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Education/ProgressReport2009: Difference between revisions
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The answer here is that most of the leverage of Seneca has occurred through the following: | The answer here is that most of the leverage of Seneca has occurred through the following: | ||
* Other institutions are using Seneca course materials for their own courses, typically adapting them for their own use as opposed to using them unchanged. | * Other institutions are using Seneca course materials for their own courses, typically adapting them for their own use as opposed to using them unchanged. | ||
* Faculty members at other institutions are using Dave as a resource for helping them structure and plan courses. | * Faculty members at other institutions are using Dave Humphrey as a resource for helping them structure and plan courses. | ||
* Students at other institutions are to some extent piggybacking on projects in which Seneca students are playing (or have previously played) a leading role. Processing for the Web is a good example, since some of the key pieces like the Canvas 3D support were originally done at Seneca. | * Students at other institutions are to some extent piggybacking on projects in which Seneca students are playing (or have previously played) a leading role. Processing for the Web is a good example, since some of the key pieces like the Canvas 3D support were originally done at Seneca. | ||
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* If so, do we get good participation and learning outcomes? | * If so, do we get good participation and learning outcomes? | ||
The answer: In general we have relied on existing education institutions as opposed to setting up our own courses, for two reasons: | The answer: In general we have relied on existing education institutions as opposed to setting up our own courses, for two reasons: | ||
* Such institutions have existing groups of students already "pre-qualified" for Mozilla-related courses, i.e., they have the necessary programming background and are motivated to work on Mozilla. This saves us the trouble of recruiting independent students and getting them to a point where they can benefit from Mozilla training. | |||
* Such institutions also already have faculty whose job it is to teach courses, saving us the trouble of finding qualified instructors. | |||
The one major exception to our policy of leaving instruction to others is the [http://design-challenge.mozilla.org/jetpack-for-learning/ Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge]. In that case we were able to obtain funding sufficient to allow us to hire independent instructors. In the absence of such funding it would be hard to justify putting on our own classes, especially given that the current model of relying on other institutions is working well. | The one major exception to our policy of leaving instruction to others is the [http://design-challenge.mozilla.org/jetpack-for-learning/ Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge]. In that case we were able to obtain funding sufficient to allow us to hire independent instructors. In the absence of such funding it would be hard to justify putting on our own classes, especially given that the current model of relying on other institutions is working well. | ||
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We also had thoughts of making the education.mozilla.org site be a hub for Mozilla-based online courses, perhaps with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system learning management system] like [http://moodle.org/ Moodle] as a component. Again, this didn't happen, both because we didn't have any online courses other than those planned for the Jetpack for Learning project, and also because we found that we didn't need a lot of online technologies for typical course activities: Basically a wiki plus IRC channel plus discussion forum covers the vast majority of needed functionality. | We also had thoughts of making the education.mozilla.org site be a hub for Mozilla-based online courses, perhaps with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system learning management system] like [http://moodle.org/ Moodle] as a component. Again, this didn't happen, both because we didn't have any online courses other than those planned for the Jetpack for Learning project, and also because we found that we didn't need a lot of online technologies for typical course activities: Basically a wiki plus IRC channel plus discussion forum covers the vast majority of needed functionality. | ||
To the extent we've been creating new material for education.mozilla.org, it's probably best to see such material migrated to other Mozilla sites such as [http://developer.mozilla.org/ developer.mozilla.org], where students will find it along with anything else. We could then consider retaining the current education.mozilla.org site in two forms: a small static site serving principally as an advertisement for the program (similar to the current [http://design-challenge.mozilla.org/jetpack-for-learning/ Jetpack for Learning home page]), and a wiki that can be used for planning documents, project spaces (like that for Processing for the Web), and so on. | To the extent we've been creating new material for education.mozilla.org, it's probably best to see such material migrated to other Mozilla sites such as [http://developer.mozilla.org/ developer.mozilla.org], where students will find it along with anything else they might need to do Mozilla development. We could then consider retaining the current education.mozilla.org site in two forms: a small static site serving principally as an advertisement for the program (similar to the current [http://design-challenge.mozilla.org/jetpack-for-learning/ Jetpack for Learning home page]), and a wiki that can be used for planning documents, project spaces (like that for Processing for the Web), and so on. | ||
== An unanticipated positive outcome == | == An unanticipated positive outcome == | ||
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* For people outside the Mozilla project, having a project under the Mozilla Education "umbrella" raises the profile of the project by providing an implied Mozilla endorsement of it, and makes it easier to attract people to work on it. | * For people outside the Mozilla project, having a project under the Mozilla Education "umbrella" raises the profile of the project by providing an implied Mozilla endorsement of it, and makes it easier to attract people to work on it. | ||
Because projects like Processing for the Web are simply special cases of general Mozilla-related student projects they're very inexpensive to run. In the csse of Processing of the Web the only incremental expense thus far has been for travel sponsorship for the project lead | Because projects like Processing for the Web are simply special cases of general Mozilla-related student projects they're very inexpensive to run. In the csse of Processing of the Web the only incremental expense thus far has been for travel sponsorship for the project lead to attend FSOSS to meet with Seneca students. | ||
We're currently discussing doing two more special projects under Mozilla Education auspices. The first (for which the project lead would be Jinghua Zhang) is to solicit student help with analysis of [https://testpilot.mozillalabs.com/ Test Pilot] data; this might grow into a more general effort to have academic researchers work with Mozilla project data. The second would be to recruit students to work with Taras Glek to enhance, package and promote his tools for automated analysis and refactoring of Mozilla code. | We're currently discussing doing two more special projects under Mozilla Education auspices. The first (for which the project lead would be Jinghua Zhang) is to solicit student help with analysis of [https://testpilot.mozillalabs.com/ Test Pilot] data; this might grow into a more general effort to have academic researchers work with Mozilla project data. The second would be to recruit students to work with Taras Glek to enhance, package and promote his tools for automated analysis and refactoring of Mozilla code. | ||
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One of the high-level goals for the Mozilla Education initiative was to "help to drive a new wave of participatory, student-led learning", in essence linking our efforts in the Mozilla context to larger trends around online learning, open educational content, etc. Some of the ideas discussed in relation to Mozilla Education, including having our own Mozilla online courses, were intended to position Mozilla as an innovator in this space. | One of the high-level goals for the Mozilla Education initiative was to "help to drive a new wave of participatory, student-led learning", in essence linking our efforts in the Mozilla context to larger trends around online learning, open educational content, etc. Some of the ideas discussed in relation to Mozilla Education, including having our own Mozilla online courses, were intended to position Mozilla as an innovator in this space. | ||
In the time since the Mozilla Education initiative began we've seen the creation of the [http://teachingopensource.org/ | In the time since the Mozilla Education initiative began we've seen the creation of the [http://teachingopensource.org/ Teaching Open Source] (TOS) project, in which Mozilla has participated, along with the [http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/POSSE Professors Open Source Summer Experience] (POSSE) workshops. TOS, POSSE, and related initiatives have organizational and financial support from Red Hat and in future may receive institutional endorsement by the Open Source Initiative and/or other organizations serving the broader free software and open source communities. | ||
Our proposed strategy for Mozilla Education in 2010 is therefore to focus our own efforts on the primary goal of "[creating] learning opportunities for a new generation of Mozilla community members", and to promote the secondary goal of "[driving] a new wave of participatory, student-led learning" by working within the context of TOS, POSSE, etc., where it makes sense for us to do so. | Our proposed strategy for Mozilla Education in 2010 is therefore to focus our own efforts on the primary goal of "[creating] learning opportunities for a new generation of Mozilla community members", and to promote the secondary goal of "[driving] a new wave of participatory, student-led learning" by working within the context of TOS, POSSE, etc., where it makes sense for us to do so. | ||