The future of education according to Mozilla
The Mozilla Festival came to an end amid a showcase of the best ideas spawned from the multitude of conversations that took place throughout the weekend. There wasn't a single person attempting to tell us what the conclusions of the conference were nor anyone would dare to say all that was accomplished here. The results will manifest themselves over the course of the next few months in the form of projects that become a reality because they managed to inspire the right mix of thinkers and doers. The mozillians are perhaps the best example of a community that is working to create the change they want to see on the web and this "make it happen" attitude will once again prove to be a powerful ingredient to elevate the web closer to its ideal.
But, if I had to venture a few educated guesses about how the web will change over the next year based solely on my experience at the Mozilla Festival these trends would be at the top:
- Education: imagine a network of learning opportunities, connected to each other through pathways that guide kids through the exploration of new concepts and skills in a way that feels nothing like school but promises to educate and prepare them better for the future. Between Hive, Badges and the constant exploration of the online language favoured by the youth, Mozilla is well positioned to assume a leadership role in this overhaul of the education system.
- Hands-on: there is no better way to teach than to be given free-time to explore new skills with the proper tools available to us. Now with a new generation of hardware devices custom-made to awaken the interest of kids in specific technologies such as 3D printing, and their ability to seamlessly integrate with the rest of the web through a variety of gateways, expect some of these technologies to find their way into the classroom to augment the learning experience. From dedicated devices to teach coding to the blurring of digital-to-physical boundaries via 3D printers, kids are about to be super empowered to reinvent the future.
- Video: for a generation that was born with a video-camara pointing at them every day, video is now the preferred communication medium. And the tools to make better use of that content are quickly evolving beyond the embedded video object. There is a lot of innovation around how to manipulate video and as devices get more and more powerful things are only going to get more interesting.
- Mobile-safe: if we could be given a guarantee that our kids will be safe online, would we unlock better and earlier opportunities for them to connect with the resources of the web? Some of the best work being done by Mozilla happens behind the scenes, making sure the web remains open a ridden of threats to its future. Understanding how our online persona is under constant watch is probably one of the best things we can all do to figure out better ways for our kids to develop safe practices to navigate the web on their own.










