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Foundation:Planning:Education2010: Difference between revisions
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== History == | == History == | ||
The Mozilla Education program grew out of activities by Prof. David Humphrey at Seneca College in Toronto, Canada, to teach Mozilla technologies and development practices in the classroom (as opposed to, for example, simply having students do Mozilla-related independent projects or work as Mozilla interns). This work was initially supported by in-kind donations of time by Mozilla employees in the Toronto office (e.g., to do classroom lectures and mentor students). | The Mozilla Education program grew out of activities by Prof. David Humphrey at Seneca College in Toronto, Canada, to teach Mozilla technologies and development practices in the classroom (as opposed to, for example, simply having students do Mozilla-related independent projects or work as Mozilla interns). This work was initially supported by in-kind donations of time by Mozilla employees in the Toronto office (e.g., to do classroom lectures and mentor students). | ||
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== Context and assumptions == | == Context and assumptions == | ||
As discussed in the [[Foundation:Planning:Education#Context|2009 plan]], Mozilla Education exists within a larger set of activities around "open education", "open educational resources", and related attempts to reform (or, as advocated by some, replace) the present formal educational system and its associated institutions. This larger world of open education efforts provides both a unifying vision of decentralized participatory student-driven learning (one that is congruent with the ideals of the Mozilla Manifesto) and a vibrant group of potential supporters and partners. | |||
More directly relevant to Mozilla Education are other efforts to teach FOSS technologies and practices in colleges and universities, for which the [http://teachingopensource.org/ Teaching Open Source project] serves as a central focus. These other efforts provide additional test cases for introducing FOSS into the classroom, with resulting insights and resources that can be leveraged in the context of Mozilla Education. | |||
In particular, others' experiences confirm the [http://blog.hecker.org/2007/11/15/seneca-college-and-open-source-education/ hypothesis] that the institutions most interested in deeply integrating Mozilla (and other FOSS) technologies and practices into their formal curricula will be those specializing in practical education (and to a certain extent liberal arts insitutions), with much less likelihood of making inroads with leading research institutions with large computer science programs. | |||
At the same time, the complexity of the core Mozilla code base and the increased focus on an aggressive release schedule put a premium on having a full-time dedicated group of Mozilla core developers, and limit the opportunities for students (or part-time volunteer contributors in general) to make significant contributions to the core Mozilla code. This in turn pushes typical potential student contributors to focus | |||
== 2010 plan == | == 2010 plan == | ||