Teach Me the Web

January 23, 2009

You may or may not know that I am a member of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) Education Task Force (EduTF), the exact nature of this group and what we do may be covered some other day, or not; but know that it is an International group of people working to change and update web education worldwide.  Some time ago John Allsopp, web evangelist, software developer, author of the fabulous Microformats book, and the co-founder of the Web Directions Conference series (http://www.webdirections.org), contacted WaSP asking for colleges that were teaching web design and development the way it should be taught.  Aarron Walter, WaSP EduTF Lead, developed a response which he sent on to John.

Shortly afterward I received an email asking if I would be willing to attend Web Directions North in Denver, Colorado the first week of February to tell my and my schools story.  I could not pass up the opportunity to tell my schools story, connect with like minded professionals, and develop relationships to prosper for my students.

Seems that in addition to the conference, and pre-conference workshops, John and team are hosting a days worth of events specific to educators they call Ed Directions North.  You need not be an educator to attend but the conference is focused on sharing resources, explaining how to teach this stuff, and the trials and tribulations of educators in schools teaching standards based curriculum.  That’s where Leslie Jensen-Inman from University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Glenda Sims from University of Texas, and I from Damascus High School come in.  I think its amazing that as a High School we were asked to come and share our story.  One thing I would like to impress upon people is that high schools need help too and we are here teaching standards based curriculum just like the good colleges; don’t forget about us.  Should be fun and am really looking forward to getting out there.