Highway Africa News Agency

The Digital Freedom exposition highlighted the relationship between education and a culture of digital freedom. The South African government spoke of the policy decisions which favour an approach that includes Open Source Software, and attempts to harness the digital revolution.

A number of the keynote speakers highlighted areas that digital freedom could enable progress, but there was a resounding agreement that education stands to benefit enormously from digital freedom.

Derek Keats, executive director of Information and Communication services at the University Western Cape (UWC) outlined the strategy UWC had taken to integrate information technology within campus life, providing capactiy building for students, while engaging with digital culture. Keats highlighted the UWC initiated African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) project.

The AVOIR project utilises digital technologies to connect groups across Africa, providing common resources and training via it's online portal, and enthusiastic staff. AVOIR has an increasing presence in Africa, with multiple institutions in multiple countries forming partnerships. AVOIR has been operating for 3 years, and is starting to bear fruits, building capacity across the continent, powered by free and open source software.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Mr. Enver Surty discussed the real challenges a digitally supplemented education at primary and secondary level faces in South Africa. Approximately 30% of schools currently use computers for teaching and learning, with only 2% of those schools actually connected to the Internet. The Gauteng province is at the forefront to enable schools to engage in the digital age, but still faces a severe lack of infrastructure. The reality in South Africa is that most schools need to construct solid buildings before they can even consider putting ICT infrastructure in, hence the need for an integrated development strategy. The government has mandated that by 2013 no child will leave a government school in South Africa without basic computer literacy; and there is obviously a long road ahead.

President Thabo Mbeki has challenged the education department to be more aggressive in it's ICT policies, to push reform forward.

The minister discussed the new guidelines the South African government has in place for utilising Free/Open Source Software within schools. The policies provide a framework for both Proprietary and Open source software within schools, but does not force schools to either side of the argument. The department plans to use ICTs to promote basic literacy and numeracy.

While open source software was the golden child of the conference, the need for free and open educational content was stressed heavily. A number of initiatives are currently operating both globally and locally, but there is still a long road before local teachers will truly be able to access free content, to use, to re-invent it, and remix it. Without freedom to do so, teachers will always be hindered by content that restricts their rights to change, improve and republish content in the same way that Wikipedia allows.

The South African education portal (Thuthong) was postured as a significant leap forward, providing digital content like lesson plans, course outlines and other resources, with forums for teachers to discuss topics, interact with other teachers and the department.

Barbara Kurshan from a revolutionary project called Curriki suggests a complete change in how we approach education and qualifications. The Curriki project hopes to succeed by building content that is globally applicable, and localisable by teachers and educators. She suggested the concept of stitching a qualification together from multiple courses taken across the globe. She called on the audience to imagine receiving a qualification which had components from universities and institutions across the globe. She highlighted a South African project to compile high school textbooks free from license restrictions, which will hopefully empower learners and teachers alike.

What was clear from all the speakers was the imperative need for open content coupled with capacity development, including staff development and training. The South African government has a number of policies in place to get technology to schools, but technology is useful if it comes with the skills and resources that are useful to teachers. Content free from license restrictions would allow for teachers to constantly improve existing resources, and share in the benefits collectively.

Digital freedom for teachers and educators would vastly improve the quality and quantity of content used in schools and learning institutions.