Session Title: Siyavula: Supporting Teacher Communities For Curriculum-Aligned OER in South Africa
Presenter: Cynthia Jimes, Director of Research, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education
Kathi Fletcher & Joel Thierstein, Connexions
Time & Date: 11:15 A.M. - 12:00 P.M., Friday, August 14, 2009
Location: Rm. C180
Session Description: A combination of South Africa’s outcomes based educational system and the implementation of a new set of curriculum standards have set teaching and learning expectations for teachers that cannot be adequately met by the country’s current resources or professional development programs. Siyavula, a South African based project, seeks to address this need by offering curriculum-aligned open educational resources (OER) to teachers across all grades (R-12), subjects, and learning areas through an online platform for educational resources (Connexions). The project seeks to facilitate teacher engagement around those resources through targeted professional development workshops and social networking tools that enable teachers to find and adapt resources to meet their local teaching and learning needs, to rate, review and join communities to share knowledge about resource use and pedagogy, as well as to contribute their own resources back to the wider community.
Working in conjunction with Siyavula project leaders, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) has been conducting research on Siyavula’s activities and those of its teacher users in order to increase understanding of factors that contribute to the creation, use and localization of content across the South African teaching and learning context. The first phase of the research has entailed site visits to both under- and well-resourced South African schools, interviews with teachers, principals, school district administrators and curriculum experts, a survey of teachers (n=201), and observations of Siyavula’s professional development workshops. The specific purpose of the first phase of the research has been to examine the curriculum and curriculum development needs of teachers and education stakeholders unique to the South African context, and to assess the perceived and potential benefits and challenges of creating, using and implementing OER in the classroom under the Siyavula model.
This session will present the findings from the first phase of the Siyavula research, which points to evidence of the need for open educational resources by South African teachers, the presence of offline curriculum development activities and teacher communities that can be leveraged to support online activities, and challenges to the adoption of Siyavula given issues of low-bandwidth (and in some cases no internet access), limited computer access and sometimes low technological efficacy on behalf of teachers. The session will conclude with a discussion of the implications of the findings, including the importance of helping teachers draw on their existing ways of working (specifically, their current curriculum development activities) as they adapt to OER and associated social networking tools, and of exploring alternative solutions for teachers who currently work in predominantly paper-based environments.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The website above is the beginning of the history of art and architecture around the world. I would be delighted to hear from schools in Africa that might use the site. I can be contacted by e-mail kbolmanahaa@gmail and by Skype Katherine Bolman. I would like to work with your teachers to enhance the site. I hope we go to ahaafoundation.org get you look at the great prehistoric art of Africa.
It would be very useful to me if you would contact me either by e-mail or Skype.
Please let schools and teachers you know who have Internet connections find their way to the site. Thank you very much
I would like to put the site address of a second time as it did not pose in the body of my note. The site can be found at ahaafoundation.org and a response from you is exceedingly important to getting the word to schools that this is a free site and open collaborative information and additional images from all of you. Thank you
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