Tag Archives: learning network

Hive NYC & The Mozilla Learning Group

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This blog post was co-written by Mozilla Sr. Director of Learning Erin Knight and Mozilla Hive Learning Network NYC Project Director Chris Lawrence.

Since the molecular interaction between Hive NYC and Mozilla initially took place, we’ve had the opportunity to both shape and be shaped by Mozilla’s overall efforts in learning.

As Mozilla Foundation Executive Director Mark Surman describes it, the last 6 months have been like when the Power Rangers assemble their individual powers into the elite  fighting force that is the Megazord. He is referring to the superficially disparate projects that previously made up Mozilla’s non-profit work but have recently done some thinking and hacking about how we all fit together to go “big in learning” in 2012/13.

As part of becoming a lean mean learning machine the Mozilla Learning Group has been created and is led by Erin Knight. In this blog post we hope to share how we view our team’s working relationship toward a unified vision and mission as we set out to  revolutionize learning.

What is the Mozilla Learning Group?

The Mozilla Learning Group is a new team within Mozilla that is focused on defining the webmaker skills and building out Hackasaurus around these skills. Additionally, the Learning Group will build the Webmaker badge system, and support broader learning and badging efforts through the Open Badge Infrastructure.

What is Mozilla building?

Bottom line, Mozilla is working to build generations of webmakers. We define a webmaker as anyone who makes things using the open ethos and building blocks of the web. The skills involved in webmaking are top-tier skills that are important in today’s world for not only making, but for fostering creativity, developing a voice, becoming an active citizen, controlling identity and building careers.

Therefore, we want more people have these skills,  and to do so, we are developing:

  1. a definition of a core set of webmaker skills
  2. curriculum and content to provide learning pathways for these skills. This will include some content developed by Mozilla, as well as partnerships and pointers to external content that is compelling, effective and aligns with our core values.
  3. a Mozilla Webmaker badge system to recognize the learning and extend the value
  4. a set of tools and software to help people make things and learn in the process. Our goals are to not only provide initial pathways for learning, but to make this massive by building and supporting a community of people who want to teach and learn this.
  5. a human and organizational infrastructure that inccubates Learning Labs around the world.

How does this relate to the Hive?

Hive NYC and the Hive Learning Network model will be inextricably connected to this work. The innovation, content and network model that has already come out of Hive NYC is an inspiration behind much of this work, and will be leveraged as much as possible. The expertise and knowledge throughout Hive NYC will be critical to help us build our learning offerings and find ways to evaluate our effectiveness. Hive NYC is an efficient and powerful distribution channel for everything that we are building.

How does this relate to Hackasaurus?

Hackasuarus was in many way the proto-project that created the blueprint for how and why Hive NYC and Mozilla needed to merge and a Learning Group launched. This shared DNA still informs us on how our work both aligns and allows focus on our unique talents and directives. Hackasaurus was initially a set of webmaking content – mostly focused around HTML and CSS – for youth. This work is building on Hackasaurus to cover more skills and more activities, for more audiences. Hackasaurus is the branding for our broader learning offering.

The Hackasaurus experience was also the blueprint that informed Hive NYC and Mozilla the power of doing learning events (Pop-Ups, Hack Jams, Learning Parties…) and towards this has broadened our thinking about how that model expands way beyond the initial learning goals of a Hackasaurs Jam. Read more about ways to take our event model and use it.

How can we work together moving forward?  Hint: A lot!

  • Share resources as they are being developed.
  • Distribute resources and content through each other.
  • Serve as a distribution channel for the Learning Group’s work – we’ll share new content and tools with you as they are developed.
  • Hive NYC will be proactive in bringing innovations, programs, tools and methods to the Learning Group.
  • Cross promote success stories and opportunities for improvement. Combined we have the access to learners, makers and educators. Let’s us know what to collaborate on, what’s working, what’s missing, etc.
  • Serve as a vetting community for both Hive NYC and the Learning Group’s work.
  • Collaborate on whitepapers, conference submissions, etc.

How can you get in involved right away?  Hint: In many ways!

  • Join our Learning Community call on Thursdays at 10am ET.
  • Share your resources and ideas around building webmakers on our mailing list: hackasaurus@googlegroups.com and/or here
  • Help us build our community site (first iteration coming by the end of March) to:
  1. Get access to our content to use to run events and teach webmaking in your community
  2. Hack on our Design Principles of Learning
  3. Build on our content to make it your own
  4. Find peers and collaborators
  5. Help us shape the community itself

Well we have certainly typed a page full here, we would love to get your reactions, questions, concerns and amens!

Erin & Chris

Image credit: http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Megazord


A Stickie Learning Lab on Learning Networks

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Last week, Hive NYC and several members participated in Mozilla Festival: Media, Freedom And The Web.  

In addition to hosting the Hive London Pop-Up, we hosted and participated in a range of Learning Labs and Design Challenges that helped us get at the goal of the festival, which was to explore the frontiers of the open web to make things that could change the world.  It might sound like a tall task, but the truth is amazing things have come from this festival before, including the conception of Hackasaurus!

Design Challenges explored how to improve interactive video on the web, writing a data-driven journalism handbook, creating a multi-lingual newsroom, developing rich browser-based games and much more.  Learning Labs looked at topics including 3D models on the web, paper prototyping, open badges, online privacy, web making, etc.

Chris Lawrence and Christian Greer of Hive Learning Network facilitated a Learning Lab that examined learning networks: why they should exist, what/who they should be comprised of, and how they might work in urban centers.  Given the audience – approximately 15 people from across the globe including educators, technologists and parents – the conversation served to validate what we’re already doing in NYC and Chicago, as well as to inform what could become in other cities around the world.

We started with chaos.  Random thoughts about learning – where it’s thriving, where it’s failing, why, who, what…

The group then started to find patterns in the chaos, and to organize these thoughts around common themes, concepts or questions.

Next we shared who would be involved in these theoretical learning networks – including individuals, organizations, both place-based and not.  Everyone from parents and media to farmers, science museums and government were identified.
Finally, we combined our thoughts around “youth learners,” the audience for our learning network.  Out sprung the issues, concepts and solutions we wanted to see it address, along with the applications and entities that could collaborate to deliver an enriching, informal, anywhere, anytime, valuable, open learning experience.
Thanks to everyone that participated!
What are some of the counterintuitive or unexpected elements or partners you’d like to see as part of a learning network – we’d love to hear!

Hive NYC Announces Molecular Change

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From the keyboard of Chris Lawrence, Project Director, Hive Learning Network NYC
If I were to characterize the past year of the learning network project in scientific terms I would say we have passed through a phase transition point, changing from slow-moving molecules of a solid into the hyper, warp-speed molecular frenzy of a gas.  Almost everything about us has seen seismic change, except our core value of supporting youth in their development from digital media consumers to producers.So let me quickly sketch out some of the ways we have grown:
  • Last year we had 13 members and now we have 25, with another growth spurt coming soon
  • Funded projects have increased from 3 to 12, with more to come…
  • We entered into a partnership with The New York Community Trust to better manage and grow our grant-making capabilities
  • We escalated our involvement with New York City-based events like World Maker Faire, Bring To Light and Emoti-Con, and have gone global with greater connections in the Mozilla Drumbeat movement

And some of the key ways that have changed:

  • We increased our alignment with the MacArthur Foundation’s national Learning Network goals and created a cohesive leadership team between the New York and Chicago Learning Networks. Together we created a unified brand and messaging structure, collaborated on core programming principles and began to document the Learning Network building process with the goal of expansion into new cities.
  • We changed our name from “The New Youth City Learning Network” to “HiveLearning Network New York City” to be in harmony with the “Hive Learning Network” brand established by the cross-network leadership team.
  • We have a new team!  We said goodbye to Diana Rhoten and Ingrid Erickson, and established a new team with Jess Klein, Lainie DeCoursy and myself. Thank you Diana and Ingrid for all that you did to start and grow our learning network.

But even with the change and evolution detailed above, we are especially excited to announce what we think will be nothing short of transformative for Hive Learning Network NYC moving forward…

We are now part of the Mozilla Foundation and a key contributor in their movement into the learning space.

Mozilla took over stewardship of Hive NYC in strong, continued partnership with MacArthur’s Digital Media & Learning work and The New York Community Trust. How did this happen you ask?

Honestly it happened in the emergent, hands-on and participatory process that we seek to build into all of our initiatives. A handful of us were at the first-ever Mozilla Festival in Barcelona last year, “Learning, Freedom and the Web,” where we had the opportunity to mix, mingle and work alongside Mozilla designers, engineers and thinkers.  These collaborations resulted in the youth web building tool Hackasaurus, a deeper connection to the Open Badge project and a mutual interest in the work that we were both doing.

Thanks in large part to the talent, grit and creativity of Jess Klein, the relationship between the learning network and Mozilla blossomed through further development of Hackasaurus and a series of Hack Jams held at network members like the New York Public Library, the New York Hall of Science and Eyebeam and with member participation of MOUSE, Institute of Play as well as others. When it became apparent that Hive NYC needed a new home and partner that could be instrumental in helping us grow, the Mozilla Foundation enthusiastically stepped up.

Change is never easy and usually includes a healthy dose of angst and confusion. How do we fit in with a web company when our focus is learning? Would we be viewed as an asset and not a partner? What would this mean for our members who dealt in more traditional literacies and content? How will the agendas of varied groups like our members, the Trust, MacArthur, Hive Chicago and now Mozilla mesh? Would they?

In some areas this is still being sifted through, but my confidence and enthusiasm has been greatly buoyed by working with Mozilla Foundation Executive Director Mark Surman. Mark brings a dreamer’s vision, a pratitoner’s eye for detail and people skills that made the union of us and them feel right. Over the past few months, Mark has been publicly processing and sparking conversation around what he calls Mozilla’s effort to “go big in learning” on his blog Commonspace. I urge you to take a look at these posts and see where he believes we are headed, as well as to hear his take on this new relationship.

I started this post with some bullet points and will wrap up with some more, detailing what I think this new merger between Mozilla and Hive NYC means for our learning network as we move forward as one team:

  • The development of Hive NYC as a Learning Lab for innovation in not only education but peer mentorship models, connected learning practices, youth development and the use of digital tools to spark and shape youth interests.
  • The opportunity to play, design and educate with some of the incredible tools that Mozilla is prototyping and producing. Connections to not only Hackasaurus and the Open Badge Project but also to Mozilla Journalism, P2PU and Popcorn.js.
  • A deeper connection to communities and networks interested in open software development, hacking culture, remixing and the democratization of media production.
  • The opportunity for Hive NYC and its members to help shape Mozilla’s understanding, philosophy and practice in the learning space, especially as it pertains to the free choice, interest-driven and informal settings that we’re so deeply entrenched in.
  • An increased visibility and impact not only in New York City, but across the globe.

While this is a lot to chew on, I hope you continue to follow and contribute to what we at Mozilla’s Hive Learning Network in New York City are hoping to accomplish: nothing less then changing the world, even if it’s one project, hack, youth, work of art, organization, poem or piece of code at a time.

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.