web literacy club data insights
TRANSCRIPT
Participant demographics
• Technology (IT, designer, developer) • Education (K-12 schools, afterschool programs) • Public institutions (libraries) • Mixture of individual programs and orgs that represent large
numbers of programs
Background
• The majority of the 38 interview participants are in North America. Participants are also located in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and Zealandia.
Geography
Program profiles
• Many existing programs serve elementary, middle school, high school age youth, and a significant number of programs also serve adults and educators.
• Most of these programs are sign-up, and most meet regularly for a finite period of time.
• Most programs rated the web literacy level of both their youth and adult participants as "beginner" or “basic".
My program is….
Program engagement
• Learning cohesive, connected, and meaningful skills; • Incentives such as competition or awards, badges; • Fun activities adapted in a modular way, for different skill levels
and participants, using relevant content; • Offering the option to share/adapt/network together, both in-
person and online.
In your experiences, successful program engagement has been a combination of…
Main “strengths” of the web literacy club approach
• I am already organizing a club of my own, and could use new curriculum and/or help.
• “I already run two programmes trying to share technology and hardware in Argentina. But I never have time, because I do all of this outside of my job. I'd love help, resources and community to do it with."
• It's a great time to do this. • "People are excited about Webmaker here, but they don’t have the agenda or paths for what’s next."
• I like the term "club". • "When I hear 'club', I think of something that is not a class. Sounds good, fun and exciting. I also think
of a team."
Main “challenges” of the web literacy club approach
• There are already other similar technology clubs in my region. • “I already lead a club managed by Coder Dojo, Code Club, Ladies Learning Code or another local technology
organization."
• It will be hard to keep me/my network engaged. • “The real tricky part is finding committed volunteers who have both the skills and staying power -- it's easy to
get university students, but they come and go."
• I don't like the term "club". • "The name club can work, but because all after-school clubs are already clubs, you also need a catchy name,
like Code Scouts, Coder Dojo or STEM Meetup."
• I am confused about this versus other Webmaker programmes. • “I wonder if local communities that are sustainable will maybe rush to clubs and get distracted."
Suggestions for “sustaining” the web literacy club approach
• Work directly with schools. • Allow for different kinds of curriculum for different
learning styles. • Be intentional about timing. Meeting often, and for
a shorter time, is better. • Partner with others. Don't make it seem like you're
replacing their work.
Suggestions regarding tech, tools and curriculum
• We want modular curriculum that's flexible for our needs. • The use of new tools (ie Github) can be daunting. Peer
learning opportunities and how-tos are important. • The front-end new media 'look' of Teaching Kits works well. • We need printable resources that work online and offline. • The tone of curriculum -- who it’s worded for -- matters. • Make sure the Web Literacy Map is localized for key regions
before we use it, and easy for beginners to understand.
Suggestions regarding professional development
• It's crucial! • Coaching is key. Good mentoring is a critical piece
in the process of being given new resources. • Access to new opportunities and different ways to
do things (such as in-person trainings, webinars, videos, tutorials and social media conversations) are also very valuable.
Testing and next steps
• Everyone is willing to jump in and get involved. • We also got a great range of specific responses
regarding when and where different orgs could test and contribute to curriculum development.
• Thank you all for your thoughtful responses — we really enjoyed the conversations. Let’s get started!