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Free science textbooks coming soon
Started in October 2002 by a group of young South African scientists, the
Free High School Texts (FHSST) project is aiming to revolutionise access to
learning materials by developing a complete set of high school science textbooks
that are free of authors', publishers' and editors' royalties and in line with
the new South African curriculum. This initiative comes in response to the
severe lack of educational resources that is evident in many parts of South
Africa, and is being driven by a committed team who believe that improving
education for all is a key step in building a successful country. The
royalty-free textbooks which FHSST aims to produce will cost a fraction of the
price of currently available texts and will go a long way towards addressing the
needs of schools which may not have been fortunate enough to have had them in
the past.
One of the unique features of this project is that, since the beginning, it
has progressed almost entirely through the voluntary efforts of individuals
wishing to make a positive contribution to science education in South Africa. In
2006, these efforts were rewarded when FHSST received a massive boost from The
Shuttleworth Foundation in South Africa, who agreed to provide funding for a
2-year period as part of their commitment to improving learners' access to
science education resources. The funding is being used to ensure that textbooks
for Mathematics and the Physical Sciences are written and ready for distribution
by the end of 2007. This is achieved through the work of dedicated coordinators
who ensure that steady progress is maintained by recruiting volunteers,
responding to queries and contributing to content development.
Writing and editing progress
The project has advanced in many ways since then and, as of the end of August
2006, most of the content for the textbooks has been written. The books are
currently undergoing careful editing to ensure not only that they satisfy the
requirements of the new National Curriculum Statement, but also that activities,
discussion topics and exercises are included to make the textbooks interesting
and relevant for the learners who use them. In addition, the FHSST books will
aim to provide learners with a taste of the many exciting and varied
applications of science and mathematics in the world around them, and also of
the career opportunities in this field. However, no project can be successfully
completed until it has been evaluated by the very people for whom it is
intended. To this end, FHSST plans to conduct classroom trials in order to gain
valuable input from teachers and learners regarding aspects of the books such as
content, layout, interest and activities. Since the textbooks will be used by
many second-language English speakers, another important part of the trials will
also be to ensure that the texts are simple and easy to understand.
New interactive web-site
The coordinators of the textbooks are quick to point out that much of the
success of the project lies in the hands of its many volunteers. They are even
quicker to highlight the fact that almost anyone can contribute. The new
interactive FHSST website launched in March
2006, now makes it easy for anyone with a browser and an internet connection to
be part of the project. The website allows people to become involved in writing,
editing and recruiting, while open discussion and a sense of community among
volunteers all over the world is facilitated through online discussion forums.
Despite the progress on the books, urgent help is still needed in a number of
these areas and potential volunteers are urged to register online in order to
access a choice of available assignments. Content can be submitted in any
editable electronic format.
Competitions
In case the opportunity of contributing to a project such as this is not
enough of an incentive for potential volunteers, another means of drawing people
to the project has been to hold competitions. While the goal of the first
competition was to generate content for the books, the second was designed to
encourage individuals in the workplace to write about the applications of
science and mathematical principles in their field of work. A third competition,
aimed specifically at educators, will be held during September and October.
First, second and third prizes of R5 000, R3 000 and R2 000, respectively, are
on offer, and all further details are available on the FHSST website.
Links with other educational initiatives
Through all of these exciting developments, an additional key objective of
FHSST remains to support other educational initiatives, by providing a content
resource which will enable organisations to deliver their educational services
more effectively and efficiently without duplication. In order to achieve this,
the project has linked up with organisations like the tuXlabs project, Ikamva
Lisezandleni Zethu, TeachOut and the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory. In addition
FHSST is collaborating with Sun's Global Education and Learning Community and
The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education and also has
very close ties with The Shuttleworth Foundation's Open Source group. It is
through building these relationships that FHSST hopes to become part of a much
broader sharing of information on both a local and global scale.
The only one that's still going!
It is never easy to motivate individuals to contribute their time towards a
project for which the only reward is knowing that you have been part of
something which will make a difference in many lives. In spite of this, FHSST
remains the most successful volunteer-driven, textbook-focused project in the
world. Numerous other projects, both pure volunteer projects such as the Free
Curriculum Project and the OpenTextBook Project and funded projects like the
California Open Source Textbook Project struggled to get off the ground. But
FHSST, with its driven volunteer base, has continued to recruit and produce
content over the past 4 years. This in itself, is an admirable achievement.
What the future holds
There is still a great deal of work to be done, but the future looks bright
for FHSST. Current funding will ensure that textbooks for the Physical Sciences
and Mathematics are completed by the end of 2007, while the possibility of
producing books for the Life Sciences and Computer Literacy is becoming a
growing reality. This may well be an exciting opportunity for the expansion of
the current project! The final phase of the project will be to enlist sponsors
to fund the printing and distribution of the books to all the learners who so
desperately need them, and this will be the time when the real fruits of many
years of hard work will be seen.
Anyone who would like to be involved in this dynamic and exciting project, is
encouraged to visit the FHSST website and
sign up to help! Alternatively, those who are interested in the project, but do
not want to actively contribute, can still sign up for a monthly newsletter
which provides updates of project activities. - FHSST
More information:
 FHSST
website
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