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May 2008 was a really great month at the Foundation. We went through what seemed like a spring clean of our thoughts, processes and communications.
We spent some time going into the next phase of our theory of change and, helped by our trusty designer Eugene, have started to make real progress on how we express what we do and why. We also went through the website, and whilst all are agree that we we need a thorough re-design, to help include all the information, developments and achievements of our partners and projects, we identified some low-hanging fruit to pick.
Most excitingly, we released the first of our ‘How we work’ papers, specifically looking at how we use/protect freedoms and try to ensure our money is spent in a enduring manner through licensing. We are no where close to perfect, but we are trying to get there!
In our last quarterly trustee meeting, we had a debate about results and timing. A lot of our work does not have the satisfying feeling of tangible results. When you build a school, you see the foundations, the bricks, the fixtures and fittings and eventually, the learning that happens inside. When building the foundations for an open knowledge society, driving innovation in education and technology, the results are not always as obvious.
This month I was incredibly heartened to see some of our labour bear fruit. Due to the diligent work by Karien and Andrew, we have been part of a process of South Africa standing up for what it believes in and appealing against the ISO in the OOXML debate. We also saw UNESCO state publicly that the Cape Town Declaration Open Education was a milestone and significant contribution to OER’s.
Whilst none of these have a PR photo opportunity, I believe the placement of these foundations can and will (and in some cases already do) have a significant impact on society and people’s ability to participate in the knowledge economy.
Having Mark Surman in Cape Town from his usual Toronto haunt, always adds an extra sense of silliness and productivity. As both Mark and I are not permanently based in the office, we very proudly left our Mini-me bobble heads for the team to find on Monday morning. They have a recording device, if you want to know what we are saying, you will have to drop in!
We are delighted that the University of Cape Town (UCT) became the first university to sign the Cape Town Declaration as an organisation on the 8th of April. Deputy Vice Chancellor Martin Hall described the role of an university as one of sharing knowledge, not keep it to themselves, and confirmed UCT’s commitment to this role. Many faculty and staff members have also added their individual signatures in personal support of the values and strategies proposed in the Declaration.
What we do in this area:
“Teachers, learners and authors around the world are increasingly seeing the potential of open educational resources. As part of a broader movement to open up education, these resources can increase access to learning opportunities and encourage more collaborative, student-centric learning. The Shuttleworth Foundation works closely with the innovators and activists who are bringing this movement to life.”
This month’s highlights:
Mark Horner and Eve Grey presented a well received talk on the Cape Town Declaration and its relevance to the higher education context in South Africa at the University of Cape Town (UCT). This was a pre-event for UCT signing the declaration. They plan to be the first University to sign, encourage all members (staff and students) to understand and share in the spirit of the declaration.
As part of an on-going need to get a reality check on what we are planning to invest in and create in the world of Open Educational Resources, it is important for us to know what is happening on the ground. How do teachers teach? What do they teach? Where are their pain points? This month, we visited local schools and met with teachers to find out more about how they used learning and teaching support materials. We also participated in a workshop on materials development and sharing aimed at Science teachers.
It’s clear that academics and teachers do develop their own materials, adapt existing materials to best suit their own context and readily share materials with their colleagues, but that this practice has not moved online yet. One the of main struggles is to find materials aligned to the South African schools curriculum online (and in print!).
What we do in this area:
“Teachers, learners and authors around the world are increasingly seeing the potential of open educational resources. As part of a broader movement to open up education, these resources can increase access to learning opportunities and encourage more collaborative, student-centric learning. The Shuttleworth Foundation works closely with the innovators and activists who are bringing this movement to life.”
This month’s highlights:
Mark Horner’s (Siyavula Project Manager) proposal for a presentation on Open and Collaborative Resources has been accepted for eLearning Africa. He will be presenting at the event in Ghana in May. The excerpt is not on the website yet, but will be shortly. He will be specifically talking about the project, what we have learnt so far and how Open Educational Resources (OER’s) are used in South Africa.
Mark Horner met with representatives of Indigo+ng from South Korea and is invited to attend their annual working session in South Korea in September. At this event they bring together 6 projects from across the world who have succeeded in inspiring, engaging and mobilising the youth in education. Indigo+ng is an organisation focused on youth development towards critical engagement and embracing education and learning. They travelled to South Africa specifically to meet with Mark based on his work on the Free High School Science Texts (FHSST) and Siyavula.
FHSST has received good feedback from tutoring initiatives finding their materials online and using them in their outreach programmes. It is clear that there is a huge need for OER’s that can be accessed and redistributed freely in a decentralised manner. Many students still have not received their text books, even though the 1st term is almost over. The viral adoption of the materials is encouraging for both the FHSST and Siyavula initiatives.
Press related to the Cape Town Open Education Declaration has lead to a large influx of enquiries, proposals and offers of support for our OCR initiatives. It’s encouraging and enlightening to engage with so many individuals and organisations who are in desperate need of educational resources or who have resources to offer. Whilst most of the offers of resources have been with profit motives in mind, it allows us to have the open licensing and open resources conversation with a much wider audience, potentially increasing our impact in this area.
