Siyavula is running a repeat of the series of evening events that we held towards the end of 2010 at the Open Innovation Studio (OIS) in Cape Town. This series of events are taking place in Bellville at the Experilab, in order to reach teachers in the Northern Suburbs. Last night was the first of these evenings, and it was a success!

The Experilab (a great shop full of science paraphernalia that was next door to the former MTN Sciencentre at Canal Walk and that has since relocated to Bellville) was offered to us as a venue by the owners who attended these events last year, and felt that Northern Suburbs teachers would benefit from them too. When teachers arrive they can chat amongst themselves and to our team, but also browse the shop and get some inspiration for fun in the classroom or for their own children at home.

We had a good turnout of fourteen teachers who came from surrounding schools, and with some background music and drinks and snacks served, the atmosphere in the Experilab was sociable. At 18h45 Neels called for everyone to take a seat in the presentation room, and with the team introduced he was ready to begin.

Neels began by explaining what “open” means, with reference to its origins in the open source software community, where software was released freely and then tweaked and built upon by other programmers to suit their own needs and make improvements. This concept has now spread across to other spheres of content, and open copyright licenses have been created to cater for this need. Neels made specific mention of Creative Commons Licenses – Siyavula’s content is released under CC-BY, which is the Creative Commons By Attribution License which allows others to legally distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon our work, even commercially, as long as they credit us for the original creation. It gives educators the freedom to download, copy, share, edit, adapt, translate and contextualise our work, to suit their needs. Neels compared this to a traditional copyright license which grants you no freedoms whatsoever – content may not be reproduced, photocopied, stored in a data retrieval system, transmitted in any way, unless you have the express permission of the publisher. That is what makes OERs different: we want you to use our work, to share it, to adapt it and change it, to photocopy it and print it! All that we ask is that you acknowledge us as the original creator.

Neels went on to explore some examples of open content that can be found online. This is content that does not have to be paid for, and that is openly shared and available for use and download. Some of these include CK-12, OER Commons, Connexions, MIT Courseware, and Khan Academy videos. It’s a great feeling to share these resources with other people, and show them what is out there and can be used in the classroom, or as a resource to point learners to for additional subject information, or for anyone that would like to refresh their memory or learn more about a particular subject.

Searching the internet for educational content can be difficult, as a lot of educational content that you find has to be paid for, or is under a restrictive copyright license which makes using it difficult. But that is where we come in to play: we are finding open content for you, and through these evening events we would like to show you that you can incorporate it into your teaching. It can be an overwhelming process too, as there is just too much information and too many websites out there. But we are taking the time to sift through all of that for you, and point you at websites that you may find useful.

Neels showed an amazing animated video of a talk given by Sir Ken Robinson at the RSA last year – the link to it on YouTube can be found here. The drawings that are created really drive the message home: our education system was designed for a world that has long since changed; we are trying to prepare our learners for a future that is uncertain and unpredictable; children are living in the most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth, and yet we expect them to focus on one thing in the classroom and not be distracted. We are medicating our learners with drugs, instead of allowing them to flourish and learn in a way that is better suited to them. We cannot deny the fact that the world has changed, that our current learners were born into a world in which cellphones, computers and the internet are (mostly) the norm for them. Teaching methods need to become as innovative and interesting as the technology the youth use, and presented in a way that they can relate to, keeping up with the world that they live in, and not the world that we remember from years gone by.

An interesting comment made by one of the teachers is that with the release of the latest CAPS documents, our education system seems to be regressing, going back to the methods of teaching that have long since passed. We cannot change what the government has decreed as the way forward, but we can encourage you to work with what you have – to bring technology into the classroom in the best way you can; to speak your learners’ language, and to bring the world they know into your own subject, so that they can identify with it and find it inspiring and applicable to their own lives.

We look forward to the next five weeks of evening events. We encourage you to attend those evenings applicable to your subject (as well as others you may be interested in), by following the links for IT and CAT, Maths, Physical Science, English and Life Sciences, and registering online. These events are free, but spaces are limited to the first 25 educators that sign up. We hope to see you there!

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