How do you teach web design in 2010?

Tom Hoffman asks if anyone remembers web 1.0 anymore.

I doubt it. The idea of creating or visiting a website that doesn’t do anything is almost a quaint notion. No video, no sound, just images and text? Bwah. Why bother?

Here is my high school web design lesson plan (in docx format) (pdf here)

I think every kid in America (cue patriotic music) should understand and be able to use basic HTML (end patriotic music).  But for web design?  Here is what I think are basic web design skills in 2010:

1. Basic HTML

2. What is the difference between a web page and a website?

3. Web pages, domain names, web hosting

    3.1 ftp, sftp, ssh

4.  Static versus dynamic

      4.1 Building dynamic websites with javascript or PHP
      4.2 Discuss databases, database design, and very basic SQL
      4.3 talk about how databases are related to dynamic content using a membership model

5. Building a website with expression engine

      5.1 Templating and URL’s
      5.2 Hello world
      5.3 CSS and DIV’s
      5.4 jQuery, jQuery UI
      5.5 Using the other kind of template
      5.6 Images and image paths
6. Adding common interactive elements

      6.1 Forums
      6.2 Search
      6.3 Email lists
      6.4 Blogs
      6.5 RSS feeds
      6.6 Membership systems
      6.7 Contact forms

7. Games
      7.1 Use flash to make games, no I won’t teach you.

8. Standards-compliant website

    8.1 Why open web-standards are important.

On 19 January 2010, Peter inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

“Use flash”

“Why open web-standards are important”

Hmm…

On 19 January 2010, bill mackenty inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

ok, ok…mea culpa.

My point is that if you want to make games, you have to use flash.

A bit of a contradiction, yes.

On 22 January 2010, Doug Holton inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Here’s the website for my web development class: http://internetdev.usu.edu/

I try to first explain why HTML is around and why it looks that way and its history.  Then the basics of HTML, then quickly to CSS, then they do a basic website project.

Then for the majority of the rest of the course we learn how to use Drupal (and Wordpress if I have time).  You can pretty much re-create any popular website’s functionality out there using drupal modules with no programming required.  Want a wiki? blogs? yahoo answers site?  etc.

We’re still just in the second week.  My old videos from last summer are here: http://internetdev.blip.tv/ (I switch to Aptana, a simpler and more helpful editor, and I have Drupal pre-installed)

On 22 January 2010, Bill inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Hey Doug - thank you for the comment! Nice to meet you. I really like your videos.