Tag Archives: webmaker

An hour of code to shape the Web we want

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This is cross-posted on the Webmaker blog.

We’re joining a global Hour of Code!

Starting Monday, Dec. 9, we’re celebrating Computer Science Education Week by joining forces with Code.org and other top technology and education advocates as a partner on the first-ever “Hour of Code.” The goal: demystify code and show that anyone can learn the basics.

As part of the effort, we’ve compiled some great Webmaker resources that only take about an hour to complete — and can help get you started on a path towards becoming a maker and innovator on the Web.
Young Rewired State NYC

Why is this important?

Technology is embedded in our daily lives, but only a tiny fraction of us are learning how to create it. Computer science is not taught in most schools, but we know that learning basic programming goes beyond technology and helps people with critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, persistence and other essential 21st century skills.

The Hour of Code is a great opportunity to help millions of other people see what we’ve been seeing through Webmaker and Hive. At Maker Parties, in classrooms and informal learning spaces, it’s that “a-ha” moment when someone young or old realizes they’ve just made something on the web. Maybe they remixed their school’s website, created an original webpage, designed their own online game or created their first app. It starts somewhere, but the possibilities for where it leads are endless.

How to get involved

You can host an event at your local school or community center. Get a group of friends and family together. Spend an hour yourself to level up your skills.

More than 4 million people have already signed up to participate. Below are a few great Webmaker projects to get you started. Select an activity, and then spend an hour or so learning some HTML, CSS and Javascript. And be sure to share your final makes using the #hourofcode and #webmaker hashtags.

  1. Make an Animated Poem — by the National Writing Project. Write your own poem or remix someone else’s. Then make it come to life with Javascript animations.
  2. Hack a Holiday Card — by Kim Wilkens. Remix a holiday postcard online, then build an interactive, magic snow predictor using new Javascript skills. Educators can also use this helpful teaching kit.
  3. Rainy Day — by Cynthia Ng. Thunderstorm or sunshower? Customize your own drizzly scene.
  4. Make a To-Do List Web App — by Pomax. Book flight. Ship presents. Bake a pie. Make an HTML5 To-Do List Web App!
  5. Make a Map App — by David Humphrey. Where in the world is Webmaker? Make an interactive web map app using the Leaflet.js JavaScript library.
  6. Cory Doctorow’s Mood Room — by Alan Levine. Use Photoshop and a jQuery plugin to create your own web-based mood ring. Read more about this project.
  7. Create a simple game — by William Duyck. Build a web version of TicTacToe using HTML, CSS and Javascript. Your move!

Visit Webmaker.org for more starter makes or find more Hour of Code tutorials.
MakerParty @ Bhopal

Find Local Hour of Code Events

Whether you’re looking for a local Hour of Code event to attend, or want some inspiration for hosting your own event, here are some sample events:

  • Monday, December 9th: Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy will introduce middle school students to activities and tutorials led by high school computer science students.
  • Wednesday, December 11th:ScriptEd NYC is hosting an event at Harlem Village Academies High School–high school students will be mentoring middle school students. Sign up if you’re interested in volunteering or can lend laptops.
  • Thursday, December 12th: After School Matters and IIT in Chicago are co-hosting an Hour of Code professional development workshop where educators/instructors/principals/librarians/etc will tinker with open source software and work directly with Raspberry Pis and Arduinos
  • Friday, December 13th: Digital Youth Network at the DePaul Center in Chicago is hosting afterschool coding sessions all week, featuring hands-on activities like remixing Angry Birds and building mobile apps!
  • Saturday, December 14th: BlackGirlsCODE is hosting an Android AppInventor workshop at Google New York. Girls ages 10-17 will learn how to write music apps, apps that tell your fortune, and more.

These events are being held in conjunction with members and partners of Mozilla Hive Learning Networks in NYC, Chicago and Pittsburgh.
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More Resources

Remixing Digital Media Literacy for Toronto Youth

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This is a guest post by Karen Smith, Community and Design Research, Hive Toronto.

On Tuesday November 19th, we welcomed approximately 30 staff members from the Toronto Public Library (TPL) and 10 Hive Toronto members to a professional development session in the Mozilla community space.  With the input of the TPL, the learning objectives that we established for the session were:

  • To introduce the definitions, trends, and major players involved in digital media literacy

  • To orient attendees to concepts to provoke new ways of thinking about digital media literacy including remix culture, connected learning and the maker movement

  • To introduce Hive Toronto members’ innovative programming to explore the collaborative aspects of digital media literacy

  • To provide practice opportunities to remix and hack using Mozilla Webmaker tools

Opening activities

To open the session, I facilitated two activities. Early in the session, I played a video clip showing Lawrence Lessig addressing the New York Public Library on remix culture. This video clip was helpful to establish that we live in a remix culture and that libraries and community organizations need to acknowledge this as well as other contextual issues in the design and delivery of their programming. As a second activity, the group engaged in an internet spectogram. Participants lined up along the front of the room between signs reading ‘agree’ and ‘disagree’ in response to controversial statements like “everyone should learn to code a website.”  By discussing the controversial statements, the group began to think about aspects of implementing digital media literacy programming and skills building in the community.

Panel presentation

Hive Toronto Panel

A major highlight of the session was a panel presentation and question and answer period with members of Hive Toronto. The panelists shared their experiences in conceptualizing and implementing programming related to digital media literacy and making for youth.  Our speaker line-up included:

During the question and answer period, many themes were explored to provide some best practices. Eric highlighted for the group that some technology in maker/hackerspaces, such as 3D printers, can require a small expert community to maintain and to facilitate use. He advised that a lesson from HackLab.To is that building the community to support specialized technology is important. Joseph shared that it is incredibly powerful to provide opportunities for youth to get engaged in a conversation via social media as part of their learning. In the case of media literacy week, his students enjoyed engaging with the broader MediaSmarts community in Canada via Twitter. Agazi explained to the audience how YEP’s mentorship model of having youth work with adults has little overhead and can be rolled out in spaces like libraries that have existing computer stations where staff are on duty. Cheryl shared a youth produced video about Body Positivity from Planned Parenthood that encourages youth to take the lead in deciding what kinds of media they want to create. Finally, Susan from the Textile Museum of Canada demonstrated how analog and digital culture can co-exist in harmony. She described how educational programs at the Textile Museum are “high touch” and “high tech” in the fibrespace area, which includes artefacts and digital resources like apps.

Remix and hacking activities

A much enjoyed component of the training session was the opportunity to try the Mozilla Webmaker tools, and to introduce the Maker Party opportunity for libraries and community organizations. During the session we used X-Ray Goggles and Popcorn Maker.  With X-Ray Goggles, participants were challenged to hack the Toronto Public Library website to demonstrate innovative programming that could be offered in relation to digital media literacy.  My demonstration of the hack activity (see above) added a workshop to create your own Wikipedia article among other changes. With Popcorn, participants worked to create a public service announcement related to digital media literacy.

Maker Party: 4 Month Review

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This is re-posted from Amira Dhalla’s blog. Amira works at Mozilla managing the Maker Party campaign.

As I’m still living the high after having witnessed the “mother of all Maker Party’s”, The Mozilla Festival (MozFest), I thought it was due time to look back at the last four months and do a little deconstructing on what went on.

The success

Four months ago I wrote this post describing my new position with the Mozilla Foundation running a campaign that encouraged web literacy and education around the world primarily (but not limited to) using the Webmaker tools. Now that we’ve reached the end of the three month sprint I can proudly say that we had almost 1700 events in well over 300 cities around the world (for comparison, last year’s campaign saw 700 events). We did all this with hundreds of partner organization and community members who were at the forefront of these events and leading the maker movement in their respective communities. This and more is displayed in this beautiful looking infographic that Chris Appleton designed:

makerparty-heatmap

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