NWP curriculum advisors embrace Siyavula

Curriculum advisors in the North West Province have joined the global Open Educational Resources (OERs) movement, leveraging the educational opportunities that exist as a result of the partnership between the North West Province Department of Education (NWED) and the Siyavula initiative.

The NWED supports its educators with openly licensed educational resources made available by Siyavula, an initiative developed within the Shuttleworth Foundation with the intention to support educators and curriculum advisors to access and share educational resources more effectively.

OERs allow for the re-packaging, contextualisation and improvement of educational resources by communities of practice. This not only supports load-sharing, professional development and empowerment, but also creates a sense of professional community among the participants.

In multiple sessions delivered during February and March, Siyavula met with and delivered training to all of the curriculum advisors in the North West Province. During these sessions the curriculum advisors identified the most pertinent obstacles facing them. The most pressing issues included large classes often consisting of learners from multiple grades, lack of learner and teacher support material and working in isolation with limited resources.

Said Mark Horner, the Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow for Open and Collaborative Resources: “Siyavula's strategy of supporting voluntary communities of educators and providing them with the tools to exchange and share their teaching materials, resources and best practices fitted well with the needs identified by the advisors.”

“We believe that by equipping the curriculum advisors with the information and strategies to build high performing communities of practice, they will go on to support such communities among the educators in their districts.”

The curriculum advisors were introduced to the theory of healthy communities of practice, provided with openly licensed educational resources and trained on using the software tools for sharing educational resources. The Siyavula project team also worked with Hélène Smit, an author, researcher and specialist in the field of high performing groups such as communities of practice. She delivered training similar to that which she offers on the MBA programme for UCT business schools on how to facilitate and support effective groups.

Mr. Mothusi Sebogwa, Chief Education Specialist for the GET (General Education & Training) band of the North West Department of Education, welcomed this as he believes educators and advisors should be exposed to the same world-class training as other knowledge workers in IT, finance or consulting in the corporate sector.

Smit said that her corporate clients rely extensively on effective collaboration in groups for creative contributions from employees and commented that the motivation for educators and advisors to collaborate varies from one individual to the next. Yet, for most it includes access to educational resources such as lesson plans, worksheets, exercises and question papers, as well as the support and encouragement of fellow educators and the sharing of best practices.

The curriculum advisors were encouraged to use the open educational resources provided as a starting point and to change, adapt and share them with fellow educators to best meet their needs. These resources cover all learning areas from grades R to 9 and are available online on the Connexions platform in English and Afrikaans. In addition to the lectures on communities of practice, the advisors were also trained on searching this database of curriculum-aligned content for specific content related to their field. Other topics included downloading and adapting existing materials and uploading teaching material they authored and wish to share with other educators in the North West and the rest of the country. Their material and other locally relevant material are available under an open copyright license to all educators at http://siyavula.cnx.org/lenses/siyavula.

Through their participation in this initiative the NWED is joining a host of education departments across the globe that are turning to OERs to support their educators. These include the Digital Textbook Initiative in California, USA, the Open Education Resource Portal for New Zealand schools, and the Dutch governments Wikiwijs project. Educators who want to know more about the Siyavula project, communities of practice or the openly licensed content can simply visit the website at http://siyavula.org.za. The site also has a blog featuring the latest news findings and developments at Siyavula.

The Shuttleworth Foundation is founded in an open philosophy that includes the promotion of open source, open standards and open access to knowledge with the belief that sharing stimulates change and broadens horizons. It is the further belief of the Shuttleworth Foundation that this open philosophy is key to development and an enabler for education. http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/