I am working with a distributed team of academics and top industry professionals to rebuild the Lethbridge College web presence and multi-user portal using open source solutions. We are designing and developing for a custom, device agnostic, mobile first, Drupal 8 experience. Lethbridge College, was opened in 1957 as the first public community college in Canada.
Feature image: Students in an outdoor classroom. Lethbridge College, Picassa.
Over the past year I have been working with McGill University to improve their web user experience. This top-ranking Canadian institution is based in Montreal, Quebec, and recruits from all over the globe. Outreach events and interactive mapping play a big role in their effective device-agnostic, digital user experience.
Feature image: McGill University.
Feature image: UN, Wikipedia.
Feature image: Pixdaus.
Struggles and Methods of Teaching Web Building to the Contemporary College Undergraduate
As the senior educators in this country, university professors have an obligation to respond to data such as the findings in this report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Educational Testing Service on the current state of millennials’ understanding, skill level, and ability to apply these important technologies to real-world problem solving.
“Despite having a higher rate of educational attainment than any previous generation, U.S. students 16-34 years of age ranked lower than most of their international peers in literacy, mathematics and technology problem solving. Those born in the U.S. after 1980 tied for last among the 22 participating countries in numeracy and technology skills, and 16th in literacy. Top scoring Americans in this cohort ranked lower than their peers in most other countries, and bottom-scoring Americans ranked among the lowest in the whole study.” 1
I am currently working on an article that describes my methods and struggles of teaching basic, intermediate, and advanced topics in Web design and development to college students. The intent with this article is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on how to improve U.S. students’ skills and understanding of these fundamental technologies in today’s global world.
Feature image: Old Main at Penn State. Photo by: Greg O’Toole.
