Confirm
610
edits
Changes
Style changes and other minor edits
We think that education can help us reach this goal by helping more people to:
# Understand and use (Mozilla's?) open source work methodspracticed by Mozilla and other projects
# Learn about and build with open web and Mozilla technologies
# Participate in Mozilla and other open source projects
# '''education.mozilla.org''' where all Mozilla courseware and learning information can be found.
Over time, we hope these programs will also make a broader contribute contribution to creating a new participatory learning model based around open source contribution ... , and we hope to work with others who share this vision. However, for now, we want to start with something doable: making a formal link between education, learning and the Mozilla community.
The (still under construction) plans for Mozilla Education are detailed on this page, and a number of sub-pages.
==Overview==
=== Intro ===
Open source projects help contributors learn incredibly useful skills: how to code; , how to collaborate; , and how to lead in a global community. Despite this, formal links between higher education and open source projects like Mozilla are rare. College and university students who want to take advantage of the resources and mentorship that come with open source development have had to do so on their own time.
Working with others around the world, Mozilla Education wants to help change this: we want to build systematic links between our projects and the world of education. Over the long haul, we hope that this will help to drive '''a new wave of participatory, student-led learning in fields like computer science, design and business'''. In the shorter term, we believe that we can provide students with '''rich learning opportunities''' while at the same time generating '''new ideas and contributors''' for Mozilla.
* The [http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/osie-list osie-list mailing list] is a forum for people interested in open source in education and the development of an open source-centric computer science curriculum.
* The [http://www.uoc.edu/masters/oficiales/master_oficial_software_libre/master_oficial_software_libre_plan.htm official master on free software] at the Open University of Catalonia has a master thesis course where interaction (in any way) with the free software community is a goal.
* The [http://master.libresoft.es master on free software] at the URJC has several subjects on this topic.* The [http://theingots.org/ INGOTS] certificates engender participation by making project contribution a requirement of the higher grades. Lower grade grades also raise awareness of many issue around Open Standards and Open Source projects, especially those relevant to Open Office.* Perhaps This is perhaps stretching the point , but the [http://moodle.org/ Moodle] learning management system is founded on constructivist and participatory practices , and so the Moodle community as a whole have has a lot of relevant experience and resources.
* ''What else? Please add additional examples.''
[[image:mozeduscribblesmaller.jpg]]
The elements of this diagram are written our on more detail below. You can also look at a [http://www.flickr.com/photos/marksurman/3220362303/sizes/l/ look at a much bigger version] of this picture.
===Goal: Big Picture===
At the broadest level, Mozilla Education is focused promoting the strategies outlined in the [http://www.mozilla.org/about/manifesto Mozilla Manifesto]. In particular the aim is to ...
<blockquote>Make openness, participation and distributed decision-making more common experiences in Internet life</blockquote>
This is one of [http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2009/01/05/integrated-revised-2010-goals/ one of four goals] that Mozilla is aiming to meet by 2010.
===Objectives: Education Program===
We want more and more people to ...
# Understand understand and use (Mozilla's?) open source work methodspracticed by Mozilla and other projects# Learn learn about and build with open web and Mozilla technologies# Participate participate in Mozilla and other open source projects
These ojectives are designed to contribute to the larger goal outlined above.
===Possible Bonus Effects===
In addition to these objectives, we're also hoping that Mozilla Education will result in:
# Pool a pool of high quality Mozilla open courseware# New a new participatory learning model built around contributing to open source projects # Large number of many professors skilled at integrating open source prjects projects and methods into their teaching.
These things aren't our core motivations, but they are still important and useful outcomes to shoot forwork towards.
===2009 Activities===
We are planning a number of pilot activities for 2009. These include:
# ''' Seneca Expansion / Virtual Seneca''' offering Mozilla learning resources and support to students everywhere.
* Online components developed in Moodle, and reusable for other courses.
This will be an initial experiment in Mozilla education in Europe, and will test the concept of a hybrid course combining classroom and online instruction. It may be possible to make this course partly self -sufficient financially.
=== Online Mozilla Courses===
The [[Foundation:Planning:Education:CommunityCourses| Community Courses]] initiative will create an ongoing series of online courses on topics where Mozilla a) has expertise and b) needs more skilled contributors. For the pilot phase, we propose the following approach would include:
* Short We would create and operate short online courses on topics like: community marketing; , open web technologies; , localization; , community management; , and design for open source projects. Our goal is to have up to three courses during the pilot period.
* Participants would be either new Mozilla volunteers or people who simply want to understand how Mozilla gets things done. Some might be students registered for an independent study program at their universities.
* Each course would build a learning framework around existing Mozilla activities and materials, with one or more Mozilla contributors leading the course. An academic partner at a college or university might co-lead a course, especially in areas like design where theory would be helpful.
* Information on how to get started as a student or professor interested in Mozilla (e.g. Seneca project pool, campus reps program, etc.)
All the materials in this library would be openly licensed so that students and professors can use or adapt for their own courses. They will would also be able to upload or link to their own Mozilla materials.
=== Related activities ===
* The "Integrating FOSS into the undergraduate curriculum" project funded by the National Science Foundation.
Our plan is to track and participate in these projects where we can add value, in order to take advantage of general resources that can be leveraged in a Mozilla-specific context, make contacts and alliances that might be useful to Mozilla, and promote the general topic of open source and education. We have already agreed to sit on the advisory committee of FOSS Education at Oxfordand to participate in the "Integrating FOSS into the Undergraduate Curriculum" [http://www.hfoss.org/symposium09/ symposium] planned for March 4 in Chattanooga TN.
== Checkpoints ==
* Do we still have confidence in proposed activities now that we have plans and budgets in place? If 'no' for any activity, kill it.
* Do we have agreement on plans and institutional commitments from Seneca and URJC? If 'no', ask why and potentially reconsider partnership.
* Do we have people, content and web infrastructure ready to roll for at least one Mozilla Community Course? If 'no', is the problem one of resources or enthusiasm for the project? If the problem is lack of enthusiasm, drop this idea.
* Are we able to gather compelling and useful content for EMO? If 'no', what is missing? Where do we need to look? Is the idea viable?
* Do we have shared versions of basic Seneca tools for use by others, especially the prototype student project pool web site and the updated Real World Mozilla course?
=== June 30, 2009 (end of Q2) ===
** In particular, do we see early evidence that students, professors and mentors are planning to use these resources in the 2009/2010 academic year? If 'no', is this an issue of promotion or interest?
* Do we have the materials and people in place to have a successful first course at URJC? Are students registered?
* Did How many people participate participated in the first Mozilla community courses? Did the participating Mozilla projects get useful outcomes? If 'no', do we need to improve our approach or kill this idea?
* Are we starting to see traffic and use on the EMO site? If 'no', does this indicate a lack of interest or a need for improvements?
=== September 30, 2009 (end of Q3) ===
* Do we see actual courses or individual student projects starting up with Seneca-provided resources? If 'yes', do we have the capacity to handle them? If 'no', assess why and adjust future plans accordingly.
* Is the pace of Mozilla community courses meeting the needs of the potential audience? What do we need more of? Less of?
* How useful is the new EMO functionality? If it is not useful, can it be fixed?
=== December 31, 2009 (end of Q4) ===
* Did the URJC Mozilla Technology summer course generate good learning outcomes for participants? Was URJC happy with the outcomes? Did we produce re-usable course materials? If 'yes' on most, consider a second phase. If 'no', question whether this is worthwhile to do again.* Do any major tweaks need to be made to the Mozilla community courses for 2009? Should we bring all instructor duties inhouse in-house (as part-time or full-time staff)?
* Is EMO important enough to evolve into a "first-class object" (e.g., comparable to SUMO, QMO, AMO, MDC) during 2010? If 'yes', this needs to be fully addressed in the 2010 budget.
* What is our overall assessment of Mozilla Education activities in 2009? What are the answers to our core design and thesis questions? In 2010, should we expand, evolve our experiments or kill the program?
