Teaching Web Development

10/12/1999
by Amy Poe

Teaching Web development is a challenge, but it is extremely rewarding to both instructor and student. It's one of the few times where a teacher can actually see what a student has learned, and give feedback about the work. There are certainly stumbling blocks to overcome in learning about Web development, but with consistent effort, anyone can master the basics of building a Web site. Unfortunately, explaining certain basic concepts to someone who does not understand all of the idiosyncrasies of the Internet can be one of the toughest challenges.

Hyperlinks and Link Colors

The first real obstacle to understanding Web development is comprehending the concept of hyperlinks. For those of us who have been working with software for years, it is not a difficult thing to grasp. Newer surfers think of hyperlinks as something special that deals with the Internet. Actually, hyperlinks have been around for over twenty years! We use them all the time in Windows help menus, and other help resources. The whole concept of a hyperlink is the same as hypertext. Text that looks special in some way (usually through color and underlining) to denote that it is more than "just text". Once students get this idea, they realize they can use hyperlinks in all types of documents, and that it's really just a referral to another document.

Many new students think that because they can alter the default colors for hyperlinks, they should. When they see sites that are designed for developers or a sophisticated audience, which tend to use alternate colors or even different fonts to denote links, they think this is a good practice. It's up to you to explain that for most sites, especially those that will attract a lot of newbie users, this is a bad idea. To illustrate the point, customize your browser so that links are different colors, and then let them guess which color means what. Sometimes a "picture" is worth a thousand words!

HTML Is Not Software; HTML vs. XML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is another confusing issue. I have had many students come to class expecting to learn yet another software product. As you know, HTML is a language, not software, so the ability to type is pretty much essential. There are plenty of HTML editors out there, but they will still need a basic understanding of the language to get further than a simple page or two.

I use the analogy of a calculator with my students. When you're in grade school, you learn arithmetic starting in Kindergarten. First you count on your fingers, then eventually you're able to do some simple stuff in your head. Finally, when you have a good grasp of the basics, you're introduced to a calculator. It can do what you've learned to do manually, just a lot faster (and more accurately!). However, if you don't know that 1+1=2, and your calculator tells you it's 3, you accept it at face value. Also, if you wanted to do something fancy, and don't know how using the calculator, you're stuck. This is also something helpful to point out to HR types. When they hire someone to do Web development, they need to really understand the person's ability. Simply using FrontPage (or another editor) will not be sufficient when nitty gritty details need to be ironed out.

However, HTML is not programming. It's simply a markup language that has gained popularity because of its cross-browser, cross-platform usefulness. HTML affects the way the text is rendered within the browser. Students usually think HTML is really doing something to the text until I explain that it's kind of like reveal codes in WordPerfect. It formats the text, but it's more for appearance than anything else.

In fact, HTML is really meant to structure a document, rather than provide formatting. It's based on SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), which was originally intended to be a system for organizing and tagging elements of a document. SGML itself does not specify any particular formatting; rather, it specifies the rules for tagging elements. These tags can then be interpreted to format elements in different ways, and with the advent of Cascading Style Sheets and XML, the developer will be able to create his own tags and define the way they operate. XML is the wave of the future but HTML will not die. Some guidelines for the student to consider regarding XML are:

• Does my content go to multiple output formats, i.e., paper, CD-ROM, Internet, database, Braille, etc?
• Does my content go to multiple electronic formats, Word, PDF, HTML, etc?
• Does my content get reused in multiple products?
• Does my content continually change and get updated?
• Is my content valuable?
• Will there be E-Commerce on my site?

If the student answers "yes" to any of the above, he should think about using XML. If on the other hand, they are authoring a web site that is fairly static and doesn't have many updates and doesn't have rich content, then HTML is a perfectly valid approach.

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