Well, last night you will all be aware that I raised some very important issues for teachers who share their own resources on the @TESResources website. As a result, I can post the following updates…
Today, thanks to this blog, this blog and this blog, (all well worth a serious look – do it now) plus, this very powerful write up by Richard Taylor of ed-tech.com. I’d also like to thank my readers for all your various tweets of support and evidence. I received an email from The TES at 11am today, inviting me to a meeting with their advisory board to discuss the issues we have raised regarding our own classroom resources. Yes, the resources you have created!
The TES go on to say:
“Overnight we have obviously become aware of your blog about TES Resources and seen the conversations on Twitter about the TES site.
We always like to think that we are on the side of the teacher, and try very hard to do so. Yet we recognise, through the issues you’ve raised, that it may not appear like that in this instance.
We have a pledge on TES Connect, which promises “that our members can download and share user-generated resources free of charge for ever”.
You’ve raised two important issues.
- The first is around our terms and conditions, which we recognise may seem unclear and open to interpretation.
We would like to stress that content uploaded by a user always remains the property of that user.
- The second issue you raised was about teachers (in this case, you) promoting links to paid-for resources.
We have an explicit rule about this, which was designed for commercial organisations to prevent them directly promoting their commercial content through resources on our site. We police this, but we don’t always get it right.
However, when it comes to practising teachers promoting links to paid-for resources, that is not something we have thought about in great detail.
To that end we have asked Lord Knight, former schools minister and a member of our advisory board, to look into both of these issues for us, and see if we can come up with a better solution that works for everybody. And, in the first instance, we’d like to invite you to a meeting with Lord Knight to discuss all of this.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention,
The TES Resources Team.”
What next?
Today, at 5pm, The TES published an update and pledged here: “Resource sharing on TES Connect – our terms and conditions.” It says:
TES Summit:
So, it looks as though I am off to meet with Lord Knight and The TES advisory board to discuss discrepancies in their terms and conditions. It may be possible, that us mere mortals, will be able to share our own resources and conceivably make references back to our own websites directly, whether we are selling resources or not. I have evidence from various sources to suggest this practice has been going on between The TES and individuals for longer than my own experience. I have decided not to publish them here.
I will be taking along your thoughts and I have asked a @MrLockyer and @LeadingLearner to accompany me. I’d also like to ask @IanMcDaid, @Ideas_Factory and @Just_Maths to come along too. This is not a one-man show. It is again, about the collective presence teachers can have online, and another illustration of the potency we can all have collectively. (Addendum: we should be doing more of this regarding education and politics!)
So, firstly, thank you for all your support, re-tweets, stories and frustrations! I will do my best to arrange a time convenient to everyone involved and to you; the reader; the blogger; the resource uploader: if you have any concerns, stories and experiences, please do get in touch below and I will collate and present your experiences to The TES. More to follow…
Send me your TES Resources anecdote:
Post-publication:
Please read @IanMcDaid‘s blogpost here.
“… as of today Lord Knight has not declared this on the House of Lords’ register of interests. He is however a director of Egale Limited, and he lists TSL Education (owners of TES) as having paid the company for “services personally provided”. I think some clarity is required here ….”
Further reading:
U.S. buyout firm TPG to buy TSL Education for 400 million pounds
Related articles
- #Vamoose! I’m off… (teachertoolkit.me)
- TES Connect, The World’s Largest Network of Teachers, Launches Australian Site (prweb.com)
- #Vamoose (sleramblings.wordpress.com)
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