but are fascinated by what it can do…

• Where do we start? • Understand what each tool is for and when to

use it.

How do we get there?• Back-end – ColdFusion – Learn it later• Front-end

– Dreamweaver MX

– Flash MX

– Freehand MX

– Fireworks MX

• Learn HTML first (Editpad then Homesite)• Then learn Dreamweaver• At the same time learn your

drawing tools – Photoshop, Freehand

• Then Fireworks

DemonstrationLet’s see what it can do?

Questions?