#TeachTheWeb Reflections from 2015

The team that oversees Mozilla Clubs, Hive Learning Networks, Maker Party, MozFest and all things web literacy and #teachtheweb recently came together to reflect on 2015–to share major highlights, key learnings, and what we’re looking forward to in our work in 2016.
A few highlights from 2015:

  • We launched a brand-new program with Mozilla Clubs. The first cohort of Regional Coordinators joined us in January and helped us cultivate growing interest from partners and participants across the globe. By the end of the year we counted 150 Mozilla Clubs and 28 Regional Coordinators.For more, read: Mozilla Clubs Year End Reflection
  • We released a new site! In April, teach.mozilla.org was launched as a place to find free activities for teaching web literacy skills, as well as information about Mozilla Clubs and other programs.
  • We re-released Thimble with lots of updates and user-centric features. Over the past few years, this became a popular tool for educators and others to create and remix content on the Web. We’ll continue to make improvements to this educational code editor that helps people learn and play with HTML, CSS and Javascript.
  • We won a Digital Innovation in Learning Award! Mozilla Hive Chicago was awarded the Better Together DILA Award for their amazing work to improve the Chicago community by cultivating web literacy leaders who advance reading, writing and participation in the digital world.

  • We launched a localization campaign to bring web literacy to more languages and locations around the world. We started with Web Literacy Basics I–comprised of six activities that are now available in 10 other languages including Bengali, Hindi, Portuguese, Swedish and others – all available soon on teach.mozilla.org.
  • The sixth-annual MozFest — Mozilla’s celebration of the open Web — convened hackers, teachers and organizers from across the globe to address some of the most pressing issues facing the Web today. Together, we explored how we can act as leaders in the tech, policy and social spheres to create a better Web for everyone.
  • We furthered our commitment to Gigabit cities and the web’s future by expanding the Gigabit team and our partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Children at Mini Maker Faire Chattanooga, which showcased Gigabit Community Fund projects


Some important things we learned and re-confirmed along the way:

  • We are at our best when we listen to our community and focus on what value we can add.
  • Our local communities are open to experimenting with new tools, exploring new ideas and being incredibly productive in the process.
  • It’s important to communicate our challenges and ask for help creating solutions.

What we’re looking forward to in 2016:

  • Expanding on our efforts to localize more content and curriculum to reach broader audiences.
  • Continuing to improve our Mozilla Clubs program by offering more resources and support.
  • Growing Gigabit to new cities by building processes and systems for a seamless expansion. Building Connected Credentials work with Hive NYC organizations and partners to think, examine, share and produce documentation and big thinking about doing connected learning in trusted environments.
  • Offering Leadership Curriculum 1.0 and launching Web Lit Map 2.0 on teach.mozilla.org.
  • Working more closely with other programs like Mozilla Science Lab and Open News to share best practices and identify new opportunities and experiences for web leaders across various contexts and interests.

We’d love to hear about your #teachtheweb reflections from 2015 as well as what you’re looking forward to this year. Share your thoughts with us on our community forum.