That's one reason I like the idea of sharing." Beta's words resonated with me as I watched Dean Shareski's keynote video address, Sharing: The Moral Imperative, and I was drawn back to the distant past. When I first started teaching, an experienced colleague invited me into the treasures of her filing cabinet. To this day I am thankful to her, for within this 3-drawer, metal, giant were resources that would go on to save my time and my sanity, and would ultimately make my lessons more enriching. Her generosity enabled me to not only benefit from her experience, but it allowed me the time to take what she had done and adapt her resources to fit my own students and goals. There are probably many teachers who have encountered a 'filing cabinet saviour', and it is this type of sharing that Dean Shareski is referring to in his keynote address.
Actually, Shareski goes even further by defending Ewan Mcintosh's quote, "Sharing, and sharing online specifically, is not in addition to the work of being an educator. It is the work." If, as Shareski suggests, we are at the beginning of a 'sharing evolution', does this mean that we, as educators, have an 'obligation' to share with each other? David Wiley has spoken about how it is the "obligation of institutions to teach not only the students in the building, but beyond." Shareski suggests that teachers have an obligation to share with each other. Given that teachers have not signed formal contracts promising to share their resources online, there is no legal obligation here. Therefore, the obligation spoken of must be a moral one, and one that is bound by gratitude, duty or responsibility. And then, this begs several questions. Are most people altruistic? Should we help others? If we help others is it because of the good feeling we get, or?
There is another thought that can be taken from Shareski's keynote, and that is the common and compelling instinct we have to avoid re-inventing the wheel. Although there is great validity in the process of an activity, there is also sincere value in being able to learn from others efforts and ideas. |