I recently bumped into a friend at an education Conference. This friend is what I consider a thought leader in education. He is a well-known speaker and author and a person who many educators deservingly look up to for both guidance and wisdom. I thought that I would take advantage of the encounter by asking for a guest post for SmartBlog on Education, an education blog with which I am associated. He must have been having a bad day based on his response.
“I am tired of teaching everyone”, he said.
Knowing how much this person always offers to all who listen, this reaction was out of character and a clear indication of a frustrating day. Sharing is a learned behavior. It is not a behavior common to everyone. It can be easily abused and discouraged. If a person shares and gets the feeling that his or her sharing is not appreciated or under-valued, that spigot of sharing may quickly be turned off.
My teaching career started about two days after the last Dinosaur died in the eyes of many. Back in the day there was not a great deal of sharing. People would share advice very quickly, but lessons were kept under lock and key of the filing cabinet. It was at the end of the year if one was lucky enough to know a retiring teacher that the sharing took place. If someone from your department were retiring, on the last day of their service there would be a gathering in their room. The File cabinet would be opened and the sharing would begin. Files, annotated books, tests, lessons, worksheets, overheads, and dittoes would all be bestowed onto the junior members of the department. The senior members actually got the empty file cabinets. The senior members of the department always had the largest collection of file cabinets.
That was then and this is now! Sharing has become part of the culture of teaching. It is the currency of social media. We can’t be just takers. If we are using social media to gain information, we should have an obligation to provide information as well. It does not have to be original. It can be something that we learned from others. In Twitter terms that would be a ReTweet or an RT. Never assume people know what you know. Always share information at all levels of expertise. Social Media has people from all levels participating in the exchange of ideas.
Every person has a different level of understanding and participation in social media. Some folks read more blog posts than others. Not everyone reads the same Blogs. If you find a good post share it. There are hundreds of thousands of educators on social media. Most Blogs do not have those numbers reading their posts each day. A good post needs to be shared. “A rising tide raises all boats.” The more we share, the better off our profession will be.
Also keep in mind that everyone has a different Personal Learning Network. No two people are following the exact same list of people on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook. If you see something of value, share it. Others may not have seen it. Even if they did, your emphasis on it may cause them to view it differently. Never underestimate your influence on others.
Education is about the free exchange of ideas. The exchange part is where the sharing comes in. Without sharing, there is no exchange. At one time content was a commodity that was doled out for a price by institutions that housed the texts that contained the content. That is no longer the case. A combination of content on the Internet as well as the advance of social media and it is a whole new paradigm. Of course this only works if exchanges of information takes place.
If we are to benefit from the Internet as a profession or a society we need to feel an obligation to be more than takers. We need to be makers and exchangers as well. We need to keep the exchange alive by not counting on the few, but by involving the many. We need to believe in the premise of Share and Share alike.
I am still waiting for that guest post that I requested.
My Island View 
Great post, Tom! As one who started at the end of the dinosaurs, you captured exactly how intentionally isolated we kept ourselves. Our lessons happened behind closed doors, working their magic only on our students. Today, we must participate in a “free exchange of ideas,” and build connections as part of maintaining ourselves as Works in Progress. We need to continue to grow and learn. Our connections can make that happen!
I have gotten great benefit from the sharing of others and I share — or try to — everything I have or come across as I know you to do and I suspect your grumpy friend does, too. Even so, our first responsibility is to take care of ourselves and if we cannot do that we soon become worthless to everyone.
We all have bad days, bad weeks and, unfortunately, some of us have even longer periods of distress, burnout or other misfortune. It is unreasonable to expect everyone, or anyone, to share all the time.
I am sure that your friend will recover his good humor and generosity in good time and may even be somewhat contrite and sheepish when he does. But even if he doesn’t or isn’t, forgive him or her and be patient, someone else will fill those shoes.
Thank you, Tom, for sharing your knowledge, experience, and resources. I have learned much from you and value it all.
[…] I recently bumped into a friend at an education Conference. This friend is what I consider a thought leader in education. He is a well-known speaker and author and a person who many educators deser… […]
[…] came across this post by Tom Whitby today, and it sort of made me smile. The post amounts to a well-written rant about […]
I wholeheartedly agree. We need to share our success so we can duplicate the islands and we need to share our failures so that we can limit their expansion. I like to share; I feel professionally validated when others want to use my work.
But I draw the line at theft. A year or so ago, I was presenting at a regional conference and a locally well-known “expert” came to me following the session to express how much she had enjoyed the workshop and how much she had learned. At that point, I didn’t know who she was. She closed the conversation by saying, “…and I only steal from the best!” She then turned and walked off.
I ran into her a second time at another conference where we were both presenting. She searched me out to tell me how well my materials were being received by her teacher groups but she continued, “It takes so much time to recreate your work.” Then she asked if I would just send her my materials already prepared. I gave her a brief albeit civil lesson on copyright.
But that wasn’t the end. She recently came to have a full-time position with an educational group with which I had worked over the period of several years. I guess my lesson hurt her feelings. Since she began working there, they haven’t hired me back.
Sharing is fine; using the work and/or words of others is often seen as flattery. I only ask, please give credit where credit is due.
[…] Education is about the free exchange of ideas. The exchange part is where the sharing comes in. Without sharing, there is no exchange. At one time content was a commodity that was doled out for a price by institutions that housed the texts that contained the content. That is no longer the case. A combination of content on the Internet as well as the advance of social media and it is a whole new paradigm. Of course this only works if exchanges of information takes place.If we are to benefit from the Internet as a profession or a society we need to feel an obligation to be more than takers. We need to be makers and exchangers as well. We need to keep the exchange alive by not counting on the few, but by involving the many. We need to believe in the premise of Share and Share alike. […]
[…] the spirit of sharing, I would encourage you to read “Share and Share Alike!” by Tom Whitby […]