Response To Blog:
The blog that was published by OPEN was posted this week. It addressed many issues that I was worried about in my blog. The one area that was cleared up for me is that OPEN continues to demand ownership for anything physical education teachers post. I do not care if OPEN is owned by a corporation or an individual. I do not want to hand over my intellectual property and say here you can own this for free. It goes against everything I believe in. PE Central allows you to submit but they pay you $50. I do not think that the company or anyone working for OPEN has ill intent. My problem is the principle of the situation.
They claim that they must demand this for liability purposes. I am not a lawyer but PE Universe, which allows users to submit videos, is owned by Gopher and they have this posted on their site:
The main part that pertains to us is this statement: “For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions.” Why can’t OPEN do this?
The site is an awesome place for resources that I will definitely use but until the ownership issue is changed I will not submit any lessons to the site. If you understand they own your material and agree that for the good of the profession I will hand over my property and all rights to it than I support you doing that.
The idea is great, the people who worked on it is great, and the final product is great. I am just wary of the submission part.
What is my role in social media? This week I made two mistakes using social media and championed two areas of social media that I found morally outrageous. First let me start out with my missteps. Neither mistake was make or break but at the same time neither mistake makes me proud to think about. The first mistake I made was on Voxer yesterday. I let my sense of humor get carried away and starting making jokes that were inappropriate in mixed company. The jokes were not super offensive but I definitely crossed the line between professional and personal. This is something that happened so quickly that I barely even realized it happened until Mary Neal (@mrsneal0) helped me realize that I need to be cognizant of all the words that leave my mouth.
The second mistake I made was I let my emotions get in the way of logic. I publicly called someone out that tweeted something somewhat sardonic in response to my questions. This person deleted the tweet but I did not have the class to let it go. I quickly stood on top of my soapbox and responded to the tweet. My response was respectful but unnecessary. I apologize to this person profusely and don’t want them to think that my behavior is acceptable to me.
Now onto two other moments of the week that made me realize that my role in social media is changing. @rusulalrubair and I started on Twitter at the same time. We started following each other and I have enjoyed watching her go from a very pleasant, but timid social media presence, to a voice for equality and equity for all. Today I was extremely disheartened to read her blog about a school in New York state’s reaction to a student reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic.
“Many students reportedly shouted their disapproval during the recitation, and later complained on social media. Later in the afternoon, the school’s principal made a school-wide announcement to explain why the pledge was read in Arabic and to apologize to those who took offence. Ms. Carbone said the pledge would only be read in English in the future.”
My only response to this is to respond WHAT!!! You apologized as well as stated that it would only be read in English?!! Does speaking English make you a better citizen than someone who speaks Arabic? Is the Pledge only allowed to be spoken in English? What are we saying when our educational system lets its students and families be explicitly treated like second class citizens and then apologizing to the wrong group of people!! I will not keep quiet when I read about bigotry and injustice. Arabic and terrorism are not synonymous. As Rusul states in her blog they don’t even speak Arabic in Afghanistan!
The second event that occurred this week is the unveiling of US Games lesson plan creator OPEN. OPEN is a, “backward designed curriculum project that targets SHAPE America’s National Standards & Grade-Level Outcomes.” The idea behind OPEN is a great one. Free lessons for teachers and exposure for US Games. I applauded all this until I read the following:
“By hitting submit, you grant US Games all rights and ownership of the work submitted in addition to any derivatives of the work.”
This bothers me that they want to own my intellectual property. When this was brought to the attention of the Physical Education Voxer community it immediately raised questions. Instead of assuming the corporation was evil I contacted several members of the OPEN Development Council. We have spoken to two members of the council which did not clear up the confusion we have. I am waiting for a response from Aaron Hart which will hopefully clear this up for myself and the physical education community. Regardless of the outcome this has made me realize that my role in social media has shifted from taker to questioner.
So what does all this have to do with my role in social media? This week made me realize that my words and actions can help make a change. They can also make me look petty and juvenile. I want my role to be that of someone who is constantly pushing myself and others to grow. I want to learn more, think deeper, rail against injustice, and help change the world. This can only happen if I hold myself to a higher standard than I have acted this week.
Q1: What is your role on Social Media? #slowchatpe
Q2: What do you have to do to protect your “brand” on sm? #slowchatpe
Q3: How do you protect yourself from becoming too emotionally involved on sm? #slowchatpe
Q4: What do you do to protect education? #slowchatpe
Q5: What warning would you give new people to sm? #slowchatpe
#slowchatPE 
Justin: I read your blog just as I got on the airplane to return home after an amazing SHAPE America conference. I immediately wanted to respond, but knew it was in my best interest to hesitate and think. I knew that I could not answer your questions just on Twitter and be limited in my response. So here it goes. I will do my best to keep it simple.
Q1. My role in social media. My role in SM is ever changing. State President, graduate student, teacher, sponge, tech geek, passionate pegeek always. But my direction is true. Only to share the best to move our profession forward. We learn the most and best from each other.
Q2: Protecting our brand? Was it really ever ours? In our PETE programs, our professors shared many different teaching styles, methods, skills and beliefs.(barley the wrapper on what we got!) Over the years, we have strengthened our passions, discarded and learned from our mistakes, and “jumped” on new and old methodologies. These styles, methods, games, skills and histories we soaked up like a sponge and did what we did with them. Made them better, bombed and reflected, and changed with the times. In my teaching career, I’ve had some amazing moments, classes, units, all stemming back to the basis of my PETE program, my first AAHPERD conferences, state conferences and the relationships that I have made along the way. The sharing that is going on in social media right now is helping to move our profession forward. But, we must be careful that what we share is not just stuff. It needs to “align with the times” and help all of us. USGAMES OPEN, SHAPE America’s Exchange, Twitter, Voxer, Google Docs and YouTube, all have the same goal in mind. Sharing. Building. Learning. Growing. With purpose. With intent. With passion, to create a world of movers, for a lifetime. I feel very fortunate that as a graduate of UMASS PETE, I was given many tools, some way beyond the times, to be a successful physical educator. But, most importantly, we were challenged to continue to give back, every year in our career. I applaud the work of the OPEN group. Each one of those educators on that group, has the end in mind. I will be proud to share my collaborative work there.
Q3: Emotional Involvement. Simple. Having empathy, and lots of it. Yes, It’s hard to stand up for what you believe in when some one else is questioning your beliefs, but being true to yourself as an educator, and putting your beliefs aside for a moment, to do what is best for your students, speaks volumes. We can learn so much from looking at all the “puzzle pieces”.
Q4: Protecting Education. I protect educating ever day by standing up for what I believe in. Quality Physical Education. I am NOT a gym teacher. I am a proud, passionate physical educator! I have worked hard in my schools, community, state and nationally to help change the “face” of physical education, holding volunteer positions my whole professional career. IIt’s not always easy, but duty and passion make it fun and worthwhile.
Q5: Social Media warnings? It’s big. Start slow. Enjoy the ride. It’s amazing to connect with all the other pegeeks out there around the world sharing, caring and moving our AMAZING profession forward.
Thanks Justin for really making me think this week. Putting practice into action is always so important to me. It’s not about the brand, money or notoriety. It’s all about doing what is right for our students, communities and profession. Play it forward.
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Betsy,
Great reply! I agree with everything u said. As long as you are comfortable that US Games owning your your intellectual property without comensation go ahead and submit to them. I will be using your/their resources as well. Their site is fabulous and a credit to the profession. Thanks for responding to my blog. Greatest compliment someone can give is to say you made them think!
Justin Schleider
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مقال جميل
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Re: two mistakes… Justin it is great that you are reflecting like this. For Social Media, as teachers we are held to a higher Standard. As Voxer group grows we are growing too, asking Q to develop our Ditigal Citizenship, our user norms. I posted to twitter Peel’s version of the THINK poster. As for ownership- I hope that can be retracted by OPEN. As long as we cite our work, we should keep sharing for free (Creative Commons). And we all need to keep talking about every ~ism we encounter. I have worked with a great school where a culture of celebration and understanding of our uniqueness was the norm. If you see it Stand Up and Name It. @MrsNeal0
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Hindsight is 20/20. But anyone that can step up and admit they’ve made mistakes is a strong person. Kudos, Justin. That is a step toward both personal and professional growth and I commend you for that. #VoxerPE PLN
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As always Justin, I admire your honesty and your ability to find fault with yourself and learn from it. Many do not accept the fact that they could be wrong.
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