Branching Out?

[Jenifer]

dear Fellow SEEDlings,

In my forays around the web I found this and wondered how many of you were aware of it. Wish I had planted SEEDs in this arena when we thought of it! Let me know your take on it - I am curious!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/index.php

keep the faith,
jen

[Alice Barr]

I had heard of it on the news but haven't really had a chance to explore. With all the openness and collaboration of Web 2.0 tools, I have to question is it will survive. It's an interesting idea though.

[Jenifer]

Well, now that you point that out, Alice, I can see what you mean...there is so much available for free, open source curriculum as it were, why pay?

[Ernie Easter]

As long as teachers are willing to create and others are willing to buy anything is possible. I'm into the free and how can I adapt it to fit my own needs at that particular point in time. I can rarely use the same material over again with out some tweaking as students and their needs change yearly.

[Kevin H.]

I may be in the minority, but I have an aversion to sites where you have to pay to gain access to other teachers' knowledge. I would rather be part of a nurturing community that freely exchanges ideas and improves instructions based on reflection (not cash for ideas). It's a philosophical stance, I suppose.
Still, thanks for the link.
Just not for me.
Kevin

[Jenifer]

I agree -- altho I also like to see teachers getting compensated for their work. It is important to me that teachers get some reward for their creativity -- yet what didn't occur to me when I posted this was that others teachers would be the ones paying -- not such a great model after all! Thanks.
jen

[Larry Johnson]

Hi Jen, I checked out the site teachers pay teachers what a great concept. I wonder how profitable it will be considering all the free resources out there on the web? Thanks Larry Johnson

[Bob Sprankle]

I'm with Kevin... this site bothers me. Teachers are always creating "on the shoulders of others." We adapt others' plans. I doubt I could say that I have one lesson that doesn't have resources or influence from others. Couldn't have done it without others, and I offer up mine in the same spirit.

My 2 cents.

Bob

[Larry Johnson]

I am with both of you on this, I extend it even further to the interactions I have with teachers and the whole web 2.0 thing as it relates to plagiarism. Our notions of intellectual property and who owns the information have to change. I have teachers who want to buy expensive software to catch kids copying info off the web, I do not know what the answer to this is, but we need a new way of teaching/ dealing with it. I am interested in the idea of Mashup projects, but wonder how come some teacher seem to shy away from letting kids use stuff directly off the web. I know they feel students need to create projects themselves, but that is what they are doing just using others ideas to create it.

[coakes]

Well Jen, This is a great idea, however, I am into creative commons and share alike. However, like dreams of sugarplums..... it would be wicked cool to create one item for sale for 1.00, have a million people buy it and well, you do the math.
Cheryl

[Sharon Elin]

Thanks for this!