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An Incredible Opportunity (And A Call For Help!)

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I’m pleased to announce that starting on August 26th, I will be an Adjunct Professor at Nashville State Community College.  I see this as incredible opportunity, not just because of the ability to shape the future web designers of Nashville (it’s a level 2 Dreamweaver course) but because I will be determining a lot of the course content.

Now, I know that there are certain things I want to cover.  For example, 4 out of the 15 weeks will be covering the last chapters of the Dreamweaver textbook given to the school by Adobe.  I flipped through it, and it’s a wealth of great information.

One week will be used to cover the schools upgrade from OSX 10.4 to OSX 10.5, and I will add in an intro to the WHY of CSS and not just the what.

That still leaves 10 weeks in which I can pick and choose the top things that upcoming designers need to know about.

  1. Coding for IE6
  2. Converting from Photoshop to Dreamweaver
  3. Converting from Photoshop to Dreamweaver (may need 2 classes)
  4. Blog/CMS systems (and designing for them in Dreamweaver)
  5. …
  6. …
  7. …
  8. …
  9. …
  10. …

And that’s what I have so far (which, considering I left the meeting 2 hours ago isn’t too bad).  What I need is for you as clients, designers, developers, and every other reader to tell me what you think is important for designers today to learn.  Keep in mind that most of the basics have been covered, and these aren’t in order, just as I come up with them.

So, if you see anything you think would be worthwhile, comment or send me a message.  Anyone who does will be thanked personally in my Syllabus.

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tehduh

Organic SEO!It kills me to see developers throwing up sites without optimized pages, images...everything really. It shows a glaring lack of knowledge and does the client a tremendous disservice. This site might be a good starting point for a block of instruction: http://www.organicseo.org/

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Web Webster

"How to Get the Copy You Want the First Time" -- The biggest disconnect many of your students will have when they hit the real world is the fact that all of their design work will be for naught the first time a PR guy dumps a bunch of Microsoft Word documents in their inbox and says "here's the copy you need to populate the website."As the designer, you have the power (and the responsibility) to structure information the way you want to and the way you know it will work on line. You know what you want the finished product to look like, now learn how to communicate that to your writers by helping them learn to see their words as a graphic whole. No, it's not the designer's responsibility to be an editor, but the reality of the situation is that you can guide your writers in how to get their piece right the first time. Happy to help you design that session, if it's something useful. Topics could include:>Headlines, Subheads and Body Copy - Setting the limits early>Write to be scanned - how reading and reading online are different and why it matters>Format and submission - Saying no to MS Word>No one ever went online looking for a press release - how to push your writer beyond his/her comfort zone

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Brad Blackman

I recommend stressing that design isn't just about putting a pretty picture on things, but good design is about communication. On the web, functionality and accessibility are just as important, if not moreso.Congrats on the new position!

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studionashvegas

They have a beginner's knowledge of HTML and Dreamweaver.As for the other mentioned point, I will be teaching the CSS Reset / Designing for IE in one of my classes, so I have a little bit of that covered. As far as the mobile sites are concerned, it's still not really an "advanced" class - it's just a level 2. So I want to keep it very simplistic. More foundational code with some social theory mixed in.Good call, though :D

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Mandyvan

Mitch, are there other classes that they might take before or after yours? In the A+ software course I taught for the ISE (Information Systems Engineering) at National College of Business and Technology (Kettering, Ohio campus near Dayton) and another class I subbed, there was a lot of overlap. Reinforcement can be a good thing, but knowing what the students had before or what was beyond the scope of the course was very helpful.What about making sure that what your design looks good in all browsers, taking special consideration for mobile? I am noticing that some sites I visit have a mobile site, such as http://m.myspace.com and http://m.digg.com

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studionashvegas

cB,CSS has been covered, but I will be paying special attention to CSS as a layout. I found out that Adobe's own manuals teach table layouts as the primary, and CSS as the secondary (!), so I'll be paying special attention to that.I'm sorta wanting specifically inside the realm of Dreamweaver and CSS, ya know?

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Glad Doggett

I've been an adjunct instructor for a couple years. I teach Communications classes. I have no advice for the course material, but I do have for class time. If you teach a lesson (lecture) then allow students to apply their knowledge thru hands on experience, a lot of your time concerns will be solved. Students love to apply the knowledge ... they want to use the info you give in lectures so that they can "see for themselves." I don't know if your class allows for time to "play with the programs", but if you do, I suggest you offer up time in class to let them experiment, make mistakes and ask real world questions.Just my 2 cents. I wish I could take your class. I am trying to transition from corporate writer/editor to a corporate social media specialist/web developer. I am taking a class this fall at Austin Peay in Clarksville. Good luck to you!!!

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John Morgan

Mitch,As an internet marketer I think it would be great if more web designers understood what websites actually convert traffic well and make money. It's not always about the flash. I know I have a hard time sometimes getting a designer to do what I want...because I care about it being a good site about marketing and not always being the 'coolest' site around. I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for or not, but I'll be happy to help if I can.My site InternetFuse.com has over 500 paying members across the world and they run into the same thing.

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tehduh

Organic SEO!

It kills me to see developers throwing up sites without optimized pages, images...everything really. It shows a glaring lack of knowledge and does the client a tremendous disservice.

This site might be a good starting point for a block of instruction: http://www.organicseo.org/

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Congrats! I think these are rather interesting and valuable...

• Self-promotion & Offline networking & Social networking
• Freelancing & budgeting & valuing your services
• User experience
• Online copywriting (inevitably design jobs involve some of this)
• Client relations

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Web Webster

"How to Get the Copy You Want the First Time" -- The biggest disconnect many of your students will have when they hit the real world is the fact that all of their design work will be for naught the first time a PR guy dumps a bunch of Microsoft Word documents in their inbox and says "here's the copy you need to populate the website."

As the designer, you have the power (and the responsibility) to structure information the way you want to and the way you know it will work on line. You know what you want the finished product to look like, now learn how to communicate that to your writers by helping them learn to see their words as a graphic whole. No, it's not the designer's responsibility to be an editor, but the reality of the situation is that you can guide your writers in how to get their piece right the first time.

Happy to help you design that session, if it's something useful. Topics could include:

>Headlines, Subheads and Body Copy - Setting the limits early
>Write to be scanned - how reading and reading online are different and why it matters
>Format and submission - Saying no to MS Word
>No one ever went online looking for a press release - how to push your writer beyond his/her comfort zone

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Brad Blackman

I recommend stressing that design isn't just about putting a pretty picture on things, but good design is about communication. On the web, functionality and accessibility are just as important, if not moreso.

Congrats on the new position!

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studionashvegas

They have a beginner's knowledge of HTML and Dreamweaver.

As for the other mentioned point, I will be teaching the CSS Reset / Designing for IE in one of my classes, so I have a little bit of that covered. As far as the mobile sites are concerned, it's still not really an "advanced" class - it's just a level 2. So I want to keep it very simplistic. More foundational code with some social theory mixed in.

Good call, though :D

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Mandyvan

Mitch, are there other classes that they might take before or after yours? In the A+ software course I taught for the ISE (Information Systems Engineering) at National College of Business and Technology (Kettering, Ohio campus near Dayton) and another class I subbed, there was a lot of overlap. Reinforcement can be a good thing, but knowing what the students had before or what was beyond the scope of the course was very helpful.

What about making sure that what your design looks good in all browsers, taking special consideration for mobile? I am noticing that some sites I visit have a mobile site, such as http://m.myspace.com and http://m.digg.com

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like
studionashvegas

cB,

CSS has been covered, but I will be paying special attention to CSS as a layout. I found out that Adobe's own manuals teach table layouts as the primary, and CSS as the secondary (!), so I'll be paying special attention to that.

I'm sorta wanting specifically inside the realm of Dreamweaver and CSS, ya know?

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like
Glad Doggett

I've been an adjunct instructor for a couple years. I teach Communications classes. I have no advice for the course material, but I do have for class time. If you teach a lesson (lecture) then allow students to apply their knowledge thru hands on experience, a lot of your time concerns will be solved. Students love to apply the knowledge ... they want to use the info you give in lectures so that they can "see for themselves." I don't know if your class allows for time to "play with the programs", but if you do, I suggest you offer up time in class to let them experiment, make mistakes and ask real world questions.

Just my 2 cents. I wish I could take your class. I am trying to transition from corporate writer/editor to a corporate social media specialist/web developer. I am taking a class this fall at Austin Peay in Clarksville.

Good luck to you!!!

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like
John Morgan

Mitch,

As an internet marketer I think it would be great if more web designers understood what websites actually convert traffic well and make money. It's not always about the flash. I know I have a hard time sometimes getting a designer to do what I want...because I care about it being a good site about marketing and not always being the 'coolest' site around. I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for or not, but I'll be happy to help if I can.

My site InternetFuse.com has over 500 paying members across the world and they run into the same thing.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like