draco.sg

Now that I am almost done with my National Service, naturally I am looking forward to getting a job that is somewhat related to my field of studies in polytechnic.

But even that is no easy feat.

Okay, now there is no easy way of saying this so I am gonna say it pure vanilla style: Most of the computing/web developing/programming modules in my course were useless.

The documentation fundamentals and presentations for projects were pretty good though, now that makes two parts that were done relatively well. See, I said it. Now let’s move on to the bad parts and how it could be possibly be improved.

Programming & subversion source control

My course was all about programming(of Java, HTML/CSS, ASP, etc.) and many modules required project works (usually in groups of 3-4) to be submitted at the end of the semester. Yet amazingly there was no mention of subversion source control at all.

There should be evidence of deploying svn, possibly with all its tags and branches for weekly accessing, to let students have a feel of what it is like to be programmers. There is no project too small to use svn on, seriously, even for back-up purposes.

Web designing/developing

Designing

More emphasis could have been placed on typography, colour combinations, web layout and the likes.

Above-the-fold concept is outdated, let’s move on to fluid, resolution-independent designs already. Educate about what is user-centric design so we know how to arrange things on a web layout to facilitate the visitors. This is web design, this is how the layout should communicate efficiently with the visitors so they can find whatever they are looking for. Anyway how exactly do you expect to squeeze contents that fit in a 1024×768 screen into a mobile phone above-the-fold?

Look, some colors just don’t match. I know it, and you as a lecturer do too, but you just couldn’t find the heart to inform Paris Hilton over there about her choices of pink, red and more shades of pink. Admittedly, done correctly it can be a good combination but you know her work is not one. Tap her shoulder, drop her an e-mail or a sms, slip an envelope into her bag, just inform her already!

Tell us the latest trends in web design. Teach us how to convince potential clients that this new trend is what the users want, instead of what’s 10 years ago. And for Pete’s sakes, 9 pixels text is not sexy, however you look at it.

Browsers quirks

Everyone and his dog know that there are more than one web browsers. But back in the days we were only taught to use IE6.

I say expose us to more choices, teach us about the quirks and why some things refuse to work the same everywhere. This can only greatly benefit us in our jobs next time.

HTML/CSS

Not surprisingly, table-layout was the norm for laying out web pages. Epic fail. I actually went through one full module following Dreamweaver textbook about how to do ugly JavaScript and map/area hacks in web pages through the WYSIWYG interface to achieve what could have otherwise been done using clean HTML/CSS. Oh, and CSS was used purely for font and colors in those lessons.

Why undermine CSS? The module should start teaching hand-coding of HTML for structure and CSS for site layout instead. Choice of coding programs will change but HTML/CSS won’t. Even future revisions of these web languages are backward-compatible (who needs XHTML2 when you have HTML5!!!) so there is no worry what you’ve learnt will be outdated.

I mean, seriously how difficult is it to write HTML/CSS? Even bloggers on Blogspot can do simple editing (albeit doing it all wrong). If I can be self-taught, I am sure semantic HTML and layout via CSS at school is not asking for the moon. Right?

ASP

In another module, I was supposed to be learning ASP. Even though I was hugely involved in the front-end and the back-end of the project, I did not learn anything about ASP except how to add the pre-scripted codes via Dreamweaver interface. All it takes is for Dreamweaver to change their interface (like Microsoft did with the Ribbon interface) and I will be as good as not having attended the course.

Teach us how to do ASP like how we were taught Java. Tell us about the syntax, show us the magic of hand-coding it instead of making us click around menu bars in Dreamweaver. Let us troubleshoot our own errors, and learn from it. True, it will be more difficult, but at least I will learn something!

Being reasonable

I believe my suggestion is reasonable for polytechnic level education. Perhaps some of the worries is that those less IT-savvy would not be able to catch up. I don’t see Maths being removed from the syllabus because it’s difficult. In fact, Maths was a lot more difficult than programming.

Instead of wasting time of those who wish to learn by setting the standards low to accommodate those who don’t, why don’t we set the standard a little higher to benefit the true learners? The others can wait to drop out.

Isn’t that a tad better than wasting everybody’s time?

Life goes on

There are actually more, but I’m done with my bitching and I doubt my previous school (or any school) would heed my advice anyway so I’m going back to job hunting.

If you’re employing, don’t forget to check out my resume and let me know if you’re interested. Otherwise please help me pray that I get a job soon so I can feed my family of lenses fishes.