Friday, August 13, 2010
Social Media Resistance
What techniques have you used in the past to encourage educators of any kind to buy into the benefits of Twitter and PLNs?
This summer I was able to bring two of my life's passions together when I underwent a program called YogaEd. As a certified yoga instructor and first grade teacher, this training certified me to teach yoga in the classroom to childen, as well as, teach my fellow elementary, middle and high school colleagues how to use various quick 5-15 minute yoga poses, breathwork and visualizations to calm, energize, refocus or relax their students. I am excited to bring these time-tested, scientifically-proven skills into my classroom and to my colleagues (if given the chance). However, the benefits of yoga in the classroom is another blog for another day. I wanted to write today to ask for your help.
At the end of this intense certification workshop, the 32 participants of the program did what they usually do -- share each other's e-mail addresses and vow to keep in touch and share resources. I've been in enough workshops to know what happens after we depart. The first week there is a flurry of e-mails thanking each other, sharing some resources and asking for additional resources. They start off as group e-mails, eventually are broken down into smaller groups made up of those who have replied and ultimately end up as maybe an electronic friendship among one or two other individuals if you are lucky.
So when the e-mail sign up sheet was being passed around the group, I took this opportunity to propose that maybe we could set up a network via Twitter accounts. I immediately got a collective groan from the group as a whole and the resistance did not stop there. Throughout lunch and other break times, individuals felt obligated to tell me one Facebook tragedy after another. I listened and tried to relay to them how you could set up a twitter account which only had professional contacts; how you could get the scientifically-proven benefits of yoga in the schools out to a wide audience of school administrators and teachers, and share our experiences, valuable resources, blogs and websites with each other. I also shared how this is a simple, quick approach to reaching a worldwide audience of targeted individuals who need to hear about the benefits of yoga in the schools.
This is a tough group to persuade as many embrace bringing ancient, tradional wisdom to our contemporary living but fear the reverse for some unknown reason. I beleive that a merging of these two worlds has unbelievable power!
A few individuals were won over and vowed to set up a twitter account and follow me. I told them that I could help them from that point forward. I have yet to see these accounts - but hope springs eternal and I will contact them via the old e-mail method and approach them yet again.
So I am here asking for help in how to reach and win over these educators (many of them are classroom educators as well as yoga instructors such as myself). I have their e-mail addresses and am not afraid to use them. I will continue to try to persuade them to sign onto Twitter as I feel that their individual resources and skills are invaluable to all educators. I need your help. What are some irrefutable arguments and/or resources have you used to help persuade the skeptical non-believers? Any advice, websites, YouTube videos, etc. are appreciated. Thanks!!!
This summer I was able to bring two of my life's passions together when I underwent a program called YogaEd. As a certified yoga instructor and first grade teacher, this training certified me to teach yoga in the classroom to childen, as well as, teach my fellow elementary, middle and high school colleagues how to use various quick 5-15 minute yoga poses, breathwork and visualizations to calm, energize, refocus or relax their students. I am excited to bring these time-tested, scientifically-proven skills into my classroom and to my colleagues (if given the chance). However, the benefits of yoga in the classroom is another blog for another day. I wanted to write today to ask for your help.
At the end of this intense certification workshop, the 32 participants of the program did what they usually do -- share each other's e-mail addresses and vow to keep in touch and share resources. I've been in enough workshops to know what happens after we depart. The first week there is a flurry of e-mails thanking each other, sharing some resources and asking for additional resources. They start off as group e-mails, eventually are broken down into smaller groups made up of those who have replied and ultimately end up as maybe an electronic friendship among one or two other individuals if you are lucky.
So when the e-mail sign up sheet was being passed around the group, I took this opportunity to propose that maybe we could set up a network via Twitter accounts. I immediately got a collective groan from the group as a whole and the resistance did not stop there. Throughout lunch and other break times, individuals felt obligated to tell me one Facebook tragedy after another. I listened and tried to relay to them how you could set up a twitter account which only had professional contacts; how you could get the scientifically-proven benefits of yoga in the schools out to a wide audience of school administrators and teachers, and share our experiences, valuable resources, blogs and websites with each other. I also shared how this is a simple, quick approach to reaching a worldwide audience of targeted individuals who need to hear about the benefits of yoga in the schools.
This is a tough group to persuade as many embrace bringing ancient, tradional wisdom to our contemporary living but fear the reverse for some unknown reason. I beleive that a merging of these two worlds has unbelievable power!
A few individuals were won over and vowed to set up a twitter account and follow me. I told them that I could help them from that point forward. I have yet to see these accounts - but hope springs eternal and I will contact them via the old e-mail method and approach them yet again.
So I am here asking for help in how to reach and win over these educators (many of them are classroom educators as well as yoga instructors such as myself). I have their e-mail addresses and am not afraid to use them. I will continue to try to persuade them to sign onto Twitter as I feel that their individual resources and skills are invaluable to all educators. I need your help. What are some irrefutable arguments and/or resources have you used to help persuade the skeptical non-believers? Any advice, websites, YouTube videos, etc. are appreciated. Thanks!!!
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