Webmaker/WebLiteracyMap/Align

This is still a draft at the moment so don't cite it yet please!

Aligning with the Web Literacy Map: a guide

Introduction

Mozilla is a global community of technologists, teachers and makers working together to keep the Internet open, accessible and editable. We collaborate on a global basis to ensure everyone can be informed contributors and creators of the web. This act of human collaboration across an open platform we believe to be essential to individual growth and our collective future.

Mozilla helps people build, not just consume, the technology, media and information that makes up the web. Whether through the thousands of volunteers who write code for Firefox or the growing community that is designing courses for teaching the web, Mozilla strives for an Internet that is:

• Knowable: it’s transparent–we can see it and understand it
• Interoperable: it presents opportunity to play and innovate
• Ours: it’s open to everyone and we define it

The development of Mozilla products such as the Firefox web browser and Firefox OS for mobile phones rely upon community involvement and contribution. The Web Literacy Map is no different: it has been created by Mozilla in consultation with a community of stakeholders from a range of backgrounds, including formal education, informal education, and industry.

The aim of this resource is to help you take the first steps on the journey to using the Web Literacy Map in practice. It will help you contextualise the 'raw material' of the Web Literacy Map to be something that you can use to help teach the web to your target audience.

We will begin with an overview of the Web Literacy Map, before asking some questions about you and your context. These are structured using the approach taken in David Perkins' Harvard class Inquiry. It will be useful if you take your time to answer the questions with (a) someone else from your organization, and (b) any relevant documentation (e.g. curricula, policies, mission statements) to hand.

The Web Literacy Map

The Web Literacy Map is a map of the territory of web literacy. It constitutes the raw material from which people like you can make resources, curricula and activities to help teach the web. Our working definition of 'web literacy' is purposely inclusive and wide: the skills and competencies required to read, write and participate effectively on the web.

It's also important to note what the Web Literacy Map is not. It is not prescriptive. We're not saying that there is one way to learn these skills and competencies. There is also (intentionally) no mention of the level at which one should align with the Web Literacy Map. We see this as something that can be aligned with by n00b and ninja alike!

Finally, it's important to say that the Web Literacy Map is in perpetual beta. By that we mean that it will change as the web itself changes: if there's something you think needs changing, get involved and tell us!

Contextualizing for your target audience

In your context and for your target audience:

1. What's worth learning? (What on the Web Literacy Map is it very important / useful / not important to learn?)

2. How is it best learned? (Is there anything else that needs to be learned alongside the Web Literacy Map competencies to help make them relevant / make sense? What kinds of activities do you currently have on offer that could help scaffold web skills?

3. How can we get it taught that way? (Could you get additional help in facilitating learning in these areas? Where from?)

4. How do you know it's been learned? (How will you acknowledge / credential attendance, attitude and achievement?)

[Appendix 1: Case Study - BCGA]

[Appendix 2: Further Mozilla resources - links to Webmaker tools, Webmaker resources, and Webmaker community/training; Open Badges, Badge Canvas, and BadgeKit]