WaSP InterACT

I believe education is essential for the wider adoption of open web standards. In turn, this will lead to improved interoperability, accessibility and maintainability of the Web we know and love. Educational initiatives such as the Opera web standards curriculum and the WaSP InterACT project are an important part of this effort. They provide course syllabi, materials and tutorials which enable educators to teach effective web design and development courses based on web standards and best practices

While the work of many individuals, and the WaSP over the last decade or so has seen the growing adoption of standards by current professionals, there has long been the concern that the education of aspiring web professionals has often not always given sufficient emphasis on the importance of standards.

I very much hope, and have great confidence that the extraordinary efforts of the WaSP Education Task Force in developing this model curriculum will really help address this challenge.

The Education Task Force has presented us with a framework that will undoubtedly be a revolutionary step in bringing Web standards and best practices to educators and students worldwide. This is Web evangelism at its finest, and the InterACT framework is something of which the WaSP should be very, very proud.

Educators will be able to use this framework to focus on instructional delivery, application of learning, and critical review and feedback. Considering that InterACT has been designed by industry professionals and academics, it carries with it a certain credibility. It is going to go a long way in enriching the field of web design while directly linking the teaching and learning experience at academic institutes to contemporary practices of the industry.

It is hard enough to make people learn but almost impossible to make them un-learn. If we want to work efficiently and seamlessly integrate with other parties, standards are the most important part of our day to day deliveries. Standards allow us to work in a predictable manner without long handover procedures. If the graduates of tomorrow will have learnt what we need to know in every day of our jobs there won't be a long training process inside companies and people can hit the ground running.

The Web has become the platform of this generation *despite* the lack of great resources, tools, and education. At Mozilla we care deeply about these things, and if the Open Web is to be the best platform it can be, we need work like the WaSP InterACT Curriculum to take things to the next level. I am very impressed with the deep, cross functional curriculum that the WaSP have come up with, and I can't wait to see the community getting ahold of it, and having us all build on top of the work.

In web design and development, the shortest path is rarely the best, or most responsible path - many of us have learned our craft through a variety of resources, technologies and best practices, with little-to-no guidance on how to merge web standards with the wide range of skills, workflows and technologies we need to get a project out the door on time. That's why it's so crucial and vital that the WaSP InterACT initiative is focusing on education and outreach - having an openly developed, standardized, curriculum that addresses all aspects of our profession helps both solidify what a pro needs to know to be effective, and how to best develop those skills in a responsible manner. Right on!

Damn this is hot. This is exactly what we need to educate up and coming developers on how to use web technologies in the real world. Jump in and help build out this amazing resource.

While most educators want to provide their students with the latest best practice for web development, many don't have time to research and develop updated material. W3C welcomes efforts to provide materials that support students learning solid standards-based Web design. WAI encourages accessibility to be incorporated throughout Web curriculum, as well as dedicated courses on accessibility. I look forward to the new curriculum helping to make the Web more accessible and usable to people with disabilities, older users, and everyone.