This weekend, I’ll be leading a Webmaker Training for the National Citizens Service (NCS). NCS is an organization in the UK that provides learning opportunities for young people living in England and Northern Ireland – young people who are encouraged to lead positive change within their communities. For the first time ever, NCS has invited graduates from their programs to become Digital Champions, a group of people who will lead social action projects and spread web literacy skills in their local communities.
This is the Teaching Kit we’ll be using to guide us during the event. Let me tell you why I’m SO EXCITED to be doing this:
This is the first official “Webmaker Training”
I run trainings all the time, but they’re always one-offs, offshoots, and truncated versions of my dream learning scenario. In 2013 we ran two prototypes – a live training for Mozilla Reps called Training Days and an online training called Teach the Web, both were hugely successful. My dream learning scenario combines these two initiatives. I think a blended-learning program that is open, inclusive, and pedagogically sound – something that helps people teach the culture, mechanics, and citizenship of the Web – is what a Mozilla professional development program should be. Why? Because open.
The NCS has been great to work with
I expect the young people who participate in the NCS Community are amazing as well. The partnership started when one of our Sr Directors, the fantastic Paula Le Dieu, opened a conversation with some folks at the NCS to explain that Mozilla isn’t just a technology company, and the Web is not just a delivery mechanism for content. She talked to them about what it truly means to be part of the Open Community and our values resonated. We were asked if we could teach some of the values and skills around openness and web literacy while overlapping with NCS values around social action, personal responsibility and leadership. Spoiler Alert: Yeah, we totally can and will!
I’m truly excited to share what I love about the open source community with the NCS Digital Champions, while helping them level up their social and technical skills. I’m excited to hear their ideas, push them to think bigger, and introduce them to the support networks on the web. I’m excited to learn from them.
As an educator, I view the goals of this partnership (and future partnerships centered on Training) as being less about specific skills and more about big brained theories of education that say things like “You are educated when you can confidently and empathetically participate in society and the world.”
The Digital Champions will help us grow
Last year, the Training Days graduates and the Teach the Web participants ran hundreds and hundreds of events, spreading Webmaker and digital skills. Our community’s honesty, participation and drive has made Webmaker what it is today. The 42 NCS Digital Champions are committing to running their own Maker Parties later this year. They’re also committing to spreading web literacy within their local communities and among their peers in the NCS community.
We’ll be inviting them to become mentors within our online training initiatives. In May, we’ll be inviting any and every one to participate in an online learning experience that will help you teach the web and become part of the open community. I’m hoping that this weekend seeds enough interest for the NCS Digital Champions to want to play around with the new and improved Training content and discussion platform*.
It’s going to be fun!
People who know me, know that I don’t really get invested in things that don’t entertain me. One of the reasons I love teaching is because I think it’s fun. It’s fun to watch people learn, see what people make, share ideas and talk about stuff. I even think it’s fun to watch myself fail at relating to people. It’s fun to learn about myself, other people, the world, technology…Our agenda has random, fun activities (ahem) that are designed to get people moving, thinking and growing. I’m enthusiastic about what I do, and enthusiasm is contagious. So, yeah, it’s going to be fun for everyone involved.
All of this means more people will become web literate, more people will spread openness, more people will champion the values we have.
*If YOU’RE interested in helping made the online components of Webmaker Training better, help us test them!