Mozilla Drumbeat Keynote on Web Education

The current state of web education in schools Anna Debenham Mozilla Drumbeat

http://www.neopets.com
I learnt HTML playing Neopets

I typed it into a box on the website

The site had a set of HTML tutorials for kids

http://myspace.com
I learnt my first CSS customising a Myspace profile

http://scrunchup.com
I created Scrunchup for young people learning web design. Here’s why:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/brighter-horizons-for-web-education/
“Schools that teach web design struggle to keep pace with our industry, and those just starting their curricula often set off in the wrong direction because the breadth and depth of our medium can be daunting.”

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/elevate-web-design-at-the-university-level/
“Let’s face it. Technology moves fast; academia doesn’t.”

“The problem is that many of the pre-higher education age group have nowhere to go if they want to be taught web design or development.”
Chris Mills http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/2009/08/19/how-do-we-educate-the-web-standards-kids

“Europe is about to face a shortage of 70,000 skilled workers in the tech sector by 2010”
http://goo.gl/VrCI

“One reason for this is the general level of understanding among today’s students…”
http://goo.gl/vG4T

“… their use of technology often outstrips that of their teachers.”
http://goo.gl/vG4T

http://goo.gl/8WeM
Article by the Royal Society “ICT and Computer Science in schools - damaging to the UK’s future economy” “ ICT and Computer Science in schools - damaging to the UK’s future economy”

http://goo.gl/8WeM
“…students’ understanding and enjoyment of the subjects is severely limited.”

“…we risk a future workforce that is totally unskilled and unsuited to tomorrow’s job market.”
http://goo.gl/8WeM

http://goo.gl/Iddx
ICT specification for next years’ GCSE students

http://goo.gl/GSSF

33%
Number of students taking exams in this subject in England
in 6 years A-Level ICT

Number of students taking exams in this subject in England
57% in 8 years A-Level Computing

“Semantic HTML is the use of HTML markup to reinforce the semantics , or meaning, of the information in webpages rather than merely to define its presentation (look).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_HTML
Wikipedia definition of semantic HTML

Excerpt from an Open University textbook for a course on computing
Definition of HTML by the largest academic institution in Europe

http://goo.gl/k64K
2009 Ofsted report on “The importance of ICT” based on a 4 year study of almost 200 secondary and primary schools in England on their performance in ICT based on a 4 year study of almost 200 secondary and primary schools in England on their performance in ICT

http://goo.gl/k64K
“ Higher-attaining students were insufficiently challenged .”

http://goo.gl/k64K
“ the number of girls choosing to study computing post-16 has fallen to an all-time low . … and the number continues to decline.” … and the number continues to decline.” … and the number continues to decline.”

http://goo.gl/k64K
“ Schools do not challenge sufficiently the value of deploying a set of adult productivity tools to help pupils and students develop their ICT capability.”

“Just up-ing the number of PC's in schools won't get you anything.”
http://www.itpro.co.uk/626212/ict-education-fails-at-a-level
(Teacher comment)

“We have no idea what we are supposed to be doing with all this stuff”
(Teacher comment)

“All we're gearing our kid's up for is a life in an office. No wonder there's no stampede for that career path.”
(Teacher comment)

http://message.uk.com
“I coded my first plain HTML website when I was 11, using Frontpage. It was horrible, but I thought it was freakin' awesome!”

Nick Cammarata and David Merfield from http://uploadrobots.com /
Upload Robots Built by 5th graders Built by 5th graders

“Being so young, VC backing was not an option as it’s too risky to invest in a couple highschoolers.”

“We also have to constantly conceal our age because we are dealing with people’s important documents, and they might not trust us because people, including ourselves, are inherently ageist.”

Matt Mullenweg
Photo by kris krüg from http://www.flickr.com/photos/kk/98025271
Created Wordpress before he could legally buy a drink in his country

“We are now watching the enthusiasm of the next generation waste away through poorly conceived courses and syllabuses.”
Professor Steve Furber, Fellow of the Royal Society

“We need school curricula to engage them better if the next generation are to engineer technology and not just consume it”
Professor Matthew Harrison, Director of Education at The Royal Academy of Engineering

Let’s fix this

http://www.good.is	2112
http://openmatt.wordpress.com	444
http://lanyrd.com	104
http://www.dur.ac.uk	31
http://www.letsredu.com	26
http://www.learnbydoing.org	26
http://us-w1.rockmelt.com	22
http://paper.li	22
http://webeyedea.info	17
http://lesnuits.tumblr.com	14
http://static.slidesharecdn.com	13
https://openmatt.wordpress.com	11
http://dplc.ctap10.org	8
http://www.webteacher.ws	8
http://m.good.is	6
http://www.docudom.com	4
http://blogs.p2pu.org	4
http://edutictacs.blogspot.com	2
http://twitter.com	2
http://safe.tumblr.com	2
http://busk.com	1
http://tumblr.iamdanw.com	1
https://lanyrd.com	1
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	1
http://www.tumblr.com	1
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Mozilla Drumbeat Keynote on Web Education

by Anna Debenham on Nov 09, 2010

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Mozilla Drumbeat Keynote on Web Education — Presentation Transcript