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 your celebrate?

A media blackout in Kenya resulted in a blogging.  There was too much information on the blogs.  Two programmers launched "ushahidi."They aggregated information on a map and made it public - crisis mapping.  They made it an open source platform.  It is deployed in other places as well - US, Haiti, and Mexico. Digital technology combined with  human generosity = cognitive surplus.
Free time and talent (over a trillion hours per year) + creating and sharing.  = new design resources.
LOL cats are also part of the abundant media landscape.  They are a creative act.  This might not be the best work, but the gap is between doing nothing and doing something.  Freedom to experiment is a good thing.  Erotic novels came before scientific journals with the advent of the printing press.
Design for curiosity is a big new theme.  Intrinsic motivation is important (See Drive).
 
Instances of late pick-ups at the day care centers.  Control group, late pick-ups = a ten shekel fine - late pick-ups went way up.  The fine broke the culture.  By adding the fine, parents understood that any guilt for picking up their kids late was gone.  Social constraints are sometimes more generous than contractual ones.  The culture that got broken by the fines, stayed broken.  Try to design for generosity. 

Cognitive research rests on the idea that people like to create and share.  Communal value is everywhere.  Ushahidi has civic value - to make life better for society.

There are a trillion hours of participatory value up for grabs.  Organizations designed around a culture of generosity have great possibilities.  Free cultures get what they celebrate.

A culture of generosity definitely exists in education, especially with the emergence of Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  Now more than ever, districts around the country are sharing their work on the implementation of CCSS.  There are quality sites, too numerous to mention, that offer a "virtual" myriad of resources for students, parents, teachers, and administrators.  When I think back to a time before computers were part of our everyday lives, it was very difficult to share curriculum with other teachers.  Teachers seem very willing now to share lesson plans with others through teacher-established websites and blogs. 

Platforms such as Safari Montage are great for storing digital information and for sharing curriculum with other teachers.  In SDUSD teachers can design lessons, share them with other teachers and rate the lessons.  This is an example of how a school district can get what they celebrate.  We celebrate the accomplishments of teachers through Safari and we get more content with higher quality to share with more and more teachers. 

As a leader, the first step in this process of teaching teachers to celebrate a culture of technology is to give them the tools that they need to take part.  We need to give teachers computers that are up-to-date,  we need to allocate resources to trouble-shoot our technology when something goes wrong, and we need to provide quality professional development that teaches our teachers how best to use all the information on the Internet to improve and accelerate student achievement.