Initiative sees teachers collaborate online

By Alex Kayle, Senior portals journalist

Johannesburg, 09 Sept 2009

The Shuttleworth Foundation, working with the Department of Education, has rolled out the Siyavula project, an initiative supporting teachers to share educational resources online as well as forming workshops.

According to the Shuttleworth Foundation, Siyavula, a Nguni word meaning 'we are opening', enables South African teachers to share and develop openly licensed resources under a Creative Commons copyright licence and deploy the materials onto the Siyavula Web site. The project uses the Connexions platform for using, building, sharing and adapting educational resources.

Last week Siyavula held its second workshop on open education resources in KwaZulu-Natal, which brought teachers together to collaborate with one another. Siyavula aims to support the creation of educational communities through workshops and by making free and locally relevant educational content available to educators to work from.

Working together

Selvan Chetty, superintendent at the Department of Education, says partnerships should exist between public service departments, such as the Department of Education, and non-government organisations.

“The introduction of Siyavula has definitely got educators excited with the understanding that they now have access to resource material which will assist them in the workplace. More importantly, they see the value in using this process to collaborate and network among schools in regions so that the resources can be shared,” notes Chetty.

He points out that the biggest challenges educators face in the classrooms is the lack of resources. “If teachers become well-equipped with resources, the information will go down to the level of the learners. Now we have a platform which is more open and accessible to learning information that is always up-to-date.”

Supporting teachers

Chetty says the project will save the Department of Education thousands of rands, adding that, according to a regulation set out by the Department, 60% of the allocation of the budget must go towards learning materials.

”I think that if government can harness the contribution that is being made by NGOs there will be this partnership between public service department, NGOs and so much work can be done.

“My vision for the project for all schools is for them to be online; secondly, that schools use the Web site to access information, create work groups, and find ways for other teachers to share the information and reciprocate. And lastly, that schools will understand that the technological advances that have been made are here to stay, and the sooner we get involved and start operating, the better it will be for all our schools and children.”

According to Mark Horner, project manager at Siyavula, the project has been in its planning phase since 2007, but hasn't really taken flight until now. “We expect to see the project lead to innovation in the classroom on a national scale to support teachers to provide the best education for their learners.”

Horner says Siyavula has also received interest from the South African National Olympiad and the South African Weather Service. He maintains the project has been very successful so far. “Our next training workshop will be Teach for SA, a project similar to Teach for America, where we take in graduates new to the classroom, which are looking to become accredited as teachers.”