| The
Wired Professor stresses
its own handiness so anxiously that one begins to expect the opposite.
In an attempt to mitigate the dread inspired by two long chapters of html
training, Keating informs readers that she has no degree in computing,
was once a techno-skeptic, and has nevertheless managed to code beautiful
and complex syllabi for NYU courses in technological politics. Her
success, she implies, should comfort and inspire even the most hesitant
of potential wired
instructors. The early encouragement loses its force soon after
the training begins, however, due to the rigors of a quirky and often counter-intuitive
programming language. Strangely, she and Hargitai assume that their
audience of net novices needs extensive coding skills before advancing
to more efficient "click-and-drag" programs. They suggest that webwriters
may want to use "wysiwyg" programs such as
Netscape Composer
or Microsoft Frontpage after mastering "basic" html, but
they leave the term "basic" strategically undefined. Without guidance
as to how much html is enough, readers might try the most sophisticated
of webwriting techniques--such as incorporating video and using Perl scripts--in
strict code, rather than using programs that will help automate the coding
process. They might, on the other hand, close the book in frustration.
The
Wired Professor risks intensifying the very technophobia
it offers to alleviate. |
