The overall structure of the workshops will be:
Session 1: Intro to hacking, “open web” and intro to X-Ray Goggles
Session 2: Deeper dive into HTML and CSS – design challenge
Session 3: How to run a hack jam
Session 4: Practice jam with peers
Yesterday the teens came in and we started out by mind mapping. This gave us a chance to make sure that we were all on the same page when we talked about hacking, tinkering and coding.
The teens paired off and responded to a challenge to define hacking in a tweet. Here are their final definitions:
We decided to test their definitions. The next challenge was to hack a board game. Our two teams chose to hack tic tac toe (which became Finger Tac) and monopoly (which became Hackopoly). The teams wrote new rules and then playtested each others games.
Throughout the course of the activity, we talked about our process and what options we had in terms of hacking the games.
After a break we talked a bit about what makes the web unique. As a group we came up with a list of things that make the webs special and things that make the web difficult to use:
We then talked about how the web was designed to be participatory and collaborative. We looked at a slide show that I created as part of the Hacktivity kit. It was nice to user test that- it worked really well. I think I am going to change some of the slides about installation because they are outdated since we changed the interface for the tools.
After a brief intro to the X-Ray Goggles, the teens hacked Google, and then I challenged them to hack a website of their choosing. The goal was to make as many changes as possible to hide the identity of the original site.
The teens hacked facebook, Tumblr, the NYC MTA page, Twitter, Apple and even the Mouse page!
Our next workshop is tomorrow. We will be learning HTML and CSS and moving from hacking to webmaking!