4 ms·

Learn HTML5, JavaScript and CSS With Mozilla’s Free School of Webcraft

103 points by maheshs 16y ago

Qz 16y ago
Am I supposed to know who the people in those pictures are?
- hipster 16y ago
  Why, they're hipsters, of course! Cool people who became so because they learned HTML5 and liked being seen learning it
nhangen 16y ago
Was really hoping for a description or an about piece for that page. The link to the email list goes to a Google group, which is sure to confuse people as well. Like the idea, just a strange way to execute.
sp332 16y ago
More information here: https://www.drumbeat.org/webcraft https://www.drumbeat.org/webcraft
- robfitz 16y ago
  Which leads to the even more useful page of: https://www.drumbeat.org/node/1544/about https://www.drumbeat.org/node/1544/about It's a peer-to-peer online university, where students teach courses about the areas they're experts in, while others can gain course credit for taking and performing well on those courses. The hope is to gain some credibility with employers by the end of 2011 and to have ~250 courses offered as an alternative to currently expensive certifications and often outdated university courses on web development.
Infomus 16y ago
Confused and no patience for the above link!
withoutfriction 16y ago
Thank you! This looks fantastic, and I am very glad you shared this.
nik61 16y ago
W3schools seems to cover these pieces, and a number of others, without the self regard and the "teaser" advertising. So does the Google Code University for that matter.
- M1573RMU74710N 16y ago
  W3schools is pretty bad for "teaching" in my experience. It's serviceable as pure reference to look up bits, but even then it's inferior to other references available. You're right that there are other sources available to learn, and those are awesome...but they are not exactly comparable to this. For one, most of those other sources just release material, like MIT's open course ware. It's a great resource for learning, but it's not the same as actually being enrolled in a class, participating, etc etc. You also do not receive any kind of credit. Then there are some places where it actually is a course, but most of those are probably not "peer to peer"...I find that idea pretty interesting, and I had a good experience with Reddit University. Another thing is this has the name "Mozilla" attached, which carries some cachet with it. So, overall most of the "pieces" of this are already done yes....but I think this is an interesting combination and am pretty excited at the potential of it.
MisterWebz 16y ago
I would have loved to attend those courses. Will they record the courses?
- nedwin 16y ago
  It's not all that clear from the link but I believe they are all online courses so anyone can attend. :)
sandal 16y ago
I've been running a program with some similar goals that is currently focused on Ruby but will hopefully expand into other areas. ( http://university.rubymendicant.com http://university.rubymendicant.com ) I'm really excited to see similar efforts, especially from folks like Mozilla who have considerable resources available to back something like this. But I sort of wonder how well the peer to peer model works, and whether it produces consistent enough results to be able to have a certification system that means anything. Personally, I don't think certification is important, but it seems to be one of the key goals of this project. Has anyone been involved with the parent project, P2PU? I'd be very interested in hearing what sort of experiences folks have had with that. (http://p2pu.org http://p2pu.org)

103 points by maheshs 16y ago

Qz 16y ago

Am I supposed to know who the people in those pictures are?

hipster 16y ago
Why, they're hipsters, of course! Cool people who became so because they learned HTML5 and liked being seen learning it

nhangen 16y ago

Was really hoping for a description or an about piece for that page. The link to the email list goes to a Google group, which is sure to confuse people as well. Like the idea, just a strange way to execute.

sp332 16y ago

More information here: https://www.drumbeat.org/webcraft https://www.drumbeat.org/webcraft

robfitz 16y ago
Which leads to the even more useful page of: https://www.drumbeat.org/node/1544/about https://www.drumbeat.org/node/1544/about It's a peer-to-peer online university, where students teach courses about the areas they're experts in, while others can gain course credit for taking and performing well on those courses. The hope is to gain some credibility with employers by the end of 2011 and to have ~250 courses offered as an alternative to currently expensive certifications and often outdated university courses on web development.

Infomus 16y ago

Confused and no patience for the above link!

withoutfriction 16y ago

Thank you! This looks fantastic, and I am very glad you shared this.

nik61 16y ago

W3schools seems to cover these pieces, and a number of others, without the self regard and the "teaser" advertising. So does the Google Code University for that matter.

M1573RMU74710N 16y ago
W3schools is pretty bad for "teaching" in my experience. It's serviceable as pure reference to look up bits, but even then it's inferior to other references available. You're right that there are other sources available to learn, and those are awesome...but they are not exactly comparable to this. For one, most of those other sources just release material, like MIT's open course ware. It's a great resource for learning, but it's not the same as actually being enrolled in a class, participating, etc etc. You also do not receive any kind of credit. Then there are some places where it actually is a course, but most of those are probably not "peer to peer"...I find that idea pretty interesting, and I had a good experience with Reddit University. Another thing is this has the name "Mozilla" attached, which carries some cachet with it. So, overall most of the "pieces" of this are already done yes....but I think this is an interesting combination and am pretty excited at the potential of it.

MisterWebz 16y ago

I would have loved to attend those courses. Will they record the courses?

nedwin 16y ago
It's not all that clear from the link but I believe they are all online courses so anyone can attend. :)

sandal 16y ago

I've been running a program with some similar goals that is currently focused on Ruby but will hopefully expand into other areas. ( http://university.rubymendicant.com http://university.rubymendicant.com ) I'm really excited to see similar efforts, especially from folks like Mozilla who have considerable resources available to back something like this. But I sort of wonder how well the peer to peer model works, and whether it produces consistent enough results to be able to have a certification system that means anything. Personally, I don't think certification is important, but it seems to be one of the key goals of this project. Has anyone been involved with the parent project, P2PU? I'd be very interested in hearing what sort of experiences folks have had with that. (http://p2pu.org http://p2pu.org)