Open Sourcing Education
in South Africa

Mark Surman
Open Philanthropy Fellow

22.07.07

Open sourcing education?

Today's talk

Shuttleworth Foundation vision.

Open (source) education projects in South Africa (and globally.

Connecting into the free and open source community.

South Africa

Tremendous opportunity ...

... but struggling to innovate and compete.

Foundation vision

Foundation vision

Foundation vision

Foundation vision

Some education gaps

Poor access to computers and Internet.

One text book in classroom.

Weak maths, science and analysis skills.

Ecosystem approach.

TuxLabs

Access to computers, Internet and educational content.

Linux-based computer labs in 200+ South African schools.

Sustained by Inkululeko, volunters and local entreprenuers.

Free Text Books

Royalty free text books, written and maintained by volunteers.

Grade 10 12 science and math complete, now scaling to more.

Department of Education partnership in works.

Kusasa

Students gain analysis and logic skills by learning programming.

P2P, 'explore, discover and learn' approach built around Squeek and Python.

Early stage development now, pilots in 2008.

Open education movement

Networking with open education activists.

South Africans leverage and learn globally.

Potential for policy change by collaborating with UNESCO, iCommons, etc.

Challenges

Finding and grooming new leaders.

Replicating, scaling and sustaining pilots.

Getting policy makers on board, and implementing policy decisions.

Learning from open source

Managing textbook communities
-> massive peer production.

Working across many languages, balancing local and global.

Building global networks,
and movements.

Why does it matter?

If we are to lift Africa from her current circumstances, we will need a generation of learners that are gifted with curiosity about the world, and the tools to understand and shape that world.

Mark Shuttleworth

Open Sourcing Education
in South Africa

http://www.slideshare.net/msurman/
open-sourcing-education-ubuntu-live

22.07.07

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www.shuttleworthfoundation.org

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www.shuttleworthfoundation.org

Vision: a generation of
South Africans with the
skills, tools and motivation to be innovators and leaders.Education+IntellectualpropertyWireless + telecom

programs

Vision: a generation of
South Africans with the
skills, tools and motivation to be innovators and leaders.Education+IntellectualpropertyWireless + telecom

programscollaborativeopenleveraged

valuesVision: a generation of
South Africans with the
skills, tools and motivation to be innovators and leaders.

Vision: a generation of
South Africans with the
skills, tools and motivation to be innovators and leaders.Education+IntellectualpropertyWireless + telecom

programscollaborativeopenleveraged

values