First I must say, I do not expect everyone (certainly not someone with a PhD in communication or any other humanities field) to know as much about computers and how they work as I do. I would never really expect everyone else to even know how to operate a computer to the extent I do. Which - in recent years, having graduated from nerd-dom, I think, is pretty sad.
I acknowledge, however, that there exist people like my father: who want to reformat the second they think the computer has taken too long to boot up because operating antivirus and antispyware, etc. software has become to demanding and complicated for them.
However, if you are going to assign a project I DO expect you to know how to use the program which you are requiring students to use. Not just use it for your own purposes but be aware of how the program works and errors involved and how to troubleshoot. If you don't, please, I'm begging you, DO NOT assign a project using said program. If you would like to make a website a part of an assignment, for the love of god, know HTML and how to use stylesheets and frames! Thank you!
No - really - this gets important.
If you can't know how to use the program it's very difficult as a student to respectfully object and explain problems. If you are unaware of the language, or have a marginal knowledge, things get even more difficult. I am not known for my decorum, in fact for years I've been criticized for having a "tone" in my voice. On most days I will say if you're complaining about this you deserved it and quite frankly, you can kiss my ass. In truth I feel this way most days and about most situations - but sometimes, I genuinely think you are just out of the loop and not a bumbling idiot - and want to explain something to you. This is mostly true in cases where I realize the problem or misunderstanding is no one's fault really it's just a problem and I don't know what to do about it. In this particular case I feel it's my professor's job to come up with a solution.
I use Firefox mainly. I am aware Firefox has problems with stylesheets. This makes creating websites using Dreamweaver inconvenient.
I am perfectly competent at creating websites - using both CSS and HTML. In fact, it's something I've spent a fair amount of time doing since I was about 12. I realize the personal website revolution may seem unimportant to the corporate drone - however, I would expect them to understand that creating a website even for personal use or expression develops important technical skills. Now, I have said skills.
I am perfectly capable (and would much prefer) to create websites and even stylesheets for my blog from the comfort of Notepad.
I am a snob. I do not like code generated by any sort of code generating program - like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. I have fundamental problems with how these programs work and the code comes out sloppy.
For a school assignment, I realize I should not care so much however when I am required to download a program to my personal computer, on which I do not enjoy using or even want, I am unhappy. Second, when this program fails to produce the results that are desired or required, I do NOT want to hear that this is solely my problem because frankly it's not. It is not my problem that my browser does not deal with stylesheets well - and therefore my pages are not displaying properly for me. It is not my problem you cannot understand what I'm telling you because I am using frames and YES I do know how to use frames. Also, I should not be held accountable for your lack of knowledge about non-Microsoft browsers. I'm rather sure that if I ran into a problem I have enough resources in a "tech help" section of my favorites that I could easily discover a solution - and much faster might I add than you looking in a Dreamweaver manual (and perhaps that there needs to be such a manual indicates that perhaps the program is not user friendly).
I can only ask that any professors reading this rant take this into consideration: if you cannot use the technology you are asking your students to, how will you know for sure when they are correct or have a legitimate complaint? From a student's perspective it's extremely frustrating to not be able to get your point across or get someone to see what the problem is and that solution you propose is perfectly viable.
Just because I'm young does not mean I don't know more than you about somethings - I may not use semicolons or commas correctly but I do know how to create a website; and if that's your requirement, I am going to use Notepad - until someone can explain to me why Dreamweaver is necessary or better.
posted by
Tragic the Pixie @ 4/21/2006 07:08:00 PM
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