by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano Cross posted from Langwitches Blog
I am back on my soapbox…
…because I continue to see great things happening in classrooms, but get blank stares, when I ask, if these things are being shared beyond the school building.
…because I watch as administrators feel the need to “protect” their faculty from “one more thing to do”.
…because I continue to hear fear of transparency, competition, privacy and technology skills and tech phobia.
Setting up my soapbox to raise awareness of the “moral imperative of sharing” for teachers (Dean Shareski) goes back to his keynote in 2010 at the K-12 Online Conference. Since then I have stepped on that soapbox via my blog and at conferences advocating for the IMPORTANCE and NECESSITY of sharing.
George Couros, recently published 4 Reasons People Don’t Blog, which are in essence the same reasons why people don’t share (just substitute “blogging” for “sharing”)
Blogging is useless
I have no time
I’m a private person
No one cares what I have to say
He closes his blog post by pointing out the importance of sharing as an integral component of learning as well as underline “the willingness of others”
I have learned a ton not only from my own blog, but from benefitting from others that have been willing to share their teaching and learning with me, and because of that, as Dean Shareski stated, I am better off for the willingness of others to share.
I DO want to understand WHY it seems so hard for some many educators to share…but only in order to build an airtight argument that SHARING best practices, reflections and documentation of learning is the essential fabric of education and the building block of networking, growing and moving forward.
We need to stop looking at all the reasons why educators DON’T SHARE and start looking at and DOING all the things WHY we NEED TO SHARE.
So here is my list: 3 Things Why You (as an Educator) Should Share
1. The shift of a culture of consumers to producers is built on sharing and disseminating. Our world, and in particular the world of our students, is build on the culture of sharing. Ex. Sharing your status on Facebook, adding a book review on Amazon, leaving a comment on a product you purchased online, photos on Instagram and videos on Snapchat and YouTube. Educators need to acknowledge the shift outside of the classroom and take advantage of the shift for learning with our students.
2. Painting the picture of teaching and learning in your school Too many other people (non-educators, policy makers, politicians, media, etc.) are painting a grim picture of the teaching profession, teaching in general, schools and student learning. It is time to become our own storytellers. Sharing student successes and teachers’ professional and continuous learning MUST overshadow and outnumber the negative press and reputation that has been building up.
3. The future of learning is social and build on and around Professional Learning Networks.
Networking is built on a concept of sharing. Networking is defined by the Merriam_Webster dictionary as “the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions”. In order for an exchange to take place, someone has to step up to SHARE. Without sharing there is no network. Someone has to give and someone has to take, without giving the machinery of how a network works will not function. In our Information Age, where information is being generated at exponential speed, we need to rely on a network to filter quality and relevant information for us. It is our responsibility to be the filter and curator for others as well.
So from 3 reasons WHY you should share… on to 3 Things you can do to start sharing…
3 Things What You (as an Educator) Can Do to Start Sharing
1. Stop resisting change We need educators, in particular administrators, to stop resisting change, take a deeper look at the world around them and LEAD by modeling! Sharing is and needs to be a method, a strategy and a technique to improve teaching and learning practices, benefiting an entire school learning community.
2. Create a workflow to document teaching and learning Great things are happening in your classroom and in your schools. Learn to embed documenting best practices, student learning and action research in a digital form to be able to easily disseminate via a blog, twitter, photo or video sharing site.
3. Start small. Add a comment on a blog you read, share a resource, a link, a book or an article you have learned from on Twitter. Let students take over in documenting learning in their classroom. Use your cell phone to take photos of learning in action, write a descriptive comment under the photo and share on a blog, Instagram, a classroom site, blog, Twitter or Facebook account.
You can start sharing right here by adding your reasons WHY educators should share and WHAT you can DO to start sharing?