FundaOER, a brand new South African Open Educational Resources (OER) platform, was launched during the 4th Symposium on Teacher Education for Inclusive Teaching (2-4 July 2019). With funda meaning ‘to learn (study, read)’ in isiZulu, the aim of the platform is to provide a repository of OERs to advance teaching and learning in Initial Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development in the South African context. Articles, factsheets, videos and other types of materials, covering different themes and phases are freely available on the platform, as it is open to be used by everyone.
The platform
FundaOER is a South African OER platform which was created by VVOB South Africa as part of the Teaching and Learning for Inclusive Education (TL4IE) project. The TL4IE project was funded by the EU, Belgium and Flanders. A consortium consisting of VVOB, Inclusive Education South Africa (IESA), North West University (NWU), the University of the Free State (UFS) and the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) initiated the creation of the platform, which was led by VVOB.
Open Educational Resources
The platform has been designed to offer a wide collection of free and open resources to providers of both pre-service and in-service teachers. Different types of resources can be found on the platform, ranging from articles, factsheets, and guides to video materials, and covering different themes and phases. The materials can be used by educators for self-study and inspiration, and by in-service and pre-service providers as part of their training materials. When used appropriate acknowledgements should however be given.
Bambanani Series
One of the resources that can be found on the FundaOER platform is VVOB’s Bambanani video series. These videos illustrate how teachers are teaching inclusively in South African classrooms. They focus on teaching numeracy and literacy in the Foundation and Intermediate phases and are available in English, with subtitles in Sesotho, isiZulu and isiXhosa. To support participation and learning by all learners, the teachers in the clips differentiate their teaching methodologies, content and assessment strategies and classroom environment.
Sharing is caring
To grow the platform, educators and service providers are encouraged to share relevant content. Do you know of an open educational resource worth sharing? Fill out the submission form.
