WSAWeb101
A couple of weeks ago I launched our one week web hack (Hackasuarus) project, this one week non assessed project is the pre-cursor to our year 2 GA web project #wsaweb101. After a basic introduction of the internet,Ā the web and the steps browsers use to display content and styles, the students are introduced to Mozilla’s goggles and the goal of the week is to hack some current web content and produce a remixed subversion of that content.
The aim behind of the hack project is to quickly see how easy it is to de-construct and re-construct content on the web. To help ignite this concept we invited Syd Lawrence from wemakeawesomesh.it to give a brief talk about the projects they have created.
Syd Lawrence
Syd showed of a host of awesome interactive apps and engaging experiences and talked about the power in utilising the web as a platform. At the end of the week students created a host of memes and subverted a number of sites, it was a very enjoyable way to kick start the summer break after the pressure of hand in and the students left with a real buzz about the forthcoming Year 2.
Web Teaching Day
During the same week I was off to attend and speak on how we run and teach #wsaweb101 as part of Web Teaching Day at Manchester Met.
Manchester Met University
This was a great chance for web design and development educators to come together from across HE institutes to discuss how we organise, plan and teach web design and development in 2014. We shared good practice, proposed new thoughts and discussed old foes (CSS layout).
The list of Speakers was excellent and a little daunting however as I have often found the web community is very open and welcoming, it was a very relaxed, friendly and enjoyable day.
The talk I was most excited to hear was from Christopher Murphy and the #opencurriculum work he has been exploring with github.
Christopher Murphy
Christopher gave a passionate talk about the pros and cons that he has found throughout the process so far. With the obvious connections to my own work and thoughts on Open Education Resourceās, I think I will certainly be spending more time with github this summer.
Overall the day was excellent;
However the best part was the chance to meet in person a bunch of inspiring educators delivering web design education across the UK this was, I feel super important. I was also fortunate to be able to chat in more detail with Christopher Murphy at the airport and we managed to have a real thoughtful and fun chat on tech, teaching and the web.
Airport
The aspiration is that #webteachingday will become a more regular event and we have all been tasked to ābring a friendā and really spread the word about the great work a number of UK HE institutes are doing in regards to web design and development education.