Changes

This is a living document to '''think aloud''' about how Mozilla & friends are evolving our web literacy offering to '''address the following problems:'''

This document describes how we imagine that process working and what we're learning along the way.

"Clubs" is a placeholder term. As this initiative develops, it may or may not have the trappings commonly associated with clubs. The term is just to help us hang our thoughts on a noun. It could die. Or it could be what we call it. Let's just see.

Roughly, we anticipate that clubs have the following elements:

A collection of activities to learn about the web. It includes instructions for the mentors on how to facilitate the activities and materials for learners. There may be ways to recognize learning and participation in these activities.

'''Hypothesis:''' Our theory is that activities should be '''modular and remixable,''' so mentors can easily modify them for their needs. Yet they should also be '''simple to use''' so that mentors feel confident. We also think learners do best when they are '''making something together''' and '''have agency in their own learning.'''

Simple processes for connecting with other clubs & mentors. The goal is to celebrate what's happening and to help people learn from one another. Could be things like a shared hashtag and a discussion forum.

'''Hypothesis:''' To be successful with this initiative, we need simple ways for people to share what they're doing in their club and to reflect. This will help us respond to real mentors as well as help mentors help each other. Good social interactions encourage people to stay engaged longer.

A way for clubs to express their own local flavor, to be locally relevant and to innovate based on local needs. And whatever the local instance looks like, there should be something that unites it globally with other clubs. Things like design elements, webpages or physical gear could be ways to show local and global connections.

'''Hypothesis:''' There are ways to be local beyond simply "geography." Clubs could adapt to audiences and spaces (e.g. adults in a library or young people in an afterschool program), by language (e.g. Bengali or English as Second Language), by partner network (e.g. ThinkBig or CoderDojo). We think clubs will be most successful when mentors & learners can make them their own. Yet there is some shared DNA that connects all clubs.

Clubs should cultivate and recognize local leaders. Clubs can be where local leaders test and innovate, as well as create spaces where they have independence and agency that roll up to a larger community. There may be resources and staff support to coach leaders on being more effective and distributed including professional development.

'''Hypothesis:''' We have a stance on leadership: it works in the open, it's facilitative, and its about having your own agency as a leader and creating spaces for others to develop their agency as well. We think the same learning methods that work for teaching web literacy will be effective for teaching community leadership. Make it about learning with others, interest-based, and blended online and offline.

These local groups will be interwoven with other mentors networks, especially the Hive, as a larger community of practice spreading digital & web literacy. Hives can start clubs, clubs could become Hives. We see these offerings as deeply interrelated. There is also huge opportunities to continuing expanding this work with Mozilla networks like Reps and MDN.

'''Hypothesis:''' The Hive networks have been greatly successful in having local roots with global community. They are lab and classroom for web literacy. Webmaker Clubs can find a sweetspot in these ecosystems that brings something new (like particular stance on web literacy and community leadership) while leveraging and integrating what exists.

This is a group of collaborators with whom we'll co-develop the club initiative. It is a mixture of larger learning networks and individuals who are dedicated to teaching the web. We have worked closely with them on a variety of projects already, including Hive, Maker Party and Mozfest.

Whatever we build, it will be shaped deeply by the needs and ideas of this group. '''They are our distributed leadership.''' They bring expertise and experience, and '''our offering should be in service to them.'''

* Maurya Couvares, ScriptED - confirmed

* Gina Tesoriero, NYC Department of Education - confirmed

* Christina Cantrill, National Writing Project

* Dan Gilbert, Afterschool Alliance

* Jonathan, Digital Harbor - confirmed

* Ellie Mitchell, Maryland Afterschool Network

* Chad, NWP - confirmed

* Emma, Hive Vancouver - confirmed

* Chris Mills, Mozilla Developer Network

* Kim Wilkens, St. Anne's-Belfield School - confirmed

* Roz Hussin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

To make testing more iterative and bring in club creators when it best suits their organizational needs and timing, we will have at least three test cohorts (ca. one each quarter).

Each cohorts will be a mixture of the following roles:

Just listen in on the process. Participate on the mailing list and calls. Reflect on the materials and process. Ideally, audit if you're considering doing a local version later.

Create a test club or integrate the test programming into activities you're already doing locally. Have 3-4 weeks when you can be engaging with your learners and participating in club calls. There will be multiple cohorts of testers, so if you can't make one round, don't worry there will be more. You can also do multiple tests, as we'll add modules and improvements as we go.

If you've done local programming like this already or have tested a club as part of another cohort, you could mentor others who are testing. You can advise and coach the testers as well as provide additional insight and analysis on what's working.

There are also working groups that may span several rounds of testing. These groups focus deeply on a particular aspect of the clubs. They will do competitive analysis, research and codesign on their key topic as part of the larger process.

Each working group has a facilitator and a rhythm for meeting and hacking together.

These are the social patterns and protocols we think successful local clubs, as well as a global network for mentors, will need:

A pattern in all of our offering is the triple of first observing, practicing and then sharing it forward.

Don't talk about it, do it. Experiential learning. Learn by doing, not by powerpoint.

Everyone has the capacity to share their skills. We want to awaken the ability in everyone to share what they know.

As we codesign clubs, we need also need to build and test an online tool that helps people connect, level up and create their own space.

We anticipate needing features in the following areas:

* better Discourse

* lightweight communications outreach (email 10K)

* fixed up badges / credentialing

* a light-weight activity (could overlap w. what Webmaker product)

* a web presence that can be easily edited (teach.webmaker.org)

We will continue to write and test the club activities and instructions with the club creators. We are aiming for '''at least 3 modules,''' as well as '''examples & simple ways to remix these foundational modules for different audiences''' (e.g. libraries, afterschool programs, family at home, etc.)

Learners complete this module knowing the core of reading, writing and participating on the web.

* [https://theanimal.makes.org/thimble/LTExMzU4MDQxNjA=/digicorps-webmaker-teaching-kit DigiCorps Teaching Kit]

Learners go deeper. They build on their learning in the first module.

Build from above resources as well.

Learners complete this module knowing how to teach in the open, to be facilitative leaders and to embed making & learning the web into their practice. Pick up best practices for how Mozilla and other communities teach and lead in the open.

* [https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2654/hacking-open-source-participation/ Hacking Open Source Participation by Emma]

Learners complete this knowing the affordances of mobile and how to use the Webmaker app to express themselves and learn more about the web.

* [https://laura.makes.org/thimble/LTI3NDk4ODgwMA==/2-days-of-teaching-appmaking Two Days of Teaching Appmaking by Laura]

Rough timeline. All subject to change based on needs of the cohorts and other realities.

'''Deliverable: Be scoped.''' <br>

* Dec 17: Reflect on insights so far. Adjust milestones and scope as needed.

'''Deliverable: Be feature complete.''' <br>

* Mar 30: Celebration of alpha testing complete. Reflect. Kick off beta testing. Scope web properties.

'''Deliverable: Be content complete.''' <br>

* Jun 30: Celebration of beta testing complete. Reflect. Kick off release to market (campaign).

'''Deliverable: Be market ready.''' <br>

* Sept 1: Local leaders invited to Mozfest

'''Deliverable: Be reflective and celebratory.''' <br>

* Nov - Dec: Reflection. 2016 planning.

We are trying to do this with minimal dependencies on other teams or external factors.

* Frontend web development

Ideas and links we don't want to forget.