Working on Mozilla's Hackasaurus

/54

Since launching Scrunchup back in 2009, I've been looking for a way to incorporate my love of web development with my passion for improving the state of web education. When Matt Thompson asked if I'd like to work with Mozilla as Hackasaurus Event and Curriculum Manager, I knew this was the opportunity I'd been looking for.

The Hackasaurus team have organised workshops with local kids which give them an introduction to "hacking" the web. I went to a couple of these hack jam sessions while I was visiting New York. During the jams, students as young as 11 are shown how to edit the code on a website and change the way it looks using the Hackasaurus tools.

All the tools that are being used, such as the Web X-ray Goggles, are being developed and iterated upon in direct response to how kids are using them.

I was given an insight into the work Mozilla are doing to teach young people about web development and the open web after attending their Drumbeat Festival last year. The events they've been doing in the US are proving really popular, and I can't wait to help run some of these to the UK.

I'm also working hard on Scrunchup to try and make it more useful as a resource and community for young developers. I've been working on an events feed which will pull in events that are accessible to young people, and a resource which lists courses in web design that have been approved by the our readers. I'm planning to push these live over the bank holiday weekend, maybe even while I'm watching the Royal Wedding coverage.