Notes from Millie D

This was an interested session as it highlighted the development of lesson sharing towards a system for online curriculum sharing.  I will admit I’ve used many of the sources that Rob and Kevin highlight during their session.  I’ve faced a lot of the same frustration that there wasn’t a system as simple to use as Google but offer the all of the Web 2.0 goodness that YouTube contains when it comes to lesson plans.  I hope teachforward.org provides the right mixture.

I would have to agree with the challenges that go into developing this type of environment.  They’ve definitely put a lot of thought and insight into coming up for solutions for these challenges.  I particularly like the concept that licensing could be an issue (aka teachers pay teachers) but if we could adopt the creative common licensing we can adapt lesson and move forward where the children we work with win!  Isn’t that what the purpose of having lesson available online anyway?

It would be interesting, if there were a tool that combines all of the features that Rob and Kevin were looking for, to see if it would be blocked in schools.  Initially TeacherTube was blocked because of the “video” nature of the site and it was too similar to YouTube.    I understand the administrators’ perspective that they’re CYA (that would be calling your attorney) by blocking it and having people prove the worthiness of the site being unblocked but our students are being taught that something new is considered dangerous.  Unfortunately by the time these sites get unblocked the educational value can be lost and unrecoverable.

Update:  I just went to check out their site and noticed that it links to curriki.org.  I would be curious what happened or how their work evolved.

Powered by ScribeFire.