Let's teach the web, offline!

Reposted from blog of Webmaker Curation and Co-design Lead Kat Braybrooke at kaibray.com.

At Webmaker, a group of us has been scheming and discussing potential solutions to a key design challenge — how can we empower educators to teach the web using peer-to-peer methods in regions where computers and web connectivity aren’t a given?
Enter this Design Canvas, an analog effort to help makers prototype Webmaker Teaching Kits together on paper before going online. I situate this Canvas within a larger hands-on prototyping exercise which implements some pretty radical participatory design methods, in the hope that it can improve the in-person experiences of mentors and participants alike…
Best of all, this Design Canvas and other activities like it will also help us build a brand new (and very salient) Lo-Fi Teaching Kit, codesigned with a team of Webmaker community members, that will highlight a series of remixable, modular group activities that empower educators to address different parts of the Web Literacy Map using analog materials.

Example of pre-kit brainstorms on paper at a Webmaker Training.
What I find most exciting about these efforts is the fact that in each case, the community has really been a core partner from the beginning. The Design Canvas activity has already been translated into Spanish thanks to community member Alvar Maciel, and it is being prototyped at various events, including a digital leadership training for National Citizen Service youth in London recently facilitated by the ever-talented Laura Hilliger.
Filled out Design Canvasses from Webmaker Training in London.
Next on the agenda is the creation of a paper-based canvas to help build out more granular Teaching Kit activities, and further work on the Lo-Fi Teaching Kit with our community co-authors.