Reflection on the #teachtheweb @MozTeach Curriculum Call
So we had a #teachtheweb call today (note using hashtag to encapsulate the combined curriculum and teach like @mozilla calls around a shred goal)
Here is my brief feedback:
We had a new moderator today. It was great to work with Robert Friedman from Hive Chicago. Hope we don't lose the snarky banter, or at least just save it for the chat window, but working with Robert is great. The call was very well attended and it is nice to see the diverse timezones being represented.
We may want to do one 1-2 calls a quarter when the Southeast Pacific can join. After listening to Marc Surman's recent talk we don't want the tyranny of timezones to leave out the voices we want to serve.
The Curriculum
The Javascript Module
Going to have to plead ignorance here.
I don't know much Javascript (yet), but we spent time reflecting on this module. A lot of conversation went into suggested age range and difficulty level.
I am reminded that we removed skill level from the Web Literacy Map because it is subjective, but Javascript requires algebra. So maybe what we do is just list prior skills. Maybe we could crowd source difficulty rather than assign. Maybe it is a 3 or five star rating that changes as folks complete the activities.
Privacy Module
We also discussed the Basics II Curriculum: Privacy and specifically the IP tracker. Can't lie not that excited about privacy. I did note I think this is cultural. Europeans seem to care a lot more about privacy than Americans. I also think the non-technical issues around privacy are just as if not more important than ips, cookies, and adware. We need to to encourage students to flood the web with good stuff and not try to close the canal locks on the bad.
I think long term having a bunch of different modules for Mozilla Web Clubs will be awesome. We already have Web Lit Basics I, Web Lit Basics II: Privacy, and now Javascript...but I think we are going too fast to get stuff into production. This has lead to choices to focus on existing material rather than thinking about the pathways.
For me I think about the new club captain or the teacher in Kenya introducing material for the first time. I think we should have covered all of the competencies in the Web Lit Map before specialized pathways such as Javascript.
I am the wrong person to work on privacy. I pretty much give Google, an advertisement company, my data. They give me really cool things for free and I get ads for stuff I already bought on Campmor.
I also feel the Hive Toronto Privacy activities were crowbarred into the Strands. The connections are teneous at best. I am okay with that IP does fit under web mechanics (note web mechanics was crowbarred into reading). After rechecking alignment they fit well (but lets break from this idea that every module must have two activities for each strand. Why constrain our design. Allow the pedagogical goals to determine how many activites and where they fit).
The activities such as Passwords are important. I give kudos to the team for making all of the activites production based. That could not have been easy.
Open original embedded content
Designing "Hello World" Club Module
I also want to focus on competencies and skills that have cuased struggles in my learners (usually first generation college students). I also think we need to be intentional in our design so we are serving the Clubs first.
I originally suggested these makes for the Privacy Module as they are the ones I feel have the most traction when I introduce them:
So I think we should design "A Hello World" curriculum module for the clubs that will come online after Maker Party. They could make recruitment posters doing make-a-meme, design club credos using the about me page, member bios using the business cards (or about me page), Answer Why teach the web using the movie poster, etc.
The overall goal would be to have low bar production centered activities that club captains could use to promote the club, identify mentors, and teach basic html/css.
Open Web Leadership
We then transfered over to Open Web Leadership. This is where we, Lead by Laura Hilliger, are trying to identity what it takes to be a leader on the Open Web so we can then develop the Teach Like Mozilla training materials.
First I think Teach Like Mozilla should be a goal. It is not a current state, unless that state is constant change. This is like the third etherpad in three months on the club curriculum. Change is good but I hesitate with the idea that we should just think Teach Like Mozilla.
There is a level of hubris in volved in thinking we are going to be able to define best practice in Open Web Leadership and then create "self-directed" learning modules. There are no self-directed leaders. In the Open Web leadership is built through trust and influence is based on past projects.
In fact I don't believe in best practice. In terms of teaching the idea comes from business or medicine. Best practice is easy to identify in these fields. You either die or you don't. You make money or you go broke. In teaching contexts matters so that best practice in once instance will be different in another.
Laura did an amazing job rethinking the competencies and skills:
But I think we are still missing something (caveat I think TLM is supposed to cut across all MOFO teams not just the #teachtheweb team). This material has to focus on onboarding the regional coordinators and the club captains.
We have many industry folks coming online to run clubs. That is awesome. Content knowledge is central, but they have little to no teaching experience.
I think about Laura de Renyal and Michelle Thorne's metaphor of web zero to web hero. What will it take to move someone who is either a consumer or non-user, to starting a club, to leading others, or possibly getting involved in Open Source projects. It is a tough nut to crack.
I think we may be rushing into TLM to quickly. Why not wait and see what needs RC's and captains have? Where are the holes. We need to fundementally shift from the idea that leadership development is a set of training modules. Leadership is trust, vision, and influence.
I will write about this later (this was supposed to be a short summary...a quick thought, not incoherent babble) but I am thinking TLM would involve Playing (thanks Chad), Teaching, Facilititating, Leading, and Uniting. I need to think on this more and spend some time diving into the leadership literature but I invsision some kind of design that may put these on a continuim or possibly on an equal playing field in hexagons.
It is weird to have teaching as a competency defining Teach Like Mozilla and I tried modeling. That doesn't get at the assessment practices or behaivor management required. I have no problem being specific about how hard it can be to get kids, especially those 9-17 to take existing knowledge, combine it with what they know and make something new.
I don't know how to bring in the open practice. In many ways that is TLM 0.0. It would cut across all the competencies. It is the DNA of Teach Like Mozilla.
I am going to try, if I get time away from the jobby job for the hobby job to parse through this brain dump, respond to Laura's writing, and lay out what developing Open Web Leadership would be.
I do know it isn't a module, it is the motherload.
