Maker Party 2014: Resources for Libraries and Learning Spaces

July 30, 2014
By Educator Innovator

This post originally appeared on the Mozilla Webmaker blog

At the heart of the Maker Party campaign, Webmaker tools/resources, and Hive Learning Network is the Web Literacy Map, which outlines what we at the Mozilla Foundation think are the important skills and competencies needed to be literate on the web. Each web literacy competency has a dedicated page that features the best resources on the web to help you “Discover, Make, and Teach” those skills.

Hive Learning Network, a project of Mozilla, is comprised of organizations (libraries, museums, schools and non-profit start-ups) and individuals (educators, designers, community catalysts and makers). Together, they create opportunities for youth to gain digital and analog skills to learn within and beyond the confines of traditional classroom experiences, design innovative practices and tools that provide opportunities for greater impact, and contribute to their own professional development within an active community of practice.

Hives are communities of practice and have helped drive the idea, practice and growth of the Maker Party campaign over the last three years. These communities have also helped to innovate, build and utilize Webmaker tools, events and teaching guides to help others not only create the content that makes the web great, but perhaps more importantly — understand how the web works.

Worldwide Maker Party events, which along with Educator Innovator and Cities of Learning comprise the Summer to Make, Play and Connect, help catalyze and deepen what Hive and Webmaker tools and resources are all about and serve as a way to understand and build upon connected learning, web literacy and digital skills for event hosts as well as participants.

The Hive Learning Network team at Mozilla has curated this Tip Sheet for hosting Maker Party events in your varied learning spaces–libraries, community centers, after school programs, schools or museum exhibition floors.

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Let’s get started!

To start planning your Maker Party, first sign up for your Webmaker account here. This allows you to access tools and resources to make your Maker Party a hit!

Once your account is set-up, head on over to the Maker Party website. Get the latest buzz on events going on around the world and find everything you need to throw a great event. Our resources page provides everything from graphics to publicize your Maker Party to activity guides and tips and tricks to ensure that your Maker Party is encouraging your group to mix and re-mix the web.

Not sure of the size of your Maker Party? We even have event guides geared towards small, medium and large groups.

  • Small Event: Perfect for 2-5 participants, hosting a small event is a fun way to spend an hour on a rainy day, hang out as a family, learn to hack with a friend, and make cool things on the web.
  • Medium Event: Great for 5-50 participants, hosting a medium event is a fantastic way to team up people with different skill-sets to collaboratively build something new or improve something existing on the web, all while learning and teaching new hacking skills.
  • Large Event: For those ready to for the adventure of 50+ participants, hosting a large event is a rewarding way to bring together local organizations in a science fair setting to demonstrate cool web ideas, provide fun hands-on activities, and introduce your community to making and hacking.

Once you have an event confirmed, add it to the Maker Party events page.

Learn more about web literacy–watch this video featuring Chris Lawrence, Senior Director of Hive Learning Networks and the Webmaker Mentor Community.

Also, check out these great Jumpstarts (tip sheets)–created by the Hive Research Lab–as you dive into your Maker Party planning.

Starter Webmaker projects

The following activities are easy to implement with any size group:
Create your first webpage
Make a meme
Create a custom movie poster or book review
Remix Animated GIF Music Videos
Conversation Battle: Remix Lonesome George Vs. Kanye West
Make a 6 Word Memoir
Make an animated Poem
Punk A Friend: Use X-Ray Goggles to remix a friend’s social media profile, their favorite web site, or a news article.
Here’s a gallery of even more great projects

Teaching kits and activities

We also want to ensure that educators, community connectors and all makers have educational resources that support their work. These resources are great tools to share with your groups or use during your Maker Party events.

Lo-Fi/No-Fi activities for when web connectivity is not available or reliable
Create your first wearable tech
Teach simple online animation with ParaPara
Great intro to HTML, CSS and Javascript
Web Literacy Activities from MOUSE
Hack Your Notebook Day–bring LED/electrical engineering into your writing/notebook
Make Stop Motion Movies
Code with the New York Times
Illuminate Poetry with Paper Circuitry
Image Seeking for Visual Metaphors
Find more teaching kits

You can even create your own or re-mix any existing teaching kits here.

For more support and professional development, join the Webmaker Training MOOC. You can sign up and start at any time, and go at your own pace. It’s modular, and free, and a great way to make connections with others who want to teach the web around the world.

Libraries

Libraries are an integral part of any community and are some of the biggest champions in the Webmaker and Maker Party campaign work. Mozilla therefore has put together a list of resources that can support a Maker Party in libraries anywhere:

Connect with Us

Join the conversation in our Discourse forums. Our team regularly contributes on topics and issues that you might be interested in.

If you have further questions email us at makerparty@mozilla.org or info@hivelearningnetworks.org.