Wesley Fryer’s recent blog post entitled ‘Sharing by default and encouraging others to share‘ prompted me to share this super video about Creative Commons, called ‘A Shared Culture.’
When I began teaching, I wanted to keep my good work to myself – I wanted that fun learning experience to be something I gave the kids in my classroom. In truth, I probably wanted recognition for my work (hey, I was only 22!).
Now, 10 years on, I believe the measure of a good teacher is how much they share. I know that imitation is the highest form of flattery. I don’t want to hold on to my best ideas/lessons/websites/activities/flipcharts etc etc – I want to share them so that more students and teachers can learn with them, build on them and improve them.
I am a great believer in collaboration, and know that the quality of work I produce with others, and the ideas and suggestions I gain from others, far exceeds the work I am capable of producing on my own.
Pass it on…
I totally agree with this sharing philosophy. I just don’t get why as teachers there is a tendency to operate in isolation – be it the classroom being a clearly defined territory, a teacher’s private domain, to laboured over resources not being shared amongst others. It is so important that we work collegially and by doing so learn from other, share with each other our ideas and best practice and save each other the burden of excessive workloads. It is so obvious and well worth the effort to foster. Creative commons, freeware, shared spaces like wikipedia and the wonderful exchange of ideas and support on twitter are great examples of how this sharing & collaboration can work. You do a great job of sharing your ideas on this blog too!
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Thanks Craig! Obviously, I completely agree. Especially about the workload side of things. That’s why I enjoy Twitter and blogging so much – you get so many ideas from other great teachers.
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