After a hugely successful first Afrikaans translation Hackathon held in May at Stellenbosch University, we are very excited to announce our second translation event!

As a result of everyone's efforts at our previous Hackathon, we were able to successfully submit Graad 10 Wiskunde for the review process for the government approved textbook list!

To view our fully translated, CAPS aligned Graad 10 Wiskunde textbook, please click here! 

To view the video from our last Hackathon click here!

In our second translation Hackathon, we are eager to complete the translation of Graad 10 Wetenskap, as well as make further progress with translating the Grade 11 and 12 books. Once again we are calling on Stellenbosch first language Afrikaans sciences students, as well as any first language Afrikaans speakers with a background in the sciences, to help us in our quest to make high quality Afrikaans resources freely available throughout South Africa.

Further information:

Before the Hackathon we will email you your assignment, as well as the translation steps you will need to follow on the day.

Date: Saturday 30 July 2011

Time: Please arrive promptly at 08h30. The Hackathon will finish at 17h00, followed by supper for everyone that attends!

Venue: FIRGA, Engineering Faculty, Stellenbosch University (the same venue as previously). A map can be accessed here. Between E&E and Civil, enter the large glass doors and go up one level. There will be signs to guide you.  

RSVP: First, if you don't already have an account, please create one on Connexions. We need your username before the Hackathon so that we can add you to the relevant workgroup. Please register above - see the "Register" button above under "Ticket Information". Please register ASAP. We need to know numbers for catering purposes. 

Cost: Free! We will provide refreshments and food throughout the day. Please specify any special dietary requirements in the register form.

FullMarks Development Sprint

In addition to the translation of our Siyavula textbooks (formerly known as FHSST), we will also be running a FullMarks development sprint. FullMarks is our free and open online assessment bank for educators, and at the Hackathon we will be running a development sprint to improve FullMarks.

If you don't speak Afrikaans but know Python, (Plone - bonus!) or Java, and are interested in joining us for the day, please follow this link and register:  http://fullmarksdevsprint.eventbrite.com/

The above information for the Hackathon venue, time, etc applies to this sprint too.

Our Textbooks

The 'Physical Sciences for Grades 10, 11 and 12' and 'Mathematics for Grade 10, 11 and 12' series of textbooks were collaboratively authored by a community of volunteer educators, academics and professionals. These inspired volunteers seek to make this scientific knowledge freely and openly available to all learners and educators in South Africa. They are released under an open copyright licence, 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. This is similar to open source software, in that learners and educators are encouraged to download, copy, share and distribute our books legally at no cost. It also gives educators the freedom to edit, adapt, translate and contextualise them.

What is a Hackathon?

Our Hackathons on UCT campus run for 3 hours on a Tuesday evening, where a group of volunteers get together at a venue and contribute to our Free High School Textbooks.We provide free pizza and refreshments in exchange for our volunteers' brain power and time. These are fun yet productive evenings, aimed at upping the standard of our books, so that those using them in schools and education initiatives will have access to books of the highest possible standard, free of charge.

The term "hackathon" originates within the geek community, where one spends many hours - often through the night - hacking away at code. Such activities usually involve copious amounts of pizza, coffee and other snacks. This concept is no longer exclusive to them, but can also be applied to anyone that has ever spent their time and energy working away all night or collaboratively. 

We blog after each Hackathon we host, and you can read some of these posts here and here.

Who are we?

Siyavula is the umbrella under which we run our initiatives, which includes our Siyavula textbooks. Siyavula is a Shuttleworth Foundation seeded project which supports the development of local curriculum-aligned Open Education Resources (OERs) and communities of educators sharing and collaborating. All our activities focus on the open sharing of educational resources (http://www.siyavula.com/)  and include a selection of free and open FET Science and Mathematics textbooks (www.fhsst.org), openly licensed GET learner workbooks (http://siyavula.cnx.org/lenses/siyavula) and an open assessment bank called FullMarks (www.fullmarks.org.za), for the sharing and accessing of test and exam questions with answers. We have just launched our mobile front-end, making access to these free resources on-line even easier - point your phone at m.siyavula.cnx.org

Contact us:

Website: http://www.siyavula.com/

E-mail: bridget@siyavula.org.za

Telephone: 021 469 4771