How should I teach web design to students ? Use Dreamweaver or notepad ?

Sometimes Dreamweaver will screw up - for example you make a selection in design view and it will grab part of a closing tag.

Because of this I like to work in split view. You should demonstrate this so they understand why it's important to know the tags. Also demonstrate how copying text or code from a web page can lead to problems unless you paste into notepad first.

First comes the basic HTML tags. So first train them up using notepad. They would feel difficult to modify the code if they are completely trained in an WYSIWYG environment. Hope it helps

I suggest html the old way first, then the new (frontpage-esque) way.
I believe Dreamweaver has an html mode where you type html code.

Hi

You should definitely focus on HTML/CSS rather than WYSIWYG software... but I think web design means more visual design, interface design, and information architecture... for that you need PhotoShop or similar software... but also for a successful website you need to have solid knowledge of html/css, to know what can be coded and what not...

The only software I personally use for coding because of "code sugestions" feature is PHP Designer, which is mainly a PHP/MySQL programming software, but also has support for JavaScript, HTML, CSS and other technologies... and they have Academic Licenses which costs only $32...

Hope I was helpful, Good Luck with teaching :)

Cheers!
Alex Mos - Web Designer / Founder
http://www.WebsonDesign.com

You will want you students to do some work outside class hours, so I would suggest staying away from Dreamweaver due to cost - there's always one student that doesn't have it or won't want to buy it.

How about using a free html editor (such as Notepad++) so that you can use html code but have available the syntax highlighting that makes it more readable than MS Notepad.

If you want them to be able to see the results immediately but still code HTML, check out the tutorials on w3schools.com. I use that site and their tutorials for training my new staff.

notepad, its the only way they'll be able to fix a site when dreamweaver messes up your code!

I'd go the notepad way to start. I found myself in exactly the same dilemma. What I found when I did the dreamweaver route was that the group understanding the relationship between CSS and HTML. So I did a couple of small sessions getting them to hand code a basic hello world html page and formatting it with css so they wouldnt be phased when seeing the code in dreamweaver. My approach was that HTML is a language and it was better to goround them in the grammar of it rather than have try and form sentences without really knowing why.

How old are the students? I believe in working in the code and learning from the ground up. But if they are elementary school age, a WYSIWYG editor is easier and more fun for them.

If for teenagers and up, definitely teach HTML+CSS, but you can still use Dreamweaver. Just have them set it on the code+design mode so they can be doing both graphically and work in the code at the same time to see how they work.

Make them do it the hard way in notepad for a few days, then expose them to a text editor that saves them some work....like how Visual Studio creates the closing tags for you when you create the opening tag. Demonstrate how it makes life easier and they will be on it like fat on a mother-in-law.