The SAICE committee marketed and recruited volunteers from the Civil Engineering faculty, and we were able to use the Redlabs in Menzies for the sprint, which meant that each volunteer had access to a computer. The tasks for the hackathon were pre-uploaded to Vula (the UCT student portal), which is easily accessible to all students. Siyavula provided technical support where needed, created the tasks to be distributed and invited a few other UCT teaching initiatives to join us for the day. By partnering with a student organization, much of the red tape which is often experienced at the hackathons in terms of computer lab access, internet access and venue logistics were lifted, which made for a simple and efficient process on the day.

SAICE had the idea of making the hackathon a more competitive affair. Each volunteer had to find sponsorship for each question successfully uploaded to FullMarks, and the person who had raised the most money by the end of the hackathon would win a 1TB Hard drive. There was therefore an added incentive for the volunteers to get as many questions into the bank as possible. The money that was raised from the event will be donated to a charity.

On the day of the sprint we had 15 student volunteers arrive promptly at 9:30 at the lab, ready to get stuck in. At previous hackathons we usually experienced a slow start as students would have to set up their laptops first. All the setup up that was required at the SAICE hackathon was that students needed to set up a user account for FullMarks, and then they were on their way! Siyavula had the new graphing and equation editor installed just in time for the SAICE hackathon and found this the perfect opportunity to stress-test the tool. In the past we encouraged volunteers to only upload questions to FullMarks using the OpenOffice importer, which required an additional learning curve as well as adding time to the process.

We were pleased at how easily the students orientated themselves to the tasks, tools and platforms we provided. From the previous hackathons we learnt how to structure the tasks in a simple and easy to understand way, where we provided them with help text on the tasks where needed. Very little technical support and guidance was needed at this hackathon. A few issues did arise however, where students were having problems uploading images to their questions, and the multiple choice functionality was not responding with the new editor. Luckily our software developer was on call and managed to fix both problems within an hour!

As the volunteers were all first time attendees, Mark gave a brief presentation about Siyavula and FullMarks, how the project began, events that have shaped it and where it is headed. Students then continued working on solutions to the questions we have in our Grade 11 Mathematics and Physical Science textbooks. The hackathon ended at 1pm, when it was time to trade the dark and cold lab for some fresh air, sunlight and plenty of pizza!

With just 15 volunteers, we were able to add 130 new questions with fully worked answers for Grade 11 Mathematics and Physical Science into the FullMarks assessment bank. In addition to this, FullMarks in now also easier and faster to use as its new editor has been installed and thoroughly tested by 15 first-time users.

Other UCT societies have since expressed interest in co-hosting similar hackathons. We look forward to many more collaborations with student and educator groups wanting to add knowledge to our platforms, making it easily and freely accessible to all. One of Siyavula’s core objectives is to support communities in creating and contributing to the world of open educational resources. If you belong to a group of educators, a student committee or any other society and would like to contribute to Life Sciences, Maths or Physical Science knowledge or resources, we would love to support you along the way!

For more info:

Contact Bridget: Bridget@siyavula.com

The day started at 09h00, with all the volunteers arriving promptly to begin translating. A large amount of preparation had been done beforehand, including emailing everyone their assignments and help sheets the night before. This meant that once people had registered their attendance on arrival, they could sit down at a computer, login and access their assignment from their email account, which most of them had already picked up and read through. We have learned from our UCT hackathons that the process runs more smoothly if on arrival everyone gets to work straight away, and we break later on for a brief introductory presentation. It means that those that arrived early aren’t kept waiting while we wait for late comers before we can begin – it sets the right tone from the start and makes for a more productive day.

We made progress charts for each book, which were projected onto the wall at the front of the lab so that everyone could see the progress being made in real time. We took photographs of each volunteer, which were included in the projection with their name and their progress. In order to keep the progress charts up to date, we were checking in with everyone on their progress throughout the day, and then updating the spreadsheet, which reflected this progress. We felt this would be a good motivator for those involved, as they would be able to see how they were going, relative to their peers’ progress. It also meant that come the end of the day, we would all have a good indication of where we stood with all the books.

It didn’t take long for our volunteers to be finishing the shorter chapters, which were then handed over to a volunteer for editing and publishing. With ongoing sustenance in the form of tea, coffee and muffins, followed by a delicious lunch of sandwiches and bagels, spirits were high as everyone worked hard to get through their assignment. Some people were able to move onto three, sometimes four chapters, while those with longer, meatier chapters stuck with one assignment for the day. Either way it was great to see the progress being made on the translation of our books.

The day was captured on video, and volunteers were interviewed to find out why they had wanted to be involved and how the day had gone for them. Overall the volunteers found the day to be very enjoyable, with many asking when the next Hackathon would be so that they could invite their friends! Our team loves such positive feedback – it’s great when others take such an interest in our project, which we ourselves are so passionate about.

At 5pm Mark closed with a brief talk about Siyavula and going forward, with a big thank you to everyone that attended. Everyone was invited to go through to the tearoom for drinks, which was followed by a delicious spitbraai for supper.

Overall the day was a great success and we are so grateful to everyone who volunteered their Saturday for our project. Following on from this day, the fact that we were able to submit Grade 10 maths is a fantastic achievement! We are half way to finishing Grade 10 physical science too, and with some progress on Grade 11 maths, we are well on our way to having the entire series translated into Afrikaans.

A very big thank you to Stellenbosch University and Thinus Booysen for hosting us, as well as to everyone that attended. We couldn’t have done it without you!

We look forward to our next big translation day on Saturday 30 July at Stellenbosch University! Please sing up for it by following this link: http://siyavula-afrikaanstranslation2.eventbrite.com/

We are also running a FullMarks development sprint on the same day and in the same venue. For more information and to sign up please click here: http://fullmarksdevsprint.eventbrite.com/

Interested candidates should send a curriculum vitae and motivation letter to Mark Horner at mark.horner@shuttleworthfoundation.org. We would like to fill this position as soon as possible and will begin interviewing candidates from 15^th March 2011.

The successful candidate will be required to work in four primary areas (the relative weighting of these activities is negotiable, based on the candidate’s qualifications and experience).

1. FHSST / FullMarks content authoring and editing
   Working on our core products will require the candidate to:
   • be proficient in mathematics, science and information technologies;
   • be able to assess and review resources / tools and integrate them, as appropriate, into:
     1. FHSST books,
     2. FullMarks,
     3. Training courses, and
     4. Workshops; and
   • support the improvement and refining of the PDF generation process for texts from the Connexions platform. [Familiarity with LaTeX will be an advantage.]
2. Event support
   Our events are run by our team as a whole, with national demand, and this requires that the candidate be:
   • comfortable managing a group (10-15 people);
   • comfortable managing and training diverse groups (culture, socio-economic background etc.);
   • comfortable presenting to a large audience (~100 people); and
   • willing to travel within South Africa for periods of a few days.
3. Training workshops
   We conduct training on various platforms and tools that support both educators and learners to achieve improved collaboration and educational outcomes. This requires that the candidate:
   • will have to run technical training workshops with:
     1. educators,
     2. learners, and
     3. management staff;
   • be comfortable acting as the primary trainer;
   • be comfortable supporting a primary trainer; and
   • facilitate group discussions.
4. Technical support of all activities
   The candidate will be required to provide technical support at events and workshops showcasing the various tools and products.

In addition, the candidate needs to fit into the Siyavula team and the general working environment. This requires the candidate to:

1. be comfortable working in teams;
2. demonstrate a willingness to participate in group work, including:
   1. strategy discussions,
   2. brainstorming,
   3. workshop and course design, and
   4. product analysis;
3. be passionate about
   1. improving education both locally and globally, and
   2. the use of technology; and
4. embrace transparency and openness as a general operating procedure.

Basic day-to-day tasks require that the candidate have:

1. excellent writing skills;
2. a high-level of IT literacy;
3. excellent communication skills;
4. a high-level of independence and initiative; and
5. abundant enthusiasm.

Minimal formal requirements are a BSc. (Hons), BSc. Eng. (Hons) or higher degree. An education diploma would be significantly advantageous.

It would also be to the candidate’s advantage to:

1. be familiar with open-source software;
2. be familiar with Creative Commons licences;
3. have knowledge of or familiarity with openly licensed educational resources; and
4. be familiar with social media tools.

To begin, we provided a brief hands-on overview. Thereafter, OpenOffice.org Writer was used to add questions. As teachers did not bring their own questions, they did not finalise questions. Teachers got a good grasp of the tool. There were, however, some formatting  errors when importing questions. This was good as teachers were now able to correct any formatting mistakes.

Next, we covered class list creation, using the CSV file format, using Microsoft Excel. This was done very effectively and did not take up much time. Some errors were encountered on uploading, but again we could guide teachers to correct these. Class lists were successfully imported. Although the concatenation function was considered, it was not covered as this would only confuse teachers and, as is often the case, time was short.

As time was against us, we were not able to mark an actual test that teachers created. We were able to demo this functionality. Teachers were very impressed with this part of the training and could see how this could assist them with a more focused and strategic teaching approach.

The workshop concluded with a brief feedback session. The following were concerns raised by teachers:

• No access to Open Office at their schools
• Time required to work with the tool
• A follow-up session to consolidate their new skills with Fullmarks.

Overall, we accomplished our objective. Teachers feel they are able to assimilate their new found skills with Fullmarks into their daily teaching.

Cheers,

Not knowing anything about Bridge or exactly what the meeting would entail, I went with an open mind. I was pleasantly surprised to see my ex high-school Science teacher who now works for the Mindset Learning Channel. We immediately got talking about the education system and the problems we would need to address in order for South Africa to move forward. One key topic that continuously came up with many of the delegates was that we need to change the negative perception surrounding being a teacher. Children aspire to be Engineers and Doctors but it’s rare to find those who aim to be an educator someday. Who is going to teach their children?

Very quickly, following several such thought provoking conversations, I felt right at home. I learnt about various educational support projects running in South Africa. They all have closely linked value systems to that of Siyavula, and as our greatest asset is the rich library of Open Educational Resources we have compiled, the opportunities for collaboration is endless.

I soon learnt that the objective of the Bridge meeting was to provide a platform for various stakeholders to network. This allowed the complimentary interaction between those people with the development projects, those with the teaching skills and those wishing to fund aspects of the two. The diverse number of people allowed for an exciting and impassioned array of new ideas and collaborative prospects to be thrown around. Gaining fresh perspectives from passionate individuals is always invigorating.

A key point raised was that smaller groups with a refined focus were more prone to success and as soon as they extended themselves and became too ambitious they seemed to lose traction. Therefore we should strive to a cross pollination of skills and resources rather than try doing everything in isolation.

This is in fact the philosophy on which Siyavula is founded: if we could get teachers collaborating and sharing their skills and resources the work being done would be done in a fraction of the time, and possibly even at a higher quality.

Without knowing it, by attending this meeting I had now joined a community of practice amongst the most influential people outside the Department of Education.

This was the first of an ongoing series of meetings and I look forward to becoming an active member. I also look forward to pursuing the various individual relationships with projects that were established and exploring how we could learn from and build on each others’ successes.

Our adventure started at 5:30 on Friday morning when we met at the Cape Town International. Natalia suffered a bout of bad luck with a flat tyre on the N2 which caused her to miss her flight. Luckily determination saw the better of her and she soon joined us in Durban.

While waiting for our AMESA educators to arrive we relaxed in the North Beach Southern Sun bar with some coffee and cake. Everyone then registered, checked in and was treated to a buffet lunch before the workshop kicked off. Mark opened with a presentation on the use of Open Educational Resources and Connexions. Everyone was eager to participate and made steady progress, however the workshop was not without its fair share of gremlins like setting up Internet connections or converting content to OpenOffice.

The educators persevered and soon got the hang of it. The relaxed and social atmosphere continued throughout the day and into the night. Dinner was at the Havana Grill at the Sun Coast Casino where everyone chatted and laughed over an array of delicious dishes including Chilli Poppers and Cheesy Nachos, Steak, Lamb, Swordfish, and Panacotta and Crème brulee for dessert.

After a long day everyone headed back to the hotel to get a good nights rest. The Siyavula team convened in the bar for a night cap and to discuss Marks’ plans to take over the world and save education.

Saturday morning breakfast was served at 8:00, thereafter everyone gathered in the board room to continue with the uploading. Many teachers were successful in uploading and publishing their own work. Some teachers even managed to embed their Powerpoint presentations and upload videos. This was much more than we expected from our uploading sprint and were truly impressed with their dedication and enthusiasm.

We wrapped up at 12:30 which everyone felt was far too soon. The teachers were so focused on their work that they were reluctant to break for lunch, which was a tasty buffet consisting of local Durban flavours provided for by the hotel. However the Siyavula team had a flight to catch. Mark was convinced the GPS was taking us the wrong direction and, not a fan of asking for directions, decided to show us a little more of Durban than we expected.  Unbelievably, he managed to get us to the airport on time. We enjoyed our packed buffet lunches in the comfort of the Domestic Departures lounge and were soon on our way back to Cape Town.

We hope that all the educators left feeling inspired to continue the process and to keep the community of teachers using Open Educational Resources growing. We thank you for your hard work and enthusiasm!

The second of two sessions will take place at LEAP on Friday 12 November 2010 for a number of teachers from LEAP.

The first of two sessions will take place at LEAP on Friday 22 October 2010 for a number of teachers from LEAP.

The second of two sessions will take place at Cape Academy on Saturday 6 November 2010 for a number of teachers from the Philippi schools.

The first of two sessions will take place at Cape Academy on Saturday 23 October 2010 for a number of teachers from the Philippi schools.