Attention is influence and the importance of educators having a voice

I’ve learned so much from my personal learning network and in particular my colleague The Techomnivore who was recently asked to contribute to Technology and Learning’s DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS blog where he writes about using gaming to enhance teaching and learning. He is a terrific writer with a lot to share and very smart guy who I continually learn from in person and from subscribing to his blog Tales of a Techomnivore. When he got this gig, I just had to ask, “So, do you get paid for your weekly blog column in Technology and Learning?” He said he did not. So I pried further and said, “What is your motivation to do it then?” He said he was recently somewhere and heard someone say, “attention is influence. “ This is important to him because he has a passion for discovering ways technology can enrich our lives and an even higher goal of giving every child the opportunity to succeed. He shares these ideas around the world through his work, at his DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS blog, his Tales of a Techomnivore blog, and through speaking at conferences. As a result there are educators, students, and parents benefiting from his fantastic ideas to establish an engaging and relevant curriculum.

I’m driven by many of the same desires. I believe it is crucially important that our digital immigrant educators begin teaching in meaningful and engaging ways that our digital native students will pay attention too. Part of bridging the gap between the natives and the immigrants occurs when the immigrants are communicating with the natives in the 21st Century platforms to which they connect and are familiar. My blog, wiki, and social network have been an extension to my work by providing me with vehicles that enable me to share ideas with other educators that propagate this. Now that I have finally started a blog, I have spent the past month working hard to establish a purposeful and respectable digital footprint that I have shared with other educators through word of mouth and through including my blog in my email signature. Unfortunately, I was informed I could no longer include my blog url in my email signature, but ironically, and thankfully, I have a blog and social network as a platform to bring attention to a decision that I found morally and ethically unsound. Because of this I was able to connect to others who agree. Since I posted my blog entry about a day ago others have shared their online reactions as follows:

Scholastic Administrator

Alexander Russo’s This Week in Education NYC Schools Ban Work-Related Blog Address

May 8, 2008 Posted At: 09:30 AM

Weblogg-ed: Learning with The Read/Write Web And No Blog Tattoos Either
Posted by Will Richardson on 08 May 2008 02:36 am

The Gothamist
Department of Education Restricts Staffers From Publicizing Blogs in Official Email
By Jen Chung on May 9, 2008

NYC Convergence – Media and Technology in the Tri-State Region
Education Dept. Policy Restricts Employees' Blog Use May 09, 2008

Educational Insanity Blogging and Free Speech Rights of Public Employees
Posted by Jon Becker on May 8, 2008

The Ed Jurist
Academic Freedom, Garcetti & Blogging
Posted by Justin Bathon at 5/9/2008 1:02 AM

The WebFooted Booklady
Spring Diversions
Posted by Lesley Edwards on Thursday, May 8, 2008

I was also interviewed by Elizabeth Green at The New York Sun who wrote Education Dept. Restrictions On Blogs Rile a Staff Blogger on May 9, 2008.

My hope is that my blog will help provide a voice that will inform and reverse decisions such as this. I welcome others to have their voice heard by commenting to this post to share thoughts. I invite readers to follow the developments here at The Innovative Educator blog.

Follow the Classroom 2.0 conversation on this topic here.