Not as easy as I thought
I recently had the opportunity to teach beginning web development to 8 people, that were all graphic designers, and absolutely no web experience. I don’t mean they haven’t used Google, I mean no HTML or CSS. I was basically working with a clean slate, and could teach them how to do things the right way directly out of the gate. Needless to say, I was very excited. Not being easy though, is a huge understatement. That is because there is a really, REALLY big difference in teaching someone who has a little knowledge of HTML, and someone who has none. I quickly became aware my outline was going to be thrown out the window.
What went wrong?
Well, first thing was that I totally overestimated the seeming simplicity of HTML. I only talked about 15 or so elements, just the basics you would need to create a web page. Nothing fancy, and no HTML5 what-so-ever. I am self taught, and I don’t really remember how I learned it, only that I really wanted to, so set out and did it. I was dealing with people who were about to be laid off and just wanted to add a skill set to their resume. I think that alone is a huge difference. I was dedicated to learning it and getting into the field. These students of mine, were not really looking into going into web development per say, just have the knowledge to build a basic site to make them look better for future job positions. What is the difference? I knew it was going to be a long and difficult road, the people I was teaching didn’t expect it to be as hard as it is.
