Sharing Nicely

After 3 months of hacking Jetpacks, debugging code, refining user experiences, and having a good ol’ time with teams from all over the world, the Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge is sadly coming to an end. In the same spirit of sharing and collaboration that has made this project so much fun, we couldn’t decide on just one overall winner, and decided three projects should get a special prize.

And the winners are …

Really, all ten projects that were at the Austin Design Camp, are Design Challenge winners, but three get a special mention. The three stood out for different reasons and we wanted to highlight this diversity in excellence. Expression Widgets got the prize for “best open web hack”. ClozeFox was selected as “best use case” and Laurian Gridinoc from the Mupple project deserves the prize for “sharing knowledge with others”.

Expression Widgets has awesome features for annotating the open web and stores notes in any open wiki page. ClozeFox turns any webpage into a language learning opportunity. It’s well integrated with social networking features and provides a compelling use case. Throughout the Design Challenge, Laurian Gridinoc from the Mupple project helped to fix bugs, answered questions, and was always interested in figuring out how to solve coding problems – not just for his own project. The fact that he managed to build an awesome Jetpack on top of that makes his community contribution prize even more remarkable.  The official announcement, with a description of each projects is below.

Congratulations to the three projects and all ten winners who were at the Design Camp!

So, what now? Good bye Design Challenge, Viva Jetpack for Learning!

Just because the Design Challenge ends, doesn’t mean the fun stops. As a group, we spent the last afternoon of the Design Camp plotting ideas for the future, how we run more courses for more people, how we bring new faces into this community, and how we stay in touch as a small community of practice. The fact that there is a larger Mozilla community to hook into plays an important role in this. Aza Raskin from Mozilla Labs stopped by to explain the Jetpack Ambassador programme, which sparked some lively discussions and a lot of interest to get involved. And the Mozilla/P2PU Drumbeat project for hacking open web developer accreditation might provide an avenue for further course about add-on and Jetpack development.

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Mozilla “Jetpack for Learning” Design Challenge announces winners at SXSW

Three projects of the Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge were awarded special prizes at the Mozilla SXSW party today. Ten projects already selected as Design Challenge winners participated in a design camp in Austin, TX over the past three days. Today three of these projects were chosen for special awards: Expression Widgets was chosen as the “best web hack”. ClozeFox was selected as “best use case” and the project leader of Mupple received the prize for “sharing knowledge with others”. You can find more information about them and download all Jetpacks from the Design Challenge wiki.

The Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge supported projects that turn the open web into a rich social learning environment. Developed by Mozilla Labs, a design challenge is an innovative combination of online seminar series, programming competition and hands-on workshop. Jetpacks enable anyone who knows HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build powerful Firefox add-ons. Jetpack for Learning is a part of Mozilla’s new Drumbeat initiative and was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning program. The Design Camp was facilitated by Aspiration.

Project teams from across the world started working on Jetpack prototypes in December 2009. After the first round of seminars, ten finalists were invited to attend Design Camp, a hands-on workshop for hacking Jetpacks and the future of open education, which took place just before SXSW. The overall winners were selected by a panel of judges and the Design Challenge participants themselves.

The Design Challenge finalists showcase different ways of learning on the open web:

• Clozefox – Clozefox turns any webpage into an interactive, educational and fun language learning resource, and share your progress on twitter.
• Cohere – Collaboratively annotate the web with Cohere. Create semantic connections between annotations while discussing them with other users online.
• ExpressionWidgets – Create, capture and share web content like text and images collaboratively with Expression Widgets.
• HooverNotes – Annotate the web like a book with HooverNotes. Leave comments, highlight content and collect pieces of content from multiple sites or a single web page.
• LangLadder – Learn a new language while doing your everyday internet activities. Langladder integrates language exercises into activities like email, social networking and blogs.
• LineHive.com – Hyperlink storytelling. Create paths through the internet by grouping webpages and sites into a timeline you can share, tweet, or embed.
• Mupple – Keep best practices and experiences with Mupple by recording your web activity and sharing them with others on the web.
• Net Detective – Joe Denton is one of the best gumshoes on the force, but he can’t solve these cases without your Internet detective skills in this jetpack that turns Internet search skills into a game for kids.
• Rubrick – Create, share and reuse teaching rubrics using Rubrick and allow both teachers and students to get on the same page.
• Study Troll – Be sure you know your facts before the Study Troll comes and demands an answer in this jetpack that turns any web session into an interactive flash card quiz.

More information:

Mozilla is a global community of people creating a better Internet. We build public benefit into the Internet by creating free, open source products and technologies that improve the online experience for people everywhere. Jetpack for Learning is a part of Mozilla Drumbeat, an an emerging initiative for people who want to *use* web technology in new ways to understand, participate and take control of their online lives. At a practical level, Drumbeat community members use web technology to make things that improve and protect the open internet. They run local events where people propose and work on these practical projects. They encourage others to get involved. Mozilla helps find contributors, funds and advice for the most promising Drumbeat projects. It also directly leads a number of Drumbeat projects of its own.

The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, the Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and society. In 2006 MacArthur launched its digital media and learning initiative to explore how young people are changing as a result of digital media use and what the implications are for libraries, museums and schools. More information is available at www.macfound.org/education.

Aspiration’s mission is to connect nonprofit organizations with software solutions that help them better carry out their work. We want nonprofit organizations to be able to find and use the best software available, so that they maximize their effectiveness and impact and, in turn, change the world.