Summer learning programs offer many opportunities and challenges across the globe, and this month’s Mozilla Curriculum Workshop aimed to unpack both the supports and obstacles to provide a working, open source solution: a convening and facilitation guide for hosting a summer learning event.
Featured guests that joined us this month were:
- Su Adams, Mozilla Clubs Regional Coordinator, Founder and Computing Co-Coordinator of U Can Too.
- Christopher Rogers, Educator, Organizer, Connected Learning Camp Lead, Founder of JustMaybeCo.
- Bud Hunt, IT and Technical Services Manager for the Clearview Library District, White House ConnectEd Champion of Change
Over the span of an hour, co-hosts Chad Sansing and Amira Dhalla worked with our guests to…
- Identify summer learning challenges such as physical meeting space, geography limitations, internet connectivity as well as accessibility, programming, and resources inequity.
- Encourage peer-to-peer learning (allowing the learners to help plan events, for example) and strong community building even among various ages and skill levels.
- Discuss tips to portray equal learning achievement among in-school learning and other informal learning environments that take place during the summer.
- Recognize that shareable content and communication between the learner and his or her home, social, and public influences is key to solidifying learning.
Watch the conversation unfold on the etherpad:
The agreement towards the halfway point in the conversation was that a convening and facilitation guide for hosting a summer learning event would be a helpful outcome. While it is a work-in-progress (and we do hope that you will contribute to it in the etherpad here), the goal is that it will include:
- Best practices for gathering youth together.
- Logistic practices for securing spaces, scheduling the day, and securing food and drink for the event.
- Facilitation tips for teaching and learning in participatory ways.
- An exemplar lesson or piece of content on making a “digital quilt” (many project shares in one, online space) or other type of skill share between learners.
- Best practices for documenting the work and sharing it later.
You can watch the full, recorded conversation below or Mozilla Learning’s website here. The etherpad and chat transcripts can be found here.
Our next Mozilla Curriculum Workshop is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday July 12th (Time TBD) where we will discuss brokering web literacy across the globe. We hope you’ll join us!
Are you on the go or unable to tune in at our normal broadcast time? Is audio better for you than video? Listen to our March, April, May, and June episodes as podcasts! Download the links for .mp3 versions of each Mozilla Curriculum Workshop.