Tag Archives: #mozparty

Running a Webmaker Event (Popcorn)

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This is re-posted from Emma Irwin’s blog, TipToes.ca.

This weekend, I had the great opportunity to chat with some other Mozilla Reps organizing hackjams, specifically this time using Popcorn Maker (yay), and so during the process of this conversation I realized how much I had gone through, learned, considered and maybe…not documented so well.

This is my  first attempt at that.  As a Web Developer (educator-wannabe) I’m not sure if my attempts at event design are coherent, but I  hope this blog post can help others who want to organize an event using Popcorn. Definitely welcome feedback/collaborative opportunities to grow something even better.

*Although based on our Victoria Popcorn Hackjam, this blog takes from my experiences running classroom, Thimble, Hackasaurus, reading/talking to others (HIVE) and strengths as a community (non profit/fundraising)  organizer.

Planning ~ Things to Consider.

1. Outcome/Objective

Identify some key learning objectives for your event.  Consider ages when planning the complexity of objectives, but also expect that younger children catch on and carry on very quickly.  Group strength/interest is also key (children vrs young fillmakers, code-keen hackers)

Some possible objectives (please suggest more):

  • Understanding Web Native Cinema
  • Creating Video
  • Adding Context to  Video with Popcorn Maker
  • JavaScript

We only had one child make the leap from Popcorn Maker to JavaScript .   If you have an group strength / interest in programming and mechanics of the web, a simple leap is to export the Popcorn Source ie:

 pop.wikipedia({ 4 start: 0, 5 end: 10, 6 src: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town", 7 title: "this is an article", 8 target: "wikidiv" 9 });

changing values of start, end ( as we do in Popcorn Maker UI) .  Then referencing the documentation for more plugins.

Consider also rewarding accomplishments, I know Mozilla is working on a set of Webmaker Badges, which will integrate with Webmaker tools – but if that seems a bit much to plan in advance, you can do as I did and create an event certificate.

2. Theme

Theme can be anything you can dream up!   If you are on campus, a theme could involve campus history, school motto – it could focus on a political argument.  For a group of video savvy teens,  focus on movie genres,  literature or historical figures are all ideas.  Lego, school spirit – story telling.

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Intern skillshare!

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Hi my name is Eddie Hernandez, and I’m a rising 12th grader at Phillips Exeter Academy located in New Hampshire. I’m also a summer intern at Hive NYC.

Recently, I joined Wilson and Zainab–the two other Hive NYC summer interns–for a meeting with the teen interns at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea.

kitchen table webmaking event

Hive NYC Kitchen Table event with Rubin Museum of Art Teens

When the groups first met, neither of us knew what we were in for, but I was sure that we were prepared to share what we had learned. The Rubin Museum, recently joining Hive NYC earlier this year, started off by showing their teen tumblr page. It was created by the interns at the Rubin as a way to “spread the word of the Rubin and also to spread the word of Himalayan art and events!” They had spent the summer posting about the museum’s exhibitions and art works. Some of them didn’t even know much about Himalayan art when they first started posting, but that wasn’t the case when it came to explaining when we came down to visit them: they were full of confidence and exuberance. Besides posting, these interns help out on tours by explaining to museum visitors the many exhibitions that they’ve come to be so familiar with.

The Hive NYC interns, trying to match them, displayed Thimble, which is part of Mozilla’s website full of tools and projects for webmaking. These projects are a way for anyone to learn the basics of HTML/CSS, the code that allows webpages to be formatted the way they are. Some of the projects are mini-games which is what grasped the attention of the Rubin interns the most.

After the brief presentations, the two separated into smaller groups that contained at least one member from each side. These three smaller groups each had different things they wanted to accomplish by the end of the day. I helped one group display music on their  Tumblr page and also learned from the Rubin intern how to make a Tumblr page as presentable as theirs. Wilson helped another group figure out how to make a game based on one of the projects, “Bunny Masher,” that would feature the Himalayan monster “Yeti”. Zainab’s group made an animated gif, which is a sequence of images that are displayed as being animated in a video-like way.

In all, the event was a huge success: the first group was able to display music on the Rubin teen tumblr page as well as teaching me how to make a pretty Tumblr page, Wilson was able to start their Yeti game and they’re going to continue working on it now with the knowledge of being able to code from some of the other projects on Thimble, and finally Zainab helped the interns at Rubin to accomplish creating a GIF of about a few seconds. This experience was like no other in the sense that there was no instructor. We separated into small groups and shared with each other about what we’ve learned during our internships.  Not only was it different, but it was definitely enriching and we hope to do this again in the future!

Don’t Be A User, Be A Maker – by Zainab Oni

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This is re-posted from the Hive Learning Network column on Huffington Post Teen. Zainab Oni is part of the MOUSE Corps and is also a summer intern with Hive NYC. She hopes to go to M.I.T. to study electrical and computer engineering.

Technology isn’t something that I really expressed an interest in until recently. As a matter of fact, the word “technology” didn’t become a part of my vocabulary until I became a student at Hudson High School of Learning Technologies. I started to really notice the involvement of technology in our/my world when my high school informed the students that we were to use laptops as learning tools in classrooms rather than traditional textbooks. I thought my principal was crazy at first (no offense) but as time passed, I became more interested and involved in technology. Using the Internet started to mean more than just social media and it started involving research, online classes and creating and sharing what we made. I started using different tools on the web such as JayCut, Glogster, Prezi, K12, etc.

Since I began to develop interest in technology, I decided to join the MOUSE Squad in my school. It’s a group of students that serve as in-house technicians for the school, helping with daily tech maintenance and troubleshooting wireless and equipment issues. Gradually, I started getting into creating and designing technology, which inevitably led to webmaking. Earlier this year, I was also trained on how to use and teach others about X-Ray Goggles, a web tool that allows people to “hack” or remix a website by letting you see what web pages are made of and then putting in your own text and images. This was when I first started thinking about how to not only use the web, but to start making the web. From then on, I just basically started grabbing every opportunity I could to develop and gather more skills as a webmaker.

I recently attended an event for teenagers and educators called the Hive NYC Summer Code Party, which kicked off with a graffiti board titled, “What Does Your Web Look Like?” We drew pictures of what the web looked liked from our perspectives. I drew a wireless router because that is what stood out the most in my mind (I think it’s because I’ve been having some problems with mine lately). There were a bunch of laptops and other activities too, to help people learn how to code, make webpages, build online games and more. There was a projector in the front of the room and attendees showcased all the amazing projects that they were working on throughout the day, which was also really inspiring for me.

While all this cool stuff was going on, a non-profit called Institute of Play led an activity where we brainstormed and designed two new sports, Dolly Ball and Bowling Chair. Dolly Ball is a sport in which you have six players, three on each team, and a goalie who moves the dolly around. The players have to attempt to shoot the ball into the moving dolly without passing the penalty line. There is a certain line which neither sides can pass. Bowling Chair is similar to bowling but the target is a chair. The chair is placed in front of a line and you have to hit it with a ball to push the chair behind the line, and then do the reverse. Whichever team accomplishes that first wins the game. It never really crossed my mind that you could create your own sport until now, so that was a really eye-opening experience. I think I’m going to try to create more of my own sports with my friends that we can actually play.

The event was part of a bigger effort by Mozilla (the Firefox people) to help “build a generation of webmakers.” Events like the one I attended have been held in Nigeria, Germany, Greece and all across the U.S. I think it’s great that there’s an initiative to teach youth useful skills they can use to create the web. Some people might argue that it is not important to learn things like HTML and CSS, but in a world where we are being introduced to new technology every day and where technology has become a part of our everyday life, it is advisable to not be an ignorant technology user. It’s a part of your world and you don’t want to be blind to what’s going on in your environment. Skills like HTML or CSS are not generally taught in schools today even though having these skills may help you gain an edge when applying for college or looking for jobs.

Since the event, I’ve been playing around with some of the tools I learned how to use and I’ve actually created my own project! I was motivated by the documentary “Bully” and the purpose of my web project is for people to take a stand and make an impact on an issue that they really care about by creating a simple web page about it. Check it out and let me know what you think!