Teach the Web (MOOC)

Ok remember a while back when I was all MOOC this and MOOC that? Well it wasn’t for naught. It’s happening, the Webmaker MOOC will launch on May 2 and conclude June 30 (or actually the 27th because Starting May 2nd, Thursdays will be MOOC days. For those of you who don’t know, MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course.

We’re calling it “Teach the Web” and as is Webmaker custom, this MOOC won’t be like most MOOCs. Webmaking will play a central role, of course. Teach the Web is about connection and we’re hoping people connect through the things they make during the experience.

I think there will be something for everyone who wants to get more closely involved with the Making and Learning Movements. We’re asking our highly active community members to get involved in the planning, the organization and the moderation of Teach the Web. They, and others who get involved along the way, will help think up tasks for people, share experiences, facilitate connections. We’re also going to ask community members to help with the details like moderating a twitter chat or surfacing great stories.

We have three overarching things we’re thinking about in running this MOOC. Number 1, we want to see if it’s a good way to deliver and document train the trainer content. We’ve run a couple of professional development events, and we’ll be running more. But what about those people that don’t have access to Webmaker events, budding local communities. For them, we want to see if a MOOC-like experience can give them the information and the support they need.

Secondly, we want to get everyone involved in Maker Party 2013: Learn, Remix, Share. We’re hoping that the experience helps people understand why they should run participatory, collaborative events, and HOW to do that. We’re also hoping that the MOOC gives people the space and support to create their own Hacktivity Kits, agendas and resources. But moreover, we’re hoping that people feel connected to Webmaker and the Making as Learning movement as a whole.

Finally and most importantly, we think that the time boxed learning experience will create a space to strengthen connections and community ties. And if it doesn’t work or if MOOCs go out of vogue in July, we can fail gracefully, cap the whole thing June 30th and never speak of it again. We’ll still have made things together, we’ll still have formed connections and someone, somewhere will have learned at least one thing.

So, let’s talk about content. We’ve come up with a loose syllabus to serve as a jumping off point, and we have ideas on how to take that further, but as I mentioned earlier, this is about community, not content. We have 3 overarching topics: Introduction to Webmaking, Remix and Contextualize and Do and Share.

1. Introduction to Webmaker is all about community, openness and collaboration.
2. Remix and Contextualize is all about putting web literacy skills into other types of learning plans.
3. Do and Share is about experimenting with collaborative, participatory learning spaces and using the online community to improve your practice.

Within each topic are 3 subtopics – Those are the themes we’ll be focusing on weekly. 9 themes, 9 week MOOC – nice how that worked out, don’t cha think? For each theme, we’ll be MAKING things to explore ideas because, you know, you learn lots when you make. We’ll have a chance to look at each other’s makes, give feedback, and hack on ideas throughout the 9 weeks.

There will be several ways to follow along. Here’s what we’re thinking for communication channels:

• Sign up to the webmaker.org/teach list to participate
• Keep your eye on hivenyc.org/teachtheweb
• Submit your blog for aggregation
• Join G+ Webmaker Community
• Use #teachtheweb on Twitter
• Bookmark the Big Blue Button link for May 2nd, 23rd, and June 13th, 4pm UTC
• Check the calendar for Twitter chats and Big Blue Button sessions

Finally, do you want to help? It’s a big coordination task, and there’s plenty to DO. Let me know via a comment, a tweet, an email or a telegram :)

Click here for a pretty presentation version of this post!

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