I saw Dave Humphrey for the first time in a while last week. It was amazing to hear how much is going on with Mozilla Education, which was really just a single course at Seneca this time last year. Some highlights from what Dave told me:

• A Course on Mozilla Education and Technology started last week at the University of Evry in France, using the Seneca model and bringing 30+ students to Mozilla.

• Seneca’s own Mozilla course has kicked off for another semester, but this time with remote participation from students from around the world (via IRC etc.)

• The Madrid Mozilla Technology Course at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos is now wrapping up and we will see student projects soon.

• Another Mozilla course is soon to start up at the Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering in India.

• Approximately 20 students from Evry and Seneca are starting work on Processing for the Web, an initiative to complete and extend the processing.js data visualization framework.

The Processing for the Web is a particularly interesting example of what Mozilla Education can do. It represents technology development that is a) good for the web and b) really needs a push of people to help it move forward. Knowing that we had a predictable pool of new students coming this fall, Al MacDonald, Chris Blizzard, Dave Humphrey and Frank Hecker we’re able to map out a way forward — and then let the students roll.

My sense is that this kind of ‘strategic opportunism’ will become common as we grow the number of schools and students involved in Mozilla Education.