Whoever chose the book for my XHTML/Javascript class (CIS 137) must not understand the concept of changing technology. How else would you explain using a 2003 technology book in 2010? Now, the tags, attributes and elements in the old book work just fine with my 2010 browser. That’s not the issue. The issue is how the book teaches me to use the technology.
In the chapter one exercises there’s a section on comparing how code looks in the two largest browsers: Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator (pg 14). That’s right, Navigator, the same browser that AOL stopped supporting in February 2008. It gets better. Chapter two recommends I save my work on a floppy disk or 3.5 inch removable hard disk (pg 52).
The real kicker is in chapter five. It states that many Internet users choose to turn off images in their browser “because loading and displaying images dramatically slows down the surfing process and, much of the time, they are looking for textual information and the images are a nice additional but unnecessary touch.” (pg 112)
What?
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the most technology-savvy person in the world, but this is ridiculous. Images are nice but unnecessary? What about Flickr? Facebook? The Clarion’s website? Even the Job Center has images on its home page. I’d hate to think of what my book would say about YouTube. (Oh, yeah. It doesn’t.)
The fact is the way people use the Internet has drastically changed in the last seven years. It’s not enough to know what technology is. Today you have to know how to apply that technology in a meaningful way. If I have a textbook telling me to save my imageless work on a floppy disk so I can double check how it looks in an obsolete browser, then I won’t be able to compete with today’s world.
To be fair to the CIS department, my teacher said the department couldn’t find another cheap textbook that taught both XHTML and JavaScript in one book. That said, I found a beginner’s HTML, XHTML, CSS and JavaScript book for $30 at Barnes & Noble online that was published in 2009.
I love this school, and I know its reputation as a technology-driven, forward-thinking college. However, perhaps it’s time that the CIS department found a new textbook that teaches computer code on today’s terms.
The book in question is “Programming the Web using XHTML and Javascript” by Larry Randles Lagerstrom. This book can be purchased new for $68 or used for $51 in the Tartan Bookstore.