Do We Still Need To Teach HTML

re: Do We Still Need To Teach HTML

Saleh — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:33:47 GMT

I think they should teach HTML as foundamental course for designing web application/pages. It gives some start up knowledge for students on how web pages are designed even for RIAs courses.

Even now big companies are still relying on HTML to build their website. We cannot trust tools and programs to do eveything for us. We still need to do some tweaks here and there.

P.S: HTML knowledge is critical for debugging RIAs.

re: Do We Still Need To Teach HTML

Rachel — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:43:12 GMT

I just finished teaching my students HTML in web design - now we're moving on to CSS and then design concepts. I honestly think it is very important to know HTML (and CSS) before you ever get your feet wet in a WYSIWIG so that you know what is going on when you use the WYSIWIG. That puts you more in control of your website, ultimately.

re: Do We Still Need To Teach HTML

David Morris — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:58:37 GMT

It depends what is meant by HTML. When some people say that they mean something like HTML 4.01, but others use it in a more generic sense. I think it's more important for students to learn XHTML that conforms with standards as well as CSS. Once they've learned that they can go onto some of the scripting languages such as JavaScript and PHP. Having a knowledge of that means you can have more control when designing websites. If you relied on WYSIWYG editors, you can get poor code.

Interesting Finds: September 25, 2007

Jason Haley — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:20:50 GMT

re: Do We Still Need To Teach HTML

Brandon — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:46:32 GMT

Yes, HTML/XHTML is very crucial to a web-design course. It is still the fundamental way to format text, and as such is still used, even within the Web 2.0 technologies. So, in a sense, if they don't know HTML/XHTML, they WILL be absolutely screwed.

I mean, you look at Ruby on Rails, Django, TurboGears, etc... They all still require that the person who utilizes these frameworks to know HTML/XHTML, or have a reference on hand.

re: Do We Still Need To Teach HTML

GregM — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:27:51 GMT

Absolutely HTML needs to be taught first, with special emphasis on content markup over presentational markup. If you don't know HTML, you have no idea what is possible in a portable fashion, you only know what you can do in the particular editor or environment that you're using.