Open Classroom; Open Data; Open World!

From time to time, often during a lesson where I've asked the children to respond to a question in a creative way, I find myself going to see a child with their hand up (the normal way to attract a teacher's attention here). When I reach them, expecting to help them with something to do with their work, I discover that they are handling the challenges they've been set and are answering questions showing an understanding of the concepts. I ask them what's wrong only to be greeted with:

"Miss, they're copying me!"

I start to think. Should the offending child be punished for plagiarism? Should they be made to rewrite the work? Should I move them to a seat with nobody to copy? 

The simple answer is no. As long as it isn't a test situation, I'm aware of the act and the child copying is gaining something from the process, I don't mind! I encourage the original writer or creator of the work to take pride in sharing their ideas - the other child clearly thinks they are worth copying! I ask the child who is borrowing the ideas to share why and to try to find a way to improve it. Often the work that is achieved by two children working together is far better, due to the varied skills and perspectives of multiple minds.

These moments are, I hope, the start of children learning the value of collaboration - one of the key parts of the Space Apps Challenge and, in my opinion, the true importance of open data. If we keep our thoughts, data and resources locked away, refusing to share them, we will never know their full potential for doing good.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a simple story to answer a question with one child in mind. By sharing that story, it has become so much more and the potential benefits are still something I can't quite get my head around! I was lucky enough to find myself as part of a team at the weekend, who provided fantastic ideas, created things (I was sure were going to be impossible; I'm clearly an IT novice,) and endless enthusiasm. They have pushed the story towards its limits, improving it no-end.

The simple story now exists in 12 languages with more being written, it is being made into an animated explorable digital picture book and there are plans to turn it into the starting point for a free-to-access global interactive website for schools. The website will encourage children to interpret or respond to the story in a way that makes sense to them. The different approaches could teach children about cultural differences while allowing them to connect with similar interests. More details will be posted soon as the idea is further refined. People may well be copying me, but I'm privileged that they are - the story is no longer mine, it's ours!

The story is released under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA license.