Educators today are engaged in many communities - Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as well as communities unique to education. Over the past year, I have come to realize the power of the community to change teaching and learning. As the Executive Director of Curriki, I learned early on that "if you build it, they won't come." To drive our community, we have used the power of the web to drive users and contributors to Curriki. This community has actively been contributing and improving the content on Currik while making it available free and open to the global education community. This model works to promote our mission to Eliminate the Education Divide.

Open and shared content and curricula is a powerful tool to improve teacher effectiveness and reduce costs. We are now seeing this innovative idea impact textbook adoption in CA, as well as pre-service teacher training. But the innovation is being slowed by the resistance to change in schools, districts and states. We hope the community will eliminate the resistance by employing the power of their online voice to make change.

This can be accomplished through sharing content; working in collaborative groups to build curricula collaboratively; and by evaluating, rating, and commenting on existing educational resources on Curriki and on other open education sites. You can begin to “Change Education” by commenting on this blog. Let me know what methods you suggest to engage the education community to make change?

And check out the CA digital textbook initiative where we are working to engage teachers to improve open textbooks.

Also, look at Paul Buchheit's contest and see how Curriki’s community is making a difference.

Finally, make a difference and register your vote for Curriki in Paul’s contest here.

It is time to empower teachers – and to let them be part of a community that can change education!

Bobbi Kurshan

Executive Director

Curriki