How wide do we open the door?

Personally, I am 100% for allowing broad solutions and open access to materials and creations.  However, due to various legislations (FOIPPA in BC and LAFOIP in SK, for example) that is not possible.  As well, individual institutions have their own policies and procedures related to openness of access.

My school division invested heavily in Google Apps (GAFE) about 4 years ago.  There were numerous convention sessions,inservices, and consultant visits to schools to train staffs and bring them up to speed on the features and abilities of GAFE.  We were encouraged, and in some cases required, to share information with each other through GAFE.  In reality, while it may seem that this was a restrictive policy, it actually broadened the amount and type of resources available to all in my division.  Many teachers took their enitre home directory and uploaded it into Google Drive and made it searchable to all.  If I was searching for resources for a specific topic I could just search the Drive app and find resources created by other teachers.

Sadly, due to a combination of LAFOIP and school division policy, that sort of mass-sharing is no longer encouraged.  One of the main reasons is that the school division has an ownership claim over anything created by teachers and used with students.

Many of my science colleagues still share resources informally, which is awesome in itself, but it is frustrating that the broad range of resources that was once available has dwindled.

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