Clay Shirkey - Cognitive Surplus & Changing the World

What is a culture of generosity and how can it be used to improve education? What does it mean to say, "Free cultures get what they celebrate?" How can you as a leader affect what you celebrate?

A culture of generosity creates and shares resources that have civic value. In our free access to created and shared ideas, we must differentiate between what is quality and what is throw away. Shirkey defines the cute, clever and LOL as having communal value and those shared sources that benefit society as having civic value. When designing for generosity we need to use digital technology to develop human capital and intellectual capital through this great social networking opportunity. The Ushahidi Platform is a perfect example of pundits designing for generosity. There is a vast spectrum between mediocre and quality. We end up spending too much valuable time sifting through it all. In education, we are in a rapidly changing environment. There is much work to be done and I feel that we need each other more than ever. Utilizing tools such as Twitter could affect change by connecting educators and enabling us to expanding our learning collaboratively. As I lead my organization, I need to be mindful to create and share sources that have real value. Creating teams and networks at the site and district level will enable us to build cognitive surplus and improve learning for all students.