I have been raised in educational settings where the teacher expected students to do their work alone, without even consulting others. I never really thought about anyone else's education. If I had a thought or idea, I kept it to myself. I thought if I shared what I knew with others they would get better grades than me. I was learning and that's all that really mattered. I realized now that I was wrong. I never imagined that by keeping what I know and not sharing it, I was denying my classmates an important learning opportunity for me and them.
We need to share what we know and what we create with other because the information changes rabidly and what we know today will be out of date tomorrow. When you share what you know and do with other, you learn much more than just keep it to yourself. When we share what we know or do with other, we build knowledge. We build upon our own knowledge and the knowledge of other through knowledge building community. We learn from each other much more than if we just learn by our self.
It is important as educators to cultivate the culture of sharing between students. If students practice sharing during their formal education, sharing will be a life style, they will practice sharing during their informal settings. So, rather than asking students to submit an assignment for the instructor review, students could be asked to share their product and their resources with students in the class.
