Openness and Sharing

Photo Credit: @superamit via Compfight cc

     Lately I have been thinking of what does it mean to be an open educator.  One of the reasons is because a group of educators called The Fellowship of the Open Spokes, which I am a part of, has been discussing this very topic.  The other reason is because most of this school year I have been thinking about ways to make my colleagues at school share what they are doing in their classrooms. 

What does “open” mean?

Some people take it to mean being open on-line and blogging about your practice and sharing your successes and asking for feedback from colleagues about how you can do things better.  To me it starts as simply as sharing in your school and inviting colleagues into your classroom to see what you are doing and starting conversations about educational practices.  I don’t mean talk about just the “techie” things you do.  I mean talk about that great art lesson or math project.  I know a lot of teachers feel that their “techie” colleagues only value ideas using technology.  We need to celebrate all kinds of learning and teaching, even by sharing our failures so that we can learn from our mistakes. 

Open also means sharing resources on-line, using creative commons and allowing your work to be re-mixed as Sheri Edwards discusses here. 

You might not know it but you already are an open educator if you are using such curating tools as Pinterest.  You are creating boards that can be viewed by others and putting resources together to be used, whether for work or pleasure.

Some reasons people are hesitant to share. 

I have nothing important to share. What if it isn’t good enough?
The following video, "Obvious to You, Amazing to Others," is your answer.

This is my idea and I do it every year. 

Sharing is reciprocal and you will get many more ideas if you share yours.

I feel exposed and vulnerable. 

I’ve been there.  I have felt like that and I sometimes still feel like that and all I can say is that the feeling starts to fade after you see the rewards of sharing. 

Why it is important to share and be open.

Photo Credit: cbucky via Compfight cc

So we can learn from each other.  There is no original idea.  Everything comes from somewhere, some inspiration or a re-mix of something else. Every little bit that everyone contributes can be changed and made into something new. 

The collective is stronger than the individual. Two heads are better than one so think of the power of many. 

We need to practice what we teach our students.  If we want them to be collaborating and sharing their ideas then we need to be doing it ourselves as well. 

If we share our successes as well as our mistakes, everyone can learn from them and offer advice on how to improve. 

Things I have done to be an open educator and the rewards for my classroom and myself.

Joining Twitter 

Because of joining Twitter I:

-       began Mystery Skyping – students LOVE it

-       learned about Genius Hour and began it in my classroom

-       joined a global classroom project

-       joined various chats about education

-       learned about lots of other ideas for the classroom

-       followed many links to great articles, talks and books that are shaping me as an educator
-   connected with many educators I would never have met before Twitter

-       joined ETMOOC which taught me so much (read about it here)
    

Blogging 

I began this valuable reflective practice that makes me really think about everything that I do in my classroom

Vlogging  (Video Blogging)

It is similar to the blogging and allowed me to feel connected to a stronger community and receive feedback on my thoughts.  It taught me a lot about what kind of learner I am because I have been forced to share weekly in contrast to blogging, which I could choose not to do.

School team sharing at a district event (Engaging the Digital Learner Dinner Series)
Sharing (along with others from my school) with my own district what kind of learning and teaching is happening in my school showed me there were so many successes to celebrate.   Here is a video about the  Innovative Learning at Woodward Hill Elementary. 

Sharing and sharing online specifically, is not in addition to the work of being an educator.  It is the work. (Ewin McIntosh)

That is a powerful quote and you may disagree with it at first.  In the following video titled, “Sharing: The Moral Imperative” Dean Shareski talks convincingly about how it is true.  (The video is about 25 minutes)

Another place to hear about great stories of openness is Alan Levine’s site,  True Stories of Openness.

I hope you will start to share and be open and make all of us a little better because of it.  I look forward to hearing your stories in being open.