Web Design Class

[Aero]

Ok, so I decided I would take a Web Design class this year in school. (I'm a junier in High School). So up untill Tuesday we were using HTML, and just making our own websites. BUT now we started using Microsoft Frontpage. I nearly fell asleep the first day. And well, if I don't find something interesting/fun/informitive, I tend to ignore it and do other things...like how I do my English homework in US History...but anyway. I'm thinking about dropping my webdesign, I don't want it to hurt my GPA if I goof off in it, and I can just take an extra class next semester. Wondering what you guys think.

[[DGN]Nexus]

haha.. I'm taking web page design too! My teacher is so dumb.. She has us doing web pages in MS Word. We did HTML for about 4 weeks, did a project the last one, my group was the only one that completed everything.

[Aero]

our teacher let us download a program called CONtext. (hes the first teacher that taught us how to get around the schools firewall). But Frontpage has a wizard for everything, that takes more time than imputing the code itself, which gets on my nerves.

[weirdguy]

Microsoft? I use staroffice/openoffice
free!

[Myrdhyn]

i once took a class like this in highschool for an easy a and ended up teaching the class b/c I knew more than the teacher (read: moron) did so she just said teach the class frames today or tables today or w/e then went and sat down and surfed the web

[Bionik]

Lmao. Dude,yeah dont take a CLASS..wdf is gonna learn HTML and WebDesign froma big retarded teacher..Lmao..just learn from your friends..ive learned HTML Advanced,Photoshop/Slicing,PHP,MySQL Quiieres,etc..all in about 1year of surfing the net..and reading stuff..btw go to these forums if u want to learn anything!
www.clantemplates.com ( go to forums )

[slaveofconvention]

I agree with some of the comments above - the best way to learn html or anythin web-based tends to be self teaching - maybe with a reference book for the occasional tip and lots of surfing - I had a non-elective web-design module in university and the lecturer took one look at stuff i'd already done and said "Well, you know more than me and you could teach this class, come back in 12 weeks for the review or if you're really confident, 13 for the final exam" and compared to what i know now, what i knew then was peanuts.

[FX]

Web design is more than knowing HTML, PHP, MSSQL or MySQL....much much more in fact.

Knowing the tools is good, knowing the languages you'll use is good, but that's not what web design is all about. A TRUE Web Designer isn't someone who builds website, but rather knows what it takes to build a complete solution meeting the client's needs, and what it's going to take to do it. Funny things about schools that "claim" to teach web design, they don't....they teach you how to build a website and the basics surrounding it.

The best way to look at it is, it's like being an Interior Designer for the internet. You need to know the market your client is in, you need to understand what their demographic is looking for, the image of the company, the product or service that they're offering; then in order to be able to give them what they're after, you need to know what technologies are available, the different ways the end goal can be achieved, what kind of applications you're going to need to accomplish that, and then it's time to put it all together. Yes, that's what being a Web Designer is, not programming in HTML, PHP, ASP, CGI, or knowing SQL and how to build a database. You need to know those things in order to know the best way to get the final result your client is looking for, but you don't need to be an expert in those things. Web Developer, Web Builder, Web Applications Specialist, and Web Designer are all different things, and come with different responsabilities and skillsets.

If you want to be a good Web Designer, take Marketing and Business courses in addition to your "web design" course if you can. Web Designers need to know what the client's needs are before they do, how to give them the solution they're after (the first time), and how to do it at a price that'll fit the budget of the client. Unfortunately, that takes time to learn.

I really wish schools would quit saying they're teaching something they're not. There are about 4 dozen true Web Designers in the US, and about half that in Canada. There's a ton of work, and very few people that know how to do it right.

[Aero]

well, I took the class to get an easy "A", but no that its boring, and stupidly easy, I want to switch out. I know the best way to learn this stuff is of the net, but I still need to stay in school, so I wanted your opinions on whether I should stay in the class or not.

[crenn]

When I did "E-Biz" in high school... it was meant to teach you how to make webpages and use flash MX. I mainly played Quake 2 and LeiroX in that class..... I knew about 20 times more than the teacher.... including how to get into the student webpages when the server screwed up. When we were doing flash...... it was a waste of time, all students had to learn as the teacher did...... It only took 2 minutes to finish a 2 page worksheet and then gaming for another hour and a half. I eventually aced the clas when I found a few flash self-teaching and semi-mastered flash using ActionScript. I got all A+s that year.