Building the Modern Web
Today marks a groundbreaking day for my professional life in two ways. It was my last day working for the Notre Dame Web Group. But as I leave Notre Dame as a staff member, I start as an Adjunct Instructor.
Tomorrow starts my first day teaching a university class, one that I created entitled Building the Modern Web.
I often see classes that teach a specific technology, but rarely those that introduce the actual process of developing a website. And I’m talking start to finish. Research to analysis, and all the way in between. I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of any specific technology or methodology. I want the students to understand what it takes to build a website, not to actually be able to build it themselves. That’s for another semester.
I see this as an extraordinary opportunity to educate eager minds, and to grow myself as a business owner. It’s important, now more than ever, for me to fully understand the process I’m about to teach. I’ll post updates as the class moves along. Here’s hoping for a good semester.
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Published January 15, 2007 by:
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Is it possible to get webcasts of this class? It sounds exactly like something I would like to follow and something I have been interested in for quite a long time. The later class sounds interesting as well. Congrats on your continued career.
January 15th, 2007
Ben: I’m unfamiliar with Notre Dame’s policy on web/podcasting their classes. I’ll look into it, but I’d probably be uncomfortable webcasting this first pass through the class, as I just don’t really know what to expect. If it’s allowed, and if I teach the class again, I’ll most definitely cast it.
January 15th, 2007
Congratulations on this new direction in your life. Best of luck with the class!
January 15th, 2007
Best of luck. The academic community and, more importantly, students could use some more, erm, modern instruction… and you are rightly qualified to give it.
January 16th, 2007
Congratulations, I wish the best for you. I am glad to see that people as qualified as you are taking the time to educate. Best of luck!
January 16th, 2007
Congratulations. Ik know from experience that it’s great for both students and teacher to be thought by someone who has the actual and recent experience. I would be interested in webcasts too if they would get there sometime.
January 16th, 2007
Yes, that is great Steve, something that help me a lot in this process, was following Kevinleitch, Project New Tutorials , they sure are a great resource for everyone.
January 16th, 2007
That’s awesome, Steve. I’ve been silently thinking about someday teaching on a University level too. I think it’s mostly because the non-print classes I took in graphic design were so impractical and out of touch with reality. (ie, “here’s how to use image ready to slice up a design into tables” and “here’s how to animate something in Flash”) Your class sounds like it will hit the spot for few aspiring web professionals who manage to register before it fills up. ;) Best of Luck!
January 16th, 2007
Thanks everyone. It’s an exciting time.
Jason: Look for a post in the near future about how I approached the department, and how the class came to be. I’m hoping lots of smart, energetic web gurus will step up and start teaching as well.
January 16th, 2007
Good luck with going solo, and the teaching thing sounds both fun for you and promising for our industry at the same time. I know I’ve read several articles indicating that classes and education are starting to catch up with the actual technology, but this is the first concrete evidence I’ve seen that upcoming students will be exposed to the most current technology.
Congrats and good luck!
January 16th, 2007
Steve, take a look at Berkely iTunes site: http://itunes.berkeley.edu they have a pretty nice collection of various classes. Being that Norte Dame is a fine institution full of capable faculty it would be cool to get something similar, even if less elaborate.
January 16th, 2007
Congrats, and good luck with the class! It sounds like a great idea.
January 16th, 2007
Awesome man, congrats. If you ever need a guest lecturer, fly me up!
January 16th, 2007
Wow, that great. Congrats! I wish you would have been one of my professors in college.
January 16th, 2007
This sounds great, it must be pretty cool to be teaching students all your wisdom etc… Even being considered for a job like that must be great.
But, I’m interested in what kind of University course that would be related to, a computer science or something? I’ll be going to university soon myself and so far my high school has no web related courses. Is there anything specific, course-wise you would reccomend to take before university to get into something like that?
January 16th, 2007
Hey brother, congrats on the move. Upward and onward. I can’t imagine having you for a professor though. Please tell me you’re purchasing many sweater vests and bow ties!!! I can totally see you as a Dr. Stump kind of guy. Way above everyone else, and able to make fun of their ineptitude without them understanding. Miss ya. Call me soon and catch me up! Give the wifey and little one a kiss for me.
January 17th, 2007
Congrats Steve! I’m very much looking forward to your post on how you approached the department and were able to start this class. I’ve been starting to look into teaching web courses here at Biola as of late, so I’ll probably be hounding you for info. Can’t wait to hear how it goes this semester!
January 17th, 2007
Cool, the academic world of web development is on its way up!
January 18th, 2007
Wow, Steve- that is really quite impressive! And to think, this is the guy that I interned under… Very cool!
January 19th, 2007
Best of luck. You’ll be passing on a wealth of gained knowledge…your students will be lucky. I wish when I was post-college in the mid-nineties, trying to establish myself as a web designer, that there was a resource like this available, taught by a knowledgable instructor with real-world experience. I may have moved to Indiana!
January 24th, 2007