When it comes down to it, they mean the same thing, this profession is inherently collaborative and a team effort, it is okay to use ideas of great teachers that came before you and the fantastic teachers around you. One of the things technology has done is make it so much easier to connect with educators and share in the ideas of amazing teachers from all over.
One of my favorite websites for borrowing and not re-creating the wheel has to be Pinterest.
I love to use Pinterest as a creative and project oriented person, but mostly as a Kindergarten teacher. I have found countless projects and free resources on Pinterest. The visual display makes it enjoyable to browse and it is simple to pin ideas and organize them any way you would like.
If you are number 1: Yes you should! Pinterest takes the old idea of a wedding pin board and upgrades it 10 fold. You start by picking topics that you are interested in. Based on your chosen interest Pinterest generates starting ideas to show you: reciepes, projects, or for me lessons and crafts for Kindergarten. Clicking on a pin will lead you to a website with more information or resources, although usually the image attached is useful to store the idea. You can then organize your boards any way you want to collect recipes, project ideas, fashion tips, home decor, or most relevant to us lesson and project ideas for the classroom. It is visual, addicting, fun and beyond useful as a classroom teacher. I love finding new ideas and sharing my own through Pinterest.
If you are number 2, I want to share with you something you may not know about Pinterest. One of the features of Pinterest that I have found very helpful is the ability to not only share a board with someone, but actually add people to a specific board so that it can have multiple contributors. The board shows up on any one's PInterest that is invited and the individual is able to add whatever they want to a shared board.
I created boards for all subject areas (Math, Writer's Workshop, FOSS) and invited all the Kindergarten Teachers in our district to be contributors on these boards. It is similar to the idea of a shared YouTube playlist. We can all add great ideas to these specific boards for all of us to see and use. We are virtually all sharing and contributing ideas as a district.
Try collaborative boards as a grade level team. It is such a fun way to find great ideas and share great ideas. Borrow from the fantastic teachers around you and all over the web. Who needs to "re-create the wheel" when thousands of "wheels" are waiting to be found on Pinterest.