I'm trying to get a community started to share Copyright free educational resources. What’s the point of having all your worksheets and lesson plans sitting on your hard drive when you could share them? Wouldn't take too many teachers to share their stuff to get quite a useful repository of content. I'm building a simple prototype site to manage the sharing.

Drop me a note if you are interested (or know someone who might). I'm keen for this to happen in Sheffield although people could contribute from anywhere. Could be quite a fun exercise to meet up - being an IT champion can be a solitary task, no?

I will ask tomorow at work. Are you talking all subjects or juct ICT? Also what level, KS3, 4 or A- Level??

I've just started my PGCE so I'd be really interested in this.

Drop me a PM if it all gets set up.

I intended the site to cover both primary and secondary and all subjects - but it depends on who's around. There is a primary year 3 teacher so far.

If you could say what level or subject you teach then we could start match making !

I was teaching TEFL when I got the idea for this. I'm working part time now so I thought programming it might be interesting. Didn't think TEFL was the best place to start because there aren't so many in Sheffield. Plenty of school teacher tho'.

Private Message sent

Isn't this like... you know... CHEATING!!! or is it just me?

Originally posted by rich_abcdef
I'm building a simple prototype site to manage the sharing.
I've been running a student charity fundraising resource site for the last 3 years and have a number of tools I've written to bolt on to a phpbb2 system, including a very useful download system that allows you to create "packs" which make things easier to maintain.

If you pop over to www.snailsource.com you'll see what I mean there... It could use some tweaking but it might save you reinventing the wheel, especially if some of the other tools like the calendar and link /address directory coupled with the forum would enable a more active component for the community..



Oh and Snook... no, it's not cheating.. it's called coping with a mountain of paperwork and enabling teachers to spend less time reinventing resources and thus prioritising their time to do what matters ie: teaching the kids.

Originally posted by Snook
Isn't this like... you know... CHEATING!!! or is it just me?

No! Actually NOT doing it is cheating the kids... They are used to play station and a multimedia world. So when they get to school and get a hastily prepared Powerpoint presentation from Miss Moppet, its a big turn off. Teachers are employed to USE teaching content not create it. Of course some enjoy creating it too (but not everyday). So then sharing it is a nice way of contributing something back to a community and perhaps some other teachers say thanks! and everyone's happy ;-)

I'm organising something similar for interactive whiteboard files.

I'm pretty sure that there are websites already running for projects like yours though, does TEACHERNET not do it?

Originally posted by rich_abcdef
No! Actually NOT doing it is cheating the kids... They are used to play station and a multimedia world. So when they get to school and get a hastily prepared Powerpoint presentation from Miss Moppet, its a big turn off. Teachers are employed to USE teaching content not create it. Of course some enjoy creating it too (but not everyday). So then sharing it is a nice way of contributing something back to a community and perhaps some other teachers say thanks! and everyone's happy ;-)

I agree, was just joking. It's sad the amout of unpaid work teachers have to do on evenings and weekends. Anyone else would get overtime.

Can't remember the name but I sat in a meeting before the summer and south yorkshire as a whole has set up something similiar to this, you can also do computer marked tests, share lesson ideas, set homeworks to be completed online and keep an online mark book. It was only in the very early stages and I guess we will be getting more training and info on it in the future. Though this might only be for science. I don't see why it could not work for other subjects.

Originally posted by alchresearch
I'm organising something similar for interactive whiteboard files.

I'm pretty sure that there are websites already running for projects like yours though, does TEACHERNET not do it?

That's nothing to do with "Blackboard" is it?

here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/amhudson119/1.jpg)

here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/amhudson119/2.jpg)

here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/amhudson119/3.jpg)

and lastly here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/amhudson119/4.jpg)

Alex

Originally posted by alchresearch
I'm pretty sure that there are websites already running for projects like yours though, does TEACHERNET not do it? [/B]

Its my disappointment with sites like Teachernet that made me start programming my prototype. It takes so long to find any lesson content on it, I'm sure most teachers will give up before finding something to base tomorrow’s lesson on. All you see is a load of news and tips and articles that say how good they are - they have to blow their own trumpet to maintain their lavish (govt) funding.

But even more important is that there is no feeling of active community on teachernet. And this is logical when you consider that teachernet is a govt site and teachers don't exactly feel that the authorities or the system is really sensitive to the actual job that they are doing in the classroom. This isn't a political criticism rather a comment on the large centralised beast that is the UK education system at the beginning of the 21st C.

So its pretty obvious to me that the govt or dfes will never become the centre of a teacher's community for sharing content. I think its much likely to happen at a smaller scale in a decentralised way. Teachers want more freedom and less controls surely? A project like this has to come from the grassroots ie from the teachers themselves.

Its not just a question of posting a few lesson plans or resources. There is an excess of resources on the web. The problem is finding a specific thing and assessing if its any good.
Its the community that actually does this work. (its not an obligation though) - just like we all help each other out here on this forum, "where can I get my haircut/get p**sed/play netball in Sheffield". We also want to know "is this worksheet any good?" or "Is there anything better?"

I guess we will want to be able to say - "This is cr**" without worrying that our employer is looking over our shoulder ;-)

Your plan sounds great, count me in.

I'll help!

I've just started my Primary PGCE and I'm on teaching placement in Year 5 at the moment.

-Harriet


(ps. this is not my username. I can't remember my password)

Would it be inclusive of alternative methods of education?

Originally posted by amhudson119
That's nothing to do with "Blackboard" is it?
Alex

No blackboard is a commercial system A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) where teachers and student can do various things like online courses, tests, etc. Its all password protected for students and teacher of what ever institution has bought it. I know a few universities are using it.

I am proposing a local group that is open to anyone (even non Sheffielders!) but just for sharing resources - for schools.