Is the tortoise winning again? JavaScript is beating its more glamorous competitors

tortoise and hare

For a number of years JavaScript, and in particular, web browser support for it, was not seen as being up to the task of delivering highly interactive and engaging content to users of the Web. Not only this, but we were sold the story that it likely never would be, and that plugins like Flash and Silverlight were the way forward in terms of rich web-based applications.

Educationalists in particular invested heavily in Flash-based learning objects, or for areas such as science, in Java (not at all related to JavaScript) applets. At the time, this seemed liked the obvious and sensible thing to do. Then, along came the iPad and iPhone, which lacked support for either of those formats — and guess what tablets and phones educators preferred!

Meanwhile, slowly plodding along the road to web success was the good old JavaScript tortoise, ignoring all the heckling about how it was too slow and just not up to the job.

I was recently very lucky to attend a conference that focused on the “Web Platform”. If you still use the phrase “Web 2.0” you are seriously out-of-date, but only out-of-date enough to be plain sad sorry, not retro and cool! The “Web Platform” is the “in phrase” for 2014. This conference was a showcase of just how far JavaScript and HTML have come as a platform for the delivery of interactive content. A preview of the Unity 3D gaming engine running in Firefox with no plugins was just one example of the level of interactivity and immersion that is now possible in the humble old web browser using open web standards.

So what does it mean for education?

First, if you are looking at buying or developing any sort of interactive educational content, HTML and JavaScript should be the underlying format if you want to ensure that it is as open, portable, and future-proof as possible. If someone tries to sell you on a different format, then make sure you ask him or her lots of questions about how open and cross-platform the format is. If you can’t run the content on at least a web browser, an iPad, and an Android device, then by default it probably isn’t a future-focused option. Performance issues on low-end Android devices aside, an HTML/JavaScript-based solution will work across all these platforms.

Secondly, if you are looking to get your students into programming, then JavaScript is a reasonable option. Demand for experienced JavaScript developers is only likely to increase — not to mention all the problem-solving skills that students gain, even if they don’t move into a programming career. At the conference mentioned above, Pamela Fox from Khan Academy’s computer science section gave an interesting keynote on the ability of quite young students to successfully complete their JavaScript programming tasks.

Khan Academy is sometimes looked down upon by the Vygotskian Social Constructivist puritans among you. However, I would recommend giving their Computer Science section a go. If you don’t, you just might find that your students are there anyway, learning, and constructing meaning without you.

I would love to hear from anyone that is already using JavaScript as a language for introducing students to programming. It would also be great to hear from anyone that is using HTML/Javascript to build his or her own interactive educational apps and content.

Glen Davies is the IT Manager at CORE Education, and responsible for the IT infrastructure for CORE's geographically dispersed workforce. His passion is finding ways to incorporate technology into teaching, learning, and online collaboration.