Megan Beckett megan@siyavula.com www.siyavula.com
Open Education – breaking down barriers What does this mean to us at Siyavula and to South Africa?
South Africa's context and challenges
South Africa's context and challenges
South Africa's context and challenges All contexts are challenging Every child deserves a chance
Opening up access to education and resources will help Build capacity by providing access to tools, content and communities of practice Reduce the cost of access to educational materials Adapt and develop materials relevant to Africa
Siyavula – 'we are opening' Siyavula is a social enterprise built on community, openness and technology, working to make high quality education available to every learner and teacher in South Africa.
Siyavula's OER content Curriculum aligned Collaboratively authored Gr 4-12 Maths and Science focused English and Afrikaans
Technology enables and enriches Available on web, mobile and Mxit (chatroom service in South Africa) Over 800 000 learners reading content on mobile every month Embedded videos and simulations Make it easy for teachers to implement technology in the classroom
Creating an open textbook An open, transparent and collaborative process for maximum impact
Benefits of collaborative OER production Relevant to many different contexts and backgrounds Scrutiny of the content Space for people to give back meaningfully to education in South Africa Build a community around the open textbooks
Seed communities of open practice Adopt and Share ideas adapt Learn about Localize OER Translate Build skills
National distribution in South Africa Work in collaboration with government Department of Education reviews and endorses content in workshops and online Printed and distributed open textbooks for whole country About 10 million books so far
South African education system is in a crisis “Some children are more equal than others” YouTube: bit.ly/equalchildren Opening up education and making resources openly available will help enormously We also need equality, training, capacity and accountability We are all part of the solution
What have our open efforts achieved in South Africa? Breaking down the barriers to education in South Africa
What have our open efforts achieved in South Africa? Breaking down the barriers to education in South Africa Open processes and collaboration builds a community of sharing Strengthens the work we do
What have our open efforts achieved in South Africa? Breaking down the barriers to education in South Africa Open processes and collaboration builds a community of sharing Strengthens the work we do Broader impact in South Africa (and beyond) Government: understanding benefits of open policy General public: involved in an education project with huge impact Educators: learning about and using OER Learners: engage with a 'living' resource and understand OER
Challenges and sustainability Technology Awareness Sustainability Open business models
Please don't hesitate to contact me! megan@siyavula.com meganbeckett.wordpress.com
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