I thought about writing a reply to the Gary Stager post on the Pulse, but the site wanted me to register for an account. Who has time for that? Anyhow, the criticism is that educators are spending valuable time on foolish things, like Twitter, instead of important things, like the war zone in Chicago, graduation rates in Detroit, the curriculum in Britain, and literacy rates. Vicki Davis responds, essentially, "I care about these issues that you talk about, however, they are not in my typical sphere of operation," which is a perfectly acceptable response. We can't all solve all of the world's problems. We could equally turn around and ask Gary Stager, why doesn't he solve the problem of warfare in Iraq, genocide in Darfur, poverty in Malawi? Why does he focus only on the U.S. and Britain, two of the richest nations in the world. Yes, let's huff ourselves up and be sanctimonious here.
And that said, let me say that I see much more in the way of solutions coming from the educational community - including the Twittering part of the educational community, even if I have my criticisms of School 2.0 - than I do from many other communities. Educators, for example, say things like "feed all the children in the world" and it is people like politicians and businessmen and professionals who make sure it doesn't happen. Educators say things like "make knowledge freely available to everyone" and it is people like politicians and businessmen and professionals who make sure it doesn't happen. If Gary Stager has a problem with the war zone in Chicago, I would say, perhaps he should look to those politicians and businessmen and professionals whose pandering to petty prejudices and narrow short term interests created the problem in the first place, and whose mismanagement and petty brokering block the efforts of educators even today.
The educators who are twittering are doing nothing but good. There's few enough of them.
And that said, let me say that I see much more in the way of solutions coming from the educational community - including the Twittering part of the educational community, even if I have my criticisms of School 2.0 - than I do from many other communities. Educators, for example, say things like "feed all the children in the world" and it is people like politicians and businessmen and professionals who make sure it doesn't happen. Educators say things like "make knowledge freely available to everyone" and it is people like politicians and businessmen and professionals who make sure it doesn't happen. If Gary Stager has a problem with the war zone in Chicago, I would say, perhaps he should look to those politicians and businessmen and professionals whose pandering to petty prejudices and narrow short term interests created the problem in the first place, and whose mismanagement and petty brokering block the efforts of educators even today.
The educators who are twittering are doing nothing but good. There's few enough of them.
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