I am super excited to see Jet Pack for Learning launching today! It’s a mashup between two approaches: Mozilla Education (open source code as raw material for learning) and a Labs Design Challenge (open innovation to make the web better). The specific goal is to get people to write add-ons that demonstrate innovative ways to learn online.

You can find out how it all works on Frank Hecker’s blog and the Jetpack for Learning site. Here’s a quick overview:

We’re looking for designers, educators and software developers who want to turn their innovative ideas about learning online into working prototypes in the form of Firefox add-ons. We’ll help you refine your designs and teach you how to create Firefox add-ons using Jetpack and other Mozilla technologies. Participants creating the best prototypes will be invited to the Jetpack for Learning Design Camp and the SXSW Interactive conference in March 2010.

Part of my excitement about this is that it mixes something we’re already doing well with Mozilla Education (getting students involved in Mozilla) and something we’re just starting to think about with Drumbeat (engaging new kinds of people in the web innovation process). I suspect we will learn both learn a ton and produce some useful prototype online learning tools.

A big thanks goes out the MacArthur Foundation for backing this — they’ve been amazing in terms of sharing our vision of how the open web can become a rich learning environment. Also, hurrahs go out to Frank, Pascal and Phillip for getting J4L rolling and Sean for the amazing logo (above).