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We held a Hackathon at the OIS to work specifically on our Grade 10 maths textbook.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/12/02/start-of-the-hackathons-at-the-ois/
Heather has completed the uploading of version 0.5 of FHSST Mathematics for Grade 12 to Connexions
http://cnx.org/content/col11242/latest/
Heather has completed the uploading of version 0.5 of the Grade 11 Maths to Connexions
http://cnx.org/content/col11243/latest/
Heather has completed uploading the 0.5 version of Grade 11 Physical Science onto Connexions
http://cnx.org/content/col11241/latest/
Our closing function for our series of evening events on OERs was held at the OIS on Thursday night, 25 November.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/11/29/closing-evening-for-series-of-open-education-resources-functions/
One of the important aims of our evening functions that we hold at the Open Innovation Studio (OIS) is to inspire teachers and open their eyes to new resources and ideas that can be brought into the classroom. This was no different at last night’s function, which had a strong turnout and good representation from a number of Cape Town schools.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/11/19/introduction-to-open-education-resources-in-mathematics/
Heather has completed the uploading of the Grade 10 FHSST Mathematics book (ver 0.5) to Connexions.
http://cnx.org/content/col11239/latest/
Go out with a bang! Go out on a high! And so we did! Due to the volunteer presence at our previous Hackathons decreasing somewhat over the last few weeks, we decided that last night would be our last UCT Hackathon for the year. We weren’t sure what sort of turnout we’d have, what with exams coming to an end and people going home for the vac, so we were very pleasantly surprised when a number of friendly and familiar faces of our volunteers returned!
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/11/17/the-big-bang-theory-hackathon-seven/
Neels took to the floor and began with an introduction of what we at Siyavula believe in: openness in education, communities of teachers working together, and bringing technology into the classroom. We believe that through these practices everyone benefits, as resources, thoughts and ideas are shared, and top quality resources can result through this pooling of knowledge. By having access to more resources and by using technology appropriately in the classroom, it can result in lessons that are more engaging and more stimulating for learners.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/11/12/introduction-to-open-education-resources-in-life-sciences/
Last night’s Hackathon was a somewhat small and intimate affair, with eight of us arriving for an evening of writing solutions to our free maths and science textbooks. Exams are well under way on UCT campus, so our volunteers were all Masters students who were able to donate an evening of their time to FHSST.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/11/10/dynamite-comes-in-small-packages-hackathon-six/
Last night saw a strong turnout of teachers at our physical science evening event. Seventeen teachers as well as representatives from Metro South Education Department arrived, all interested to find out what was on offer for the evening. Before long the Open Innovation Studio was buzzing, with our guests standing in groups enjoying the snacks and chatting amongst themselves.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/11/05/introduction-to-open-education-resources-in-physical-science/
We have a new venue for our Hackathons, and despite concerns that people wouldn’t find the venue, and the fact that it is now exam time, we had a pretty good turnout – 16 of us in fact! One volunteer joined us straight after her maths exam – impressive stuff.
http://siyavula.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/100_3823-300x199.jpg
I helped run a sprint at the Plone Conference on rhaptos migration to Plone 4.
http://devblog.cnx.org/2010/06/connexionsrhaptos-sprint-topics-at.html
IT teachers are a scarce commodity in the Western Cape, with there being only approximately 30 IT teachers in Cape Town, despite there being over 400 schools. Some of these teachers service a number of schools a week, but many schools lack the resources to provide learners with the support and vision needed to really cultivate a culture of programming.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/10/29/introduction-to-open-education-resources-in-it-and-cat/
I gave a presentation at the Plone Conference 2010 on Rhaptos and Connexions on behalf of the Connexions team, this is to help raise Rhaptos awareness in the Plone community .
Within a 12 hour period we passed both 500 users and 5000 items on FullMarks. I’ve compiled a map of traffic locations between the launch date of August 27th and today so you can see that we’re getting uptake in place where we are not yet running any workshops. I’m excluding demo users and content in that count so it represents real usage.
http://www.markhorner.net/2010/10/27/fullmarks-first-milestone/
I gave a talk on FullMarks at the Plone Conference 2010 in Bristol.
http://www.ploneconf2010.org/the-event/talks/fullmarks-for-plone
The Siyavula team are continually impressed with the student support at our Hackathons. And last night was no exception. Even with exams looming less than a week away, we still had a solid turnout of 20 volunteers.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/10/27/hackathon-success-continues/
The mobile front-end for Connexions has been completed!
http://m.siyavula.cnx.org
The Siyavula team went up to Durban to host a workshop for the AMESA educators. The aim was to show the ease with which educators could upload their content onto Connexions, for other teachers to freely download, adapt and use.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/10/25/amesa-kzn-workshop/
I was invited to the National Department of Basic Education for three meetings: 1. Mr. Maloyi, Joy Rosario and I met to discuss FullMarks and assessment bank integration. 2. I presented for 2.5 hours on OERs and IT-integration to the inter-provincial curriculum specialists meeting 3. I had 45 minutes with the inter-provincial ICT Workgroup meeting
Last night was our second evening event which we hosted at our office – the Open Innovation Studio in Cape Town. There were a couple of familiar faces from our opening event that joined us, as well as new teachers that had come to find out what it is that Siyavula do, and how they can be inspired to bring technology into the English classroom.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/10/22/introduction-to-open-education-resources-in-english-evening-event/
This week’s Hackathon saw our biggest turnout of volunteers yet. Volunteers hard at workWe had a total of 30 people including our small Siyavula team, and room L of the RW James building, UCT, was buzzing with activity. Many are now familiar faces that we can greet by name, which certainly helps with establishing a sense of community amongst all of us.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/10/20/hackathon-three-third-times-a-charm/
Last night was our first of a series of evening events that we will be hosting over the next few weeks. We held this particular event at the Field Office, a short walk from the OIS in Cape Town. Listening to talkWe had a good turnout of teachers from local schools, and everyone mingled and chatted over the drinks and snacks that we provided.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/10/15/introduction-to-open-education-resources-first-evening-event/
We've published the first prototype FHSST chapter (version 0.5 of Grade 10 Electric Circuits) with integrated videos from the Khan Academy, embedded Phet Simulations, links to solutions on FullMarks and opening with a powerpoint presentation donated by the HOD of Science at Bishops, Keith Warne.
http://cnx.org/content/m32830/latest
For the first time in recorded history, a FHSST Hackathon was run by an all women team without the supervision of a founding FHSST member.Hackathon in RW James Room C Heather, Carine, Natalia and I took charge as Mark was unable to attend due to prior commitments.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/10/13/hackathon-two-%E2%80%93-another-success-story/
Natalia joined the team.
Great turnout + great food + great people + great atmosphere = excellent work done!
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/10/06/first-fhsst-hackathon-of-2010/
I was invited to run a presentation/workshop on “Building the school IT vision” for the WGHS Management team.
http://www.wynghs.co.za/
Vuyiswa Ncontsa, Programme Head, Teach South Africa, visited us at the Open Innovation Studio. We've agreed to a light-weight collaboration in that they'll work to help us involve their ambassadors in workshops which gives us access to enthusiastic, IT-literate educators.
I launched the new FHSST website just in time to add it to the list of things to celebrate at our get-together.
http://www.fhsst.org
We held a small gathering of volunteers to celebrate the successful edit, the new website and the endorsement on Thutong.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/09/15/fhsst-celebratory-party/
Carine creates our social media strategy ;) a FB page and a Twitter account
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Siyavula/150245334996585
CAPS Commentary (Another use of a.nnotate.com)
Posted on Sep 08 2010 by Mark
| Edit Tags : collaboration, curriculum, South Africa
I have uploaded a bunch of the South African National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (Mathematics (All phases), Maths Literacy, Life Sciences and Physical Science) to a.nnotate.com for the education community to comment on. I definitely feel that this is open, collaborative and focused on school, and I am the Open and Collaborative Resources Fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation after all and it should be quite a lot of fun if people get involved.
http://www.markhorner.net/2010/09/08/caps-commentary-another-use-of-a-nnotate-com/
The Maths and Physical Science FHSST textbooks are now featured prominently on the relevant subject areas in Thutong as part of the main subject area message (not just as discoverable resources in the database).
http://www.thutong.doe.gov.za/Default.aspx?alias=www.thutong.doe.gov.za/physicalsciences
Carine Grobbelaar joins the team!
It came to pass recently that we (and by we I mean just short of 100 volunteers from all over the world!) edited the Free High Schools Science Texts (FHSST) textbooks in the space of 9 days. The situation arose suddenly and unexpectedly. FHSST had been completely idle since mid-2007 when version 0 was released. Our original intention was to ramp up activities during September 2010 to “leisurely” improve the books so that we could announce a much better, version 1, late this year or very early next year.
http://www.markhorner.net/2010/10/13/fhsst-editing-sprint-review/
Much excitement surrounded the launch of the FullMarks website which took place on the morning of Friday 27 August, at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town.
http://siyavula.org.za/2010/09/13/fullmarks-launch/
http://www.markhorner.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/3090808-original-300x193.jpg
http://www.markhorner.net/2010/08/24/calling-scientists-and-mathematicians/
Aim of workshop: to train teachers on how to use the FullMarks website, and to upload as much AMESA maths content as possible during the two day period.
http://www.markhorner.net/2010/08/24/amesa-kzn-workshop-20-%e2%80%93-21-august-2010/
Heather and Bridget joined the team, initially to do content uploading specifically targeted at the FullMarks launch but also proved crucial in all of the activities for the rest of the year.
Today I sent off the Mathematics series covers and the files to start printing some samples.
http://www.markhorner.net/2010/07/14/crowdsourcing-vs-traditional-design-the-results/
This project aims to provide the vast majority of learners with access to the OERs that have already been made available through the broader Siyavula and related projects. This will be done by enabling access to the content via mobile phone, a device which is suitable for the delivery of the majority of OERs that have been uploaded to the Connexions repository.
Neels and I met with Barbara Mallinson, founder of Obami, and they are going to make all of the workbooks available on Obami.
We met with SABC Education to discuss possible overlaps and the distribution of material. We left them with copies of our DVDs. Che Che Mazoka, SABC Limited Head: Funding and Partnerships/Trade Exchanges and John Cronwright, Programme Manager SABC Education Content Enterprises.
We met with Beeld to discuss the possibility of:
- linking resources in Leer en Presteer to OERs
- using our workbooks to supplement their efforts
- make a call for more OERs to be shared.
We met with the Editor, Tim du Plessis, and head of the Leer en Presteer initiative.
http://www.beeld.com/
We met with representatives of the North West Province to discuss what the next steps would be in our collaboration this year.
http://www.markhorner.net/2010/06/13/north-west-province-a-pilot-to-test-the-workbooks/
We have just finished helping the HOD Science at Bishops Diocesan College, Keith Warne, put all of his 200+ powerpoint presentations for the teaching of Grade 8-12 Science online. They are all freely available to view, use, download and modify!
http://www.markhorner.net/2010/06/09/helping-educators-share-200-science-presentations/
A Connexions uploading sprint for AMESA-KZN educators which included a first introduction to FullMarks
I ran a training workshop, hosted by Juta, for all the Western Cape Teach SA ambassadors on FullMarks and Connexions
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