Learning/About

Context of our planning process

• We completed the first phase of this work: defining the ‘why’ (universal web literacy) and the ‘what’ (leadership and advocacy) for this plan.
• We’re currently in phase two: defining how MoFo will engage in these two core strategies in 2016 and beyond.
• Much of the ‘how’ is about looking at how existing activities improve and connect. Staff from across the org will be involved in figuring this out.
• Three working groups have been helping to guide this process: leadership development, advocacy and impact. Participation is open to all.
• Phase two runs from now to the Oct board meeting. Then phase 3 will dig into the specifics of roadmapping, budgeting and creating a final business plan.

The Mozilla Learning Plan

"Mozilla Learning" is the Mozilla Foundation's plan to promote universal web literacy in 2016 and beyond. Phase 2 of the planning process is now underway, and all are welcome to participate.

Summary of Phase 1

Phase 1 was about the "why and what" of our strategy. why = universal web literacy, a world where everyone can read, write and participate on the web. what = advocacy and leadership development.

• Strategy. High-level summary of our thinking and plan to date.
• Universal web literacy. Our north star.
• Advocacy. Shifting understanding and thinking about the web.
• Leadership Development. More people teaching and advocating for web literacy.
• Partnerships. Building a global network of partners.

The slides can be found here.

Imagine

Imagine that five years from now, Mozilla is known globally as the most sought-after place to get tech talent, educators and digitally savvy open web people.

Imagine that our leadership development and fellowship programs are a place people look to find world class talent and future leaders. Imagine that our web literacy agenda — the belief that everyone should be able to read, write and participate on the web -- is something governments, schools and people around the world see as important as reading, writing and math. 

Imagine Mozilla is known -- as much as it is for Firefox today -- for helping millions of new internet users around the world understand the web, and what it can unlock in their own lives.

These are things we believe Mozilla can and must achieve. The Mozilla Learning strategy is about making it a reality, focusing our efforts at the Mozilla Foundation to advance universal web literacy.

August 2015 update

Developing a long term Mozilla Learning strategy has been the Mozilla Foundation's big focus over the last three months.

Working closely with people across our community, we’ve come up with a clear, simple goal for our work: universal web literacy. We’ve also defined ‘leadership’ and ‘advocacy’ as our two top level strategies for pursuing this goal. The use of ‘partnerships and networks’ will also be key to our efforts. These are the core elements that will make up the Mozilla Learning strategy.

Over the last month, we’ve summarized our thinking on Mozilla Learning for the Mozilla Board and a number of other internal audiences.

This video is based on these presentations. As you’ll see in the slides, our goal for Mozilla Learning is ambitious: ensure everyone knows how to read, write and participate on the web. In this case, everyone = the five billion people who will be online by 2025. Our top-level thinking on how to do this includes:

1. Leadership Development

Develop leaders who teach and advocate for web literacy.
Concretely, we will integrate our Clubs, Hive and Fellows initiatives into a single, world class learning and leadership program.

2. Advocacy

Shift thinking: everyone understands the web / internet.
Concretely, this means we will invest more in advocacy, thought leadership and user education. We may also design ways to encourage web literacy more aggressively in our products.

3. Partnerships

Build a global web literacy network.
Mozilla can’t create universal web literacy on its own. All of our leadership and advocacy work will involve ‘open source’ partners with whom we’ll create a global network committed to universal web literacy.

Phase 2: moving from "what" to "how"

Process-wise: we arrived at this high level strategy by looking at our existing programs and assets. We’ve been working on web literacy, leadership development and open internet advocacy for about five years now. So, we already have a lot in play. What’s needed right now is a way to focus all of our efforts in a way that will increase their impact — and that will build a real snowball of people, organizations and governments working on the web literacy agenda.

The next phase of Mozilla Learning strategy development will dig deeper on ‘how’ we will do this.

Key Links from Phase 1

• Mozilla Fellows:
  • Strategy discussions - Whistler and Beyond: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/fellows-strategy
  • Strategy discussions - June Working Group: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/12

• Web Literacy:
  • Web Literacy Map: https://teach.mozilla.org/teach-like-mozilla/web-literacy/
  • Digital-Age Skills for the 21st Century (Slides): http://bit.ly/1GkdDLV
  • 21st Century Skills Badging Framework (Blog Post): https://blog.webmaker.org/21st-century-skills-badging-framework

More history and context: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Learning/Archive