Pay It Forward

When reading Chris Pirillo's post "How to Pay It Forward" I began to think about the many resources we find online each day and wonder how many of us pass them along to others or do we stash them in our delicious or digg accounts just waiting for others to find them.

Sure it does take a bit longer to blog, tweet, facebook, or email site links to others we know who would benefit, but as Pirillio says, "doing something nice for others is a basic human rule we should all live by." And this is something you can do every day and it doesn't cost money. You don't have to pay someone back to 'pay it forward' -just be kind and pass along something you find online to others.

The Internet has an over-abundance of resources we find each day and each of us finds different resources due to our different network connections, so go ahead pass along that Phonemic chart to the ESL teacher, that Photoshop animation video to the IT teacher, that Math Playground game to the resource teacher, that Visual Blooms chart to the Curriculum Lead, and that GIS Elevation Tool to the Social Studies teacher. By sharing your enthusiasm for using technology you will be infusing others with ideas and your excitement. It's infectious, so share.

As a 'pay it forward' teach others how-to build a Twitter PLN so they can follow you and quickly find your 'pay it forwards', but emailing a site link to a less tech-savvy colleague is still a great way to 'pay it forward.' Hopefully others will soon reciprocate, sharing and actively building their personal learning networks.

All you need is a little bit of time to 'pay it forward' each day. It will brighten everyone's day, including yours.