[Xmca-l] Re: "Scaling up" and "Big ideas"

[Greg Mcverry]

Greg,

I borrow heavily from the software development field that has been
influencing my thinking on providing open access education.

Most specifically are Mozilla's efforts to teach the web. We have a goal of
1,500 volunteers in 500 cities running Mozilla Web Clubs to help the next
billion get online.

This effort is especially focused on the developing world that is going
mobile first.

As a community we have been trying to establish a set of competencies and
skills <http://webliteracy.tumblr.com/>, develop curriculum
<https://mozilla.github.io/webmaker-curriculum/WebLiteracyBasics-I/>, build
a club system <http://michellethorne.cc/2015/03/clubs-whats-next/>and a
badging platform.

So I use the term federated instead of viral on purpose. Viral is more the
user sharing content and we are shaping content for the user to fork and
adapt.

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 5:37 PM Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Greg,
> I like this idea of "federated development" but am also fond of "viral
> development". The latter has the advantage of feeling more "organic"
> ("federation" has connotations of "bureaucracy" to me - e.g. Star Wars),
> but on the other hand, "viral" is not exactly a catchy (!) concept in
> positive terms (e.g., computer viruses, cold viruses...).
> -greg
>
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 3:18 PM, Greg Mcverry <jgregmcverry@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > This is common in the US as well. Especially in border states with
> Mexico.
> > Recently  a wave of unaccompanied minors (5 and 6 years old) trying to
> > immigrate without parents by traveling 1,000 of miles.
> >
> > There is some recent research in the literacy community around
> > transnational literacies but in terms of activism you have DREAM
> advocates
> > and not enough....
> >
> > The same event sparked a wave of xenophobia that ended immigration reform
> > in US.
> >
> > In terms of the original post fidelity and scale have always been the
> > impossible dream of outcome based research.
> >
> > The same is true of education reform and development in general.
> >
> > Instead of fidelity I think we should try for federated development.
> Have a
> > shared goal but allow for the plan to be forked and localized.
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>