M&M counting exercise for $3 – the advent of the teacher-entrepreneur

By Stephen Smyth on November 15, 2009 |

We were interested to read the NY Times article today by Winnie Hu about the emerging trend of teachers selling their lesson plans in online marketplaces. This seems to be a controversial issue with schools asserting that they have right to protect intellectual property created ‘on the job’ and education academics asserting that “online selling cheapens what teachers do.” On the other hand, teachers argue that they should be able to supplement their often modest incomes.

According to research summarized in the New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell, the teacher has a far greater influence on how much students learn than other factors like class size, curriculum design and school funding. The challenge therefore seems to be to find a way to recognize and compensate talented teachers to keep them teaching.

The good news is that higher education has already figured this out with the accepted practice of academics publishing in journals to raise water level of general knowledge. In that instance a university academic is effectively publishing their research and insights to receive recognition and presumably also benefit from knock-on benefits in tenure, compensation, etc. This is a ‘win’ for the academic, their institution and knowledge in general. Why shouldn’t K-12 teachers do the same?

Posted in: Web/Technology | Tagged: college, education, higher education, intellectual property, k-12, learning, ny times, online learning, professor, public school, student, teacher, technology, university |

---