Webmaker/Teach
Hacktivate Learning!
Interested in helping others make things on the web?
You're in the right place. We are so excited about what we've learned and experienced over the last 18 months of launching and building Mozilla Webmaker. We developed new webmaking tools (play with them here) and shared our thinking throughout the process. We launched the 2012 Summer Code Party campaign and further engaged our Hive Learning Network to activate 600 educators across the globe to use, test, improve and teach others using our tools. Through this, it has become clear that what we need for Webmaker to continue to prosper is YOU!
<video width="512" height="288" controls="controls"></video>Who should get involved?
Already teaching webmaking?
Brian runs an organization that teaches web skills to senior citizens so they can stay in touch with their families more easily. His organization holds events in over 10 cities worldwide. Most of his instructors are volunteers so he's looking for help figuring out lesson plans that are easy for volunteers to pick up.
Teaching, but not yet teaching webmaking?
Chantal leads an after school program for girls ages 8-10 and wants to get her kids interested in technology. She's looking for cool, accessible tools that kids can use to build fun things and learn about the web in the process.
Tinkering in tech, thinking about teaching?
Aliyah participates in a code club at a local community college. One evening, one of the other members shows a Popcorn demo, and they spend the next few hours hacking on popcorn.js. Aliyah is so taken with what popcorn.js can do, she decides she wants to run a Popcorn hackjam for film students.
We see the mentor community as the intersection of:
- Makers interested in learning
- Educators interested in making
These two groups, makers and educators, are situated in two larger movements:
- the "Maker Movement": with a DIY ethos and an "If you can't open it, you don't own it" approach. A strong culture of documentation and sharing, collaboration and remixing. Has roots in physical spaces and physical objects, but important ties to the web. Examples include: Maker Faire, hackerspaces, tinkerers in electronics, 3D printing, CNC and more.
- the "Learning Movement": challenges traditional education with its learner-centric, web-inspired approach to learning. A strong culture of peer learning, open course materials, and new kinds of assessment. Has roots in peer production, participation, networks of institutions & learners. Examples include: Massive Open Online Courses, YOUMedia spaces, instructors from computer clubs and more.
If this sounds like you, get involved!
What will we do together?
Hacktivate Learning! This is our siren call to educators who are motivated by the concept of the "4th R," web literacy, an open ethos and the Webmaker mission. "Hack" with us and help get others "activated" to learn by making. Let's take inspiration from the Summer Code Party and make it happen 365 days a year in classrooms, coffee shops, museums, libraries and parks, in cities and towns around the globe.
- This grassroots network will be a skunkworks incubator for radical ideas about learning, webmaking and mentoring.
- It will be powered by a Github for Learning Stuff, an open repository where mentors can rip, remix and repost materials.
- We'll run webmaking campaigns, train the trainer workshops, and other activities that grow this community.
- In cities where mentors and institutions want to team up, we'll help bring new Hive learning networks online. Hives are vibrant learning clusters; they are city labs and a place to see "making is learning" in action.
- We're dedicated to documentation and on-boarding new mentors, so many processes will be easily replicable, remixable and teachable.
If this sounds interesting, get involved!
How will Hive Learning Networks and the mentor community work together?
- Hive Learning Networks are clusters of people and institutions in a city that care about connected learning. They organize events and joint projects, and they share experiences locally and globally. Members of Hives are part of the mentor community, although not all mentors will be formerly part of Hives. Hive partners believe that:
- School is not the sole provider in a community’s educational system
- Youth need to be both sophisticated consumers and active producers of digital media
- Learning should be driven by youth’s interests
- Digital media and technology are the glue and amplifier for connected learning experiences
- Out-of-school time spaces are fertile grounds for learning innovation
- Organizations must collaborate to thrive
- Webmaker Mentors may be part of Hive Learning Networks, aspire to start one in their city, or just be individuals who care about making and learning. Hive members and mentors share experiences, increasing the breadth and depth of knowledge about learning. Mentors are encouraged to visit and participate in nearby Hives, to try out smaller test events in their city to see if Hives are viable there, or to continue their work individually with the feedback and support of these networks.
What needs to be done?
You can:
- Tell us why you care about making + learning
- Create, test and localize hacktivity kits
- Offer in-person trainings for future mentors
- Help us create new learning projects, resources, publish your own learning materials and resources here on the wiki.
- Become a tester
- Help us localize and translate
- File bugs on Webmaker software
The mentor community team will:
- Set up communication channels
- Initiate train the trainer programs
- Scaffold mentor relationships
- Design a "Github for Learning Stuff"
- Issue badges and celebrate community successes
Resources
- Webmaking Resources: Explicit resources that leverage webmaking/code as a teaching goal.
- Web Literacy: Resources that either leverage webmaking skills in a project-based context to teach other learning objectives or resources that teach various aspects of digital literacy (good search, copy paste, etc.)
- Youth and Participant Development: Resources that catalogue best practices, techniques, etc. that demonstrate how to work with youth or other specific target groups. Participant management, digital citizenship, best practices, etc.
- Creativity/Production: Resources and materials that guide in teaching participants how to build, develop skills, ability and desire to create/produce things. Example: It is hard to build a webpage without basic ideation and design skills. It is hard to make a good Popcorn piece without some skills in video making. This is basically a catch-all for resources that fall under a broader "making" moniker: Media-making, physical computing, games, electronics...
Relevant Blog Posts
- Explaining Crisply
- Seeking Educators that get the Web
- Hacktivating Educators
- Introducing Webmaker the Product
- The Mentor Community says...
- What do Webmaker mentors want?
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We're still working on this wiki! Please give us your feedback, use the discussion pages, edit, add resources, etc.