{"id":13388,"date":"2015-04-01T09:30:16","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T13:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webmakerblog.wpengine.com\/?p=13388"},"modified":"2019-02-26T12:40:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T20:40:22","slug":"building-an-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/mozilla-learning\/building-an-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"Building an Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last December in Portland<\/a><\/span>, I said that Mozilla needs a more ambitious stance on how we teach the web. My argument: the web is at an open vs. closed crossroads, and helping people build know-how and agency is key if we want to take the open path<\/strong>. I began talking about Mozilla needing to do something in \u2018learning\u2019 in ways that can have the scale and impact of Firefox if we want this to happen.
\n\"academy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The question is: what does this look like? We\u2019ve begun talking about developing a common approach and brand for all our learning efforts: something like Mozilla University or Mozilla Academy<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0And we have a Mozilla Learning plan<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in place this year to advance our work on Webmaker products<\/a><\/span>, Mozilla Clubs<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(aka Maker Party all year round), and other key building blocks. But we still don\u2019t have a crisp and concrete vision for what all this might add up to. The idea of a global university or academy begins to get us there.<\/p>\n

My task this quarter is to take a first cut at this vision \u2014 a consolidated approach for Mozilla\u2019s efforts in learning. My plan is to start a set of conversations that get people involved in this process. The first step is to start to document the things we already know. That\u2019s what this post is.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the opportunity?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

First off, why are we even having this conversation? Here\u2019s what we said in the Mozilla Learning three-year plan<\/a><\/span>:<\/p>\n

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Within 10 years there will be five billion citizens of the web. Mozilla wants all of these people to know what the web can do. What\u2019s possible. We want them to have the agency, tools and know-how they need to unlock the full power of the web. We want them to use the web to make their lives better. We want them to be full citizens of the web.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We wrote this paragraph right before Portland. I\u2019d be interested to hear what people think about it a few months on?<\/p>\n

What do we want to build?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The thing is even if we agree that we want everyone to know what<\/span>\u00a0the web can do, we may not yet agree on how<\/span>\u00a0we get there. My first cut at what we need to build is this:<\/p>\n

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By 2017, we want to build <\/span>a Mozilla Academy<\/span>: a global classroom and lab for the citizens of the web<\/strong>. <\/span>Part community, part academy, people come to Mozilla to unlock the power of the web for themselves, their organizations and the world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This language is more opinionated than what\u2019s in the Mozilla Learning plan: it states we want a global classroom and lab. And it suggests a name.<\/p>\n

Andrew Sliwinski<\/a><\/span>\u00a0has pointed out to me that this presupposes we want to engage primarily with people who want to learn<\/span>. And, that we might move toward our goals in other ways, including using our product and marketing to help people \u2018just figure the right things out\u2019 as they use the web. I\u2019d like to see us debate these two paths (and others) as we try to define what it is we need to build. By the way, we also need to debate the name \u2014 Mozilla Academy? Mozilla University? Something else?<\/p>\n

What do we want people to know?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re fairly solid on this part: we want people to know that the web is a platform that belongs to all of us and that we can all use to do nearly anything.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve spent three years developing Mozilla\u2019s web literacy map<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to describe exactly what we mean by this. It breaks down \u2018what we want people know<\/span><\/strong>\u2019 into\u00a0three broad categories:<\/p>\n