Greetings WOW members and Web professionals everywhere. Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.
Today?’s podcast is a continuation of the topic of Web professional education. If you?’ve been following along with the thread over the course over the last few days, then you?’re already aware that the focus has been to improve upon our understanding of the current status of Web professional education for those that work in this profession as well as those that teach them.
With the goal better understanding the best practices of the day in mind and to be recognized as a profession, we?’ve exposed a wide variety of topics ranging from:
•The fact that publishers of books and resources those that teach Web centric topics will need to keep pace to insure accuracy and relevancy
•The need for introducing math and science at an earlier age
•The need for focusing on ones weaknesses as well as their strengths
•Today?’s Web Pro?’s need to have a solid understanding of the artistic as well as the analytic and the technical. Teachers need to take note of this
•That a skills gap exist between education and the employment sector
•As a profession we need a better road map to educate ourselves and our clients about a host of issues including the best practices of the day
•As Web Pro?’s we value and seek our bits of information from a variety of resources and we value the importance of formal training as well
Clearly, as a profession we have our challenges, but that?’s to be expected I suppose with the newness of the profession. The good news is that formalized Web professional degree programs are sprouting and career pathway resources for titles within the Web profession are becoming better defined and vetted.
To assist me in illustrating this point from technical high school perspective, I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Dante Ciolfi, Instructor at Lee Count High Tech Center Central form Fort Meyers, Fla. Dr. Ciolfi, team placed 11th in the nation at WOW?’s annual Web design contest at Skills USA KC. I spent a few minutes asking Dr. Ciolfi his thoughts on the current status of education at his school and what?’s going right and what can be improved.
Stay tuned for additional podcast this topic as we continue to interview industry professionals, authors and those that influence the Web at set best practices as we know them today.
For the five minute interview check out today’s WOW Technology Minute website.
A complete transcript of this podcast will be available in twenty-four hours.
Today’s WOW Technology Minute is sponsored by the Web 2.0 Expo New York taking place September 16 – 19, 2008 at the Javits Center New York, NY.
From start-ups to enterprises, the Web 2.0 Expo New York is the event for the designers, developers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketing professionals, product managers and business strategists building businesses on the web.
Seven conference tracks, a vibrant expo hall and plenty of networking events cover business strategy, web design, user experience, SEM, tagging, developer hacks, community building, AJAX, Ruby, web operations, user-generated content, and more.
Check out all of the great links including a discount code for WOW members on the WOW Technology Minute website.
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Transcript of interview with Dante Ciolfi
Disclaimer: Please note that the opinions expressed by Dr. Dante Ciolfi are his own and not necessarily that of the school districts that employs him.
BILL CULLIFER: As Web pros we value and seek our bits of information from a variety of resources including of course, the Web and people that we know, and we value the importance of formal training as well. Clearly as a profession we have our challenges but that?’s to be expected with the newness of the profession I suppose. The good news is that formalized degree programs are sprouting up and career pathway resources for titles within the Web profession are becoming better defined and vetted.
To assist me in illustrating the point from a technical high school perspective I?’m on the phone with Dr. Dante Ciolfi, instructor at Lee County High Tech Center, from Fort Meyers, Florida. Dr. Ciolfi?’s team placed 11th in the nation at WOW?’s annual Web design contest in conjunction with Skills USA in Kansas City this year. I spent a few minutes with Dr. Ciolfi and his students, among the best and the brightest that?’s for sure.
Good afternoon Dr. Ciolfi and thanks for agreeing to this interview.
DR. DANTE CIOLFI: Thanks for having me Bill.
BILL: Could you provide us with some background on the Center?
DR. CIOLFI: Sure. The Center has been around for about 40 years or so and we provide career and technical education to a combination of adult and high school students. We?’re a vocational technology school in the classical sense of the word and we?’ve got courses, everything from automotive refinishing to Web design and Web programming, we?’re on that. It?’s a feather in the cap with the American educational system. In the old days a technology, or a technology vocational-type school, was charged with addressing student?’s needs who couldn?’t function in a normal classroom. You took typically Johnny who misbehaved and you sent him to learn auto mechanics at the local vocational school. Now the focus and the emphasis has been over the last 30 years, we?’ve evolved to a point where we?’re interested in training students and adults that are participating in lifelong learning, we?’re interested in training them for today?’s workforce. So there?’s a liaison that has been effectively created between the workforce and the public school system, because we?’re under the aegis of the K-12 system here in Lee County.
BILL: There needs to be more of this. I don?’t think the public is even aware. When they think of vocational schools they?’re still thinking of the old-school model, right? Johnny?’s in trouble, let?’s send him over here.
DR. CIOLFI: Yeah, they really are. I think we?’re getting better at getting the word out on that. We can, of course, still continue to improve. Most school districts throughout the United States now are starting to develop this connection with the workforce, through a variety of means.
BILL: Dr. Ciolfi, how about Web professional education. Can you share with us what?’s going on and what can we improve?
DR. CIOLFI: Wow, a loaded question. You did say you were going to ask the tough questions Bill. We?’ve done so many good, good things in the United States over the last 10, 20 years. As educators we?’ve come to really understand how to incorporate a lot of modern pedagogy into our curriculum, especially in the Web design and Web programming area. For example, Howard Gardner, a pioneer in education, developed multiple intelligence theory, the fact that educators need to meet the student on their term. Is the student a tactile learner? Is she a visual learner? Is she an auditory learner? Whatever that student?’s approach to learning is, we as educators are charged with the task of reaching out in that fashion. And so even in the information technology field we?’ve really come to incorporate these concepts. So that?’s been a major stride forward. We?’ve also done a great job of recruiting people that are either retired or semi-retired that bring a wealth of experience and knowledge about the corporate world into the classroom. And my institution has done a great job of that specifically. We?’ve got SOHO instructors that come from those backgrounds. We?’ve done great things.
The parts that we still need improvement on, of course, are the digital divides that still exist. Typically students, even in my school, they get exposed to nice technology when they come in day to day but then they go home at night and maybe their family can?’t afford even a computer in the home. So we need to do a better job as a nation to get these tools in the hands of everybody.
We also, unfortunately, are falling behind many nations, this isn?’t any major, earth-shattering news to anybody, in terms of the money we spend on education. It?’s very small. So we need improvements in those areas so that we can continue the tradition of what this country was founded on, which was innovation, innovation and technology. And bottom line is the dollars have to be spent.
And Bill, I?’ll tell you, one of the major topics that comes up in my advisory committee meetings is what employers are looking for. Well, the number one thing, what do you think it is? Problem solve. It?’s not, “I want a student that knows this about SQL and ASP and C sharp and C++ programming.” They know that if they get an employee that is good at problem solving a lot of the rest of the technical skills fall into place. So this is one of the major things that is brought out in my curricula for Web design and Web programming. I focus on those problem solving skills because I know they?’re needed in the workplace. And the uniqueness of that, as you know from your background, is to develop a program, for example a Web application that solves a particular problem for a client, you do develop those skills incidentally throughout the process of developing a Web application.
BILL: Well thank you Dr. Ciolfi for that information and the inspiration. And keep up the great work.
DR. CIOLFI: Thanks for having me Bill.