Turns out Mbilwi Secondary School has been doing a great job for many years.

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Quite frankly, my sympathy goes to the learners who have to share one book between four and cannot do their homework properly, while publishing house executives sit in plush offices dreaming up misleading copyright messages to intimidate teachers and learners.

EVEN THE NUMBER 1 science school in South Africa will benefit from having access to FHSST, Siyavula and OpenPress.

I was quite excited to see a press release from the Office of the Governor for the state of California: Governor Schwarzenegger Signs Legislation Furthering Digital Textbook Initiative. But then I noticed one of the components signed off:
SB 48 by Senator Elaine Alquist (D-San Jose) requires that any individual, firm, partnership or corporation that offers [...]

I will get the chance to build an open assessment bank. The community of teachers in SA is chomping at the bit for such a tool and I have had multiple requests for bank software that communities are already prepared to populate themselves. Providing the different groups with a single tool will allow them to feed off each others energy and allow us to begin with a bang. Working with existing communities also makes the tool much more sustainable.

As part of my Fellowship at the Shuttleworth Foundation I have the opportunity to try things. I’ve got Siyavula, OpenPress and now I’m toying with adding an open assessment bank to the mix.

The Inzalo Foundation is part of the R25.9B black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction approved by the shareholders. I found one SASOL media presentation explaining the scope of the transaction which has four major parts, one of which is the Inzalo Foundation. The Inzalo Foundation is funded by the dividends from a 1.5% share of SASOL (valued at R3.9B at the time of the media presentation).