Within a 12 hour period we passed both 500 users and 5000 items on FullMarks. I’ve compiled a map of traffic locations between the launch date of August 27th and today so you can see that we’re getting uptake in place where we are not yet running any workshops. I’m excluding demo users and content in that count so it represents real usage.
It came to pass recently that we (and by we I mean just short of 100 volunteers from all over the world!) edited the FHSST textbooks in the space of 9 days. In writing this blog post reviewing what happened and what comes next, I have realised that it was an incredibly stupid thing to even attempt (impossible actually) and I’m still amazed that we were able to successfully complete the task, all due to the generosity of volunteers.
- Access books on a.nnotate.com (links available on http://www.markhorner.net):
- Mathematics Grade 10: http://a.nnotate.com/php/pdfnotate.php?d=2010-10-08&c=SHkkygd2
Mathematics Grade 11: http://a.nnotate.com/php/pdfnotate.php?d=2010-10-08&c=dHbcYbbw
Mathematics Grade 12: http://a.nnotate.com/php/pdfnotate.php?d=2010-10-08&c=M4p01euS
Physical Science Grade 10: http://a.nnotate.com/php/pdfnotate.php?d=2010-10-08&c=3sCc82qY
Physical Science Grade 11: http://a.nnotate.com/php/pdfnotate.php?d=2010-10-08&c=hW2hgnQP
Physical Science Grade 12: http://a.nnotate.com/php/pdfnotate.php?d=2010-10-08&c=enzaEmdn
- Select an exercise in any book that has no solution and no annotation about a solution on FullMarks
- Highlight the question and an annotation window pops up – annotate the question saying that you are working on a solution
- Create a question on FullMarks with the full step-by-step model solution and finalise it (see details a bit later for some guidance on this)
- View your finalised question and answer on FullMarks – copy the url
- Return to a.nnotate.com and add the url you copied to the annotation in the book that you created in step 3
- Log in to www.fhsst.org (this is at the very bottom of the FHSST page)
- Create a short url by going to www.fhsst.org/shorten selecting “Shorten url” option from the menu and pasting the full question url into the box and submitting
- Copy the resulting code from the short url (i.e. just copy XYZ when the short url is www.fhsst.org/answers/XYZ) and add this to the annotation in the book as well
- Return to step 1. and repeat for another question
This will ensure that we have a short code to redirect learners to a full model solution for every question in the book. They will also then be able to see similar questions on FullMarks as well. We have adapted this slightly for the hackathons but always ensuring that the files on a.nnotate.com have the latest information regarding what has been and is being worked on.
| Hackathon Process | ||
| Get a paper chapter assignment from the relevant Siyavula team member so they can manage what is being worked on – do this to help them even if you can follow ideal process. | ||
| Buddy up with someone to discuss any issues which might arise. Some questions may not be clear or the text may have an error or you may just want some input on the simplest way to approach the solution. | ||
| Access to the internet | Computer but no access to the internet | No computer |
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This will ensure that we have a short code to redirect learners to a full model solution for every question in the book. They will also then be able to see similar questions on FullMarks as well.
I’m very passionate about the problem of affordable textbooks (and academic publishing more generally), especially in maths. I came from an underprivileged background and I know there are many brilliant people out there who have no opportunity to flourish due to lack of materials. I also have a friend in a third-world country (PNG) who is a teacher, and I could imagine the benefit he would derive from a textbook scheme as you have organised in South Africa.
Once this is complete we will turn to suggestions and improvements related to the conceptual explanations incorporation, where appropriate, links to the Khan Academy videos and the PHET Simulations. From there we can develop the teachers’ guides and submit the books to the formal review process at the DBE for inclusion on the approved books list. Should they be included schools will be able to purchase FHSST textbooks as part of the official procurement process but at approximately 1/5 of the cost of publishers alternatives.
--> 5 Comments » Just a quick post to let people know that the FHSST v0.5 books are up on a.nnotate.com – this is primarily to support hackathons but will also be used to capture errata and suggestions.
I have a Fellowship from the Shuttleworth Foundation to work in the area of Open and Collaborative Resources. My Fellowship enables me to work on a number of projects in this area. I believe in the liberation of information and supporting education in South Africa.
I manage the Siyavula project, where I co-ordinate the development of a comprehensive set of Open Educational Resources (OER) supporting the South African National Curriculum.
Along with Sam Halliday, I co-founded the Free High School Science Texts (FHSST) project which launched in 2002 and has collaboratively produced a set of openly licenced science and mathematics textbooks
In collaboration with Steve Song, Interconnectedness Fellow, I founded OpenPress, a project to deploy a print aggregation service to support teachers.
I also run FullMarks, an open assessment bank, to help teachers rapidly generate tests, capture results and access reports based on those results.
I have a PhD in physics from the University of Cape Town and conducted my research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California on the results from the STAR experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
My blog highlights the progress on my various projects and contains thoughts on the OER space as well as life in general.
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